The Unlocked Space

大門沒有上鎖

四部幻燈機投影的黃光及不定時換下一張的機械聲，重組了一個人去樓空的場境。這裡是已不再在香港實行的合作社建屋的房子，影像不是只在記錄真實的現場，而是以影像建構對這篇歷史的詮釋—正如失去主人的物品，如沒人理會的歷史，被人任意擺佈、改動、刪除和定義—反映過渡的一種本質。 

這個地點，原本叫皇家廠，80年代前曾是爸爸住了多年的木屋區；跟着當時的地址我卻來到一個公務員合作社樓宇的廢墟，於2016年所有業權由內地投資公司購得將會發展成豪宅。房屋發展的進程，由難民潮的自建木屋，多數平民與親友自建的非法臨時房子；到殖民地時代為了本地華人公務員的歸屬感的福利，以及協助政府建屋而出現的建屋合作社，屋不能賣只有子女續承；到回歸後由中資公司發展的豪宅，屋只作私人買賣。

我想從散落一地的物件身上分析以為重要的和不重要的痕跡，了解一個建屋合作社的方法下凝聚怎樣的「藏品」，掉棄的又與今日的生活作怎樣的對照。用影像建構一條主觀的時間線， 為建屋合作社牽連的歷史刻下一個注腳。

The Unlocked Space

The yellowish light projected by the four slide projectors and the mechanical sound of changing slides from time to time depicts the scene of an empty house. This is a house built by a cooperative where this system is no longer practiced in Hong Kong. The images here is not only as a record the real scene, but constructing a visual interpretation of this history — like the objects had lost their owner, like a piece of history to which no one pays attention, a piece of history that can be freely manipulated, altered, deleted and defined — just representing one nature of transition.

This site, originally called Wong Ka Chong (which means “the factory of the British colonial government” in Cantonese) was a cottage house district in which my father lived for many years before 80s. I followed the old address and found that it is now a six-storey Civil Servants’ Cooperative Building which has been left abandoned. In 2016, all the properties were sold to a Chinese Investment Company that a high-rise luxury apartment will be developed here in the future.

In the process of housing development, from self-built squatter houses by refugees, illegal temporary houses built by most civilians with relatives and friends; in the colonial era, for the welfare of local Chinese civil servants and the emergence of housing cooperatives to assist the government in building houses, houses cannot be sold. Only for heir to inherit; to now after the handover, the mansion developed by a Chinese invest company where it is only for private sale.

I want to analyze the important and unimportant traces from the objects scattered all over the place, to understand what kind of "collection" is condensed under the way of living in a housing cooperative, and how the discarded ones compare with today's life. I use instead images to construct a subjective timeline to leave a footnote for the Cooperative Building and its history.

Exhibition : WYNG Master Award 2017/18 - Transition