WONG WINSOME DUMALAGAN

This two-part series — ‘Fallen Portraits on the Soil’ and ‘The Rite of Passing By: I didn’t see them but I saw them’ — is set in mundane living environments. The installation portrays the overseen and questions the use of materials and images, and the limitations of photography itself.

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In the first set, the viewer gazes into beauty and decay, eternity and ephemerality, of flowers secretly planted by the residents, and of dead insects; The second set draws on a large number of images taken since 2017 of discarded household items. The viewer considers the former use of the objects, and the previous owners.

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《待在一旁的肖像》由兩組作品組成：《墜落泥土的肖像》和《經過的儀式：我看見它們但沒有看到他們》。由攝影裝置組成的地景呈現日常居住環境常常輕易擦身而過的昆蟲、植物和家居棄置物的肖像，同時帶著對攝影的限制的疑問思考物料和影像的運用。

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《墜落泥土的肖像》希望以物料和影像凝視那些被人偷偷種在公屋花圃的花朵，以及已經死去的昆蟲所同時擁有的美與殘缺、永恆與流逝。《經過的儀式》則透過大量由2017年開始拍攝的公屋附近的日常家居棄置物的影像，呈現這些屬於甚少碰到面的鄰居的物件。

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Fallen Portraits on Soil 《墜落泥土的肖像》 is a series portraits of dead insects, animals and plants I encountered in my daily life. They are light and small, not exceptionally beautiful and almost unnoticeable when I first noticed them, but once I looked into them, I was drawn by the condensed essence of death, life, beauty, decay, eternity, ephemerality lying within these small creatures. It’s also the portrayal of my attempts and inability to capture the condensed vigorous essence lying within these creatures which is beyond visuals and words.

The Rite of Passing By: I didn’t see them but I saw them 《經過的儀式：我看見它們但沒有看到他們》 is a photography installation with a combination of abandoned actual objects and images. Since 2017, I started taking snaps of discarded household items in my neighbourhood and those on the street, and accumulated a lot of photos of these items while I never get to know who they belong to. I don’t usually look at my neighbours, perhaps I thought home could be one of the most intimate and private places for a person and I thought that’s a kind of respect. Their images stayed in my phone, computer and memory, while they could be forgotten by their owners whom I never would know their identity.  I imagine the state of these families through the objects they left behind and appreciate the beauty when they are at their state of being abandoned.