“Unbodied”
「軀」
16 May - 11 July 2026
Hone, Yim Tin Tsai, Hong Kong
Unbodied is a site-specific exhibition featuring a kinetic installation, paintings, and sound performances that explore the shifting boundaries between the human and non-human, the living and the dead, and the physical and immaterial.
Rather than treating these as separate states, the exhibition considers the body (軀) as a medium through which the unbodied—consciousness, memory, lingering traces, or qi—can become perceptible. The bodily and the unbodied are not opposites, but interconnected states that permeate one another and continuously transform.
Presented in an old two-storey Hakka house on Yim Tin Tsai, a small island off Sai Kung, Hong Kong, the exhibition grew out of artist Ailsa Wong's encounters with the island. Once home to a Hakka village, Yim Tin Tsai carries layers of history through its abandoned houses, overgrown vegetation, and traces of past habitation. Through repeated site visits, overnight stays, and conversations with local residents, Wong gradually developed a connection with the island, allowing its environment and materials to become part of the creative process.
At the centre of the exhibition stands a kinetic installation made from a four-metre-long bamboo stalk found on the island after a typhoon. Nearly matching the height of the Hakka house, the bamboo becomes another bodily form within the space. Driven by a mechanical system, it sways between subtle and vigorous movements, while strands of black hair appear to grow from its branches. Once a living plant, the bamboo now exists between life and death, while the hair evokes spirits and ghostly presences in Asian folklore. Together, the bamboo, hair, movement, and architecture form an interconnected system through which the unseen becomes perceptible.
Alongside the installation, the exhibition presents a series of paintings incorporating branches, leaves, fabric, and paper. Inspired by external natural landscapes, these works explore the imagined landscapes within the body. Created through intuitive processes of painting, drawing, and burning, they reveal forms resembling root systems, nervous systems, mountainous landscapes, and primitive symbols. Fire, chance, and the materials' own properties become active participants in the creative process, leaving traces and transformations that cannot be fully controlled by the artist.
The exhibition opening featured site-responsive sound performances by ch...... and Auror, extending the exploration of the bodily and unbodied through sound. Drawing from their encounters with Yim Tin Tsai, ch... transformed found objects and local stories into improvised sounds, while Auror wove field recordings, electronic music, vocals, and live violin into compositions inspired by personal dreams. Together, their performances brought the island's natural environment and unseen presences into the exhibition space, allowing the unbodied to be experienced through sound.
The house itself becomes a bodily shell, a space that visitors can enter and inhabit. Within it, the installation and paintings together create a landscape where consciousness, matter, and unseen forces continually intersect. Rather than defining the body as a fixed boundary, Unbodied approaches it as a temporary form through which different states of existence emerge, overlap, and transform.
《軀》是一場結合動態裝置、繪畫與聲音演出的場域特定展覽，探索人與非人、生與死，以及物質與非物質之間不斷流動的界線。
展覽並不將這些狀態視為彼此獨立的存在，而是將「軀」視為一種媒介，讓意識、記憶、殘留的痕跡，或「氣」等無形之物得以被感知。有形的軀體與無形之物並非相互對立，而是彼此連結、相互滲透，並在持續的流動中轉化。
展覽於香港西貢鹽田梓一座兩層高的客家老屋舉行，源自藝術家黃雅珊與島嶼的相遇。鹽田梓曾是一條客家村落，島上的荒廢房屋、蔓生的植物，以及昔日生活留下的痕跡，層層承載著不同時代的記憶。透過多次實地考察、留宿島上，以及與當地居民交流，藝術家逐漸與這片土地建立連結，讓島上的環境與物料融入創作過程。
展覽的核心是一件以約四米長的竹枝構成的動態裝置。竹枝是藝術家在島上發現的，為颱風吹倒後留下的殘枝。其高度與客家老屋相近，使竹枝與建築彷彿成為兩個互相呼應的軀體。在機械裝置的驅動下，竹枝持續晃動，幅度時而細微、時而劇烈，黑色髮絲則彷彿從枝幹中自然生長出來。竹枝曾是一個活生生的生命體，如今卻以殘存的形態繼續存在，游移於生與死之間。在亞洲文化的鬼魅想像中，頭髮常與靈魂及鬼魅般的存在產生聯繫，暗示某些事物即使脫離肉身，仍能以另一種形式延續。竹枝、髮絲、機械運動與建築共同構成一個相互連結的系統，讓無形的存在透過有形的動態，成為可以感知的事物。
除了動態裝置，展覽亦包括一系列結合樹枝、葉片、布料與紙張的繪畫作品。這些作品從外在的自然地景出發，探索潛藏於身體內部的景觀。作品透過直覺性的繪畫、描繪與燃燒過程生成，呈現出類似植物根系、神經系統、山水地景或原始符號的形態。火焰、偶然性與物料自身的特質亦成為創作的參與者，留下藝術家無法完全掌控的痕跡與變化。
展覽開幕當日，ch...... 與 Auror 分別帶來回應場域的聲音演出，透過聲音延伸對有形與無形之間關係的探索。兩人從鹽田梓的實地考察與親身經驗出發，ch... 以自製聲音裝置，將島上的物件與地方故事轉化為即興聲響；Auror 則將環境錄音、電子聲響、人聲與現場小提琴演奏融入以個人夢境為靈感的作品。兩場演出將島嶼的自然環境、記憶與無形的存在帶入展覽空間，讓不可見之物透過聲音變得可感。
老屋本身亦化為一具軀殼，成為觀眾可以進入、置身其中的空間。裝置、繪畫與聲音共同構築出一片讓意識、物質與不可見的力量持續交會的地景。《軀》並不將身體視為一道固定的邊界，而是將其理解為一種暫時性的形態，讓不同的存在狀態得以顯現、重疊與轉化。
Opening Performance by ch...... and Auror
opening performance:
Press:
藝術家展覽，急急子：集雜志, Commercial Radio 903, Radio Interview, 20 May 2026
works
to be updated...