LIGHT
Finalist
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi - Somewhere in Time
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
A coin with a lion on it holding the Pearl of the Orient. A hole is drilled in the pearl, turning the coin into a tiny aperture.
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
At present, most public phone booths are marked with a notice of suspension of service. In more than half of these booths, the lightboxes are broken. A reflective cover is wrapped around the phone booth, and 18 sheets of photographic papers are glued to...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Chai Wan Kok Street, Tsuen Wan, sunny, 20 seconds, 24 x 60 inches Clague Garden Estate – Tsuen Wan was the first new town to be developed in the New Territories, and the housing estate was named after Sir Douglas Clague, Chairman of the Housing Society...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Central Ferry Piers, sunny, 15 seconds, 24 x 60 inches Jardine House – formerly known as the Connaught Centre. Completed in 1973, the 52-storey building is renowned for its circular windows, and it was one of the landmarks of the newly reclaimed area in...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Waterloo Road, Kowloon Tong, sunny, 25 seconds, 24 x 60 in Kowloon East Barracks – formerly known as Osborn Barracks. The Kowloon East Army Battalion is one of the 14 military sites returned by the British Government to the Chinese Government on July 1,...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Statue Square, overcast, 50 seconds, 24 x 60 inches The Court of Final Appeal Building – the original building of the Supreme Court was completed in 1912, and it housed the Legislative Council between 1985 and 2011. The Statue of Justice, represented...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Hong Kong City Hall, sunny, 25 seconds, 24 x 60 inches The Cenotaph – a memorial formally constructed to commemorate the dead from the First World War in Hong Kong. The Cenotaph was initially inscribed with the words ‘The Glorious Dead’ and the...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Nathan Road, Prince Edward, overcast, 1 minute 15 seconds, 24 x 60 inches MTR Prince Edward Station – after 31 August 2019, the Exit B1 of Prince Edward Station was closed. Some Hong Kong citizens left white flowers outside the exit every day, turning...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Every public phone booth has a designated number, and its coordinates can be located in the records of the Communications Authority. However, in view of the continuous decline in public demand for phone booths, the Communications Authority had plans to...
Tang Kwong San, Yuen Nga Chi
Behind the Pearl of the Orient are the eyes of Queen Elizabeth II. Light penetrates the eyes, reflecting the past and the present.
Biography
Tang Kwong San (b. 1992) was born in Dongguan, and he is currently based in Hong Kong. He received a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from RMIT University and the Mr. Jerry Kwan Scholarship in 2019. He explores the use of different media in his creative practice, including painting, drawing, photography and installation. Some of his artworks have been acquired by private collectors.
Yuen Nga Chi (b. 1994) was born in Hong Kong. She received a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University in 2019. She employs photography as the main medium in her creative practice. She was shortlisted in the 6th Singapore International Photography Festival Photobook Open Call in 2018 and awarded the WMA Young Talent Award in 2019 (Graduation Exhibition of the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University).
Project Statement
A ray of light pierces into a withered space,
reviving scenes that will soon vanish.
In the 1950s, public phone booths were installed across Hong Kong by the British Hong Kong Government. As technological advancements have provided city-wide network coverage, the gleams of smartphone screens are seen flitting in the streets. Scattered across the city are disused phone booths that are about one square metre in size, with broken lightboxes inside.
We wrapped a disused booth in a reflective cover, and added a coin from the colonial era with a hole drilled in it, turning the booth into a pinhole darkroom. Through the inverted images inside the booth, the viewer shuttles back and forth between different landmarks before and after the handover, tracing the endlessly shifting political relationship between ‘deconstruct’ and ‘construction’ in the city.
A discarded phone booth waiting to be dismantled,
a memento of the Queen still being circulated today.