This exhibition is an extension of “Exhibition Proposal Exhibition” held at C & G Artpartment two years ago. 

“It Has to be Apart It Has to Be Alone” is a mixed media installation project I developed when studying in the Netherlands in 2019-2021, in response to the political turmoil in my hometown, Hong Kong. It has been showcased four times: first at jungganjijeom, Seoul (2020); then at ACO Art Space, Hong Kong (2023); followed by Pointsman Artspace, Hong Kong (2024); and most recently at C&G Artpartment, Sheffield (2026) and Greenhouse Project, Oxford (2026).

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The version in Seoul is mainly objects-led, while the Hong Kong version, included a performance of an eyeball maniac dressed like a cleaning lady, and an artist book set. These act as a support, to expand on the narration and make the project easier to understand. In recent iteration, the performance was translated into a video work, allowing the character and narrative to evolve through a different medium.
 

I have transformed the distorted eyeballs and developed this into a mixed media installation, continuing to collect and use disposed of items to create a sense of place, to hold emotional frequencies and stories captured in my journey. I aimed to use materials to tell political stories and resist limitations, acting as an important analogy and metaphor in times of political upheaval, censorship, and displacement as a personal yet universal experience. However, it is also a very indirect, personal, subjective experience and interpretation I have towards a changing home place and home itself.

Echoing the poetic context and the history of C & G Artpartment as a site for politically engaged artistic practices, the project explores how displacement, political, geographical and cultural, can be articulated through material practice, writing and spatial encounters. The project asks: what does displacement mean within artist's own experience of movement between places and contexts? Can displaced materials hold the emotional traces of a place? How might ideas of home and belonging emerge through the creative process, and how can experiences of displacement be translated into spatial and curatorial forms?