Q: How did the Secret Garden immersive art project happen?

A : Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre (vA!) invited us to do a project based on the building (the erstwhile Victoria Barracks) they are housed in. This entailed looking at the history of the building as well as focusing on vA!'s current identity as distinct from the other arts centers in Hong Kong.

I chanced upon Johanna Basford's The Secret Garden (2013) coloring book. It's been a worldwide bestseller for years. It seems people want to create spaces for themselves through some kind of artistic practice. We were trying to pursue the idea of public engagement with art through an artistic practice, beyond just going into a gallery and seeing a finished artwork, and The Secret Garden books (novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett and the coloring book based on it) provided a frame of reference.

We imagined Victoria Barracks as an urban sanctuary.

Q: What exactly did you derive from The Secret Garden books?

A : Our plot takes the three childhood friends' discovery of a garden in a historical mansion (from Burnett's book) as a point of departure, and recontextualizes it with the history of the Victoria Barracks (whose future was debated upon in 1978; residents were later asked to move out in the next decade and people were leaving until 1991). We created a spin-off narrative, speculating that the three imaginary protagonists promise to return "on the last night".

Q: Viewers are led through the many levels of the building and, after a point, it might feel like one is going round in circles - a bit like being lost in a maze in a typical Victorian English garden, only this one's spread out across different levels

A : We were conscious of the architecture in its recent, revitalized form. At the same time we deliberately wanted to reopen the old access routes to the building. Viewers are taken through the main entrance of many years ago, and past the backyard

Q: ...which is when the narration about the plague in Hong Kong comes on, matched with the sight of the mounds of tiny dark pebbles from which the stilts supporting the new structure rise

A : We wanted to reveal the not-so-beautiful side of the structure. That section of the building has its distinct character. It's perfect for the theme of the pandemic.

Q: The show is an ode to night and stillness. The slow-moving illuminated dot outside the window is like a very tiny moon on its diurnal trajectory

A : It's meant to work like a flashlight. I tend to think of that light as the one lighting up parts of the structure as well as sections of people's lives by turns.

Q: What are your thoughts on competing with the glow from Hong Kong's illuminated buildings and the ambient light sources all around?

A : In much of my work I have pondered about possible ways of retaining our capacity to use our senses in order to appreciate the memories of the old and the understated in an overwhelmingly illuminated city like Hong Kong. It's the same with Secret Garden.

Q:Looking back on your very early projects, what are the significant changes you notice between then and now?

A : My work has gone from individual effort toward collaboration. For this project too my role is that of an artistic director as opposed to that of a solo artist. Here I would like to give a shoutout to my creative collaborators for Secret Garden. The track system in the backyard was an engineering feat designed by C. K. Yung; the illuminated "magical ball" was a collaboration among ceramicist Nick Poon Fai-wong, composer So Ho-chi and interactive designer William Wong; the participatory seed installation was by environmental artist Monti Lai Wai-yi; lighting, which sets the mood of the whole piece, was designed by Lee Chi-wai. And the flow of audience experience was managed by Joey Chung and a team of devoted helpers.

Q: Often you seem to take the cues for your creative projects from an already existing book, film, local lore or history. Would you say storytelling is quite central to your work?

A : My artistic process is often about shedding fresh light on an interesting historical site. I have great respect for the existing structures and I think often we do not slow down to have a closer look at these to be able to appreciate them fully. I think Secret Garden allows people to slow down and try and make sense of some very profound ideas.

Similarly, my recent After the Deluge show urged viewers to take a moment and reflect on the water that had passed through the reservoir for decades together and touched the lives of the many people in the neighborhood.

Q: Would you like to name an artist who has inspired your work?

A : I am very fond of the writing by John Berger. At some point he had said, there are two kinds of storytelling in the world - the extroverted, delineating what is already visible, and the introverted which is about revealing that which remains unseen. I would like to belong in the latter category.

Q: Your 25 Minutes Older (a camera obscura show based on Liu Yichang's story Tete-beche, projected inside a moving tram-turned theater) sold out soon after it was announced. Same goes for Secret Garden. If the appetite for immersive and participatory art is on the rise, why now?

A : If we go back by hundreds of thousands of years, a lot of that artistic activity was fully experiential, tied with everyday life. Then came a time when art was encased and put up in a frame. In the 21st century, we have become slightly more open-minded about the possibilities of how art could be experienced. Now we're more concerned with art's outreach, we're underscoring how art has been a part of our existence.

I have noticed people do cherish the sense of touch. At a time when experiences are so mediated, accessed in virtual space, a show like this makes people reconnect with the use of all their senses. Maybe an experience like Secret Garden helps supplement the kind of lives that we lead now.

Interviewed by Chitralekha Basu.

(HK Edition 06/01/2018 page11)