South Ho’s practice encompasses photography, performance, drawing, and mixed media installations. His works addresses the wonders and helplessness of living, the spirituality of existence, as well as the socio-political awareness of Hong Kong. Here we learn more about the background to his current practice, in an interview with Hong Kong-based curator Francesca Marcaccio Hitzeman.
__________
Francesca Marcaccio Hitzeman: Could you speak about your beginnings in the arts? What attracted you to photography?
South Ho: Photography has been an interest of mine since my high school days. After graduating from university in 2007, I aspired to pursue a career in photography and lens-based media. During that time, I was learning black-and-white printing techniques in a darkroom, where I had the privilege of learning from experienced photographers and artists. They always encouraged young people to embark on individual photography projects. It was during this time that I started my own journey of creative expression. Most of my works revolve around the cityscape, expressing my personal emotions and perceptions of the city I live in. As my artistic journey progressed, my works were recognised and awarded the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Awards organised by the Hong Kong Museum of Art. The recognition has affirmed the direction of my photographic creations and served as a driving force that has propelled me forward.
FMH: Let’s start by talking about your recent group exhibition at the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco, Present Tense 2023: Perilous Playground. Could you describe the formal, compositional and material thinking that went into composing the installation, in terms of arrangement of the images, the text and the objects? What is the significance of the materials, the objects you chose, and how did these elements fit into the narrative you composed for the show?
SH: This exhibition is a little different from the usual ones as it encompasses works spanning three different years, namely Defense and Resistance (2013), #20190609-#20200101 (2019), and Heaviness and Lightness (2021). Following the invitation from the curator, we discussed the selection of works for the exhibition, and got to know the exhibition would be partly an abstract response to the urban development planning challenges facing San Francisco’s Chinatown. Coincidentally, all my three works feature ‘bricks’, symbolising construction, demolition and reconstruction. The photographic works also reflect my imagination of the situation Hong Kong has been facing in recent years. Heaviness and Lightness is partly a response to the 2019 Hong Kong social movements. The work’s form is inspired by the bricks that line the pavements of Hong Kong, transforming what once a weighty object into a lightweight ‘sponge brick’. My intention was to transform the heavy memories of the city and its people into something seemingly lightweight, while allowing diverse audiences to interpret it in their own ways. Interestingly, due to the materials and colours of the bricks, every time when I exhibit this work, many visitors, especially children, enjoy building and transforming the bricks as they were building blocks. This playful engagement reflects the imaginative possibilities inherent in the cityscape itself.
FMH: During Hong Kong’s monsoon season, a subtle change in the quality of air is all that separates a sunny day from torrential downpour and gale-force winds. In a city that is constantly shifting and remaking itself, it is fitting that weather patterns rooted in unpredictability are the norm. Whiteness of Trees (2018) is your first major body of work since the Umbrella Movement, reflecting on the coincidence of natural catastrophes and socio-political failures in the current moment. Could you explain and extend upon this layer of the work?
SH: In the aftermath of Typhoon Mangkhut, Hong Kong experienced severe disruptions to its traffic due to a vast number of collapsed trees. However, in a city where efficiency is highly valued, people strived to resume their normal routines. Many collapsed trees were removed. What remained were fragments and traces of the once-standing trees. This situation evoked a profound sentiment within me. I feel like nature is also a part of the city. Trees, akin to people who have lived for a long time (many of the trees have lived longer than us), seemed to hold significance in the city. Yet, despite their longevity and contributions, they were removed mercilessly as long as they hindered the development of the city. Witnessing this reality, I used the experiences of the trees as a symbol to express the powerlessness experienced within the city.
FMH: When I look at your entire production, I cannot think of you purely as a photographer. In my opinion that definition is reductive as your practice takes bidimensional photography outside the medium boundaries using them in different contexts, combining images with home-brewed beer like, for example, in the Drunken Life Dying Dream installation. Much of your work, while remaining photographic in essence, has moved towards installation pushing the boundaries of the medium. Could you tell us about this project and what brings you to this shift?
SH: During the early stages of my artistic journey, I always thought about ways to push the boundaries of photographic creation. For example, I captured the ever-transforming colours of the sky (Impermanence (2008-2010)) and painted colourful blocks on my photographs (Every Daily (2013)). On one hand, these approaches were based on my interest in different art mediums. On the other hand, these different approaches are like different bridges, sending me to different places. They enabled me to present the medium of photography, known for its realism, in a slightly abstract manner, and to express my personal thoughts, while still retaining the audience’s familiarity with traditional photography. Taking Drunken Life Dying Dream (2017) as an example, in addition to the photographic works, I also incorporated installations. Moreover, I used knowledge learned from homebrewing beer process (from an art community project) and incorporated it into the images and my photographic creations.
FMH: Collective power and transformation are recurring in your work. In your early series Defense and Resistance (2013) you are portrayed with a brick in the attempt to conceptually build a wall in the West Kowloon area in Hong Kong. I’m fascinated in how your work begins with subjective experiences, moving on to examine the relation of the human figure through the self-portrait and the performative methods. On the other hand, I am interested in a certain playfulness which applies to both moving images and photography. What are, in your opinion, the most fascinating and most challenging aspects in using the autobiographical approach?
SH: It’s a good question. From my perspective, the presence of a clearly visible figure in a photograph signifies its ‘personal identity’. Even if I recruit an actor to perform, they have their own personal identity, which is difficult for the audience to distinguish. This concept was effectively demonstrated during my solo exhibition in 2014, when I re-performed the work at the gallery. But unlike the photograph work, I rushed out of the ‘high wall’ directly at the end. My arms and legs were slightly scratched, and the loud noise of falling bricks made the audience wonder what had happened. When I considered this, I thought that since the work was all in my imagination, and since I sometimes engage in strange behaviours, it would be more appropriate to ‘use’ myself, and connect the work directly to myself.
FMH: I’m thinking of the role of archival justice and its efficacy and limitations. When people think of the Hong Kong protests in 2019, the images that pop in their mind are the marches and some extremely violent scenes. Nevertheless, during that time, there were moments of respite that were invisible to most people. Since the onset of the Umbrella Movement in 2014, you have been creating a visual poetic homage to the city you call it home. In the age of spectacle and over-saturated images circulation, what do you think is the role of photography and visual culture?
SH: Collective memories and personal images, as mentioned before, are based on a personal experience of the scene (a difference between the photographic medium and other art media). For the photographs of the 2014 Umbrella Movement, I wanted to present a personal point of view outside of the mass media, where the atmosphere was mostly calm (as opposed to the media’s preference for highlighting scenes of people clashing and arguing), and sticking to the demands that we all fought for, which are the common memories of the people who were involved. 2019 is of course a much more complex year than 2014, and the length of the social movement makes it difficult for everyone to experience every important moment in the timeline. However, it is important for me that each person, in different ways (whether documentary or abstract), can reconstruct the fragments of their memories during different events, and preserve them as their own (and everyone else’s) memories, so that the events will not be easily forgotten.
__________
South Ho was born in 1984 in Hong Kong. His photographic series “Into Light” was awarded in the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Awards 2009 and is held in the collections of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and the Kiyosato Museum of Photographic Arts in Japan. His personal studio was established in 2008 and in 2013 Ho co-founded 100 ft. PARK, a non-commercial art space dedicated to providing an open platform for exhibiting and sharing art.
Francesca Marcaccio Hitzeman is an independent curator, art consultant and writer specialising in photography and contemporary art with an emphasis on cross-disciplinary and international programming.
