Wall Drawings (2015-2016) is a series of ‘murals’ on the temporary ‘houses’ built by the Filipino domestic workers groups around Central, Hong Kong. This series began as simple decorative drawings that I drew while spending time with the groups in their temporary houses. The flowing lines resembling flowers and trees were intentionally simple and structural to facilitate participation.
As I spent time with more groups whose characteristics varied, the drawings evolved into a storytelling medium, largely depicting my deepening knowledge of the route. They stimulated questions about the routes in the groups that I worked with. Eventually, as I settled in more, the drawings took shape as personal references to moods and nuances of the moment they were drawn, a record of personal and social memories.
Most of these works are ephemeral. They were either collected by waste collectors at the end of the day, kept as souvenirs by the inhabitants of the house, or stolen while being stored for redistribution on the waste distributors’ trolleys parked on the streets of Central. At the end of cycles, what survived were sold to the recycling collection points as waste, where they were compressed into bales.
I mostly worked with a recycling point in Sheung Wan, but also one in Central, one in North Point, and one at the Kowloon side of Hong Kong. These were Corpus (2015-2016), which then allowed me access to the port.
[click on image for slideshow]
