Wong Wo Bik
dal 10/1/2012 al 3/2/2012
Segnalato da
10/1/2012
Wong Wo Bik
Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong
The retrospective exhibition "Memory and Fiction" will feature selected works of Wong dated from the 1980s, including photographs of Hong Kong's historical and notable landmarks.
Blindspot Gallery is proud to present “Memory and Fiction”, featuring Wong Wo Bik, one of Hong Kong’s most accomplished photographers, as well as one of a small number of female photographers active in the territory. The retrospective exhibition will feature selected works of Wong dated from the 1980s, including photographs of Hong Kong's historical and notable landmarks, such as Lai Yuen Amusement Park and the Eu family mansions that were now demolished, and the Main Building of the University of Hong Kong.
Since the 1980s, Wong took all possibilities to photograph historical architecture threatened by demolition in Hong Kong. “I paid particular attention to landmarks or buildings that were not considered 'built heritage', but carried historical significance or were once frequented by locals. Because their demolition was inevitable, the only thing I could do was to document them photographically. It was for me of paramount importance to capsulate them in the photographic space1,” Wong says. Yet Wong’s photographs of these architectures are not merely documentary of history, they are also the artist’s subjective narrative of her personal experiences at these sites, as well as depiction of traces left behind by others.
As curator Eve Tam rightly described, “In their (Wong’s architectural photographs) refusal to capture places in a formal documentary manner, Wong’s photographs are more like spontaneous, free-flowing narratives recounted in a stream of consciousness. Sometimes the images evoke the psyche of the building/site representative of the cultural and mental reality of its time and inhabitants. At times, they recall a world lost, forgotten, abandoned. And at still other times, they exist as fragments of an immediate world transformed into rich fantasy2.”
Greatly influenced by filmmaking, Wong stretches her creativity to manipulate the environment or settings for her photographs. This directorial approach has been a consistent thread in Wong’s diverse body of work. Flash of light and long exposure are always used to create tangible and intangible effects, transforming the reality into fiction.
Wong has dedicated a majority of her photography series to the subject of architecture over the years, perhaps, as she finds architecture and photography are both functional and cultural in form, creative and imaginative in concept. They also both relate the individual to the collective, and form part of a visible memory and history.
Image: Wong Wo Bik, If You Park Here Series #1, 2010, Light box
Opening Reception: 10.1.2012, Tuesday, 6:30-8:30pm
Blindspot Gallery
24-26A, Aberdeen Street - Hong Kong
Opening hours: Tue - Sat, 11am - 7pm
Closed on public holidays
Free admission