The Rock and the Gaze & Photovoice: Bits and Bobs from Chuen Lung Villagers

Artists-in-residence tell stories of villagers through the art of photography

In 2021, the Hong Kong International Photography Festival invited two visual artists, Ki Wong and Pak Chai, for a two-year field study in Chuen Lung Village leading up to the opening of Koon Man Space. During their residency, the artists engaged with the villagers, exchanging views through images, and refining the research results into the content of the opening exhibition (open to public from May 10 to August 4).

Ki Wong’s exhibition, titled The Rock and the Gaze, is the fruition of many processes: using old photos shared by the villagers, their memories were gathered, and the moments prior to and during the taking of the photos were re-captured in interviews. They were then processed and presented in different forms, such as zooming in on the photo and picking a focus, repainting, and translating discoveries into words. Poet Lau Sim unravelled and found language for the underlying messages from the vast collection of photographs and interview materials. In the form of short fiction, they expand on and relive the moments trapped in the photos, in particular the role and experiences of women in the old days. At the front of the stone work factory, Wong borrowed stones that hold memories, and put them into a ball of crushed weeds and seeds collected from Koon Man School before its refurbishment. She replanted those seeds, as a way to connect the past and present, and to represent the cyclical evolutions of life.

Photovoice: Bits and Bobs from Chuen Lung Villagers is co-led by Pak Chai and Ki Wong. The exhibition, as suggested by its name, tells stories through images. In the photos taken by the villagers, they hope that their stories of Chuen Lung shine through. Three villagers were invited to participate in the exhibition. With different backgrounds, the Chuen Lung they see naturally varies. Heidi Chak, a second generation Chuen Lung resident, is a photography enthusiast like her father, the late photographer Chak Wai Leong. The stream next to her home, the imposing cotton tree her window overlooks, and the ginger-yellow cat that lingers have become elements of her everyday photography. Her work encapsulates her natural, unfiltered personality. Another second generation resident, Chan Wai Cheong, through his family photo albums, tells the tale of a process of a home being built – a Teochew family, residing in a Hakka village, helping villagers with the constructions of bridges and roads, an identity and sense of belonging gradually forming. Tracing back time with the photos, Chan returned to where some of the shots were taken, and Pak Chai assisted in taking then-and-now photos as a documentation of the changing landscape in the village. The third participant, Tsang Kim Man, is an indigenous inhabitant of Chuen Lung who learned photography at a young age. His work has traces of the 60s and 70s salon style, with strong contrasts of light and dark. He set on a journey to look for the places and objects of his memories – he took photos of where he wandered to as a child, and objects he would often come across.This exhibition is an attempt to let those who live in Chuen Lung tell their stories through photography and through these works and the protagonists’ lenses, viewers may understand the village more.