‘Once I Wake Up, My Body is Old’, a solo exhibition by Lee Kai Chung, is the finale of the project The Retrieval, Restoration and Predicament, which Lee conceived around the concept of ‘Transition’ for the WMA Commission grant (2018). It is preceded by ‘I Could Not Recall How I Got Here’ shown at WMA Space in 2019. The latest exhibition will be on view at WMA Space from November 12th to December 6th.

A highlight of the exhibition is the launch of I Could Not Recall How I Got Here, a work that encapsulates the blurring of geographical, temporal and individual boundaries in the artist’s project. Six narrators will read, in different languages, from the scripts of the six characters in the book—a young Japanese wife who visits her husband in Hong Kong, a Chinese grave keeper, a British intelligence officer, and the three characters who appear in the 30-minute video. 

Inspired by the ‘Hong Kong Historical Photos from the Frank Fischbeck Collection‘ exhibition at the Main Library of the University of Hong Kong, we will organise two visual tours in collaboration with Walk in Hong Kong this November. Referencing historical images of lives in Sheung Wan in the 19th century from the Collection, our facilitators will tell stories about the sites seen in the images and invite participants to share their own stories and memories about the place. 

Our coming WMA Open Talk, titled ‘Family Albums: the Private Memories and Social History’ explores family albums, a kind of image archives that everybody would be familiar with. Family albums are personal memories filled with emotions. They are records of the daily lives of a family. However, they are also a reflection of a cultural identity and social history. Some may say that they are also a vehicle of the ideologies and power relations of different times.

The four-weekend workshop is facilitated by Kevin WY Lee, founder of Invisible Photographer Asia (IPA), and past juror of WMA Masters. He has designed the contents for those working across a spectrum of issues, including human rights, humanitarian, environmental and social ones. Robert Godden, founder of Rights Exposure will also speak at one session to discuss the concept of “Informed Consent”.