© WU Lok Hang

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  1. Press Release

    Not Waving but Drowning

    18 January — 7 February 2025

    Monday - Sunday, 24 Hours

    304 Shanghai Street, Yau Ma Tei, Hong Kong

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    PRÉDÉDÉE is pleased to announce Not Waving but Drowning, a solo exhibition by WU Lok Hang. The presentation is on view from Saturday, 18 January to 7 February 2025. 

    Taking the subject of water and its fluidity as a starting point, WU seeks to reframe the conventional mode of exhibition in relation to time and space by adopting a changing format. Spanning from photography to video installation, the works are not to be seen as a whole but rather will be interspersed and alternately replaced, inviting visitors to return over the span of three weeks and thereby opening up the potentials of the space as a transitional site for continuous (ex)change. 

    The architectural form of the art space is deliberately exploited. For WU, the striking feature of a display window is not meant to be perceived solely as a static entity, instead it is a reciprocal and relational structure that is subject to constant change — its configuration a perpetual interaction between inside and outside, yet each moves at its own pace. By aligning its modus operandi with the shifting dynamics of water, the evolving, installative setting quietly composes a liminal space that gently manoeuvres through the pulse of time, pausing briefly before making another turn.

    The exhibition title borrows from the poem written by the English poet Stevie Smith, which depicts a poignant mishap of a person who looks as if casually waving from a distance, when in truth was actually drowning. As the title suggests, while such gesture can be equivocal under the circumstances, it is ultimately the onlooker who perceives and determines how the narration is unfolded, which might lead to misinterpretation or simply ignorance. Not only does such narrative allude to our tendency to misconstrue and overlook the signals around us, in one way or another it also poetically suggests life is simply an array of possibilities to be mistaken. Drawing on the motif of water as an ever-changing force, the works presented reveal not only its ambiguity and the potential oversight that may arise in the process of looking, but also build upon an acute sense of multiplicity by which various visual language and materials converge, opening up a mode of production that pushes beyond the capacity of photographic reading and transmutes the fragments of prosaic moments into a site of making that recurrently activates the space through its own move.

    Hong Kong Arts Development Council supports freedom of artistic expression. The views and opinions expressed in this project do not represent the stand of the Council.

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    WEEK I

    18 January — 24 January 2025

  2.

    1

    Dynjandi (The Sign) 

    2023/25

    Digital C-print on Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper, 

    disappearing ink on watercolour paper

    30.4 x 38 cm

    15 x 38 cm

    A set of two pairs

    Dynjandi (The Sign) is an extension of a growing archive containing photographic images of the back of road signage and weather data collected from the nearby meteorological stations in Iceland. The project stemmed from WU’s fascination with the shifting weather and his observation of how its protean nature covertly and fiercely leave traces on the rear part of the road sign, making it a dynamic piece that is incessantly affected by the surrounding atmospheric conditions. Spanning over a year, WU returned to the exact location where he once stumbled upon a crooked sign — against all odds would one anticipate — only to find it completely vanished into thin air. Begetting the notion of (in)visibility and liminality through pairing as well as the fading text as juxtaposed, the changing (dis)appearance ultimately sets up the work’s conceptual parameters — it simultaneously records a state and soon gets overwritten, drawing an impermanent analogy to the signage, weather, act of image-making and c-print process per se.

    The given data is in accordance with the Icelandic Meteorological Office's database. The Icelandic Meteorological Office reserves the right to review the data at any time.

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    WEEK II

    25 January — 31 January 2025

  3.

    2

    Inside Out

    2024

    HD video (color, sound), stainless steel grating

    55 seconds

    74.9 x 44.9 x 9.8 cm

    Reversed looking on how we ‘urbanise’ space around us.

    View the video here

  4.

    3

    Told you not to leave it overnight

    2024

    Digital C-print on Fujicolor Crystal Archive paper,

    enamel paint and thinner on cast iron skillet 

    23 x 30.3 cm

    10.5 x 15.8 x 2.6 cm

    A set of two

    A dichotomous play between form and content, presence and absence, presentation and representation.

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    WEEK III

    01 February — 07 February 2025

  5.

    4

    Untitled (Plane)

    2024/25

    Inkjet print on Hahnemühle Photo Rag Ultra Smooth paper, engraved steel plaque mounted on the leftmost backing board that reads ‘and disappeared’

    31 x 36 cm each

    A set of three

    On the way to the bus stop I spotted a plane flying across the sky, and just seconds later it was completely gone. At the back of the left (last) frame, an engraved steel plaque is mounted, on which it writes ‘and disappeared’. What was once readily and plainly seen is now obscured from view.

  6.

    5

    Morning Sun

    2024/25

    Archival digital print on glazed porcelain tile

    10.5 x 7.5 cm each

    A set of five 

    On an early morning walk around Tjörnin, the sun shone on the pond’s surface which was too bright to be looked at with naked eyes. I then picked up my camera and pulled the trigger, capturing a lapse of time that looks as if the sun is transcribed and reflected back as a sculptural body. A moment in which the mechanical act of looking becomes an extension of my vision, gazing indirectly at the celestial object and then directly back to the (in)finiteness of human.