WONG WINSOME DUMALAGAN

Dogs guarding the village entrance - overlooking from a mountain the wall drawing the border at the other side of the mountain - the mountain roads under constructions - the fields - the people around the fields - the cattle and goats enveloped by the mountains : memories blurred the territorial boundaries and intertwined the places. These remote places in various countries and cities, once being passed by, become a peculiar and sharp, and at the same time blending and overlapping landscape.
 

Through illustrating the fields and the journey to these fields in Vietnam, the Philippines, and Hong Kong, 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘦𝘭𝘥𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘥𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘦𝘺𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘥𝘴 contemplates how some places away from the centers demonstrate different or similar modes of urbanization and the dynamic in preserving the initial ways of living. This exhibition attempts to link up scattered places under different sovereignties, serving as a field to exercise pondering on and imagining our ways of living.
 

守在村口的犬；由一座山瞭望對面山上劃分邊界的城牆；正被修築的山路；田 、 圍繞着田的人；被山包裹着的牛羊——記憶模糊了地域邊界串連了地方，這些在不同國家城市經過的偏遠地方成為了獨特銳利卻同時相融交疊的地境。
 

《下垂眼皮的陰影裏有些田》透過呈現越南、菲律賓和香港三個不同地方的田和前往田的旅途，思索一些遠離中心的地方如何呈現着相異或相似的城市化，以及與保留原本生活方式之間的角力。透過展覽希望把零散而位處不同主權下的地方連線，作為一次思考和想像我們生存方式的練習場域。

​

Notes - an Exercise Field for Once

​

Just like the lines engraved on the acrylic board that come into view hazily in the center of the space, the forms of the tree branches, and even the landscape of the roads, are all like veins that could grow and extend. This space is like a mind map/note to me, and could be expanded and altered over time. While I was traveling, often would I feel that some places seemed familiar, obscurely connected to some faraway places. Sometimes it is about the physical places, and sometimes it is about the connections themselves. As to why one place is connected to another, sometimes it does not necessarily involve rational and concrete information, but certain inexplicable feelings, creating a distinct unparalleled field. 

​

The name of this show is inspired by a segment from Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities - “Perhaps this garden exists only in the shadow of your lowered eyelids, and we have never stopped: you, from raising dust on the fields of battle; and I, from bargaining for sacks of pepper in distant bazaars. But each time we half-close our eyes, in the midst of the din and the throng, we are allowed to withdraw here, dressed in silk kimonos, to ponder what we are seeing and living, to draw conclusions, to contemplate from the distance.” (Though I wouldn’t hope we would be pondering that exquisitely in silk kimonos), after connecting these places in our own ways, what can we bring back to our own lives or ways of perception? How can we open up a little more imagination about places, open up/re-understand a little more the borders that divide us? And to imagine possible common/different pasts/futures while retaining critical thinking/understanding of our own way of knowing is an exercise I would like to try out this time.

I was born in the Philippines, and came to Hong Kong a few years later. While I have no memory or knowledge of my birthplace, there are some feelings that are vaguely familiar to me. My parents would take us to hike or visit the farms when we were kids. Although we probably didn’t go there many times, these memories and feelings were seeds planted and buried that I hope to attempt to search for once again. And these are not for rational analysis, but in the fields of memories, feelings and associations, I feel like some boundaries could be cracked to certain extent, and turn into unique meanings to oneselves, and these meanings could be one’s personal feelings, while they could also go as far as how we understand the places we are situated at. 

​

In the mountains of Vietnam, one border apart from Yunnan, the ways of living with farming and raising cattles could be lying on the timeline of history where the place we are situated now once had gone through. Before this place was stuffed with ever changing highrises and machines, perhaps we also once had similar ways of living and sceneries as that of the mountains in Vietnam. Yet at the same time, at this moment we are having similar reclamation machines and are also faced with development and construction. And the development of the place I traveled to in the Philippines, seems to be somewhere in the middle of the timeline, lying in between having to rely on the soil and climate to survive and going through urbanization. A timeline like this seems to suggest how a current place came into being. But at the same time, from another perspective, the place in the Philippines could also be as “contemporary” as the place in Vietnam, and are lying at the same present moment in timeline as Hong Kong.  When we look back at the historical flow of people and borders, the actual connection between these places and us may not be as far away as the borders and distances drawn on the map. When we are situated at the same point in time, apart from recognising the differences in cultures and perspectives, how can we practice pondering on, or imagining the ways of living we can have, and while that might possibly be able to connect and intertwine with one another (or might not ).

Since the epidemic, I began to try to find places away from strict housing estate management to live in. In these places, one could see creatures, routines of creatures, and the ways in which people interact with places, such as fields, that are difficult to be seen in housing estate management. Fields perhaps could be a relatively easy and direct entry point to see the connections between the inhabitants and the land, their understanding over the environment and soil, and their control over their own production/ways of living. The fields are like an intersection point in this exhibition, connecting these places that I have once passed through. The environment surrounding this intersection and how the process before and after can be extended to more associations are also equally crucial. 

​

筆記：一次練習的場域

​

就像在空間中央隱約看到刻在在亞加力板上的紋路、樹枝的形態、甚至路的面貌，都像是脈絡般的延伸 – 這個空間對我來說像是一個腦圖/筆記，可以流動着隨時間思考拓展改動。旅途中常常會覺得某些地方似曾相識，隱約連繫一些很遙遠的地方，這有時候關於那個實在的地方，有時候是關於那個連繫本身。為什麼一個地方會連上另一個地方，未必關於一些理性實在的資訊，有時候是某種難以以言語解釋的感受，產生了內在獨一無二的場域。

​

展覽的名字來自卡爾維諾《看不見的城市》中的一段：「也許，這個花園只存在我們下垂的眼皮陰影裡，而我們從未停步：你一直在戰場上掀起塵土；而我在遙遠的市集上講價。但是，每當我們半閉着眼時，即使身處喧嘩和群眾之中，我們總是能夠抽身來到這裡，穿着絲製的寬鬆和服，思考我們的所見與生活，歸引結論，從遠處看沉思默想」，（雖然我並不希望我們穿着絲製的和服這樣優雅的思考），在把這些地方用自己的方式連線過後，我們又有什麼可以帶回自己的生活或感知的方式 – 如何可以打開多一點對地方的想像、打開/重新理解那個劃分我們的邊界多一點點，去想像能夠有的共同/不同的過去/未來，同時保留對自己認知方式的批判和理解，是這一次我想嘗試的練習。

​

或許因為出生於菲律賓，雖然幾年後就來到香港，即使對自己出生的地方和住過什麼地方甚至沒什麼記憶和認知，但隱約有些感覺會覺得熟悉。小時候父母會帶我們爬山或到農莊去，雖然應該不是去了很多次，但似乎也埋下了一些感覺或記憶會嘗試去尋回。這些也許不是用來理性分析的，而是在記憶、感受和聯想的場域中，有些邊界可以某種程度上被打破，成為獨一無二對我們自身的意義，而這種意義可以是自身的感受，也可以遠至關於我們如何理解自己身處的地方。例如與雲南一線之隔的越南山上，山上耕作放養牛羊的方式或許是我們身處的地方曾經經歷過的歷史。在這個地方被不停更替的高樓大廈和機械塞滿之前，也許我們也有過類似越南山上的生活方式和風景。但同時，此刻我們有着類似的開墾機器，同樣面對發展修築。在菲律賓所到之處，則好像處在時間線中間的位置，處於依賴土壤氣候生存與城市化發展之間。這樣的時間線彷彿在看一個當下的地方如何產生，但同時用另一角度去看的話，菲律賓所到之處也跟越南的一樣「現代」，實實在在的跟香港也處於「當下」同一時間點上。當我們回溯人以及邊界在歷史上的流動，這些地方其實跟我們的連結也可能不像地圖上劃上的邊界和距離那麼遠。當我們處於同一個時間點，認知文化、視點的分別之餘，我們又可以如何練習思考/想像我們能有的生活方式，而那生活方式說不定同樣會連繫到彼此（也或許不會）。

​

在疫情之後，開始嘗試去尋找可以遠離一點被嚴謹管理的地方住居。這些地方往往就會出現屋苑管理中難以看見的生物、生物的生活路線、以及人跟土地互動的方式。田地，或許就是一個比較容易和直接方式看到居住的人和土地之間的連繫、對環境土壤的理解和對自己生產/生活模式的掌控。田在這個展覽中像是一個中間點，連繫這些所經過過的地方，而包圍着這個中間點的環境、前後的過程能如何引伸拓展到更多聯想同樣重要。