Tai Kwun Artists’ Studio 2021-22

Can you take me on your way home after sunset?

Artists’ Studio Programme

Debe Sham – See You Around

Can you take me on your way home after sunset?

Date & Time

21 - 29 May, 2021

Location

Please refer to the programme timetable

Price

Free of charge

General

— Rambling in the city at night along the artist's audio and photo books

Dear participants of this walk,

What are the daily stories hidden on our way back home? Can I see my city anew through someone else’s eyes? The artist duo Dorothy Wong Ka Chung and Benjamin Ryser (o!sland) worked on their project “Can you take me on your way home after sunset?” throughout 2020–2021 in Hong Kong at Tai Kwun Contemporary Artists’ Studio Residency, inviting and accompanying a number of their friends home. On the way home, while listening to their stories, the artists recorded everything they saw, heard and felt on the road. The artists recorded and reproduced the memories with words and photos, and reshaped the spiritual space of the story owners with sound, and finally presented them in the form of an audio-visual artist’s book. This book attempts to explore and shape the imagination and relationship of people living in this city towards “home”. It is also like asking us, what kind of living place do we long for?

The seven chapters of the book record the stories of seven different places. You are invited to walk along streets in Hong Kong with the book and step into the others’ thoughts at night. The instructions and sounds in the book will guide you to explore different places: some will be visiting designated locations, and some will take place in your own memories and imagination.

You will experience the stories of going back home while following a self-guided night walk with one of the artists’ audio and photo books. We, the artists, will meet you at the site and lend you the artist book with an audio walk. The book and the audio walk will guide your way. Please wear walking shoes that are comfortable. And please bring your own phone and good quality headphones.

If you are interested in participating, please register and choose one of the following places. You will receive more detailed information once the registration is confirmed. We will see you on the way home.

Regards,

Benjamin and Dorothy


Programme Timetable

Date  Time Location Language
21.05** (Friday) 6–8pm / 8–10pm At your home^ Cantonese / English
22.05** (Saturday) 4–6pm / 6–8pm / 8–10pm At your home^ Cantonese / English
23.05 (Sunday) 7pm / 7:15pm / 7:30pm / 7:45pm / 8pm / 8:15pm / 8:30pm Ma On Shan Cantonese
25.05 (Tuesday) 7pm / 7:15pm / 7:30pm / 7:45pm / 8pm Choi Hung to Sai Kung Cantonese
29.05 (Saturday) 7pm / 7:15pm / 7:30pm / 7:45pm / 8pm Tung Chung Cantonese / English

^The artist will deliver the book to your home in person during the above time slot

**Please return the book to the artists’ home on 24 May 2021 or 28 May 2021


Artist Bio

The artist duo Dorothy Wong Ka Chung and Benjamin Ryser (o!sland)’s research focuses on experiences of postcolonialism, sense of belonging, identity shifts, and experiences of distance. In recent years, the collective has been living with and engaging the Truku aboriginal tribe in Taiwan, a community of immigrants in Zurich, as well as communities in Hong Kong. The form and time scope of o!sland’s work shifts with the people and the environment of the community they live in. They aim to find alternative places for images, videos and sound outside traditional art spaces, often creating site-specific and interactive artworks. They have for instance made works incorporating family albums deserted in an attic, radios hung in the middle of a field, and memories at the bottom of people’s hearts.