Works by Yuen Nga Chi are on view as part of the group exhibition Irregular Plurals: Habitat at WMA.
Exhibition series ‘Irregular Plurals’ embarks on an audacious expedition, venturing into the exploration of cohabitation in this land of ours. The concept of ‘cohabitation’ traces its roots to Hannah Arendt’s proposition, emphasises the necessity to transcend our individual boundaries and to learn to live together within a collective community.To expand upon this narrative, we must first contemplate: who exactly are we referring to as a ‘collective’? The inaugural exhibition of this series, ‘Habitat’, seeks to emancipate viewers from the conventional anthropocentric perspective. It invites them to explore the subjectivity not only of humans but also of the cohabiting animals, plants, microorganisms, and even the inherent essence of sunlight and air. Lo Lai Lai Natalie, through years of field research, perceives the delicate balance and wisdom of mutual cooperation and predation among living organisms. Her works playfully highlight the unidirectional communication and intervention that humans often impose upon nature. Inspired by her experience as a photographer in a theme park, Yuen Nga Chi explores the lives of gregarious animals that are confined, exhibited and constantly observed. Through extensive observation and examination, Yuen analogously relates the experiences of the animals to that of the varied domesticated lifestyles of humans in urban settings.
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Yuen Nga Chi’s series of animal observations serves as a silent protest against the imbalance between city and nature. The design of cities strives to satisfy human desires for leisure and tranquillity, creating a captivating tapestry of meticulously curated artificial natural landscapes. Since 2019, Yuen Nga Chi has worked as a photographer at a local theme park, where day after day, she observes the animals confined in her surroundings. Her artistic focus has then shifted towards utilising video as a medium for long-term documentation and detailed research. The naming of Panoptic Paradise: Stereotypic Behaviour is inspired by the design of the 18th-century panopticon. Captive in zoos and subjected to domestication, birds and monkeys often appear lifeless. They resort to repetitive small movements as a means of alleviating stress, much like humans trapped by the grip of the pandemic. Mui and Monuments: Flipper, Ada, and Honey Chapter 1: Ada centre around the theme of lifelessness in animals. In Mui, the artist incinerates and mourns the taxidermy of a sika deer, her companion for four years. The ashes and tinkling bell that remain, amidst the raging flames, seem to mirror two starkly different life trajectories of the deer’s destiny. As for the latter, it entails a field investigation of the Chinese white dolphin, which is now represented solely by scattered and desolate statues in various districts. As ‘indigenous’ creatures of Hong Kong and former mascots, they are caught in the three-channel video sandwiched between billowing factory smoke and the fabricated Noah’s Ark, becoming the true embodiment of ‘The Other’, bereft of any chance for redemption. Under the artist’s scrutiny, the lone presence of birds in the garden, the deer specimens, and even the endangered dolphins act as poignant reflections. Like a mirror, they reveal the shared sense of apprehension and distress that humans experience within the societal mechanism. ‘The Other’, that we so often scrutinise, is never confined to non-human forms of life.
Text and images courtesy of WMA.
Learn more --
https://wma.hk/exhibitions/irregular-plurals-habitat/