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John Batten

Curator Helena Halim used to have a seashell collection that hung in a bag in her bedroom. It was left behind when her family moved away from Hong Kong but it had made an indelible impression on her, and came to symbolise her childhood growing up in the city.
That was the story she told seven artists as she prompted them to create works for a group exhibition called “Fragments of Curiosities” at the Hart Haus art studio in Hong Kong’s Kennedy Town. The result is a coherent collection of new works that explore the idea of objects being vessels for our memories.
Two artists used found objects from around Hong Kong to represent their connection to the places they live in.
Daniel Stempfer’s home and studio is in Tai Kok Tsui, in Kowloon. The area has seen great change over the last 70 years: originally an “island” connected to the Kowloon Peninsula by a narrow strip, it was fully absorbed into the peninsula when land reclamation filled in the sea around it, becoming a district of working-class tenements and factories. Now, it is being transformed by urban redevelopment.
Stempfer mirrors the district’s landscape in Habitat (W.I.D.S. – Jin’s Chasmanthium Chaffy Edit), a sculpture made of found acrylic sheets with a concrete base.

Seed pods from the flame of the forest tree (Delonix regia), a species introduced in Hong Kong from Africa during the city’s colonial era, and dried pampas grass are inserted into the sculpture. The result is an oddly evocative amalgam of nature and city, held together by neon lights as red as the flame of the forest tree’s flowers.
For Foraged 01 (Sha Po, 2021), Natasza Minasiewicz has collected abandoned furniture and industrial parts from Lamma Island, where she lives. Her exhibition arrangement resembles an office waiting room or formal lounge, but everything is off-key.
Hanging above a low table and a lamp assemblage is an elevated view of the island etched into stainless-steel kitchen cabinet doors. A round-back Chinese chair made of chrome has spherical metal balls attached to the backrest, making its intended user uncomfortable. It is as if the objects have been released from their abandoned past and allowed a reimagined future.

Other artists weave personal stories into objects carrying emotional value. A Palm, A Fountain, An Umbrella is an absorbing two-channel video by Sharon Lee, who is currently living in New York. This work intelligently pairs intimate recollections with a common Hong Kong memory – visits to the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens – by mixing texts with old photographs.
Two other artists also use collective memory in their work.
Colbie Fung Ho-pui’s Nothing Less is a floor installation of smartphones displaying grainy videos and photographs extracted from memory cards found in old phones and cameras. Scenes such as a child playing in the waves at a beach could be from any of our childhoods. Peering into these devices is like researching a folder of visual evidence. It is also voyeuristic: we are looking at memories not willingly or knowingly shared.

Louisze Chan Pui-sze’s elaborate two-part installation questions the veracity of photographic archives. Chan uses AI to make composite photographs of people and families posing in front of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. These are shown as photographs or as magnetic souvenirs displayed on a typical tourist postcard stand. A video shows people talking about their visits to Hong Kong.
But it is all fabricated, described by the exhibition curator as a “mockumentary”. A beautifully drawn wall map of Hong Kong’s coastline in 1888 with historic-looking postcards pinned to it creates an aura of authenticity. Or does it?
Nondormant Dreaming, a joint installation by S. Yi Yao Chao and Koel Chu, is a resting spot with a tatami-style mat on which the audience can listen to a recording of people talking about their dreams.
Nonchalantly lying nearby is a book with its pages fully redacted by Chu using correction fluid and masking tape. In it, she has inserted her own writing about the trauma of being bullied in the place where she used to work as a translator and editor. It is a poignant engagement with painful memory.

Equally intimate, a display by Chao, who uses the pronoun “their”, in the same space, reflects on the life of their grandmother. We see the actual Hong Kong entry permits used by their grandmother, who came from Macau. A ceramic headrest on the tatami mat invites visitors to give their own memories a place to rest.
“Fragments of Curiosities”, Hart Haus, 3/F, Cheung Hing Industrial Building, 12P Smithfield, Kennedy Town, Wed-Sun, except public holidays, 12pm-7pm. Until November 2.


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A detail from “Landscape, 4K, Realistic” (2023-24), by Louisze Chan, which used AI to make composite photographs of people posing in front of Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour. The work is part of “Fragments of Curiosities” at the Hart Haus. Photo: South Ho

Habitat (W.I.D.S. – Jin’s Chasmanthium Chaffy Edit), a 2024 piece by Daniel Stempfer, at the “Fragments of Curiosities” exhibition. Photo: South Ho

Foraged 01 (Sha Po, 2021), by Natasza Minasiewicz. Photo: South Ho

Nothing Less (2022), by Colbie Fung. Photo: South Ho

Nondormant Dreaming (2024), by S. Yi Yao Chao and Koel Chu. Photo: South Ho

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Hong Kong artist Yeung Hok-tak with two of his paintings at Kiang Malingue gallery in Aberdeen on September 25, 2024. His solo exhibition “I See You There” runs at the gallery until October 19. Photo: Edmond So

Friendly Match (2023), by Yeung Hok-tak. Photo: Yeung Hok-tak

Junkyard in Paradise (2024), by Yeung Hok-tak. Photo: Yeung Hok-tak

Gonna Get You All (2024), by Yeung Hok-tak. Photo: Yeung Hok-tak

Street Interview (2024), by Yeung Hok-tak. Photo: Yeung Hok-tak

Hong Kong’s East Kowloon Cultural Centre opens first venue with ‘art tech’ show

Interior stage at East Kowloon Cultural Centre in Kowloon Bay.
12OCT24 SCMP / Edmond So

Japanese sound artist Ei Wada (left) and Hong Kong new media artist Keith Lam ahead of their performances of Remediation Ensemble at The Theatre at the East Kowloon Cultural Centre in Kowloon Bay, Hong Kong. The show will also feature musician Akira Ataka, rapper Gold Mountain and drummer Kitt Lau. Photo: Edmond So

The exterior of the East Kowloon Cultural Centre in Kowloon Bay. Photo: Edmond So

The stage at The Theatre in preparation for the performances of Remediation Ensemble. Photo: Edmond So

Part of the set for Remediation Ensemble. Photo: Edmond So

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A bronze jia vessel dating to between 3,500 to 3,800 years ago on display at the exhibition. Photo: Hong Kong Palace Museum

A stone relief decorated with tigers and a human face on display at the exhibition. Photo: May Tse

The jade cong vessel on display at the exhibition. Photo: Hong Kong Palace Museum

A jade carving of a human head from the Post-Shijiahe culture. Photo: Jingzhou Museum

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A partial view of video installation Elegy of Resonance by Shawn Pakhin Tang, an artist who divides his time between Germany and Hong Kong, at Mangrove Gallery in Shenzhen. Photo: Mangrove Gallery

A work (left) by Joseph Leung Mong-sum called Untitled (tree), and on the right Skin line – III by Man Mei-to at Mangrove Gallery. Photo: Mangrove Gallery

Moon for Bulb and Candle by Man Mei-to, an artist who divides her time between London and Hong Kong. Photo: Mangrove Gallery

A still from video installation Muk6 Hak1 by the artist duo fish tank, on show at Mangrove Gallery, Shenzhen. Photo: Vimeo

Graft, #1 by Mark Chung, an artist born in New Zealand and raised in Hong Kong, Photo: Mangrove Gallery

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Lousy’s body paint on a nude woman. The anonymous Hong Kong graffiti artist paints bold designs on young, naked women then photographs them in erotic poses. Photo: Lousy                                                         

Another of Lousy’s “kissfaces”, on Queen’s Road West in Hong Kong. Photo: Lousy

Lousy’s photobook “Yook”, published in 2020. Photo: Lousy

Matsushimaon’s body art on a nude woman. Photo: Matsushimaon

Professor Sonia Wong says there is not a lot of space in erotic or explicit artistic disciplines for women to express their sexuality, especially in Hong Kong. Photo: Professor Sonia Wong

Artist Lousy’s portrait. Photo: Lousy

Lifestyle

Arts

In ‘Fragments of Curiosities’ at Hart Haus in Kennedy Town, artists look at how objects are vessels of our memories


In ‘Fragments of Curiosities’ at Hart Haus in Kennedy Town, artists look at how objects are vessels of our memories.


Hong Kong

What to do in Hong Kong

From fake AI photos to found objects, Hong Kong exhibition explores memories

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}In ‘Fragments of Curiosities’ at Hart Haus in Kennedy Town, artists look at how objects are vessels of our memories

In ‘Fragments of Curiosities’ at Hart Haus in Kennedy Town, artists look at how objects are vessels of our memories