Understanding Family Ties through Art in Hong Kong
In contemporary Hong Kong, complex layered relationships emerge through various artistic expressions. This exploration reveals the intricate family dynamics and societal challenges faced by many residents and highlights the evocative power of art to convey these themes.
Generational Frictions in Daily Life
Doreen Chan’s room-sized video installation vividly embodies the generational tensions often felt by residents in Hong Kong, where many live with their parents into adulthood. The installation, filled with projections of everyday life, juxtaposes personal belongings against the backdrop of familial intimacy and conflict.
What do China’s stolid Communist Party leaders look like behind the propaganda posters? A lot like us, it turns out. Yang Shaoming’s candid series capture the lives of leaders, including China’s former president Deng Xiaoping.
Reimagining Family Connections
Frankie Chan offers a whimsical perspective by reimagining family photographs from the viewpoint of pets, highlighting the deep affection Hong Kong residents have for their animals.
People in Hong Kong adore their animals too. In this whimsical photo series, Frankie Chan reimagines the family photo from the perspective of pets, or in this case, a cat on his birthday.
Cherished Fake Memories
Masashi Asada stages his family members in outrageous scenarios, creating “fake memories” which have become cherished within the family. This concept of art emulating life showcases the value placed on familial connections.
In this uproarious photo project, Japanese photographer Masashi Asada stages his family members in a variety of increasingly outlandish situations. Each photo requires careful planning that involves the whole family.
Questioning Familial Ties
Lai’s photography challenges viewers to consider how family connections are framed. By asking subjects to position themselves together, he invokes a dialogue on the visual representation of family relationships.
Photography is a medium that suggests relationships between subjects simply by placing them together in the same frame. Lai drives this home by asking his subjects to bind themselves together in an arrangement of their own choosing.
Reflections on Childhood
Through photographs of children playing in 1960s Hong Kong, the late Fan Ho captures the essence of familial relationships illuminated within public spaces.
A legendary master of Hong Kong street photography, Fan Ho passed away earlier this year but dedicated a set of previously unseen images to this exhibition. In these light-filled shots of 1960s Hong Kong, Ho interprets children playing on the streets as a precious kind of familial relationship.
Exploring Personal Identity
In Almond Chu’s installation, the boundaries between self and family blur, prompting viewers to reflect on their inherent connections.
We’re a lot like our family members, but just how much? In this installation, Almond Chu hung a photo of himself, printed on a glass panel, in front of a series of photos of his relatives.
Ephemeral Family Memories
Chan Dick invites viewers to immerse themselves in fragmented memories, a poignant exploration of loss and longing that resonates deeply with familial themes.
After Hong Kong artist Chan Dick’s father passed away, he starred up at the ceiling, unable to sleep, as hazy memories flitted across his mind. In his video installation, viewers are invited to experience these fragmented images for themselves, while lying in a real bed.
Living Alone in a Crowded City
Photographer Joe Lau examines the familial concept against the backdrop of solitude felt by many Hong Kong residents living alone, encouraging reflection on the essence of family and community.
Hong Kong is known for its cramped, sometimes isolating living spaces. In this series, photographer Joe Lau explores the meaning of family to the city’s residents who live alone.
Creating New Narratives
Lau Chi Chung’s innovative art combines old, found photographs with contemporary images, forming dreamlike narratives that transcend time and space, reflecting the continuous evolution of family dynamics.
Lau Chi Chung combines old, anonymous photographs — discovered on the artist’s treasure hunts around the city — with photos of the artist’s own, creating dreamlike relationships between unrelated people in different times and spaces.
Fragility of Relationships
In ‘Diminish,’ Lau highlights the fragility of familial bonds amid the relentless changes in Hong Kong, where the essence of family can feel ephemeral.
Hong Kong is a city of disappearance: Buildings, cultures, politics are constantly erased, nothing seems permanent. With his series ‘Diminish,’ Lau inverts the typical subject/background relationship by blurring out families while leaving landscapes intact.
The Search for Home
John Choy’s photographs invite reflection on the concept of home and family, asking whether authentic family connections can exist without a solid sense of belonging.
In his dystopic photographs, John Choy poses the question: Can we have a real sense of family if we don’t have a sense of home? Focusing on unpeopled public spaces in Hong Kong, Choy evokes the listlessness of a disappearing city in which even familial ties ring hollow.
Lasting Memories
In a deeply touching series, Dick Lau captures the wishes of bedridden patients, illustrating how familial bonds enrich their final days.
In this moving series, Dick Lau asked bedridden elderly patients where they would go if they could explore the world again. He then printed large-scale backdrops and staged family trips in front of them, right inside the hospital.
Philosophical Views on Family
Chang Lin, having journeyed from photographer to monk, explores the diverse definitions of family, transcending beyond traditional boundaries.
Not your average photographer, Chang Lin left his profession and family to become a monk. His series takes a philosophical view on the family — “If you feel the world with your heart, you will see families in different combinations in each and every corner, but not just humans.”
