Installation view of Sasaoka Yuriko's "Animale," PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2025.

Courtesy the artist and PHD Group. Photo by Felix SC Wong.

In her practice, Osaka-born artist Sasaoka Yuriko explores the ambiguous relationship between humans and the natural world through 

 installations that reveal surrealist, immersive landscapes. Drawing inspiration from animism, masquerade, theater, puppetry, and Osaka’s comedy traditions, her work delves into fundamental questions around agency, mortality, and the narratives we tell ourselves.


For “Animale,” Sasaoka investigated the historical roles of animals in society—from fables and pets to their use in political diplomacy and labor. Her research began with the story of Wojtek, a Syrian brown bear who became a symbol of resilience during World War II. Discovered as an orphaned cub, Wojtek was sold to Polish soldiers and integrated into their military operations, where he reportedly carried ammunition and adopted human habits like smoking and drinking coffee. After the war, he was gifted to Edinburgh Zoo, where a memorial still stands in his honor.


Building on Wojtek’s life story and his mirroring of human behavior, Sasaoka expanded her research to other cases of working animals through residencies and projects in Berlin, Edinburgh, and Japan. These included school mascots, cosmetic testers, and the Soviet space dog Laika, who tragically perished in a spacecraft in 1957. This research culminated in “Animale” (2024–25), a large-scale sound and video installation featuring sculptures that resemble wild and domesticated creatures, from rabbits and dogs to raccoons and dolphins.


Set within a carnivalesque environment of curtains and carpets, the installation features larger, totem-like figures playing instruments, while smaller figures are arranged on vintage furniture, evoking the display of a toy shop or pet store. With screens for eyes and mouths—showing footage of the artist’s own face—and bodies crafted from vintage stuffed toys and recycled fabrics, the sculptures sing in Japanese: “Hello! / From today on, you’re my father / Teach me, labor, teach me / Laboring tomorrow, laboring the day after tomorrow, laboring the day after that and the day after that, waking up in five hours / So, am I still charming without a job?” By addressing the audience as “father,” the work underscores a dependency on humans for political, spiritual, and emotional guidance.


Resurrected through recycled fabrics, these cute yet Frankenstein-like chimeras perform a ritualistic musical theater that disarms and captivates. Yet, there is something uncannily familiar about these anthropomorphized creatures. Are they human, or are they animals? By blurring these boundaries, Sasaoka challenges our assumptions. The cyclical, endless refrain of “Laboring tomorrow, laboring the day after tomorrow, laboring the day after that” suggests that all entities—from dogs to humans—are bound by labor, and though we may resist the idea, our work often serves larger capitalistic or political agendas beyond our control.


Rather than focusing solely on exploitation, Sasaoka instead questions the socially constructed boundaries between us and the creatures we employ, dismantling ideas of human superiority. Through brightly hued sculptural forms animated by a hypnotic melody, she expresses a lucid existentialism in her distinctly charming artistic language. Viewers are drawn in: upon closer inspection, they see the artist’s own eyes, nose, and mouth on the screens, a reminder that humans and animals are not so different after all.


For further information and media inquiries, please contact Neil Wong (neil@phdgroup.art). For sales inquiries, please contact Willem Molesworth (willem@phdgroup.art) or Ysabelle Cheung (ysabelle@phdgroup.art).

出生於大阪的藝術家笹岡由梨子在其創作實踐中，通過「整體藝術」裝置探索人類與自然世界之間曖昧的關係，這些裝置呈現出超現實主義的沉浸式景觀。她從泛靈論、化裝舞會、戲劇、木偶戲以及大阪的喜劇傳統中汲取靈感，其作品深入探討了關於自主性、死亡以及我們的自我敘事等根本問題。


在展覽「Animale」中，笹岡由梨子研究了動物在社會中的歷史角色——從寓言中的動物、寵物到它們在政治外交和勞動中的角色。她的研究始於有關一隻名為佛伊泰克的敘利亞棕熊的故事，這只棕熊在二戰期間成為了堅韌意志的象徵。佛伊泰克幼年時便是孤兒，被波蘭士兵買下並納入麾下，參加他們的軍事行動，據說它曾幫助士兵搬運彈藥，還養成了抽煙和喝咖啡等人類才有的習慣。戰後，它被贈予愛丁堡動物園，那裏至今仍有一座用於緬懷它的紀念碑。


基於沃伊泰克的生活故事及其對人類行為的模仿，笹岡由梨子通過在柏林、愛丁堡和日本的駐留項目和創作，進一步拓展了對其他工作動物案例的研究。這些形象包括學校吉祥物、化妝品實驗動物以及蘇聯太空犬萊卡，它在1957年的一次太空旅行中不幸喪生。這項研究最終促成了「Animale」（2024–25），這是一件大型聲音影像裝置作品，其中包含的雕塑形似一系列野生及家養的動物，從兔子和狗到浣熊和海豚。


該裝置被容納在一個布滿帷幔和地毯的狂歡節式環境中，其中較大的圖騰式形象在演奏樂器，而較小的形象則被擺放在復古家具上，讓人聯想到玩具店或寵物店的陳列品。這些雕塑的眼睛和嘴巴處裝有屏幕，播放着藝術家自己的面部影像，而其身體則由復古填充玩具和回收布料製成，它們用日語歌唱：「你好！ / 從今天起你就是我的爸爸啦 / 教教我吧，勞動 / 明天要勞動、後天要勞動、大後天和大大後天，五小時後就要起床 / 這樣的話，沒有工作的我還有吸引力嗎？」通過稱呼觀眾為「父親」，這件作品強調了在政治、精神和情感方面對人類指導的依賴。


這些可愛而又仿若科學怪人的「奇美拉」式生物通過回收的布料被復活，上演了一場具有儀式感的音樂劇，令人卸下防備並為之着迷。然而，這些擬人化的生物卻有着一種莫名的熟悉感。它們是人，還是動物？通過模糊這些界限，笹岡由梨子挑戰了我們的心理預設。循環往復、永無止境的「明天要勞動、後天要勞動、大後天要勞動」這一旋律暗示着，從狗到人類，所有生物都受制於勞動，儘管我們可能抗拒這一想法，但我們的工作往往服務於我們無法掌控的、更宏大的資本主義或政治意圖。


笹岡由梨子並非僅僅關注勞動剝削，而是質疑我們與被我們所利用的生物之間的社會性界限，打破人類至上的觀念。通過鮮艷的雕塑和催眠般的旋律，她以自己獨特的迷人藝術語言表達了一種清晰的存在主義。觀眾被吸引過來：仔細一看，會發現屏幕上是藝術家自己的眼睛、鼻子和嘴巴，作為一種警示告誡我們，人類和動物其實並沒有那麼大的不同。


任何關於展覽或媒體的查詢，請聯絡Neil Wong（neil@phdgroup.art）。關於作品銷售的查詢，請聯絡Willem Molesworth（willem@phdgroup.art）或Ysabelle Cheung（ysabelle@phdgroup.art）。

Exhibitions

2025
Crookes radiometer, glass, aluminum, light, custom electronics
94 x 7.6 x 14 cm

Photo by Felix SC Wong. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group.

In a modestly sized studio in Fo Tan, a couple works by side by side. By the window, there are paintings by Hong Kong artist Sarah Lai, who engages with image and popular culture in her scenographic recreations of space. Near the door, one finds research materials and sculptures by the US-born Samuel Swope, revealing preoccupations with machines, drones, and flight. These practices, conceived in parallel from a shared studio and over a 19-year relationship, are shown together for the first time in “Sarah & Samuel”—an exhibition that is not a duo exhibition, but an exhibition about being a duo.

Familiar older works from Lai and Swope’s oeuvre are reconfigured across the exhibition space. A contrapuntal entanglement emerges, with the principal theme of latent tension, or concealment, that playfully hints at the couple’s subtle influences on each other. In Lai’s paintings, scenes from the 1986 Hong Kong film A Better Tomorrow are juxtaposed with 

 (2018-25), a nude female veiled within an amber case. Meanwhile, Swope’s works toggle between dormancy and movement. A tire wheel, suspended from the ceiling via an airplane ratchet strap, hints at imminent movement like a performer awaiting instruction, and an archival print shows a drone in mid-flight blur.

Augmenting these older works are two new collaborative pieces which articulate the languages of exchange between partners. In the multi-component installation 

(2025), retrofitted audio devices emit a voice recording of Swope repeatedly calling Lai’s name. Scaling a range of emotions—ecstatic, anxious, mischievous, pensive—the vocal recall wraps around the exhibition, generating space for curiosity. Why doesn’t she answer? Is she there? Reflecting the non-verbal elements of a relationship, Lai’s response instead takes the form of selected physical hosts for Swope’s voice, among them a talking bird ornament and a cassette tape player. One particularly sentimental object, a vintage alarm clock of a redhead basketball player from the popular anime Slam Dunk, was chosen for its resemblance to Swope and a similar clock Lai possessed as a teenager, dovetailing personal and shared memory.

In 

 (2025), the exchange is swapped, with a recording of Lai’s breathing dictating the movement of a Crookes radiometer chosen and customized by Swope. As the recording feeds signals to a light source, the radiometer vanes begin to spin, disseminating rays across the space. Borne from accumulated memories of long-distance phone calls and nightly reconnections, the work is reminiscent of lighthouses, signal towers, and other monuments to communication.

On the surface romantic gestures, these works also narrate a history of longing, absence, and sacrifice, geographical distance and conflicting schedules. Yet in recording the ostensibly intangible elements of voice and breath, Lai and Swope resist consumerist and capitalist measurements of time and productivity, both in the relationship and in their artistic practices.

Away from these larger expressions, a miniature sea painting by Lai and a luminescent tube of airborne dandelion dust by Swope can be found in the corridor space. Created independently a decade apart, 

 (2018) together express a quieter, more intimate sensibility, and could be seen as stand-ins for the artists themselves. In its thoughtful renegotiation of space, identity, and companionship, “Sarah & Samuel” rejects the flawed idea of absolute unity, instead revealing a Venn diagram of subconscious intersections between two individuals. At its core, an unforeseen third player reveals itself: the enduring nature of invisible collaboration.

For further information and media inquiries, please contact Neil Wong (neil@phdgroup.art). For sales inquiries, please contact Willem Molesworth (willem@phdgroup.art) or Ysabelle Cheung (ysabelle@phdgroup.art)

在火炭一間不算偌大的工作室裡，一對伴侶並肩而作。靠窗處陳列著香港藝術家黎卓華（Sarah）的畫作，她關注圖像與流行文化，並以場景化的手法重置展覽空間。靠近門口的位置，則可以見到美國出生的藝術家Samuel Swope的研究材料與雕塑作品，這些作品揭示了他對機械內部構造、無人機與飛行的關注。這兩位藝術家在這間共用的工作室內，以及長達十九年的伴侶關係中，各自發展出獨特的創作。而今，在《Sarah & Samuel》中，他們的作品首度共同展出——這並非一場雙人展，而是一場關於兩人關係的展覽。

Sarah與Samuel的多件舊作在展覽空間中被重新配置，構築出一種對位式的交織。展覽圍繞著潛伏的張力以及隱藏的意涵，巧妙地暗示了這對伴侶之間微妙的相互影響。在Sarah的畫作中，1986年香港電影《英雄本色》的場景與《溫柔鄉》（2018-25）形成對比，後者描繪了一位被罩上了一層琥珀色的裸女形體。與此同時，Samuel的作品在靜止與運動之間切換。一個懸吊的輪胎通過飛機棘輪綁帶固定於天花板上，暗示著即將展開的動態，宛如一位等待指令的表演者；而一幅收藏級印刷品則捕捉了一架無人機飛行中的模糊瞬間。

除了這些舊作之外，展覽還增添了兩件由二人合作的全新作品，表達出伴侶之間的交流語彙。其中，《Sarah》（2025）是一件由多個物件組成的裝置作品，改裝過的錄音裝置持續播放著Samuel反覆呼喚Sarah名字的錄音。聲音在展覽空間中迴蕩，穿越著熱切、焦慮、調皮、憂沉等多種情感層次，創造出令人好奇的氛圍：為什麼她沒有回應？她是否在場？象徵著一段關係中非語言交流的元素，Sarah對此的回應則是為Samuel的聲音選取了一系列具象化的載體，如會說話的鳥形擺件和卡式錄音帶播放器。其中一件別具感情意義的物品是一個有著動漫作品《男兒當入樽》中紅髮籃球手形象的復古鬧鐘。這個鬧鐘不僅與Samuel的外貌相似，也與Sarah青少年時期擁有的同款鬧鐘產生呼應，讓個人與共同記憶銜接在一起。

在《Her Breath》（2025）中，交流的方向互換，這次是Sarah的呼吸律動驅動著由Samuel挑選並改裝的光能輻射計。隨著呼吸記錄向光源傳輸信號，輻射計的葉片開始旋轉，將光芒散射於空間之中。這件作品源於兩人多年來積累的記憶，包括長途電話的聲音與重聚的片刻，喚起了對燈塔、信號塔以及其他象徵著溝通的事物的聯想。

這些作品從表面上看僅為浪漫的行為，但同時也講述了一段歷史，這段歷史充滿著思念、缺失、犧牲、地理距離與相互衝突的日程安排。然而，透過記錄聲音與呼吸這些看似無形的元素，Sarah和Samuel在兩人的關係與藝術創作中，對抗著消費主義和資本主義對時間與生產力的衡量標準。

走過這些較為廣大的表達，在展覽的走廊空間中，Sarah的一幅迷你海景畫作和Samuel的一個懸浮著蒲公英種子的光塔悄然呈現。這兩件作品分別於十年之隔獨立創作而成——《暗礁》（2008）與《C-luster》（2018），共同展現了一種更為安靜、親密的感性氣質，也可以被視為兩位藝術家的在展覽中的自我象徵。在對空間、身份與伴侶關係的深思熟慮與重新協調中，《Sarah & Samuel》否定了伴侶二人需要絕對合一的幻象，轉而揭示了兩個獨立個體之間潛意識的交集，猶如一幅溫氏圖般。兩個個體交錯的部分則形成一個意料之外的第三體：持久存在的無形合作精神。

任何關於展覽或媒體的查詢，請聯絡Neil Wong (neil@phdgroup.art)。關於作品銷售的查詢，請聯絡Willem Molesworth (willem@phdgroup.art) 或Ysabelle Cheung(ysabelle@phdgroup.art)

Hejduk’s teachings are foundational to Christopher K. Ho’s first solo exhibition at PHD Group, “I Am a 70-Year-Old British Sculptor.” An architect by training, Ho presents 30 sculptures and 10 drawings, bound together by modernist concerns of space, material, and form.



Ostensibly devoid of subject matter, the sculptures in brass and aluminum contain enigmatic references that invite closer inspection. Several works reveal origins through titles or identifiable shapes. Pei Cobb Freed (2023) recalls I.M. Pei’s firm and its Fountain Place building (formerly the Allied Bank Tower) in Dallas, while other sculptures reveal biomorphic experiments: an elongated shard approximates a giraffe’s neck; a dart-shaped plate mimics a tailfin. Some are self-contained puzzles—a curved edge on a base, for instance, matches the diameter of a sunlike plaque sitting above. Altogether, these sculptures are intended to be read as a series, presented in the exhibition on pedestals of varying heights, and collectively titled “Return to Order.”


2022-2023
30 sculptures in brass and aluminum
186 x 198 x 242 cm (73 1/4 x 78 x 95 1/4 in.)   



 Photo by Felix SC Wong. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group.

The 10 new works on paper feature another of Hejduk’s favored architectural methods: the 90-degree axonometric, in which plan and elevation are represented equally, with no distortion. These curiously flattened drawings, made in direct correlation with the sculptures, reverse the process of building—from object to rendering to sketch. In a reflection of this return, analogue tools and materials are primarily deployed here: a parallel rule, hand-cut strips of Hahnemühle etching paper, oil pastel, gouache, watercolor ink, color pencils. A tension arises between the objective, precise measurements of classical axonometry and the subjective, emotional nature of perspective, experienced through the eyes of the viewer.

Playful and inquisitive, “I Am a 70-Year-Old British Sculptor” is an exhibition that compresses and expands; folds and stretches; ascends and cascades. From points of logic, questions arise: who is the 70-year-old British sculptor? Why the reappearance of such formal concerns? At the axis of the exhibition, a cruciform bench invites visitors to contemplate these entangled relationships of space, dimension, and material.

For further information and media inquiries, please contact Neil Wong (neil@phdgroup.art). For sales inquiries, please contact Willem Molesworth (willem@phdgroup.art) or Ysabelle Cheung (ysabelle@phdgroup.art).


2022-2023
30 sculptures in brass and aluminum
186 x 198 x 242 cm (73 1/4 x 78 x 95 1/4 in.)




2024
Coloured pencil and archival inkjet print on Hahnemühle 320g etching paper with artist frame 
88 x 88 cm (34 1/2 x 34 1/2 in.)


2024
Archival inkjet prints on Hahnemühle 320g etching paper, cut and interwoven with artist frame 
88 x 88 cm (34 1/2 x 34 1/2 in.)

Installation view of "I Am a 70-Year-Old British Sculptor" at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2024. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group, Hong Kong. Photo by Felix SC Wong.

 Photo by Felix SC Wong. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group. 

Developed by American architect John Hejduk in the late 1950s, the “nine-square grid” is an exercise that teaches spatial composition. Distinctive for its disregard of function, physics, and politics, the grid liberates the architect from historical context, guiding a more intimate engagement with space. “An understanding of the elements is revealed,” Hejduk writes in his introduction. “An idea of fabrication emerges.”


由美國建築師約翰·海杜克 (John Hejduk) 於1950年代末設計的「九宮格」是一種教授空間構成的練習。其獨特之處在於無視功能、物理和政治，使建築師得以擺脫歷史語境的束縛，進而引導對空間更為深刻的思考。海杜克在練習的介紹中寫道：「對元素的理解被揭示出來」，「一種製作的理念逐漸浮現。」

海杜克的理念奠定了何恩懷 (Christopher K. Ho) 在PHD Group的首次個展 《我是一位70歲的英國雕塑家》 的基礎。運用自身的建築學背景，何氏在此次展覽將展出30件雕塑和10幅繪畫作品，這些作品圍繞現代主義對空間、材料和形體的關注，並相互關聯。

這些黃銅與鋁製的雕塑表面上似乎缺乏明確的主題，但其內含的暗示卻能吸引觀者仔細品味。其中幾件作品通過標題或可辨識的形狀揭示其來源，例如 Pei Cobb Freed (2023) 喚起了對貝聿銘事務所及位於達拉斯的噴泉廣場大廈（前聯合銀行大廈）的記憶，而其他雕塑則猶如仿生實驗：一片細長的碎片如同長頸鹿的脖子；飛鏢形的板塊模擬出海洋生物的尾鰭。有些作品則像是自成一體的謎題——例如，一個基座的曲邊恰好符合上方類似太陽的圓盤的直徑。整體而言，這些雕塑應作為一個系列來解讀，展覽中它們被安置在不同高度的底座上，並統一被命名為 「Return to Order」。

展覽中十幅新的紙本作品運用了海杜克偏愛的建築製圖方法：90度軸測圖，平面圖與立面圖以無失真的方式同等展現。這些奇異扁平的繪畫與展覽中的雕塑相關聯，反轉了建築的過程——從實物到渲染再到草圖。為了反映這一反轉的過程，作品主要使用了傳統的工具和材料：平行尺、手工裁切的哈內姆勒蝕版紙、油粉彩、水粉、水彩墨、彩色鉛筆。觀者能在眼中感受到古典軸測圖精確客觀的測量與透視圖主觀的情感特質之間，形成一種緊張的對比。

充滿趣味與探索性的 《我是一位70歲的英國雕塑家》是一場壓縮與擴展；折疊與伸展；上升與下落的展覽。從邏輯的角度出發，問題隨之而來：這位70歲的英國雕塑家是誰？為何這些形體上的關注再度出現？在展覽的中心，一張十字形長椅邀請觀眾坐下，思考這些空間、尺寸與材料錯綜複雜的關係。

任何關於展覽或媒體的查詢，請聯絡Neil Wong (neil@phdgroup.art)。關於作品銷售的查詢，請聯絡Willem Molesworth (willem@phdgroup.art) 或 Ysabelle Cheung (ysabelle@phdgroup.art)

Each artwork begins as a process of conservation. Discarded vessels, containers and other objects—empty and in disrepair—are salvaged and brought back to the artist’s studio for restoration. Drawing on her background as a hypnotherapist and energy healer, Chan Ting then communes with these objects to fill their voids, adding layers of construction plaster and pigment that are gradually drilled, sanded, and polished with heavy industrial tools.


Chan Ting’s treatment of these fillings resembles the practices of ancient alchemy, which attempted to transform common materials into noble metals. Here, hardware store materials typically considered crude and cheap are burnished until glossy, evoking the museum sheen of oil paintings. This process transmutes the rejected or abandoned object, rendering an item of lost utilitarian use into an artwork of care and attention. Just as alchemists sought a cure for all diseases, perhaps Chan Ting’s meticulous transformations could be a response to societal malaise: the infinite pain of abandonment and rejection.


2024
Vintage first aid box, filler, industrial pigment, spray paint, oil pastel, gold foil,
copper foil, museum glass
36.5 x 81.5 x 12.9 cm (open);
36.5 x 40.9 x 12.9 cm (closed)


These filled in voids contribute to a mass of auriferous green surfaces across Chan Ting’s body of work, a multiplication process that the artist describes as similar to that of “human moss.” The artist’s use of the color green expresses growth and plant life, and the reference to moss—which notably grows in between cracks and crevices—a symbol of resilience in loss. Yet the green also represents the artist’s broader philosophical engagements in accumulations of time and collective memory. Across the space, a curiously recognizable dark green catches the viewer’s eye. Seen on Hong Kong’s trams and colonial style buildings and lampposts, the hue is the result of surplus paint produced for the military after the Second World War. Over time, it has become as much a part of the city’s landscape as the carpet of moss that forms over rocks and hilltops, pavements and roadsides.


2024
Discarded rattan board, filler, industrial pigment, spray paint, gold foil, copper foil, cat fur, household dust, oil pastel
66.5 x 123.4 x 3.6 cm


What is lost when places and people evolve and adapt? What is left behind to gain new life? Around the individual artworks and found furnitures of “dreamskin,” a new sound, text, and video installation drifts in the space, permeating the air with murmurs of dreams, memories, staircases, lakes, and airplane flights at night. Reflecting on the transience of place that witness our minor, individual migrations—from a city worker moving apartments, to a student leaving home, or families moving across skies and seas—Chan Ting meditates on the multiplicity of life and offers up the radically hopeful perspective that what was once empty can be filled again.

Installation view of "Dreamskin" at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2024. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group. Photo by Felix SC Wong. 

2023-24
Discarded folding screen, filler, plaster, industrial pigment, oil pastel, spray paint
180 x 148 x 30 cm (seen here);
179.5 x 40 x 3 cm (closed)



Installation view of "Dreamskin" at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2024. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group, Hong Kong. Photo by Felix SC Wong. 


2023-24
Prewar aluminium box, filler, industrial pigment, spray paint, gold foil, oil pastel, household dust
12.5 x 12 x 17 cm (open);
5.5 x 13 x 11 cm (closed)


2024
Scholar stone stand, filler, industrial pigment, spray paint, oil pastel
5.8 x 18.7 x 10.7 cm



2024
Vintage tree trunk cabinet, filler, industrial pigment, spray paint, carbon image transfer
38 x 38.3 x 15 cm (open);
38 x 31 x 15 cm (closed)
Created with support from Para Site


Installation view of "Dreamskin" at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2024. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group, Hong Kong. Photo by Felix SC Wong.


A young student buys a one-way ticket out of Hong Kong and leaves behind a cabinet and three pairs of shoes. A pair of siblings pack up their late mother’s belongings, donating her vanity case and sewing kit to a charity store. A pork chop rice shop closes down, and its wares end up at a refuse site.



In Chan Ting’s exhibition “dreamskin,” a collection of found and secondhand furniture and artworks comprise a landscape lodged between Eurydicean past life and speculative rebirth, the conscious and subconscious. Mediating the stories of wandering people and places, the artist probes the indelibly marked surfaces of our physical and dream worlds, likening these accumulations of time and memory to a membrane, or another skin.


In 2022, Hong Kong artist Wong Kit Yi embarked on a residency at The Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Texas, where she discovered the Marfa Lights while researching the archives of Donald Judd. Looking at Judd’s freestanding sculptures ⬛ and his collection of bagpipe recordings within Marfa’s drifting sands and lights, miles away from her hometown of Hong Kong, the artist began to dig into the layers of the paranormal, bewitched by the relationship between the visible and invisible, and the tangible and intangible spaces that surround us.

The title of the exhibition “+852 GHOST-JPG” is at once a reference to the nostalgic act of dialing phonewords and Wong’s explorations into other realms—the “+852” alluding to both Hong Kong’s area code and a particular sound frequency said to open one’s third eye 👁️. Challenging Brakhage’s “eye unruled by man-made laws of perspective,” the artist moves toward the paranormal layers that make up our visual experience, upending ideas of the earthly and the singular. As the visitor enters the exhibition, a simulacrum of a living room—a domestic space in which television 📺 is traditionally watched, and paintings 🖼️ are looked at—becomes an arena of spectral entertainment. Doors and sofas are multiplied; a series of “paintings” mirror each other; the double-sided video screen has no clear back or front. The visitor also becomes enmeshed in this expanded video installation, walking through the rooms like a character in a sequence of near-identical frames 🚶🏻‍♀️🚶🏻‍♀️🚶🏻‍♀️.


2024
Resin, recorder, PVC pipe 
95 x 45 x 39 cm (37 3/8 x 17 3/4 x 15 3/8 in.)

Reaching Wong’s video work in the central space, 

 (2022-24), the viewer is invited to sit on the circular, sandy sofas, and temporarily mimic a non-moving object (or a West Texas desert cactus 🌵). In front of them, moving images and words ruminate on the various research elements that fueled the exhibition: graveyards, angel numbers, hidden frequencies, Hong Kong’s colonial-era TV funerals, ghost images 👻, Donald Judd, trash bagpipes, and the railroad workers who worked on Marfa’s train tracks in the 1800s. 

Installation view of "+852 GHOST-JPG" at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2024. Photo by Felix SC Wong.

By blending found documentary and home video-style clips and image stills, Wong references various modalities of video, cemented in her signature karaoke lecture performances: videos that feature running subtitles as seen in karaoke 🎤, combined with research elements typical of a lecture 👩🏻‍🏫, and the occasional song🎵.

In blurring the lines between the moving and non-moving, earth-bound truths and spiritual speculations, Wong presents an instability around our perceived realities. Two languages—English and traditional Chinese—are viewed in the subtitles, yet a third, largely untranslatable dialect of slang Cantonese can be heard over the speakers, disrupting the notion that languages and nations are fixed, stable, or even fully legible. A shorter companion video about Hong Kong, 

 (2024), echoes the unresolved from a hidden space within the exhibition, suggesting that there are even more layers to uncover, and inviting visitors to dig a little deeper 🌌.


2022-24
Single-channel video with color and sound 
32 min

Small Screen Painting  20 18 1 19 8 2 1 7


2024
Oil paint, archival digital print on canvas, canvas ribbon, laser cut steel frame, acrylic handle 
28 x 21.5 cm (11 x 8 1/2 in.)

Installation view of "+852 GHOST-JPG" at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2024. Photo by Felix SC Wong.  

Driving along Highway 17 to Marfa, Texas, spectators have for many years reported seeing strange lights in the sky. Described as fuzzy glowing tufts, colored cirrus streaks, or giant luminous spheres, these lights often materialize at random but are curiously active: they can catch viewers off guard, flying at high speed, or float away, distant, and aloof 🌌.



Known as the Marfa Lights, or Marfa Ghost Lights, the phenomenon has birthed dozens of conspiracy theories, from benevolent aliens 🛸 and oracular spirits to car reflections 🚘 and static electricity in the arid deserts. The true cause of their existence appears almost inconsequential; our fixation with these visions seems less about the lights themselves, and more about our desire to touch the ineffable.


Written in the aftermath of a bloody anti-warlord demonstration in 1926, Lu Xun’s dark tale “

” (translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang) has long been the subject of curiosity for readers of his work. The short story opens with a young village boy, at turns observing and provoking a rat drowning in a pot. As he approaches the dawn of his sixteenth birthday, his mother recounts a story previously unknown to him: about his father’s murder, and a duo of transparent swords at the center of a political strategy. Set on an irreversible path of revenge, the boy encounters an unnamed man in a forest, to whom he gives his head, and a megalomaniac king whose golden cauldron becomes their watery battlefield, and final resting place.

《爭辯其三》
2020
Watercolor, mineral pigment on paper
21.8 x 35.1 cm


Lu Xun’s story appears to critique the immorality of violence, laying out a nihilistic view in which all parties involved in conflict, regardless of hierarchy or privilege, meet the same ending. Yet subsequent readings belie the story’s apparent simplicity. What role does gender—consider the mother, the concubine, the female sword, against the three male characters—play in this tale? Who does the unnamed man represent, and why does he sing? Does the boy’s willing severance of his head indicate courage, or foolishness? Honorable sacrifice, or senseless submission?

《將有巨變降臨》
2020
Watercolor, mineral pigment on paper
17.5 x 42 cm

The 1926 massacre and its death toll of 47 students provides significant context for the story. Yet it is also important to distinguish that elements of “Forging the Swords” exists in stories that predate Lu Xun. Similar folktales have been recorded since the Spring and Autumn and Warring States time periods—notably a time of philosophical and industrial progression, as well as intense warfare—often under the title “The Tomb of Three Kings,” with an emphasis on the mounds of skeletons that are indistinguishable from one another. In his expanded version, however, Lu Xun directs our attention toward the young village boy, a “soft” and indecisive figure transformed by a story from the past. Similarly, Lu Xun appears to have traveled back centuries to find a story that might unveil some truths about his present.

《他聽到最初的雞鳴》
2020
Watercolor, mineral pigment on paper
21.4 x 17.4 cm

This lineage of retelling mirrors Beijing-based artist Xi Jiu’s own visual interpretations of the tale, painted for a published version of Lu Xun’s story in 2020. Rendered in miniatures, a scene-by-scene critique of sacrifice and submission to violence emerges. Her works embody classical fine lines and color blockings of Chinese gongbi paintings, in particular the tight compositions of social interaction as in 

. In contrast, interstices of transformation are looser in their gestures and phantasmagoric colors, presenting an interiority of self that is fluid, dreamlike, and mysterious. More than simply translate Lu Xun’s story, Xi Jiu has also modernized its scope, lending a softer, feminine, and surrealistic tone to negate the brutal realisms of conflict.

The King's Concubine Gave Birth to a Piece of Iron

《王妃生下了一塊鐵》
2020
Watercolor, mineral pigment on paper
14.5 x 14.8 cm

At the beginning of “Forging the Swords,” the young boy, under the instruction of his mother, uncovers the sword that has been buried in the soil since his father’s murder. In doing so, they awaken the dormant, and inevitable, allure of violence. For while the iron as raw material evokes mythological alchemy, birth, and creation, its shadow self as a weapon signals the complexity of death. Across three timelines—from the Warring States period to Lu Xun’s time, and now Xi Jiu’s—we unbury the past, and ask how its tales and stories might continue to tell us about our ever-turbulent world.


PHD Group would like to thank Lorraine Yanan Zeng of Flying Stars, Peter Woo of Folio Beijing, and the Short Story Club for their assistance and inspiration in the creation and development of this exhibition. We are also indebted to Professor Li-hua Ying (1956-2023) of Bard College, whose lessons on Lu Xun fed our minds and fueled our imagination

《爭辯其一》
2020
Watercolor, mineral pigment on paper
22.8 x 9.5 cm


Installation view of "Xi Jiu: Forging the Swords" at PHD Group, 2024.  Photo by Felix SC Wong. Courtesy the artist and PHD Group.

“Twenty years ago, the king's concubine gave birth to a piece of iron which they said she conceived after embracing an iron pillar. It was pure, transparent iron. The king, realizing that this was a rare treasure, decided to have it made into a sword with which to defend his kingdom, kill his enemies and ensure his own safety. As ill luck would have it, your father was chosen for the task, and in both hands he brought the iron home. He tempered it day and night for three whole years, until he had forged two swords.”

「二十年前，王妃生下了一塊鐵，聽說是抱了一回鐵柱之後受孕的，是一塊純青透明的鐵。大王知道是異寶，便決計用來鑄一把劍，想用它保國，用它殺敵，用它防身。不幸你的父親那時偏偏入了選，便將鐵捧回家裡來，日日夜夜地鍛煉，費了整三年的精神，煉成兩把劍。」



寫於1926年，在充滿血腥與殺戮的北伐戰爭之後，魯迅筆下的黑暗寓言《鑄劍》在多年來一直是讀者們感到好奇的作品。在故事的開端，年輕鄉下男孩眉間尺在半夜觀望以及挑弄一隻在水瓮裏遇溺的老鼠。當男孩迎來他十六歲生日的清晨，他的母親向他敘述了他從前未曾耳聞的往事：他的父親如何被殺害，以及插在一場政治謀略中心的兩把透明寶劍。就此，眉間尺義無反顧地踏上了復仇之路，他在森林中遇見了一位無名的男子，並向他獻上了自己的頭顱。兩人最終來到權慾薰心的國王跟前，王的金鼎化為三人腥風血雨的戰場，最終也成為三人的安息之地。



魯迅似乎在故事內批判暴力的不道德性，闡明了一個虛無主義的觀點：不論地位和權利，所有牽扯在暴力衝突裏的人終將迎來相同的結局。但當進一步深究時，故事表面淺白的假象才被慢慢揭開。當我們思考母親、王妃、雌劍，與故事中相對的三個男性角色時，性別在故事裏扮演了什麼角色？故事中那不知名的男子代表了誰？他又為什麼會唱著歌？眉間尺自願地割下了自己的頭顱，表現出的是勇氣還是愚昧？是英勇的犧牲，還是毫無意義的服從？



在1926年發生的大屠殺和在這場慘劇中犧牲的47名學生為這篇故事提供了重要的背景。然而，我們也必須認知到《鑄劍》這一故事裏的元素比魯迅更早存在於這世上。類似的民間傳說自春秋、戰國時代就已有記載。在那充滿哲學及工業發展、戰亂不斷的時代，故事的標題為《三王墓》，著重描寫了堆積如山的屍骨讓人無法分辨死者的身份。但在魯迅的版本裡，故事聚焦在了眉間尺的身上，這個「軟弱」和躊躇不決的人物被來自過去的故事徹底改變。同樣的，魯迅也追溯到數個世紀以前，期望能從過去的故事裡找尋能借鑑於當下的真相。



對於復述過去故事的傳承對應了藝術家昔酒對《鑄劍》的視覺詮釋，為了2020年出版的繪本《鑄劍》而創作，昔酒在一幅幅微型的畫作中對於犧牲以及向暴力臣服作出了批判。她的作品體現了中國工筆畫的傳統線條和色塊，特別體現在「將有巨變降臨」裏用於刻畫社交互動的緊湊構圖。 與之相對的是描繪變化間隙的畫作，更鬆散的姿態和迷幻的色彩呈現出一個流動、夢幻和神秘的內在自我。昔酒不僅僅是把魯迅的故事通過畫作進行傳譯，更是將其現代化，賦予了一層柔軟、女性化和超現實的色調，中和了故事裏殘酷寫實主義的衝突。



在《鑄劍》的開端，男孩在母親的指引下，掘出了自他父親被殺後就一直埋藏於黃土中的劍。如此一來，他們便喚醒了沉睡的、不可避免的，來自暴力的誘惑。雖然鋼鐵作為原材料能喚起帶有神話色彩的煉金術、誕生和創造，但它作為武器的另一面則凸顯了死亡的複雜性。貫穿三條時間線——從戰國時代到魯迅所處的清末民初，再到昔酒所處的現代，我們把塵封的過去掘起，期望過去的故事能為我們解析這永遠動蕩不安的世界。



PHD集團感謝Flying Stars 的Lorraine Yanan Zeng，一頁folio的Peter Woo，以及短篇故事俱樂部在本次展覽的策劃中提供的協助和靈感。我們也衷心感謝巴德學院的嬴莉華教授（1956-2023年），嬴教授關於魯迅的教學滋養了我們的心靈，激發了我們的想像力。
任何關於展覽或媒體的查詢，請聯絡 Neil Wong (neil@phdgroup.art)。關於作品銷售的查詢，請聯絡Willem Molesworth (willem@phdgroup.art) 或 Ysabelle Cheung (ysabelle@phdgroup.art)


 (b. 1984, based in Hong Kong) is a sculptor who plays with the interpolation of materials engaged in elements of nature, industrial function, and time. Objects of interest—plastic pallets, fragments of Ming-dynasty ceramics, multi-directional rollers—are decontextualized and transformed by the artist with a specific focus on movement, life forms and the organic spirit of each object.

Chan’s visceral exploration of the unknown encapsulates her interest in urbanism, architecture, material culture, craft, and antiquities. Her interplay of abstract forms, intricate details, and unexpected materials calls for a physical experience and encourages a new way of seeing and perceiving.



Chan received her MFA in painting from the Rhode Island School of Design and her BFA from the School of Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been shown at Para Site, Hong Kong; Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; KölnSkulptur #10, Cologne; Museum Triennial 1st Edition in X Museum, Beijing; UCCA, Beidaihe. Her work is in the collections of Long Museum, Shanghai; UBS Art Collection, Hong Kong; M+, Hong Kong; Skulpturen Park Köln, Cologne; J. P. Morgan Chase Art Collection, Hong Kong and Kadist Art Foundation, Paris/San Francisco. In 2020, Chan was the recipient of the ninth BMW Art Journey.

陳麗同（生於1984年， 生活工作於香港）是一位雕塑家。她擅長運用帶有自然元素、工業用途以及時間相關的材質並將它們互相嵌入。常用的物件有塑膠棧板、明朝瓷器碎片、多方向滾輪。這些物件被去語境化，然後被藝術家改造，凸顯出物件的運動軌跡、生命及有機靈魂。

陳麗同對於探索未知的本能將她的創作興趣引導至城市化、建築學、物質文化、工藝以及古董。她讓抽象的形體、精緻的細節以及意外的材質相互作用，呼籲一種物理體驗並鼓勵一種嶄新的觀看及感知方式。

陳麗同在羅德島設計學院取得了碩士學位，也在芝加哥藝術學院取得了學士學位。她的作品曾在Para Site（香港）、香港藝術館、大館當代（香港）、KölnSkulptur #10（科隆）、第一届X美术馆三年展：终端 >_（北京）、UCCA沙丘美術館（北戴河）展出。她的作品也被龍美術館（上海）、UBS瑞銀集團（香港）、M+（香港）、Skulpturen Park Köln（科隆）、摩根大通（香港）以及Kadist藝術基金會（巴黎/舊金山）納入收藏。在2020年，陳麗同在第九屆BMW藝術之旅獲獎。

Ming dynasty (1368-1644) Chinese pottery
fragments, pyrite (3rd century), found seashell,
stainless steel hardware, epoxy, pigment,
brass, marble


Image courtesy the artist and Capsule Shanghai 



 (b. 1993, based in Hong Kong) is a multidisciplinary artist based in Hong Kong. Her practice begins as conservation: discarded or rejected objects from refuse sites are salvaged and brought back to her studio for restoration. Drawing on her background as a hypnotherapist and energy healer, she then communes with these objects in a process of addition and subtraction that involves layers of plaster and pigment that are sanded and drilled away with heavy industrial tools.



Formally, her expanded paintings and sculptural objects engage directly with the artist’s environs. In hand-blending plasters, industrial pigments, and waxy oil pastels, she also folds in the air, smell, and temperature of Hong Kong. This results in an image that is both a palimpsest and landscape portrait, at once a reference to the contemporary conditions of place and a psychological study of its people.

Chan Ting holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is a certified hypnotherapist and energy healer. She has exhibited works in Tai Kwun Contemporary and HART Haus, among other venues, and participated in a residency at Foo Tak building from 2019 to 2022, during which she co-founded the nonprofit project Negative Space. She was one of the grantees of the NoExit Grant for Unpaid Artistic Labour organized by Para Site and is currently the resident artist at Para Site’s 10/F space.

陳庭 （生於1993年，生活工作於香港）是一位居於香港的跨媒介藝術家。 她的創作始於保育：她將被遺棄或被拒絕的物件從垃圾場回收，帶回工作室進行修復。借助她催眠治療師及能量治療師的背景，與這些物件產生交流。在交流的過程中對這些物件加上或減少層層的石膏和顏料，最後再用重型工業用具進行打磨、鑽孔。

在形式上，陳庭的實驗性畫作及雕塑直接與她周遭的環境相互作用。透過手工混合的石膏、工業用顏料以及帶有蠟質的油粉彩，香港的空氣、味道和溫度也被混入了作品中。這過程帶來的是一幅既像被不斷改寫的手抄本，又像風景畫的圖像，這圖像是對城市當代狀態的參照，也是對其居民心理狀態的研究。

陳庭為香港中文大學藝術碩士，同時也是一位認證的催眠治療師及能量治療師。她的作品曾在大館當代及HART Haus等地點展出。她也曾於2019至2022年參加了富德樓的藝術家駐留計畫，並在這期間合辦了非牟利計畫「負片空間」。她曾獲得Para Site的NoExit無償藝術勞動資助，現在也正在Para Site十樓的藝術空間進行藝術家駐留。

Prewar aluminum box, filler, industrial pigment,

industrial foil gold, household dust, oil pastel,

12.5 x 12 x 17 cm (open); 5.5 x 13 x 11 cm (closed)

 (b. 1994, based in Hong Kong) is a multidisciplinary artist engaged in practices of intimacy and ritual. In her experimentations with different materials and elements, she investigates how the body manifests and adapts in situations of public tension or private introspection. As one of the many emerging artists practicing in post-handover Hong Kong, Chu examines ephemerality and ludic play in relation to intense social change and communal relationships.



Her work has been shown at 1A Space (Hong Kong); Negative Space (Hong Kong); and Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong). Her debut solo exhibition at PHD Group, “you, trickling,” was featured in The New York Times, Artforum, ArtReview Asia, Frieze, Ocula, and other publications.



She is a recipient of Soundpocket’s Artist Support Program from 2020-21 and the HART Haus Studio grant in 2021 and was in residence at London’s Delfina Foundation as part of their “Performance as Process” program in 2023.


（生於 1994 年，生活工作於香港）是一位跨媒介藝術家，從事親密和儀式的實踐。在她對不同材料和元素的實驗中，她研究了身體如何在公共緊張或私人內省的情況下表現和適應。作為回歸後香港的其中一位新興藝術家，她探討劇烈社會變革及共有關係中的瞬息萬變及隨性玩味。在她的創作中重要的元素是「屏障」的概念及其如何告知我們社交互動的規範。透過網織成的牆、布料及玻璃，她創造了親密與關懷的儀式，認知到物理上的屏障時常能幫助解構人與人之間不可見、無法觸碰的屏障。

她作品曾展出過在 1A Space（香港）；負片空間（香港）； 和大館當代（香港）。她在2021年獲得Hart Haus的工作室贊助。

Ashes of artist’s hair in window glass,

 (b.1985, based in Seoul) received his MA in Sculpture from the Royal College of Art, London, and BFA in Metalsmithing and Jewelry from Konkuk University. Kim’s artistic practice is built on exploring various intersections of art, religion, and identity that lie in the critical point of change and collision. He mainly works with video art and installations that explore issues of sexuality, queerness, feminism, sadomasochism, pop culture, religion, mysticism, and the body as forms of knowledge and research. In exploring the relationship between pain and pleasure, Kim deconstructs preconceived articulations of sexuality and decenters the phallocentric order.

Kim has shown work at Documenta 15, Kassel; National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Alternative Space Loop and the Ilmin Museum of Art, Seoul; Barbican Centre, Camden Arts Centre and Institute of Contemporary Arts, London; Daegu Art Museum; Para Site, Hong Kong; Buenos Aires Moving Image Biennial; Palazzo Lucarini Contemporary, Trevi; and the Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin.

金斗真（生於1985年，生活工作於首爾）在倫敦皇家藝術學院取得了雕塑藝術碩士學位，以及在建國大學取得了金屬工藝與珠寶藝術學士。金斗真的藝術創作建基於探索藝術、宗教、身份的交集，以及這些交集所處的變革與碰撞的臨界點。他主要創作影像藝術以及裝置藝術，並從中探索性愛、酷兒、女性主義、性虐戀、流行文化、宗教、神秘學以及以身體作為一種知識和研究的形式。在探討痛苦與快感的關係中，藝術家解構了性文化中的固有表達，並將以陽具為中心的秩序去中心化。

金斗真的作品曾在 Documenta 15（卡塞爾）、韓國國立現代美術館、Alternative Space Loop（首爾）、一民美術館（首爾）、巴比肯藝術中心（倫敦）、卡姆登藝術中心（倫敦）、倫敦當代藝術學院、大邱美術館、Para Site（香港）、布宜諾斯艾利斯流動影像雙年展、Palazzo Lucarini Contemporary（特雷維）、Haus am Lützowplatz（柏林）展出。

Dimensions variable;
dimensions as seen: 103.9 x 231.2 x 16.7 cm

 was born in 1984 in Hong Kong. She lives and works in London.

In her works, Firenze Lai explores how the mind and body of a person adapt and react to different circumstances in their everyday life.

Firenze Lai’s recent solo exhibitions include “White balance,” MAMC+ , Saint-Étienne, 2019; “Turbulence,” Mirrored Gardens, Guangzhou, 2015. She has participated in international exhibitions and biennials including “Contagious City: Far Away, Too Close,” Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, 2019; “A World in a Grain of Sand,” Fosun Foundation, Shanghai, 2018; “Viva Arte Viva,” the 57th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, 2017; “Surround Audience: New Museum Triennial,” New York, 2015; “Social Factory – 10th Shanghai Biennale,” Shanghai, 2014; “A Journal of the Plague Year. Fear, ghosts, rebels, SARS, Leslie and the Hong Kong Story,” Para Site, Hong Kong, 2013.

黎清妍 1984年生於香港。現於倫敦生活及工作。

黎清妍畫中所捕捉的時刻，大部分來自城市的日常。藝術家的關注點，在於畫中人的身體及精神狀態，與其處境之互為關係。藝術家嘗試從繪畫裡實踐這些外界和身體的對置和互換，從而反覆驗證各種內存於個體的、難以明言的主體經驗。

黎清妍近期的個展包括：“White Balance”，MAMC+，聖埃蒂安，2019；“湍流”，鏡花園，廣州，2015。她參加的國際性群展和雙年展包括：“疫癥都市：既遠又近”，大館當代美術館，香港，2019；“一沙藝世界”，復興基金會，上海，中國，2018；“藝術萬歲”，第57屆威尼斯雙年展，2017；“環繞觀眾：新當代藝術博物館三年展”，紐約，2015；“社會工廠——第十屆上海雙年展”，上海，2014；“疫年日誌：恐懼、鬼魂、叛軍、沙士、哥哥和香港的故事”，Para Site藝術空間，香港，2013。

Image courtesy the artist and Vitamin Creative Space

(b. 1987, Seoul) is a painter whose canvasses often articulate narratives of representation, gaze, and consumption. Her works interrogate the surface of painting and our disillusions with image as distorted by the mechanisms of social media as well as sociopolitical soft power. She is one half of the artist duo Expansion Colony. Lee Eunsae is currently in residence at Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.

Her works have been exhibited at the Ilmin Museum of Art (Seoul); Nam-Seoul Museum of Art (Seoul); Suwon Museum of Art (Suwon); SeMA Nanji (Seoul); and MMCA Gwacheon.


（生於 1987 年，生活工作於首爾）的畫作經常呈現代理、凝視與消費的敘事，並描繪人物無精打采地划動手機或藏身超現實的景觀中。她較近期的作品審視繪畫的表面，並揭示由社交媒體機制和社會政治軟實力扭曲的圖像所帶來的幻滅。她是雙人藝術組合"Expansion Colony" 的一員。

她作品曾展出過在Ilmin美術館（首爾）； 南首爾美術館（首爾）； 水原美術館（水原）； SeMA Nanji（首爾）； 和 MMCA 果川。

 (b. 1980, based in Tokyo) is a multidisciplinary artist and sensitive observer of our habitats. Attempting to capture the non-tangible—sound, light, wind—she facilitates networks of self-contained ecosystems. Within these systems, she emphasizes the presence of chance, error, and silences, noting the various modes of dialogue between us and our surroundings. For “Decomposition,” a work involving fresh fruit bowl, plug-in wires, and speakers, a responsive composition is calibrated by evolving moisture levels, the act of decay transformed into an auditory experience.



Her work has been shown at the 14th Gwangju Biennale (2023); Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong); Palais de Tokyo (Paris); Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo); 23rd Biennale of Sydney (2022); 34th Bienal de São Paulo (2021); and Kochi-Muziris Biennale (2016). Her work has been collected by M+ (Hong Kong); Centre Pompidou (Paris); and Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane). She will represent Japan in the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024.


（生於1980，生活工作於東京）是一位跨媒介藝術家，也是對我們棲息地的敏感的觀察者。為了捕捉無形的元素——聲音、光線、風——她促進了自成體系的生態網絡。在這些生態系統內，她強調機會、錯誤及寂靜的存在，並關注我們與環境間不同的對話模式。 在作品"Decomposition" 中，新鮮水果、插入式電線和音響通過水果不斷變化的濕度，產生了相應的樂曲，將腐爛的過程轉化為聽覺體驗。




她的作品曾展出過在第十四屆光州雙年展（2023），大館當代（香港）；Palais de Tokyo（巴黎）；Museum of Contemporary Art（東京）；第二十三屆悉尼雙年展（2022）；第三十四屆聖保羅雙年展（2021）；和科欽·穆茲里斯雙年展（2016）。她的作品也曾被收藏於M+（香港）；Centre Pompidou（巴黎）；和Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art（布里斯班）。她將於2024年代表日本參加第六十屆威尼斯雙年展。

 was born in 1988 in Osaka, Japan. She received her MFA in oil painting and pursued a PhD in media art from the Kyoto City University of Arts.

In her practice, Sasaoka investigates the limits and potentiality of representation through various modalities of entertainment, including theater, song, and the collective screen. Many of her works respond, whether explicitly or indirectly, to the 2011 tsunami and earthquake in Japan, tapping into the collective consciousness of those who live close to disaster, or, as Sasaoka says, “between life and death.” Witnessing the tragedy unfold on a tiny television screen, Sasaoka interpreted the flat surface to be a membrane that presented an unreality or unresolvable gap between action and consequence.

Through immersive video installations that often involve the idea of the marionette—a symbol of sociopolitical puppeteering and gendered normativity—she expands the interstitial spaces between the surreal and the lucid. In her works, she performs as multiple characters, liberating narratives from rigid ideas around gender, identity, and history. A recent work, "

" (2021), utilizes handmade fish-head dolls to illustrate the loss of agency in events of individual or collective trauma. Whether through hand puppets, traditional marionettes, or animated figures, Sasaoka addresses critical topics, rendering the moving image and history itself as a fluid and conflicted narrative.

Her work has been shown at the 14th Shanghai Biennial (Shanghai); Reborn Art Festival, Kyoto Art Centre (Kyoto); Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts (Taipei); VBKÖ (Vienna); and TRAFO Center for Contemporary Art (Szczecin). She won Grand Prize at the Gunma Biennale for Young Artists in 2017.


笹岡由梨子（生於 1988 年，生活工作於京都）出生於日本大阪，她在京都市立藝術大學取得了油畫碩士學位以及攻讀了媒體藝術博士課程（PhD）。




在笹岡的創作中，她通過各種形式的娛樂來審視代理的限制與潛力，包括戲劇、音樂和集體屏幕。她的不少作品直白或間接地對應了2011年在日本發生的地震和海嘯，嘗試進入處於災難咫尺之間的人們的集體意識，或根據笹岡所形容，「生活在生與死之間的人們」。在小小的電視屏幕上見證了悲劇的發生後，她把這塊平面解讀成一塊薄膜，上面呈現了行動與後果之間虛幻或無法解決的差距。




通過沉浸式影像裝置內的的牽線木偶——一個社會政治操控和性別規範的象徵，笹岡擴大了清醒與夢幻間的裂縫。在她的作品中，她扮演不同的角色，嘗試將性別、身分和歷史議題從保守的敘事中解放。在最近的作品"Planaria" (2021)中，她運用了手工製作的魚頭娃娃來象徵在個人或集體創傷中喪失代理權。無論是通過手偶、傳統木偶還是動畫人物，笹岡探討沉重的議題，並將動態影像和歷史轉化為流動且矛盾的敘事。




她的作品曾在第十四屆上海雙年展、重生藝術節、京都藝術中心（京都）、關渡美術館（台北）、VBKÖ（維也納）和 TRAFO 當代藝術中心（甚切青）展出。 她於 2017 年獲得群馬雙年展青年藝術家大獎。

Single-channel video
with color and sound: 3 min 57 sec

(b.1981, based in Beijing) is a painter who explores masculinity, femininity, and power through image. Through repeated and textural brushstrokes, she creates portraits that blend ideologies of gender, performance, the body, and strength.

She holds an MFA from the department of Experimental Art and a BA from the department of Oil Painting from the Central Academy of Fine Arts. Her works have been shown at Cc Foundation & Art Center, Shanghai; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; KWM Artcenter, Beijing; CAFA Art Museum, Beijing; Xinjiang Art Museum, Urumqi; and the Museum of National History, Copenhagen.

商亮（生於1981年，生活工作於北京）是一位畫家，她透過繪畫來探索男性氣質、女性氣質以及力量。在她重複及帶有質感的筆觸下，她創作的肖像畫融合了關於性別、表演、身體及力量的意識型態。


商亮在中央美術學院實驗藝術學院取得了碩士學位，在中央美術學院油畫系取得了學士學位。她的作品曾在Cc基金會&藝術中心（上海）、大館當代（香港）、金社藝術中心（北京）、中央美術學院美術館（北京）、新疆美術館（烏魯木齊）以及丹麥國立博物館（哥本哈根）展出。


 (b. 1991, based in Hong Kong) is a curator and artist based in Hong Kong. She received a BA in Fine Art from the Slade School of Fine Art in London. Her works on canvas and paper depict personal anxieties through everyday scenes and dreamscapes. A recent set of works relate to a recent period of healing while confined at home, exploring transformation of the body while expressing her signature dark comedy.

In her curatorial practice, Tsang explores how artists develop new languages and symbols in times of political change, and how to manoeuvre the liminal spaces between the official and unofficial, and fact and fiction, via vehicles of magic realism, sarcasm, humor, and myth-making. Tsang is part of the curatorial team at the annual BOOKED; Art Book Fair, Tai Kwun Contemporary. She was a curatorial resident at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin in 2021 and curated the 2023 Trieste Biennale, “Breathing with the World.” She is the founder of Current Plans, an experimental art space that encourages cross-disciplinary dialogues through exhibition-making.

曾智愛怡（生於1991年，生活工作於香港）是一位策展人及藝術家。她在倫敦大學斯萊德學院取得了藝術學士的學位。 她透過在畫布或紙張上描繪日常和夢境來傳達個人的焦慮。最近的一系列作品與一段受困於家中時發生的療癒時光有關，探討了身體的轉變並表現了藝術家招牌的黑色幽默。

在曾智愛怡的策展創作中，她探索了藝術家如何在政治動盪的時期裡發展新的語言及符號，如何透過魔幻寫實主義、諷刺、幽默以及編造神話來遊走於官方與非官方、事實與虛構的曖昧的邊界。 曾智愛怡是一年一度在大館當代（香港）舉行的BOOKED香港藝術書展的策展成員。也曾在2021年參加過桑德雷托·瑞·瑞寶迪戈基金會的策展人駐留計畫，並策展了2023年里雅斯特雙年展，主題為 “Breathing with the World“。她創辦了Current Plans，一個透過製作展覽來鼓勵跨領域對話的實驗性藝術空間。

 (est. 2020, based in Hong Kong) is a philosophy, an epistemological ideology, and an artist duo comprised of Joseph Chen and Cas Wong. Named after old public housing estate blocks in Kowloon City, the home of Chen’s grandmother, Virtue Village root their practice in contemporary spirituality, transforming found object, environment, and the body into vessels for parabiotic communion. Tapping into the multiple definitions of ascension, they navigate the planes of collective queer subculture, fetish, and transhumanism.



Virtue Village has exhibited at and created performances for Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong); Dossier (China); the Hong Kong Arts Center; Parallel Space (Hong Kong) and Present Projects (Hong Kong).

（創立於2020年）是一種哲學、一種認識論意識形態、也是由 Joseph Chen 和 Cas Wong 組成的藝術家二人組合。以Joseph祖母家九龍城的舊公共屋村命名，真善美村將他們的實踐植根於當代靈性，將發現的物體、環境和身體轉化為共生共融的容器。用提升的多重定義，他們在集體酷兒亞文化、戀物和超人類主義的平面上導航。




他們曾在 Parallel Space（香港）和 Present Projects（香港）展出作品和放映電影。 2021年，他們在香港組織了表演平台和展覽活體洞。在2022年，他們參與了大館當代和Sunpride Foundation合作舉辦的神話製造者——光·合作用 III。

Nylon resin, silicone, acrylic on canvas,
stainless steel ornament, quartz spheres


Installation view of "Tendering," PHD Group, 2023. Courtesy PHD Group, Hong Kong. Photo by Felix Wong. 


Last year, we were standing in the center of Virtue Village's solo exhibition when a curator friend told us about vore—meaning "one that eats"—or vorarephilia, a rare fetish in which one fantasizes about being eaten.

It’s more of a kink. The desire for someone to devour you whole.


There was something tender about the way our friend suggested this while looking at the assemblage in front us, a sex swing whose seat had been replaced with a phallic sculpture with two orifices on either end. She used the words "devour" and "whole" as opposed to "eat" and "body." The distinctions were subtle but charged. We found ourselves empathizing with this image of someone being swallowed alive, how they might enjoy the external fullness of being, this material sensation that had nothing and everything to do with the political and social body. We imagined the relationship of eroticism to violence, of softness to pain, of beauty and the grotesque.


Lately we have been thinking a lot about the 1992 novel “The Republic of Wine,” written by Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan, which follows an inspector’s investigation of a province in mainland China which is famed for its wine. While there, he discovers a horrifying secret practice: government officials are bribed with not only liquor but also tender little human babies, which they eat at banquets.


Of course, this practice is not real, and the province does not exist. Yet there is a verisimilitude to our desire to devour, to tenderize the image and flesh into something readily consumable. All day long we gaze at ourselves and each other online, scrolling toward eternal indigestion.


Love, hate, desire, disgust, birth, decay, death—are we perhaps waiting for some tenderness in all of this? Some vulnerability? When you find a bruise on your body, do you trace it with your finger? Do you feel those soft reverberations of pain and pleasure? Do they sing to you?


We invite you to explore “Tendering,” the second group exhibition hosted at PHD Group, and the sequel to our inaugural show, “Rendering.” Marking the gallery’s two-year anniversary, the show and its roster of artists expresses tender growth and change. Marking the gallery’s two-year anniversary, the show and its roster of artists expresses tender growth and change. We are pleased to present works by Leelee Chan, Chan Ting, Michele Chu, Dew Kim, Firenze Lai, Lee Eunsae, Yuko Mohri, Sasaoka Yuriko, Shang Liang, Eunice Tsang, and Virtue Village.
 

去年我們站在真善美村的空間，被個展環繞。策展朋友告訴我們何謂「吞噬」或「吞食癖」，飢渴於被吃掉。但她趕忙補充，這非食人的儀式或禮教，有點像性癖，一種想被他者完整吞噬的慾望。



邊走邊說，我們的朋友指向眼前組合裝置，垂盪的鞦韆，座位是一枚陽具塑像以雙向孔洞貫穿。她以「吞」和「食」、「完」和「身」構成對比，隱晦地呈現盈缺的衝撞。站在原地，忽爾與一個被生吞的人類共情，也許外在的吞噬完整了他的存在。物質與知覺上的感知與政體和社會毫不相連。我們只想到性亢奮與暴力、柔韌與錐痛、美與荒異。



諾貝爾文學獎得主莫言在1992年的作品《酩酊國》，以一個偵察員的視角追尋中國大陸一個盛名於酒產的省份。他發現了此處驚悚私密的習俗，政府官員不單受賄於酒精，更是在宴會上匐然大嚼勃生的嬰兒。



噢當然，這習俗不存在，這市鎮不存在，但嗜食同類的慾望卻逼真盡致，來吧，柔化眼前圖像，吮指緩嚥血肉，我注視你注視他者而網上眾觀。滑過屏幕，我們吞噬眼前與遠方。



我們從愛慾、恨惡、腐亡之中等待一簾柔軟或危脆。當你瞥見身上瘀傷，曾否以指頭摸索體膚？痛且快，這些溫潤之聲可曾在你耳邊吟唱？



我們誠邀你參與 PHD Group 的《柔吮》，隨開幕展《Rendering》之後第二個群展，也象徵藝廊兩週年紀念，希望觀者可嗜展覽與參展藝術家柔韌的成長與蛻變。我們誠意展出來自陳麗同，陳庭，朱凱婷，金斗真，黎清妍，李恩實，毛利悠子，笹岡由梨子，商亮，曾智愛怡，真善美村的作品。



任何關於展覽或媒體的查詢，請聯絡 Neil Wong (neil@phdgroup.art)。關於作品銷售的查詢，請聯絡Willem Molesworth (willem@phdgroup.art) 或 Ysabelle Cheung (ysabelle@phdgroup.art)

Previously, Zheng Mahler studied the wild water buffalo population on Lantau, Hong Kong’s largest outlying island and the site of the artist duo’s home and studio; recently, their attention has turned to the pipistrellus abramus, a species of insectivorous bats also found on the island. Their research takes as its starting point the seminal essay “What is it like to be a bat?” by philosopher Thomas Nagel, which posits that we can only ever allude to the subjective experience of other creatures. “We can imagine what it might be like to be nocturnal, to have webbing on our arms, to be able to fly, to have poor vision and perceive the world through high frequency sound signals, and to spend our time hanging upside down,” Nagel argues. “But even if we can imagine all of these things, it only tells us what it is like for me to be a bat, or for me to behave as a bat behaves. It does not tell us what it is like for a bat to be a bat.”

Breathing Sounds (A Quiet Study
of a Bat’s Body)

Screen print on Jingdezhen
porcelain tiles, pine wood frame


Early stages of Zheng Mahler’s project comprise fieldwork, research, written materials, and exploration of the sensory environments in which the Lantau bats reside. Initially commissioned by Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA) Germany as part of the “Are You For Real?” web project curated by Paula Nascimento, Yvette Mutumba and Julia Grosse, this research is synthesized in later stages; in the main space, a large-scale video installation reveals a psychedelic Mui Wo, enlivened by phantasmagoric hues and overgrowths that serve as an attractive feeding site for bats. Referencing a common visualization practice in Tibetan Buddhism—in which a deity is called upon with mantras and mandala patterns—the video takes a first-person perspective and leads the viewer through a spiritual transformation, from human form into a bat and back again.

Installation view of “Zheng Mahler: What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?” at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2023. Photos by Felix SC Wong. Courtesy the artists and PHD Group.

What is it like to be a (virtual) bat? Phase III/IV – Bat Meditation

, 2022-23, 4K video/virtual reality video with color and sound: 16 min 43 sec.

A nearby VR headset offers an embodied experience of the same journey, highlighting the possibility of simulation and the consequent successes and failures of grasping at subjective qualitative experience. Another video, screened in the back corridor space, is an abstracted color field video of a bat feeding site in Mui Wo’s wetlands, soundtracked by echolocation recordings taken by the artists.

What is it like to be a (virtual) bat? Phase II – Point Cloud Visualization

, 2022, 4K point cloud animation with thermal videos and ultrasonic field recordings: 8 min 43 sec.

Surrounding these video and audio components are new tile works produced in Jingdezhen, a city with historical roots in porcelain and the site of production for an earlier series, “A Season in Shell” (2013-16). Featuring different scenes or landscapes from the main video installation, the tile works perform as visual aids for meditation experiences—similar to the mandalas in Tibetan Chenrezig practices—and materially respond to the first “visual aid” recorded by the artists early in their research: a traditional bat mosaic seen in a Lantau temple. Formally, they also evoke the architecture of machine experiences; one imagines pixels, or the equirectangular grid that greets visitors when they put on a VR headset. The tiles are additionally framed by motifs that refer to the East Asian cultural phenomenon of wild bat sightings—considered a sign of good fortune or longevity—and which has resulted in popular dissemination of bat motifs in temples, amulets, feng shui objects, and spiritual décor.

Installation view  of “Zheng Mahler: What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?” at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2023. Photos by Felix SC Wong. Courtesy the artists and PHD Group.

Screen print on Jingdezhen porcelain tiles, pine wood frame

"What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?" by Zheng Mahler

"What is it like to be a bat?" by Thomas Nagel

IFA commission of "What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?"

(detail), 2023, screen print on Jingdezhen porcelain tiles, pine wood frame, 121 x 121 cm.

Installation view of “What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?” at PHD Group, Hong Kong, 2023. Photos by Felix SC Wong. Courtesy the artists and PHD Group. 
 

What, if anything, separates us from other species? Is it possible to embody, or even fully understand, the mind of a dog, a cat, a bat? If so, then how is consciousness defined? And how can new technologies simulate—or even replicate—those experiences?

These questions foreground “What is it like to be a (virtual) bat?,” the first solo exhibition by Hong Kong-based artist duo Zheng Mahler at PHD Group.

Featuring new works and video installations, the exhibition is centered around the artist duo’s long-term research project that explores interspecies empathy, ethnographic sensory experiences, and expansive definitions of consciousness.

 

到底是什麼事物將我們和其他物種區分開來?我們有可能體會，甚至是完全理解狗、貓或是蝙蝠的思想嗎?如果可以的話，那麼意識將如何被定義?而日新月異的科技如何模擬，甚至複製這些體驗 ?

這些問題凸顯了香港藝術雙人組合鄭馬樂的首次個展「作為一隻(虛擬)蝙蝠是怎麼樣的?」。 此次展覽展出了藝術家最新的影像裝置及瓷磚作品，展覽的核心將圍繞藝術家的長期研究項目，該項目探索了跨物種的共感、民族學上的感官體驗， 以及意識的廣泛定義。

過往，鄭馬樂曾在香港最大的島嶼、同時也是藝術家的居住地和工作室的大嶼山研究島上的野生水牛。最近，他們把重心轉移到了東亞家蝠，一種同樣居住於大嶼山的食蟲動物身上。他們的研究建基於哲學家 Thomas Nagel 撰寫的具有開創性的論文「作為一隻蝙蝠是怎麼樣的 ?」，論文假設我們只能揣測其他生物的主觀體驗。「我們只能想像作為夜行生物的感受，想像手臂上的翼膜、想像飛翔的感覺、想像擁有貧弱的視力並透過超聲波來感受這個世界、想像如何上下顛倒地倒掛著。」Nagel 論稱「即使我們能想像這些感受，它們也只能告訴我們對於人類成為一隻蝙蝠的感受是如何，或是讓我們模仿蝙蝠日常的習性。但它們並不能讓我理解對於蝙蝠，身為一隻蝙蝠的感受如何。」

鄭馬樂的項目中，早期階段由實地考察、研究、寫作材料、以及探索大嶼山上蝙蝠所棲息的感官環境構成。項目最初由德國Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IFA)委託參展於Paula Nascimento, Yvette Mutumba 及Julia Grosse聯合策劃的互聯網項目 「Are You For Real?」， 早期階段的研究在項目的後期得到綜合。在本次展覽的主要空間，大型影像裝置呈現了一個迷幻的梅窩，充斥著如幻似真的色彩及錯綜複雜的茂盛植物，成為蝙蝠的誘人覓食地。參考藏傳佛教中的通過咒語和曼陀羅圖案來召喚神祇的視覺化觀想，影像採取了第一人稱視角，帶領觀眾踏入一段靈性的轉變，從人類轉變為蝙蝠，再重新變回人類。

影像裝置旁的虛擬實境裝置則為同一段靈性旅程提供了更具現化的體驗，強調了模擬體驗的可能性，以及其對於掌握主觀性質體驗的成果及限制。展覽的另一部份是一段在走廊播放的影像，影像以抽象色域化的方式刻畫了梅窩的一處蝙蝠餵食地，並配上了藝術家錄取的回聲定位錄音。

展區內包圍著影像裝置的則是藝術家最新的瓷磚作品，製作於景德鎮，一個從古至今皆以冶制陶瓷而享負盛名的城市，同時也是藝術家早期的作品系列 「A Season in Shell」 (2013-16)的製作地。此次展覽中的瓷磚作品作捕捉了影像裝置中的不同景觀及畫面，成為冥想體驗的視覺輔助。類似於藏傳四臂觀世音菩薩觀想裡的曼陀羅花，並在物質上回應藝術家在早期研究階段紀錄下的第一個「視覺輔助」 在大嶼山一座寺廟內的傳統蝙蝠馬賽克畫。這些作品也巧妙地喚起了我們對於構築數碼體驗的認知，讓我們能聯想到戴上虛擬實境裝置時眼中的像素，或是等經緯度格網。這些瓷磚作品的畫框則參考了東亞文化中蝙蝠的象徵意義，蝙蝠被視為好運和長壽的象徵。因此，蝙蝠的意象在寺廟、護身符、風水物件及靈性飾品都得到廣泛的應用。

將哲學的兩個分支——靈性及科學 ——作為出發點，本次展覽的作品共同探索了物質及現實本身，並透過鄭馬樂的多感官研究項目展開了一段沉浸式體驗，邀請觀眾反思意識的限制以及擴展意識的可能性。

How does one confront loss—personal and collective? In her past works, Michele Chu has engaged in relational art within the context of acute social disruption, building installations and participatory performances that rewrite public gestures. For her debut solo exhibition, “you, trickling,” the artist further mines rituals of intimacy and vulnerability, inviting viewers to participate in a meditative journey that renders the autobiographical as shared experience, and memory as material.



Throughout the exhibition space, the loss of a body—or bodies—reveals a spectral map that oscillates between the ghostly interpersonal relationships of the artist and her ailing mother, foregrounded by water leaking, reforming, condensing, and fracturing.

面對個人和集體層面的佚失，我們都不知何去何從。藝術家朱凱婷首個個展 “ you, trickling ”互寫現實社會的飄蕩不安，以裝置和參與式藝術為媒介演繹公眾論述。觀者彷如戴上濾鏡，感知藝術家個人片段，在情同共有的經歷，探知私密與脆弱，記憶形同創作材質。




展覽中以身體的缺失為題，整理出地圖，描繪藝術家及其病母頻率共振的靈體頻率，流動成液體的滴漏、重塑、濃縮、折裂。

At the entrance, the visitor is met with a wall of fabric separating two spaces: the exterior world, ruled by social order and automaticity, and the fragmented interior, where trauma, memory, and the self resides.



Walking further into the exhibition, one encounters a series of rituals faintly reminiscent of a bathhouse experience that cleanses, soothes, and unsettles.

在展覽入口垂下一幅布簾，分割開兩個空間，分別為以社會既定規律與邏輯常態運行的外在世界，以及碎片化的內在，遍拾創傷、記憶、個人的模態。


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