Sok Kwu Community Farm

Lamma Island is rich in natural resources, but while teeming with streams and creeks, its local water supply depends on tap water channelled from reservoirs across the sea. As a saying in Chinese goes: “Feed yourself from the mountains if you live near mountains; and feed yourself from the waters if you live near the waters”, artist Ho Yuen-leung advocates the notion of self-sufficient living, with the belief that local resources should be tapped to reconstruct the identity and sense of locality of the people living on the island. Air and water are two main themes in his creative concept: plans are to conduct sustainable community farming on the island, explore its water resources and grow local produce. He works together with local residents to raise the oxygen level of the air by planting, and devises practical plans to reduce sewage discharge in the hope of preserving the water resource and nurturing the land, a move to enhance the bond between man and nature.

Ho Yuen-leung

Ho graduated from the Fine Arts Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1995, majoring in sculpture. His creative concepts are mostly derived from daily life and climate change. He loves nature and enjoys outdoor creative activities and farming. In recent years, he has actively participated in local and overseas art projects related to the natural environment and climate change such as “Fishpond Diving Sustainable Art Festival 2019”, “Junk! Woodworking” and “Busan Biennale - Sea Art Festival 2019”.

Listening to Sok Kwu Dogs at Night

Artist Brandon Chan’s story is a cross between imagination and reality, which transforms into a playful artistic narrative. He imagines himself roaming around Sok Kwu Wan and its environs at night with dogs on the island, looking for and collecting various kinds of sounds that are rarely noticed. During his residency on the island, through walking his dog and chatting with the villagers, he heard stories about dogs on the island. It turned out to be another way to get to know Lamma.

Brandon Chan

Chan received his Bachelor and Master of Visual Arts degrees from the Academy of Visual Arts at the Hong Kong Baptist University. He considers himself an ‘art labourer’ who collects stories about objects and people, and creates narratives about their complex relationships. His work serves as an exchange platform for people to share their daily lives, and their abandonment of and attachment to objects, probing into the cultural history of objects through the stories of all walks of life.

Visible Wind: Burgees

While surrounded by the sea in a geographical sense, Lamma Island can also find itself among a sea of flags at times. On festive occasions, colourful burgees printed with auspicious texts are flown at the front of the Tin Hau Temple. Using the traditional burgee as blueprint, artists Kinchoi Lam and Jess Lau created their own, printed with Chinese characters such as saifung (get under the sail) and jiulou (sculling), terms familiar to the islanders but new to city dwellers. The sea breeze is ‘seen’ when the burgees flutter.

Kinchoi Lam and Jess Lau

The artist duo are both graduates from the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong. They jointly published the award-winning picture book, Little Big Tram. While Lam is an illustrator and printmaker who focuses on the whimsical and the intimate moments in everyday life, Lau’s creation revolves around animation and video, turning fragments of everyday life into moving images with a focus on the body and collective memories of the city.

Turning Leaf

Lamma Island, situated on the periphery of Hong Kong, retains much of its natural features, with most of its land area still covered by lush forest. Sharu B. Sikdar, an Indian Filipino artist who is characterised by her use of natural objects, is drawn to the peaceful co-existence with nature on Lamma, and has chosen banana leaves that are easily found in Sok Kwu Wan as her creative medium to evoke a connection with her native culture. Involving the locals to help collect banana leaves, Sikdar also invites them to craft pinwheels with her. When the gentle sea breeze spins the pinwheels, they bring rounds and rounds of well wishes to residents and visitors alike.

Sikdar is a Hong Kong born Indian Filipino artist. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2017 at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Hong Kong. Sikdar’s artistic practice is repetitive and labour-intensive as she collects, assembles, deconstructs and reconstructs found objects. She utilises natural materials such as branches, barks and leaves. She is currently exploring her hair as a medium, tapping into the relations between the body and nature, personal growth and the ephemeral.