Cao Zhen caozhen0806@126.com WORKS by emerging young Chinese and Estonian artists are on display in the “Adrift” exhibition at OCT Art Terminal (OCAT). The small but concise exhibition features eight videos, installations, sound art and photography by six artists, tackling the sociological issues of human mobility and migration. The exhibition’s Chinese title, “他/她从海上来” (meaning “He/She Comes From the Ocean”), was inspired by Taiwanese writer Wang Hui-ling’s biographical novel of late writer Eileen Chang’s life and artistic creations. Several periods of migration in Chang’s life enabled her to observe human relations and romance against a background of historical turbulence in the first half of the 20th century. “The most personal, poignant, insightful and provocative creations by writers and artists often grow out of a fragile and restless mind when they are moving around,” said Qu Chang, one of the curators of the exhibition. “The same holds true for this exhibition’s artists, who take their migration experiences as the starting point for their creations. Their experiences are important in shaping both their personal identities and the art they produce.” The exhibition begins with a six-minute video of a conversation between two people. Not very eye-catching at first glance, but if viewers pick up a headphone to listen to the English conversation, they would probably begin to think and ask themselves: “Are we fed up with what we have now; can we at least keep life fresh; do we need to migrate somewhere to have a new adventure; will we be hurt if we move?” Shot by Chinese visual artist Cheng Ran, the video arouses viewers’ reflections on life and migration by making two actors play “the river” and “the pond.” The two exchange their views on life and the world, ready for each visitor to become immersed in the metaphor and find one’s own place in it. The video was made in 2013 when Cheng was in art residence at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. A world traveler, Cheng recorded natural sounds when he toured Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean, Paris and Amsterdam and assembled them together in another exhibit: “Hit or Miss-ist.” Visitors can sit on a collaged carpet to listen to the combination of sounds recorded from forests, train stations and streets on a record player at the exhibition. Three Hong Kong-related exhibits reflect the artists’ contemplation of the migration issue in sensitive, poetic and open-minded ways. Beijing-born visual artist Zheng Bo has been a lecturer at the School of Creative Media at Hong Kong City University for three years since obtaining his doctoral degree at the University of Rochester in the United States. He said he didn’t feel like an outsider in Hong Kong because it is an open and multicultural city, and more and more mainlanders have been working at his university. Before he moved to Hong Kong in 2013, he visited the city several times and developed an interest in foreign domestic helper issues. “In 1999, after I had a dinner at my friends’ home where there was a Filipino domestic helper, I invited her to watch TV with us but my friends asked me ‘why do you invite a Filipino domestic helper to watch TV with us?’” said Zheng at the exhibition. “Every Sunday, I saw Filipino domestic helpers meeting at parks in Central, so in 2013, I contacted a Filipino domestic helper community to make a video of them singing a song.” Last year, Zheng added two more songs to the video sung by Indonesian domestic helpers and Chinese mainland laborers. The interactive sound installation “Sing for Her” invites visitors to sing at the exhibition hall as the video is shown in a karaoke format with the lyrics displayed along with a moving symbol, changing colors. “I hope visitors sing together with the domestic helpers in the video, learn their spirit and enter the life of the lower classes in Hong Kong. This installation is also a means to bridge the distance between the laborers’ homeland and this foreign place,” said Zheng. Trevor Young, another Hong Kong artist, recounts his anxiety and unrest after migrating from Dongguan to Hong Kong as a child in his installation “Music Box (Bedroom).” Young placed several fish tanks as his installation, a reproduction of an intimate space he once built for himself in his childhood bedroom. Young said the sound of running water from the fish tanks relieved his anxiety of being the newly migrated when he was a child. Hong Kong-born artist Lau Wai’s “Album” series uniquely and subtly reproduced selected parts of faded family photos. Visitors couldn’t see the whole scene of each photo and could only visualize scenarios by merely seeing a corner of Tiananmen Square, a person’s chest with a badge of Chairman Mao, a braid possibly from a woman in the 1960s and a Cantonese-style meal in Hong Kong. Lau said the black-and-white photos were from her parents when they were in Qingdao, Beijing, Tianjin and Northeast China from the 1950s-1970s and the color photos were taken in Hong Kong from the 1980s onwards. She said what she knew about the mainland from her parents’ memory were fragmented, so she chose to display parts of the photos. The only foreign artist at the exhibition is Estonian artist Karel Koplimets. In his work “Case No. 11 TALSINKI,” two screens are on each side of a wall, showing passengers arriving at Estonia’s Port of Tallinn and Finland’s Port of Helsinki. Koplimets said there’s a ferry transporting between Tallinn and Helsinki. Some people go to Finland for better job opportunities while others travel to Estonia to buy cheap goods. Curator Qu said this contrast echoed the scenarios of travelers in many places around the world, such as those between Shenzhen and Hong Kong. The exhibition has an archive corner where videos and books on migration are on display, such as Leslie Chang’s “Factory Girls,” Homer’s “Odyssey” and Fredrik Barth’s “Ethnic Groups and Boundaries.” Visitors are also invited to write down their migrating experiences for the exhibition’s extended research. Dates: Until Feb. 28 Hours: 10 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Closed Mondays Venue: Exhibition Hall B, OCT Art Terminal, South Area, OCT-LOFT, Nanshan District (南山区华侨城创意文化园南区OCT当代艺术中心B展厅) Metro: Luobao Line, Qiaocheng East Station (侨城东站), Exit A | 