Washing the Showy 鉛華盡

Washing the Showy, 2014
Daily objects about "washing" collected during residency
Dimension variable

This is a very struggling moment to leave.

For fair, impartial democracy of true universal suffrage, Hong Kong people turn past conservative demonstrations to more progressive civil disobedience. The entire social climate likely denotes that it is the final battle of Hong Kong political reform. Absence to this critical campaign, only live and information from webcast keep me anxious. On the one hand I participate in an artist in New York residency program to absorb fresh knowledge; on the other hand I reflect from Hong Kong current circumstances to more profound human relationships. Gradually, the demonstration and residency are connected by various acts and symbols of washing being seen.

Wash out pepper spray on faces; disinfect wounds; clean up streets; expel occupiers; overthrow history of demonstrations; rinse packages after use; even clothes washing and bath taking…

Having a residency and occupying streets are short periods of stays which consume instant products from civilization like packaged food, tools for camp, and any materials in short-term use. To live in foreign places, or to get rid of previous ways of protest, both challenge existing value about erasure or restoration of beliefs. In the fleeting fragments, bodies are seemingly hung that our hands reach out at random to catch anything securely touchable. Placing traces on the top of things in hands, sometimes, is just an initiative to pursue human elements towards objects which it may be the most intimate sustenance to current needs of soul.

此刻離開香港是困難的決定。

為了公平公正的真普選,香港人突破既往保守抗爭方式至更進步的公民抗命,整個社會氣氛、時勢,都暗示此可能是政制改革的最後一戰。沒能留港參與,只以網上直播及資訊時刻關注事態令人焦急。在紐約單獨駐留體會新事物同時,又重新審視香港社會局面,以至更深刻反思人際關係, 忽爾串連佔領運動與駐留二者,當中種種相關洗刷的行徑及符號。

洗掉臉上胡椒噴霧痕跡;消毒傷口;清洗街道;驅趕佔領者;推翻過去抗爭歷史; 潔淨使用後的包裝;日常洗衣、洗澡…...

駐留與佔領街道,是短暫的停留,消費即時帶來效果的文明產物。在異地生活;抑或擺脫過往抗爭方式,都時刻挑戰既有價值意圖抺去或挽回信念。浮光掠影,身體似被懸空,雙手胡亂捕捉可及之物。把痕跡寄予之上,有時候,僅為了追求物件能體現人味,那是此情此境最親切的憑依。