A Book of Trees
Exhibitions
Ink and brush paintings on paper, VR short film, artist book
The exhibition combines two different stories for looking at trees. The first is a technical exploration of how a machine learning system struggles to produce the three-dimensional shape of a tree, and how observing this process can give us an opportunity to reflect upon new computational paradigms that are reshaping our future. The second is a reflection on the history of imported trees in Hong Kong and how an Australian artist finds himself surrounded by the trees of his childhood.
[Solo Exhibition]
Videotage Hong Kong
17th September - 8th October
Opening Reception and Book Launch 25th September,3pm
Venue: Videotage | Unit 13, Cattle Depot Artist Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Road, Ma Tau Kok, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Current installation of VR short film and paintings at Videotage, Hong Kong
Advice for Feng Shui Forestry
Clear the trees from the mountain
and plant sacred forests around its base.
Cultivate bands of trees along the rover
to make sure that the ocean can't be seen from the Ancestral Hall.
Extend the bands down the ridge to the floodplain
so that you can bury your dead out of view.
If any houses are exposed to the North,
turn them in to face the ridge,
and plant Feng Shui trees behind you home
to protect you from poisonous air.
Advice for Picturesque Forestry
Naked of trees, the barren mountains
will bring disease,
and so must be improved.
If the surviving native trees are not enough,
look to Mauritius, Australia and India -
Eucalyptus Robusta, Melanuca Quinquinerva and the Norfolk Island Pine
can dry the putrid waters
that seep from the rotting granite
and unproductive rice paddies.
With botanical imports,
Nature can be restored,
and you can make a home.
Advice for Administrative Forestry
Give each tree a name and a number,
to catalogue and preserve the alien forest,
because trees can reduce stress and condition the air.
By the roadside, I can see the Melaluca that lined the lagoon
where I used to swim with my sister,
and walking up the hill I can smell the Eucalyptus forest
where I walked with my grandparents,
and where we buried their ashes.
Artist talk at Videotage Hong Kong, 2021
林詩三首
給風水林的忠告
伐盡萬山樹皆亡
原地種植聖林生
沿河栽種防風林
先祖免受海風侵
滿山蒼翠下平原
逝者長眠視線外
凡有坐南向北宅
前後翻轉向山脊
風水林後院坐鎮
家宅免受病毒侵
給如畫樹林的忠告
荒山無植樹影渺
漫山瘟疫漸滋生
唯故土原木稀疏
須開荒植地造林
看南洋諸島古國
松桉常綠白千層
吸盡花岩石隙露
乾涸荒田敗噁流
水隨眾木歸大地
濃翠蔽日現生機
吾等安身綠蔭下
深居禪林樂如畫
給林務管理人員的忠告
為樹木逐一編號贈名
盡心記錄保護絕世山林
樹木可紓憂療愁
教人吐故納新
沿路走來
見潟湖兩旁白千層
憶起年少時與姐姐在湖中暢泳
緩步登山
翠密樹林幽香撲鼻
憶起與祖父母散步的午後時光
