It’s Stuffy Here
20.5 - 24.6.2023
@Wure Area, Hong Kong
“It’s Stuffy Here” is an art exhibition about "accumulation". In a residence that had cluttered lots of stuff, the artistic team collected objects with the owner’s consent to cast their creative responses into artworks, in echo with their own stories.
The exhibition showcased five artists, exhibited 12 completely new works. Together they created exciting dialogue through multidisciplinary mediums, including wood, cement, ceramics, fabric, video and interactive sound installations.
Participating Artists
Cathleen Lau 劉菁兒
Guyshawn Wong 王嘉淳
Jay Lau 劉家俊
Sum-Yi Lee 李心怡
Winsome Dumalagan Wong 黃慧心
To facilitate the dialogue, two talks, three workshops and an open call receiving over 30 entries, were taken place to engage the public.
The project valued stories anchored at each cherished object of the audience's. A series of educational workshops and sharing sessions were realized, with collaborations with art professionals and guests from the mental health sector, in order to bridge participants through art making processes and dialogue to their everyday lives.
物池
策展人語
積了一個池。池面總是平坦，內裡或者淹著形狀各異、大大小小的東西，驟眼普通就如一件件家居用品，在日常生活中累積下來。這些物品無論被包裝或外露，久浸便溶解、分散、衍生和低吟迴盪，混和成為一灘巨大的沉積物，反侵負空間，不斷佔據，不斷膨脹。
液態的無從固化，固態的一再液化，乾濕不離，無從打撈。
在一個囤積了不少物品的住所，經屋主同意下，藝術團隊撿拾部分物件，以自身的故事和聲音延伸創作，借物而語。創作就如鏡子。在堆滿東西的空間中，除了勾起藝術家對某些題目的共鳴，他們分別選中的小物，均反映各人對慣用媒介的熟習與遊刃。
物池發掘堆積狀況內的時間性和空間性，存有的過程一直延伸，之中又有什麼被壓縮、擱置和模糊化？物件承載個體的生活線索，蘊含碎散私密故事，同時建構時代的集體話語，甚至文化及論述。由實體物比喻至人的情感與憶記，我們再思「堆積」作為一個結果、經驗過程，甚至是存活的反應，溯尋個體的表象與內心。
堆積不只見於物理空間，更多時出現於人的內心。藝術家呈現堆積之物的縈繞狀態，時而冒出，時而隱身，徘徊不散。王嘉淳想像堆積之物均有一把聲音，並分別以程式驅動及互動裝置，呈現內心突如其來的浮現。劉家俊留意到集體與個人的張力，各種規範與期望，讓個體的表徵與真我一同被擠壓掩蓋。
藝術家們亦觸及構成堆積的原因，當中反映人與人的連繫，記下各種難以割捨的狀態。劉菁兒以裝飾閃石及藥丸等等，對照自己家中找出的石頭，試著回溯多年來一位有囤積行為的家人之私歷史。李心怡亦找出家人保存多年的收藏，跟一批被忽略的便宜家居小物，分別給予轉化儀式。而黃慧心則重拾載有痕跡的美好影像，從事物流逝中，嘗試發現哀愁以外的感受。
我們探索整理的難度與可能性，年月積存的龐然大物，陌生還是似曾，與之湧現。
It’s Stuffy Here
Curatorial Statement
Stuff accumulates into a pond. Its surface lays still, and within it shapes and sizes filled. Each object amassed through life's daily mundaneness, some packaged, some exposed. Each assimilates into a large lump of sentimental sediment through never-ending submersion in the pool — slowly dissolving, dispersing, propagating and mumbling — enveloping all space in its endless expansion. Fluids refuse to solidify, as solids once and again liquify. Everything dissolves into an unsalvageable mix of wetness and dryness.
The artistic team collected items from a stockpile cluttered at a home with the owner’s consent to cast their creative responses into forms. A reflection takes artistic root from the space itself. The items that resonate with each artist are windows into each of their aptitudes.
This exhibition investigates the time and space within the accumulated space. What extends beyond possession and neglect, and how that compresses, discards or obscures their existence? Objects carry not only clues for individuals’ stories, experiences and fragmented memories, but also the construction of the collective cultural discourse of the era.
Accumulation extends beyond physical space into our psyche. The augmentation of the artists’ work is presented in an interwoven state in an eternal linger. Guyshawn Wong’s imagination gives each object a voice, propelled by a coding and interactive installation to mimic impulses from deep from the heart; Jay Lau observes the tensions between the collective and the individual and how individuality and self energy are suppressed.
With interpersonal connection as the rationale for accumulation, the artists also record the impossibility of letting go. Cathleen Lau pairs plastic gems and pills with stones found from her home to trace her personal history with an accumulating family member; Sum-Yi Lee provides a ritual to transform overlooked, inexpensive objects; Winsome Dumalagan Wong takes appreciation in the more glamorous side of the scarred objects and seeks an understanding of the flow of time other than that of sorrow.
As tangible objects sink into intangible emotions and memories, we revisit the concept of “accumulation” as the result, the process and the experience — how an individual projects their facade and their interior. We journey through the possibility and difficulty of tidying oneself up.