Evolving Territories: Hong Kong in Transition 1994-2000

EVENT DESCRIPTION

“Evolving Territories: Hong Kong in Transition 1994-2000” showcases two dozen images taken with a medium format film camera, by the acclaimed fine-art photographer Gretchen So.

The exhibition is the result of six years of patient reportage by the artist and reflects upon the physical and symbolic fragmentations that characterize the city in a state of change in this tumultuous period.

At the 25th Anniversary period of Hong Kong as an SAR, the exhibition is especially poignant as it appears not only as a contemporary critique of pre-millennium urbanization and modernization, but also as a visual record of Hong Kong’s evolution during a critical historical time.

When the artist was still studying aboard in the early 90s, she was surprised by her hometown’s rapid development every time she visited. “I was worried that the Hong Kong that I used to know would soon disappear. For my personal memory, I was eager to capture on film the ever- changing scenes of the environment.” SO returned to the city upon graduation and embarked on the project. She was determined to tell a Hong Kong story with her images. In addition to wandering through the streets in the Island and the Peninsula, she purposely moved her home from Wanchai to Tin Shui Wai so that she could extensively explore the remote area and villages in the New Territories.

Hong Kong has always been a constantly changing megalopolis encapsulating the various political and social phases that have shaped its history. SO was born and grew up during the city’s colonial period. She absorbed the sense of precariousness and mutability into her artistic practice after witnessing first-hand the major transition at the end of the century.

Her photos capture the unique and disorienting topography of the city in a deeply evocative manner. It contemplates the lives of its inhabitants, whose restless relationship with the territory is distinguished by continuous construction projects, massive land reclamations, uninhabited areas and densely populated neighbourhoods.

The images since the 1990s visually embody the rupture between two eras and demonstrate the dynamic transformations of a territory in constant reconstruction. Being the residents of the city, Can we just reminiscent the past? Or can we look forward to the future? Do we gain more than what we lost in the process? Perhaps this exhibition can provide us with some indications.

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Gretchen SO holds an MFA degree from Yale School of Art and attended an MA program in Arts Administration at Columbia University. She worked in the non-profit sector in New York and Hong Kong where she also taught at higher education institutions such as SCAD and RMIT.

Her photographic work on the fast-growing and ever-changing cityscape of Hong Kong has been awarded numerous publication and exhibition grants from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council. She was a finalist for the “Asian Art Prize” in 2008, 2011 and 2013.

In celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens in 2021, the Art Promotion Office commissioned SO to create work for its Hi! Flora, Fauna project. Previously, she received commission work for Nikon Asia for the 4th edition of its Through Asian Eyes campaign. Her photographic series, ‘A Thousand Messages,’ featured at the 4th Hong Kong International Photo Festival, was collected by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.