☉ On Observing Existence ☉
存在的觀察者
POST-MORTEM: Works by HO Siu Kee．Rose LI．WONG Yuk Shan． TANG Yin Luen Eric
📍POST-MORTEM - Osage Hong Kong
／3 July - 10 Aug 2024／
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在本次展覽，以「存在的觀察者」作為起點，創作了一系列新作品，探索人類原始的存在狀態及認知進程。
世界由混沌至顯露出輪廊,人亦從「無意識」走到「萌生意識」，再意識到「意識」本身，是為「知」的進程。原始人類居於洞穴時,透過觀測以認知並了解處身的世界，例如晝夜交替、動物行為等，逐步發現世界運行背後的規律和因果，從認知的行為體現「美」的存在。作品集中在幽暗的場域中，以美柔汀版畫、繪畫、錄像及展演等創作，藉日蝕意象述說人類發現、失去及尋覓光的歷程，同時以人體重新理解人類存在本身。
Yuk's new body of works starts from the concept of "On Observing Existence", which explores the primal states of human existence and cognitive evolution.
The world reveals its contours from chaos as humankind evolves cognitively — from unconsciousness to the awakening of consciousness, and eventually to being aware of awareness itself.
When early humans lived in caves, they perceived the world through observation — the alternation of day and night, the behaviours of animals — gradually realising that the world operates through patterns, laws, and causation. From this awakening came the notion that the act of cognition itself manifests a sense of beauty.
Presented in a shadowy setting, the works employ diverse media including mezzotint, painting, video, and performance. Using the metaphor of solar eclipses, this series narrates the journey of humankind as it discovers, loses, and searches for light — reinterpreting human existence through the body itself.
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About the Exhibition // 關於展覽
《搜神記・卷十三》記載，漢武帝開鑿昆明池，挖到極深處，全是烏黑如墨的灰。有僧人引述佛經，指天地將滅，會有劫火焚燒，黑灰是留下的灰燼。「灰飛無跡 水月留痕」展覽以「劫灰」為喻，我們今日身處的世界，是否曾爲劫火所滅，又是否將有另一火劫，都不得而知，「世界」只能是各人此時此刻自身所經驗的世界，並竭力尋索以自己的方式顯現。
英文展題 POST-MORTEM，意指「死後攝影」以及「事後剖析」。從「以後」觸及在世的痕跡，與中文題旨的意象互燃，劫灰餘燼似乎多了點點生機，或可成就另一個昆明池。
明月當空之夜，我們在同一月影之下。水月似幻猶真，飛灰過眼留痕。
In volume 13 of the book Anecdotes About Spirits and Immortals, it is written that Emperor Wu of Han commanded the excavation of Kunming Lake. When the lake was dug to its ultimate depth, there was only ashes as black as ink. A monk quoted the Buddhist scriptures and indicated that when the world approached its finitude, a fire would destroy everything. The black ashes were the remains of the fire. The POST-MORTEM exhibition uses ‘ashes’ as a metaphor — It is unknown whether the world we live in today has been destroyed by fire and will there be another conflagration. The ‘World’ could only be the entity of worlds that each of us is experiencing at the moment as we try our best to manifest it collectively.
The English exhibition title refers to ‘post-mortem photography’ and has connotations of autopsy and post-analysis. To touch upon the ‘after’ with traces of existence echoes the idea of the Chinese exhibition title, literally translated as ‘Ashes Fly without Traces, Moon in Water Leaves a Scene’. This touch reignites the remains of ashes, in turn giving rise to the possibility of uncovering another Kunming Lake. At a night when the moon shines bright, we gather under the same shadow of the moon. The moon in the water seems to be both illusive and real.
The ashes fly by, leaving traces through the light reflected into our eyes.
● Opening Performance
Closing Performance ●
● Artist Talk
● Thoughts
