EVENT DESCRIPTION
In the abandoned streets of Chernobyl, nature did not wait for permission to reclaim what humans left behind. Flowers erupted through cracked pavements, vines strangled street signs, and roots invaded the remnants of human lives. This silent revolution of the natural world inspired “Echoes of the Earth”, a riveting new exhibition by Hong Kong artist duo VASEBYSU, opening at JPS Gallery Hong Kong on June 6th.
This exhibition reframes the 1986 Chernobyl disaster into a powerful meditation on renewal by revealing the paradoxical beauty that emerges when nature reclaims spaces abandoned after history’s worst nuclear catastrophe. Through three distinct yet interconnected installations, the artists pay tribute to those who sacrificed their lives while challenging viewers to reconsider their fundamental relationship with the natural world.
ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER
VASEBYSU, an artist duo comprising Hong Kong artists Su and JM, found profound inspiration in the structured landscape of contemporary urban environments. Observing resilient flora emerging through concrete fissures during urban explorations, they conceptualised a body of work that interrogates conventional definitions of containment and botanical habitation.Su and JM developed the artistic concept that any surface nurturing botanical life inherently functions as a vessel. This perspective crystallised after viewing documentary footage of Chernobyl’s exclusion zone, where abandoned architecture and industrial remnants had transformed into inadvertent hosts for flourishing vegetation. This pivotal observation led them to articulate a central theme: Earth itself constitutes the primordial vessel, with human intervention merely creating temporary boundaries for nature's persistent growth patterns.
