DOUBLE DOUBLE
Writings/ Photographs/ Poetry/ Archives
A Holly Lee and Lee Ka-sing online magazine. Published on Fridays.
李家昇黃楚喬網上雜誌，逢星期五出版
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CURRENT WORK
Sushi Grass in Paradise (A story)
written by Holly Lee
with photographs by Lee Ka-sing
(59) The Year of Accomplishment
It feels like ages since Mrs. Bento saw George and Wandy. Was it in the Summer of 2018? Mr. Bento is still stuck in Hong Kong. Time further renders Mrs. Bento the impression of an infinite stretch, when almost everything she knows in life are at a standstill. The stay at home call increasingly make her feel uneasy, but luckily this morning she got a call from Mr. Bento. He was able to secure a seat back to Toronto at the end of April, just ten more days into May. George and Wandy’s return air tickets are being postponed to June.
The Bodhi tree has grown, George gave it to her two Summers ago, just before he and Wandy left Toronto. They went back to Hong Kong in the midst of the political storm, that they’d already prepared to face. What they couldn’t foresee, and so fails the whole world to see, is the pandemic outbreak of a disease that has driven mankind to the brink of collapse.
A new face for the world. Our masked faces is now the norm. Just make sure masks design should take into consideration of protecting ladies' make-ups.
“We’re beginning to ask ourselves questions: What will the cities we built look like without people? Taken over by birds and animals? Are we saving earth and slowing the acceleration of climate change? Will that teach people lessons of balancing and the danger of excessiveness?” Chai held up her tea mug, palming the bottom with her left hand and turned slowly to examine it. It has a horse, a puffin, a sheep and a whale.
“That’s one of the two mugs we brought back from Iceland. The other cup has the hammer of Thor, a longship, portraits of Freyja and Thor.” Ginger remarked further.
“Now with the whole world on lockdown, majority of businesses halted, museum projects on hold, schools and libraries closed, what are people doing at homes? How long can one bear the isolation? How long before food is running out?” Chai threw out more questions.
“Online streaming has never been busier, Internet connectivity reaches new boom and the volume of online delivery rises to new peak, yet everyday at the root of it all, front line workers are still struggling, risking themselves to save lives, and keeping us from harm. It is the work of essential workers that keeps our daily lives without drastic change. We are supposed to be safe as long as we stay at home. Let’s just hope it stays that way until the crisis has past. In a pandemic situation shouldn’t everyone be living dangerously? The whole world should be under attack, cities virtually in ruins, zombies should be everywhere, killing, looting, burning. We should be running for our lives, like fugitives…” Ginger showed traces of fear in her face as she recapitulated pandemic scenes she’d seen in many sci-fi movies.
“Thank God, it’s only in the movies! I say we should thank our government, good prevention measures prevented us from falling into such pathetic scenarios! At least our lives are still in order, with water and electricity to use, enough food to consume, no one is amassing toilet rolls and our roof is still intact. I suspect, for most people, the only thing they’re not used to is the management of time. We might have too much of it now.” Mrs. Bento said. “So what do you think our friends are doing?” She squinted her eyes long and hard as if she’s seeing them from a telescope.
Bill. Armed with a dusk mask, he goes out of his house every day to photograph neighbours at a distance more than six feet, waving and gesturing to neighbours, who are sunbathing from across the street, to pose for him. These instances would be something he’ll never forget for the rest of his life, and he’ll pass these images down to later generations.
Hilly. Sitting in front of a 27-inch UltralFine 5K display monitor, is transferring data from different hard-disks. She begins to organize and pick up projects she’s never able to finish over the years.
Yoji. Learning an online course of advance video editing - a decision he'll never make in the pre-pandemic days.
George and Wandy. Spreading photographs all over their not so spacious sitting room, on table, on sofa, on small desk, some on the floors. Images took and accumulated as digital files within the last ten years are freshly printed out as 4Rs. They want to organize and put them into photo albums, going over them as often as they wanted to, before all the data is misplaced, corrupted or become obsolete.
Meanwhile, Chai & Ginger, sitting right now in the same room with Mrs. Bento having this conversation, are heading into a project of designing and producing artist masks to sell online, at Etsy.
And lately, Cigar the cat follows Ginger regularly to do Yoga, lounging beside her on the Yoga mat.
Noah. Working only three days a week, starts to photograph daily from his third floor condo window. Recently inspired by a certain Thomas Cervetti, who made a stop motion animation of himself surfing on the beach, he plans to do the same in his apartment with the smart phone - an animation on diving. He told Chai that he heard from his friend Joshua, who came back from diving in Cozumel and is now under quarantine, that he saw and touched colourful hard and soft corals, fish, turtles, rays, and even a reef shark. “But where are you going to get the props?” Asked Chai. “Oh I can draw or make them out of stuffs…I guess.” Noah replied, rubbing his head. Chai could immediately feel his awkward smile.
Mrs. Bento thinks, in another month’s time her hair will grow into a new style. But this afternoon she’s going to carry some boxes up from the basement. The stacks of boxes have been lying there for many years without touch. And it’s hard to think they’ll ever have another chance to see the light of the day…well, this might be the right time. This is the year of accomplishment, big accomplishment for all things significant or negligible, big or small.
"Sushi Grass in Paradise" is an on-going story. To read the full length version with previous chapters, please visit- https://oceanpounds.com/blogs/sushi-grass-in-paradise
EXHIBITION
DOUBLE DOUBLE: Box-in-a-Valise
Photography work by Holly Lee and Lee Ka-sing
Exhibition opening online: May 1, 2020. Continues through September 30, 2020. The physical exhibition will not be opened to the public until further notice.
PUBLICATION
DOUBLE DOUBLE: Box-in-a-Valise
Photography work by Holly Lee and Lee Ka-sing
Three publications will be released to accompany the exhibition in May. These publications are available as POD (print-on-demand), at the same time, they are also available for on-screen viewing free of charge.
Publication information:
(a close-cropped) - a close up look at a selection of images from the exhibition. 40 pages, 8.5 x 11 inch, available in the beginning of May
(on-site) - a documentation of the exhibition and the venue. 64 pages, 8.5 x 11 inch, available in the beginning of May
(footnotes) - notes on the 112 lots of items in the exhibition. Around 100 pages, 8.5 x 11 inch, available in the middle of May.
To acquire all three publications, we suggest shop them as a bundle. It will also save you shipping fee. To save even more, shop at a time when the printing company offers discount (usually 25%).
Visit OCEAN POUNDS website to view updates of all our POD Books:
https://oceanpounds.com/pages/pod-books
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DOUBLE DOUBLE
Issue 0424-2020
A Holly Lee and Lee Ka-sing online magazine. Published on Fridays.
Published by Ocean and Pounds and archived at oceanpounds.com
All rights Reserved.
Selective items in this publication are available at the OCEAN POUNDS online shop. For items featured in CURRENT WORK, VINTAGE, ARTIFACT, PUBLICATION, OBJECT, BOOKSCAPE and COLLECTION, please send a request to: mail@oceanpounds.com.
If you are a researcher or writer and want to use the material, please write us in advance. Some of the materials might have different level of copyrights involved.
Not to miss a single issue, please subscribe to DOUBLE DOUBLE Release Notification. Visit - http://doubledouble.org
DOUBLE DOUBLE previous issues were archived at -
https://oceanpounds.com/blogs/doubledouble
leekasing.com is a portal website for current and earlier works. Apart from exhibitions, Holly and Ka-sing use extensively web platforms to display photography and writing projects. Contact us for a detail list of links.
Holly and Ka-sing currently live in Toronto with their daughter Iris, and their cat Sukimoto.
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