2005

Walk! Don’t Run

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Jul 15, 2005 - Aug 14, 2005

@1a space

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Walk! Don’t Run - Demonstration Photography by 7 Artists

Almond Chu, Yvonne Lo, Ducky Tse, Tse Pak-chai, anothermountainman, Vincent Yu and Danny Yung. Seven artists use the camera to document or assess the birth and growth of Hong Kong’s civil society. There are celebrations, evaluations, and reflections. This is the first project of pH5 after its formation. Hosted by 1aspace.

Curatorial Statement

Growing up with Demonstrations
Edwin K. Lai@pH5 Photo Group
The history of Hong Kong as a city began in 1841, which only a few years later protests and strikes started to happen. But it is until about 1980 that demonstrations are generally accepted as a legitimate means to fight for our rights and ideals. Especially after 1997 and during the eight years’ reign of Tung Chee Hwa, the Special Administration Region’s first Chief Executive, demonstrations are really taking place every month. Some people have even mockingly labeled Hong Kong as ‘the capital of demonstrations’. Noting this social situation, when early in this year 1a Space contacted us for the organization of a photography exhibition concerning social and political gatherings in Hong Kong, demonstrations naturally become selected as our theme.

In recent times photography is always closely associated with demonstrations. Needless to say, the organizing bodies frequently use cameras and video cameras to document the demonstrations from their beginnings to their completions. Only a few years ago, the SAR Government and its police force often send many of their staff to photograph or videotape the demonstrators in a highly open and visible manner, adumbrating that the pictures or film-stocks produced will be used for future prosecutions/persecutions.

Participants who dare to go to the streets of course are not deterred or threatened, indeed they also take photographs for their own keepsakes. Certainly or perhaps more importantly, news media have their photojournalists reporting on location, and the images they make will later appear on the television in the evening news, on the pages of the next day’s newspapers, or will transmit to elsewhere of the world through the internet, interpreting or even evaluating the events.

The works in this “Walk, Don’t Run” exhibition all carry a certain sense of retrospection or reflection. Rather than a preoccupation of the curators, this is really a general tendency amongst the exhibitors. There seems to be a consensus that we need to view the demonstrations in Hong Kong from a higher or more profound vantage point, which may also help us to see the future of this city or community. Our exhibitors include two photojournalists, a professional photographer, a photography lecturer, a graphic designer, a social activist, and an artist. Their works show a variety of themes and styles, all asking us to engage a deeper understanding of demonstrations.

The current trend of globalization also urges us to develop a better understanding of demonstrations. The themes of struggle for most demonstrations in the past have been immediate and focused on economic or personal interests. Concerns for bigger issues such as political and human rights, freedom and equal opportunities are rarely until about twenty years ago, but yet they remain mainly local or regional. For those parades that express solidarity with struggles in other parts of the world, the number of participants is invariably small and the media coverage rare. One can easily point out that a thorough understanding of the subjects of struggle, the participation of demonstrations, and the reflections about them are part of the growing-up process of members of a civil society. In the coming December Hong Kong will host the annual conference of the World Trade Organization, perhaps the demonstrations that will take place at that time, in terms of their themes, styles and perspectives, can bring us to a broader view of the world.

Muse Gaze

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Nov 11, 2005 - Dec 04, 2005
@1a space

Curatorial Statement

Muse Gaze is one of the highlighted programme under the photography-series this year. After the success of Walk! Don’t Run and Collective Space, this time we have invited seven female photographers of a new generation to show their works at a different perspective.

The female community have rarely been active in the Hong Kong photographic scene, let alone the younger generation. Yet, there are still women who choose to keep capturing images, and use photography as their creative media.
Seven female photographers with different backgrounds have been invited in this exhibition. These female individuals include photojournalist, an artist and an amateur, student from photography, as well as graduate from photography,. These seven female individuals from the new generation attempt to “see” this world and look for their own spheres.

These women reveal the viewpoint of those of us who are in our late 20s and 30s, with the matters we concern. The term “Gaze” would be very suitable for describing the works in this exhibition. As it reflects the concentrated moment on photographing the subject they care with full of passion. By fabricating images and picking certain episode from the real world, their artworks can reveal their unique and delicate feeling by gazing through the camera to the issues they concern. These seven photographers create their microcosm with their surroundings and allowing us to “see” more on your passion for “relationships between people, matters or relationships with yourself.

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