2012 - 14

Graphical notation [Liquid Borders I (Tsim Bei Tsui & Sha Tau Kok), ink, pencil, watercolour, xerox print on paper 43cm x 32cm (each), set of 3; Liquid Borders II (Tak Yuet Lau & Lo Wo), ink, pencil, collage, watercolour on paper, 355.3 cm x 47.3 cm; Liquid Borders III (Yuen Long & Lok Ma Chau), ink, pencil, mixed media, watercolour on drum, 25.2 cm x 25.2 cm x 9 cm; Liquid Borders IV (Mai Po & Luk Keng), ink, pencil, watercolour on paper, 40cm x 28cm (each), set of 2], sound compositions (stereo, in four movements, 13:16, 10:59, 6:28 & 5:14), annotated cartography (dimensions variable)

Liquid Borders I (Tsim Bei Tsui & Sha Tau Kok)
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Liquid Borders II (Tak Yuet Lau & Lo Wo)
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Liquid Borders III (Yuen Long & Lok Ma Chau)
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Liquid Borders IV (Mai Po & Luk Keng)
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”Hong Kong and Mainland China are physically separated a great wall of wired fencing and bodies of water. South to the border are restricted zones known as the Frontier Closed Area. Entry into the Frontier Closed Area without an official permit is forbidden. In October 2005, the then chief executive Donald Tsang announced a proposal to drastically reduce the Frontier Closed Area. In February 2012, 740 hectares of land were initially opened up. I visited the restricted zones along the Hong Kong-China border to collect the sounds that form the audio divide separating Hong Kong and the Mainland, assembling a body of recordings that are comprised mainly of vibrating fence wires captured by contact microphones, and running water from the Shenzhen River gathered by hydrophones. I re-arranged these recordings into sound compositions, and then transcribed these compositions into notations.”

Photo documentation
Dennis Man Wing Leung