Lost Textures (2019) // Linda C.H. Lai & the Floating Projects Collective

Site-specific installation, 17th-15th floor, stairwell, H Queen's, 80 Queen's Road Central, Hong Kong
at "Exit Strategies" produced by David HY Chan

Stainless steel boards, laser engraved aluminum boards, metallic kitchen utensils, metal box covers, stainless steel tubes, steel screws Dimension variable

Official introduction to "Exit Strategies" | Official posting for Lost Textures

ARTIST'S STATEMENT:

...the world is interpreted as a body of infinite folds and surfaces that twist and weave through compressed time and space.
-- Simon O-Sullivan on Gilles Deleuze>

Lost Textures is the work of artist cum historiographer, Linda Lai, in collaboration with experimental artists Winnie Yan and Michelle Lee from the Floating Projects Collective (FPC). To approximate the heterotopia of Queen’s Road Central (QRC), we have adopted multiple research-artistic strategies, from map abstraction, photo and archival research, wall projection, object collection to sculpturing. Thick yet elliptical layers of time-space mark out our yearnings to recall and imagine in order to know the pasts we have not lived.

Fragments of QRC and its nearby thoroughfares in the 1930s defy wholesome accounts, asserting at most muted yet surviving media remnants. The tangible traces grow out of, and point back to, torrents of the past that are complex flows of energies, undifferentiated and impervious to words. In making visible the disparate facts of the past for their potentiality, I have come close to Gilles Deleuze’s concept of “the fold(s)” of space, movement and time, which characterizes art. Our lifeworld as infinite folding points to the multifaceted nature of events and history as surviving traces of past existences. Central, in this sense, is “a body of infinite folds and surfaces that twist and weave through compressed time and space.” The 2-storey downward “torrent” on the wall, from Level 17 to 15, too, is a process of becoming while asserting concrete geographic occupation not to be obliterated.

Interpellating grand colonial history via artistic activity, Lost Textures recurrently unfolds and wraps pockets of urban surfaces in Central. The pasts and presents are neither relative nor contrastive, but mutual folds of concrete living. Rather than negating grand narratives, the down-flow torrent playfully highlights the 2nd-generation HSBC 1886-1933(formerly City Hall on the same site) as the map narrative’s abrupt end point.

Why 1930s? It was a short period of relative peace that afforded modernity to flash, governmentality to re-entrench, and everyday conflicts to work out themselves with ease… before Japanese aggression intensified towards the end of the decade.

QRC, once the edge of Victoria Harbour, was, by mid-1930s, a site of scrambled usage. It was where top entertainment enterprises concentrated, from cinemas for foreign films, theatre for Cantonese operas, fanciful hotels and restaurants to offices of record and film distribution. Off the main road, side streets were the habitats of working class immigrants, many of them cargo carriers on Connaught Road, then the new praya. Between QRC and Connaught lied Des Voeux Road Central (DVC), accommodating more cinemas plus several major department stores, including Wing On 永安 (no. 211), The Sun 大新, Sincere 先施 (no. 189) and Lane Crawford 連卡佛 (between QRC and DVC east of Pedder Street).

Elements of Lost Textures:

*Simplified wall map marking today’s QRC and DVC
*Cinema-theatres on QRC and DVC in 1930s and their predecessors
*HSBC on QRC and the spot’s former occupant
*Video projections: (1) 72 Tenants and (2) Door Games Window Frames: Near Drama, the former alluding to China Street, i.e. today’s Man Yee Lane, across the street from H Queen’s
*Everyday objects alluding to the “house of 72 tenants” prototype and “modern” consumer products (wall sculpture on landing)
Digitality affords my play of juxtaposition, thus connectivity, forging a theory of the fragmentary, my cybernetic dreaming in the age of cybernetic capitalism.

Technical specification:

“Torrent” on inner walls of the stairway Parallelogram, 4233mm (w) x 400mm (h) on each wall, 4 walls in total Materials: 304 Stainless steel embossed boards, t6061t6 aluminum boards, Laser engraved, t6061 Anodized aluminum boards, I-shaped screws for combing metal plates and metal boards, steel screws for installing metal boards onto the wall
Wall sculpture on landing x 2: installed on 30 x 180 cm surface Materials: t6061t6 aluminum boards, metallic kitchen utensils, old metal boxes and objects, stainless steel tubes Attachment of metal parts by steel screws

FPC team: Linda Lai, Winnie Yan, Michelle Lee and Kel Lok (logistics, technical production)

PRESS COVERAGE

+ 頭條日報: 《H Queen's場域特定藝術體驗》(27 Feb 2019)

「...體驗旅程由十七樓開始，以《異質地誌：褶疊待延的皇后大道》多媒體裝置打頭陣，由「句點。據點」創辦人黎肖嫻博士和其藝術群體創作成員共同創作，展示中環隱藏的歷史痕跡。接着向下移動觀賞其餘作品，題材與日常生活息息相關，容易產生共鳴。」

+ 星島日報 : 《場域特定 H Queen's公共藝術體驗》28 February 2019 (with video)

「《出。略》還隱藏歷史元素，有別於平鋪直敍歷史，反而讓藝術家由非歷史（Ahistorical）角度創作，使觀眾在藝術空間裏，由自己的角度出發思考，繼而經歷瓦解、顛倒、壓縮和錯覺等現象，重新找回在歷史洪流中屬於自己的故事，位於十七樓的《異質地誌：褶疊待延的皇后大道》（《Lost Textures》）大型裝置最能詮釋這概念。作品由「句點。據點」創辦人黎肖嫻博士（Linda），聯同藝術群體創作成員李可穎（Michelle）、忻慧妍和駱敏聰等人創作，結合金屬元素、錄像、舊物，由藝術家的角度詮釋1934年的中環。
　「　Linda強調她是藝術家不是歷史學者，製作藝術歷史，既要有感官體驗（Perceptual Experience），更要有實物帶來強烈的扎根或落地感覺。因此產生把中環想像成為摺疊多次的一疊紙張的構思，當攤開紙張的時候，裏面隱藏了許多東西，這些可能是歷史的痕迹、過去遺留的想法，甚至是一些未拆卸的舊樓。「所以這個作品，我想用一個向下流動的旅程，讓公眾親身經驗這種摺疊的城市。
　　「Michelle補充，「這種摺疊的城市會透過金屬素材展現一種洪流的現象，洪流介乎德輔道中和皇后大道中兩條街道，呈現出由西至東的地觀。」除了呈現地觀外，亦會播放Linda的民族誌習作《72家房客》、《景框戲門》錄像，同時展出一些舊物和現成物，作為觀眾欣賞錄像的延伸，加強感受當時皇后大道中勞苦大眾的生活情況。記者採訪時聆聽了這項目的種種有趣之處，急不及待想親身體驗之際，卻不知該如何入手，David便推介最佳的觀賞方法是由十七樓開始，慢慢向下移動至地下觀賞展品，展開這趟藝術體驗之旅。」

+ China Daily: "Finding Art on a Path Less Trodden" (Chitralekha Basu) 8 March 2019

"Spread out across three floors, from the 15th to 17th, Lost Textures by Linda Lai and The Floating Projects Collective is a graphic narrative, documenting how Queen’s Road, Central (where H Queen’s is located) has morphed since the 1930s. Old snapshots of the city embossed on metallic boards have been arranged against the staircase walls like family photographs. On the landing, clips of old Cantonese melodramatic films are projected at an angle on a wall plastered with kitchen utensils and other objects found in the neighborhood.
Lost Textures looks back on a different time without necessarily fetishizing it. One could enter or exit at any point in the narrative — which is more or less true of “Exit Strategies” in general."

+ COBO: "Exit Strategies: Working with Limitations," (Christina Ko), 20 March 2019

BELOW: images of Central from the 1930s researched but not left unused on site: (upper L) King's Theatre 娛樂戲院 (Entertainment Building 娛樂行) viewed from west on QRC; (upper R) HSBC, 3rd generation第三代匯豐銀行總行 (1935-1984); (lower L) Queen Victoria Street 域多利皇后街 looking south with QRC in the background and Central Market 中環街市 on the right of the street’s far end; (lower R) Jubille Street 租庇利街, west of Central Marke, looking south from Des Voeux Road Central with QRC in the far end (background) [source: A Century of Hong Kong Roads and Streets, pp. 24-25].

Final Draft of wall sculpture on landing between 16th and 15th floorr	Final draft of wall sculpture on landing between 17th and 16th floor

On-site view 現場景觀

Source: SCMP-Style, 27 March 2019	Source: Christina Ko, COBO, 20 March 2019
image by artist Linda Lai	Image by artist Linda Lai

《異質地誌：褶疊待延的皇后大道》(2019) / 黎肖嫻 及「句點。據點」藝術群體／ "Exit Strategies" (陳浩揚策展)

2019年3月至4月

《異質地誌：褶疊待延的皇后大道》就地裝置以1930年代的皇后大道中為主幹。就在短暫的時空裡打開又整合，以第二代匯豐銀行（前身為大會堂）劃上句號，並不完全擱置大敘事。過去與現在同體，並不相對或對立，而未來就在我們的頂上懸空。

概念陳述

在《異質地誌：褶疊待延的皇后大道》就地裝置之中，黎肖嫻再一次以藝術創作調理歷史書寫的實驗，介入歷史敘述，與「句點。據點」成員忻慧妍和李可穎協作，以多元策略去呈現皇后大道中的褶疊時空體構成的異質地誌 – 從標記式的圖示、地理表彰的符號、現成物的聚併、史實研究，到照片搜集和實物雕塑以至活動姿態的投影。 臃厚卻斷裂的時間層，把現代性搖籃的皇后大道化為一個空間體，過去或在當下呼吸，未來必然在此刻？眼前的事物和每一片方寸土地，牽引著各自獨立的「系譜」或牽連，合起來是個只能夠「置身其中」的實體。創作者是潛入還是猛力擠進去？還是夢寐、想像？可以肯定的是：那是對未曾親身閱歷的「過去」的知性的創造。

1930年代的皇后大道中為主幹，連帶近鄰的大道橫街小巷，年代隨意的推前倒後，找來各式各樣沈默卻會發聲的碎片，試圖給一團飄遠的、僅可觸及的夢想渴求賦予破缺的形骸，好讓我們可攙扶著一點甚麼繼續發問。我們想像這闕輓歌就像一道往下衝的洪流，裹袱著各種未能命名的力與能量，當中仍有清晰可辨的「卵石」，有待語言的陳述。如是，我們多走了一步，朝向「物」的潛在性，挨近德勒茲(Deleuze)提出的 ”folds” 的說法：世界作爲一個實體充滿的是無限褶疊的表面，是時空的捲曲撚擰與交織，亦可無限次數的張開和再次的裹袱，而這也是藝術創造活動的本身。沒有可完全說得清的皇后大道或中環故事，「褶疊」的思維卻放闊了歷史中「事件」的參照幅度：「過去」極其量是多面多向的存留碎片，指向真真活過的人或行動者，而中環或皇后大道也就是有待不斷張開和裹合的被壓縮的時空體。從17樓到15樓，或許是個「生成」的過程，卻不容曾盤據土地的實物實存給一念勾消。《異質地誌：褶疊待延的皇后大道》就在短暫的時空裡打開又整合，以第二代匯豐銀行（前身為大會堂）劃上句號，並不完全擱置大敘事；過去與現在同體，並不相對或對立，而未來就在我們的頂上懸空。

為何1930年代？並不偶然。那是戰前香港一個可貴的天下太平的短暫時空。1920年代末的動盪過後回過氣來的香港的「現代性」再度花姿招展，殖民政府治理法重新起步一一整理，民生問題有較舒展的空間以活出來的方法去釐清、尋求解決。

皇后大道於十九世紀50年代是維多利亞港的臨海大道。到二十世紀30年代，已是經歷幾度發展里程的密集商業中心，娛樂事業尤其興旺，新舊華洋混合，貴賤參雜。一條皇后大道南北一帶的戲院不下十間，標誌著零售業的典範的四大華資與英資的百貨公司就在北面的德輔道中矗立排列著。貫穿兩條大道的卻是衛生設備簡陋的華人民居，如中國街（今天的萬宜里，就在HQ對面），住滿了在干樂道海皮當苦力的男丁和隨他們移民到香港的妻兒。

《異質地誌：褶疊待延的皇后大道》的裝置元素：

1）階梯旁內牆上裝置（共兩幅）：
*簡略地圖，標示皇后大道中和德輔道中兩條主幹
*1930年代中環的戲院和娛樂事業
*皇后大道起段的匯豐銀行和被其取締的大會堂
*錄像投影：黎肖嫻影像民俗誌習作《72家房客》（2012）、《景框戲門》（2012），遙寄消失了的中國街

2）樓階之間的停坪（共兩幅）：

*牆上雕塑日常現成物，遙寄「72家房客」的睦鄰烏托邦理想。

「句點。據點」藝術群體參與是次創作成員：
****黎肖嫻
****忻慧妍
****李可穎
****駱敏聰（物流統籌、技術支援）

物料：全金屬
304不鏽鋼版、t6061t6激光雕刻鋁板、t6061陽極電鍍鋁板、金屬廚用工具、金屬盒蓋、不鏽鋼管、生鐵秤砣、生鐵門鎖、不鏽鋼螺絲釘
大小可伸縮變動

*******Sketch by Winnie Yan based on Linda Lai's unpusblished writing "Street-walking: a Geography of Leisure and Control in Urban Hong Kong and Kowloon (1)" (2004)