Tang Kwong San's Diaspora III (2022) is on view at the Guangdong Museum of Art, as part of the group exhibition "Earthed: Reconnecting with the Ground".
16 January - 29 March 2026
Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou
"Earthed: Reconnecting with the Ground" focuses on the shift in human cognitive experience regarding the earth within a highly mediatized and systematized contemporary society. Using the "Critical Zone" as an observational framework, it re-examines the core proposition of "how humans understand their position under today's technological conditions."
Tang Kwong San's practice engages with questions of identity, family ties, and borders. His works trace memories across different periods of his family history while extending into the broader flux of migration in Hong Kong over recent decades. Tung Ping Chau, an island in eastern Hong Kong near the mainland coast, was a key migration route during the 1970s. Tang recalls his bedridden mother recounting her near-fatal attempt to swim across to Hong Kong, a story that prompted his research into the city’s migration history. After her passing, Tang returned to her hometown, where he discovered a cache of family photographs and immigration documents hidden in a wardrobe—objects that stirred vivid memories of his childhood.
His video installation Diaspora III captures seawater flowing from the mainland, waves lapping against books sealed in a glass box, and the traces left behind after the books have dried. The work memorializes his mother’s past while reflecting on contemporary displacement and humanity’s enduring relationship with land.
Learn more --
Tang Kwong San, Diaspora III | Guangdong Museum of Art
