Drift Along

2023

Mix medium on woods

 

 

 

Each day, leaving and returning home, I'd pass by a small hill in the front yard, piled from discarded materials. These were wooden boards, tiles, and some stage materials, dismantled from my house when it used to be an immersive theatre. It was founded My landlord Sam, the leader and director back then, often shared tales of his youthful days with me. Although his voice and appearance have aged, his lifestyle still resembles that of a young British man in his twenties.

 

Years of exposure to outdoor rain and sunlight has allowed moss, mould, bugs, and snails to ravage those wooden boards. It was paradoxically decaying yet vibrantly alive, much like Sam. He believed that everyone who has ever watched a play here or lived in this house was destined to do so. In fact, I believed it too, just as I believe materials possess memories and souls. I always felt that the ancient, rotten wood was calling me, prompting me to do something for them. Laying them out one by one reminded me of the various timbers piled outside my grandfather's house during my childhood. Observing the landscape-like patterns on the wood, I thought, if memories and growth had a form, it probably resembled this hill, where birth and death occurred simultaneously.

 

In the end, I realised what my mission was here. I carefully cleaned and deliberately preserved these decaying sets. With minimal touch and alteration, I sought their organic forms developed under the natural sedimentation. I provided them with movable legs, enabling them to stand on stage again, for they wished to continue performing. But this time, they are not the backdrop; they are the protagonists.