DOUBLE DOUBLE
A Holly Lee and Lee Ka-sing online magazine
Published on Fridays since January 2019
李家昇黃楚喬網上雜誌，逢星期五出版
Writings/ Photographs/ Poetry/ Archives
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NIGHT OWL SONATA (in one movement)
written by Holly Lee
My father was a sojourner, who went away and never came back. In my lexicon I have a different feeling for the term, father means farther, distant and unfamiliar, remote and unreachable and I’ve never missed this figure, until now - we’ve never been this close. The flight from here to Havana is only six hours, a straight line pointing south, just north to the Caribbean Sea. I am eager to see this once so vibrant city, the island famous for its cigars, rum and Salsa, its Spanish-colonial architecture, Buena Vista Social Club, Guantanamo Bay, Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and yes, the 1950s classic American and European cars. I would be lucky if I can find the grave of my father. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I have a half-brother or sister. Will they look like me? I was told I looked like my father. Did my mother ever love him? Did my mother ever love me, I wonder. In the mid-1800s 100,000 Chinese men were brought to Cuba as indentured labourers. A century later a newly married man went there as a merchandiser but the revolution made him a soldier. He was my father, an involuntary migrant embroiled in the war, caught and detained in a country he never meant to stay. But in his last letters written in the 70s he never sounded displaced, nor showed any intent of coming back. Why do I even miss this person I know so little about, is it because he’s related, or just for curiosity; a fictitious character I need to prove exist? What if this nonagenarian still exists? Do I know how to love him? Would this accidental settler want to return home, in flesh, or in ashes.
ASSIGNMENT
Lee Ka-sing
Images for "poésie" issue 88 published in 2001, a special issue on contemporary Chinese poetry.
“poésie” magazine
Issue number 88, published on June 2001
Published by Association Maison de la Poésie
167mm x 240mm, 128 pages
In 2001, “poésie” magazine in Paris published a special issue on contemporary Chinese poetry, featuring works by Zhang Wei (張煒), Yu Jian (于堅), Leung Ping-kwan (梁秉鈞) and Song Lin (宋琳). I was invited to contribute image work for the cover as well as creating new work to illustrate the four writers - one from Hong Kong and three from mainland China. Since I was the image-maker of this special issue, poésie also published some of my works connected to poetry, including the work from Foodscape, a project in collaboration with Ping-kwan.
(right) front cover of poésie issue number 88, my image all the way continues to the back cover (left).
The page facing the contents page, featured my image originally created for the cover of “Poems from Ten Poets” (“十人詩選” 李國威，葉輝，阿藍，馬若，李家昇，黃楚喬，禾迪，吳煦斌，關夢南，梁秉鈞) .
Illustration for Leung Ping-kwan’s poem
Illustration for Zhang Wei’s writing
Illustration for Zhang Wei’s writing
Illustration for Yu Jian’s poem
Illustration for Yu Jian’s poem
Illustration for Leung Ping-kwan’s poem
Illustration for Leung Ping-kwan’s poem, the image was created earlier for the FOODSCAPE project.
Illustration for Song Lin’s poem
Illustration for Song Lin’s poem
Since I was the image-maker of this special issue, poésie also published some of my works that connected to poetry. (left) Pierre Dubrunquez, the chief editor translated my early poem “Chronology” (written in 1995) to French. (right) he also selected the image work “Four Stanzas of a Poem”, this work was originally created as, for a brochure, designed by Lilian Tang, for a paper company. It was a very large format brochure, measuring 22 x 15.5 inch, which means, the image as a spread page, is in the size of 22x31 inch, printed in thick, recycle fancy paper. My work was on the theme of “recycle” (paper). Somehow, my hand-writings layered over the images, was later becomes one of my poems included in the book “Poems from Ten Poets”. "Four Stanzas of a Poem" was exhibited in “Thirty-one Photographs", my solo exhibition in 1993.
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DOUBLE DOUBLE
Issue 0827-2021
A Holly Lee and Lee Ka-sing online magazine. Published on Fridays since January 2019. Published by OCEAN POUNDS and archived at oceanpounds.com
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Holly and Ka-sing currently live in Toronto with their daughter Iris, and their cat Sukimoto. Contact with email at - mail@leekasing.com / holly@xpecial.com
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