Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre | Incising the Matrix: If Birdwood Block…Exhibition

Description

Artist Jay Lau, an artist-in-residence at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre (vA!), drew inspiration from the history of Victoria Barracks – the former site of Hong Kong Park. Beginning with Cassels Block, a Grade I historic building that now houses vA!, he constructed a parallel reality in which its long-lost "twin" building, Birdwood Block, had never been demolished.

The exhibition employs "incising" as a method to probe historical archives and images, transforming their cracks into new narratives. Drawing on archival photos of the old barracks as a foundation, Lau applied image-editing software and AI generation technology to fabricate scenes of Birdwood Block across various timeframes, transforming them into a series of prints and installations dispersed throughout vA!'s space. This invites visitors on a journey to rediscover the forgotten past of this historic building, to imagine the infinite possibilities at pivotal moments in history, and to provoke reflection on the nature of historical truth.