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 (1)
Sushi Grass in Paradise (A story)
written by Holly Lee
with photographs by Lee Ka-sing
(22) A Party In The Room
It was pouring outside. Mrs. Bento always worries when it rains this hard. It is about the building, especially the second floor - the east facing room. The exterior bricks around the window have deteriorated so much that, when the rain is substantially heavy and wind exceptionally strong, water would seep through the cracks, trapped inside the dry wall causing it to swell. The sight is not pleasant. Before they have money for the big fix, Ginger has the good idea of cosmetic it up by adhering a big patch of vinyl, which has the approximate grey colour of the wall. The floor suffers damage too. When dried, the top layer of the engineered wood starts to peel off, bit by bit. What the heck, thought Mrs. Bento. There are always worries. We have to deal with it day by day. Day by day? That did remind me of the girl, whom I bought six little drinking glasses from, she broke one of them, the one with DAY BY DAY printed on it - that's my lovely quote of life! And she broke it. Why didn't she break the other ones, like ORGANIC, HEALTHY FOOD or YOU MADE ME SMILE. Bad luck that's all. Oh, already on the third floor, and it's only eight thirty, maybe I can spend a little time in the library.
The familiar paper smell inside the library. She slid her fingers along different notebooks and met one with ring binders, thin and maybe less than 30 pages, the colour of the cover faded to a dull ruddy blue. She flipped through it and stopped at a page with scribblings not only hard to read, but also sounded like drunk talk.
The night after April 28th. 1974 (?)
A party in the room turned w..h..y…w..i…l..d. Bed facing this way, turntable on the right? A small room, how many people, not many I suppose? Don't remember. For the roses, angel hair, gold flowing, knee high suede boots. No no, not my birthday. A lot of confusion, wine, smoke, music, shouts. Your hand on my shoulder, sing with Joni you said. Small room it is, sit on bed, on knees, lie, body to body, stay up, lie down, make room, how many bodies? A dart, yours. Love the touch. Never mind tonight, waste wine, waste breath, waste life, make mistakes, love, touch, moments, mensch.
Okayee, what's this. Maybe too private. Should I read on? I don't get it anyway. She turned over the page. It was written in Chinese and looked like a poem. Let's see, tha..tha..that I can comprehend. Perhaps it will make some sense?
四月廿八晩之後
好
我去告訴他們
但
現在
我要睡覺
門內門㚈截然兩個世界
弄了張被單
便倒下一身子的頽然
煙和酒味
和
一室剩餘的嘈音
在這種半睡眠狀態下
維持了六個多小時
我很口渴
很孤獨很恐懼
喝了兩次你倒的熱水
竟如此冰冷
那一定是過了很久
翻了個身
不
我不是睡覺
我仍在旋轉
在想
剛才的狂野
和一切難以忍受的叫囂
叫活不是醉的人去受罪
面對面，六隻眼睛
我在聽，在受
一番過多修飾的指控
而我疲憊得只能説
好
我去告訴他們
但
現在
我要睡覺
然後我關上門
趟下
一直留滯於這個狀態
四月廿九日寫
The scenario seemed connected - a music drinking party inside a room. Remembering something she turned back to the previous page and studied the title: The night after April 28th. 1974 (?). So it was written around 1974, or somewhere around that period. Must be a young woman then she. What was this madam mystery like in her youth? Was she…yeah…a flower child, did she drink and take drugs…live a life dreaming of Yasgur's farm and going there to get her soul free? At this point, Mrs. Bento fell back, and reflected upon her younger days in Hong Kong. Women were more conservative, but they'd already begun to walk out of their kitchens and homes to join the work force, as office clerks, bank staffs and civil servants. Mrs. Bento once worked in a bank for five years. She fondly recalls her bank uniform - Cheongsams that changed colour every year - olive drab, steel grey, and her favourite: the colour of Medjool dates…
"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 (2)
Lee Ka-sing
Selection from DUET series (work year 2019)
Photographs from DUET series are available in BIBLIOTHEKA Prints - 6.25x13 inches, with BIBLIOTHEKA blind-stamp, signed on verso.
Vase
Light
Fly
Blue voyage
VINTAGE
Lee Ka-sing
Hong Kong Arts Policy and Strategy at the Turn of the Century (work year 2000)
Six C-type photographs in three pairs, each in size of 30x40 inch
"Hong Kong Arts Policy and Strategy at the Turn of the Century" at Gallery 50 (2015), in the exhibition WALKING SMOKE, vintage work 1989-2000.
This was a series of 6 photographs in three pairs. They were originally produced for an exhibition at the Mizuma Art Gallery in Tokyo, as part of the event MORPHE 2000 (curated by Sabrina Fung). Thereafter, the series was shown at the Hong Kong Art Museum, for an exhibition of recent work from Hong Kong designers (curated by Kan Tai Keung). In 2008, the series was selected for the exhibition "Not about Truth: Chinese Conceptual Photography since the 90s" (curated by FAN Wanjen Anthea). Somehow, in the last moment, the art museum was not able to locate the original photographs (they were found some months after the event). My works were featured in the exhibition catalogue, but were absent from the exhibition. People thought, it was such a conceptual way to talk about the arts policy of Hong Kong.
In 2000, two sets of vintage photograph for "Hong Kong Arts Policy and Strategy at the Turn of the Century" were made. Some years after the work was produced, I decided to conserve only the first two pairs, and removed the third pair entirely from the series. One set of these vintage photographs is currently in the collection of M+ Museum.
Hong Kong Arts Policy and Strategy at the Turn of the Century: Demons #1
《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》鬼魅其一
Hong Kong Arts Policy and Strategy at the Turn of the Century: Demons #2
《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》鬼魅其二
Hong Kong Arts Policy and Strategy at the Turn of the Century: Epitome #1
《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》異象其一
Hong Kong Arts Policy and Strategy at the Turn of the Century: Epitome #2
《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》異象其二
1997年至2008年之間 ，我的創作明顯減少了。其中原因，由於新在異地，除了作為一個畫廊經營者以及一個創作人之間的角色矛盾之外，我在97前很多作品都是和香港主題有著密切關係，到了新的環境，我想靜下沉澱下來，新的創作應當有一個不同的角度。話雖如此，源於甚麼因由，在這段時間，我還是有一些關於香港的創作。2000年，Sabrina Fung 策展了 MORPHE 2000-ASIAN MEME，在東京展覽。《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》便是在這情況下產生。這個作品有三組，兩張為一組。分別是：「鬼魅其一」，「鬼魅其二」；「異象其一」，「異象其二」；「再生其一」，「再生其二」。每張照片為30乘40吋，數碼射印c-type照片，當時造了總共兩版。其中一版作為展覽用途，後來贈與在港一好友。另外一版，如今為M+美術館收藏。這個作品雖然原訂為三組，後來事隔多年，我決定刪掉「再生」的一組，是故M+所藏，實只得其中四張。照片付運往M+之前，在多倫多 GALLERY 50畫廊與其他舊日照片一同展覽過一回。
《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》初展時是在東京的 Mizuma Art Gallery，後來靳埭強先生為香港美術館策劃了一個展覽，這組作品展於其中。2004年樊婉貞在香港策劃了「平凡子民」-九十年代至今華人觀念攝影展，我應約并提供了這組作品。當時我正在加拿大，安排由香港美術館將這組作品轉送到主辦單位。可是，直至展期迫近，香港美術館還未能將該組作品翻出來。《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》在展場留白，恰如一則概念藝術。當然這不是原意，不然，我要是放上一段說明文字，那就是一件上好的概念作品。那組照片，過了幾個月，美術館通知我，照片已經找出了。
《在世紀末的香港藝術政策及策略》創作於「女那禾多」紙本停刊後的一年，也即是在香港的OP攝影畫廊停止運作的相若時間。
OP EDITIONS
Chan Wai Man
The Land at Chek Lap Kok, 1992 (#970433)
8"x10", gelatin silver photograph
(printed in 1997)
OP Edition, with "OP editions" blind-stamp
Edition 14/20, signed and numbered on verso
Featured in the OP EDITIONS catalogue, issue 9704 in 1997
OP editions are limited edition photographs from the OP Print Program we organized since 1995. After we moved to Toronto, the Program was still in operation for the first five years. Over hundreds of artists have been included, with photographs released as small format limited editions, in 8”x10” fibre-based black and white or chromogenic colour photographs. We plan to publish here, a selection from the collection on a weekly basis. Some of the photographs from OP EDITIONS are available at OCEAN POUNDS online shop.
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DOUBLE DOUBLE
Issue 0705-2019
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.
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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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