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
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
CURRENT WORK
Sushi Grass in Paradise (A story)
written by Holly Lee
with photographs by Lee Ka-sing
(60) A Murky Horizon
Returning to Toronto for almost a month, spending two weeks quarantining himself inside one of the room’s in the B&B, Mr. Bento can now roam freely around the house, but when venturing outside, he would wear a mask. These days, one can be suspicious of being a virus carrier, or on the other hand, easily becoming a victim. 2020 is indeed an unpromising year. Though the family takes refuge inside their still calm home, the world outside, within a short few months, has gone into a state of entropic disarray: China has determined to inflict new security law on Hong Kong, which has resulted in more demonstrations and unrests. In the United States, triggered by George Lloyd’s murder by a Minneapolis policeman, large scale protests have stormed across the country, demanding justice to black people’s lives and rights. Overnight millions of people in the free worlds join in the rallies. Suddenly daily news of Covid almost disappears, taken over by anti-black, anti-racism, anti-nativism, anti-Semitism, anti-sexism, anti-heterosexism. Meanwhile the coronavirus infection has reached seven million, scientists have not yet found a cure, the vaccine for public still months away. It is beyond belief to find ourselves living in another Black Death era. No, to be linguistically and politically correct, a Covid Death era.
What an oppressive and depressive world we’re in. And would there be soon, protests on anti-ageism? Mrs. Bento looks at Mr. Bento with a melancholy smile. We don’t have that kind of energy to partake, and for now, no protest for anti-virus-im. You simply can’t. It has treated everybody equal, right? Not really, even the virus is prejudice, it aims more at older people.
Everything has gone so wrong, how do you deal with a world that’s falling apart in every respect? How to adjust to the new normal, when your body and soul don’t desire that change, and can’t be adjusted to that change? The new normal reduces us to our cocoon, on life support by the Internet, before the monitor, on your palm screen. The worst thing is, psychologically, we imprison and separate ourselves from others. Aren’t we living our future life somewhat prematurely? We are not ready yet. Mrs. Bento utters a yell of despair.
Our house is everything, one real estate agency said in a campaign. A world. Isn’t that true? The front lawn is our garden, the backyard our park, the dinning room our restaurant, the kitchen our cooking show, the basement our cinema, our concert hall, the sitting room our yoga and dancing class. We lie in the most comfortable bedroom while virtual travelling, on our Puffy Lux mattress bed. But the dream house will soon become a bubble, if you cannot generate enough income to sustain your mortgage.
For a lot of people, your apartment is your world, you live and work from there. One level down, the rented room is your cell where you do everything mentioned above. Worse still many cannot even afford a room that they can call home. At this point of history, in such unprecedented times, brace yourself for the future, a jagged horizon awaits at dawn.
"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
CURRENT WORK
Lee Ka-sing
Photographs from domestic-life-colour-book series (2020)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DOUBLE DOUBLE
Issue 0612-2020
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.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++