Seeding Memories
(For R&D Application)
1/ Yaumatei Gardener (2012-2015)
Yaumatei Gardener was an artist collective that curated publications, workshops and exhibitions on urban farming and food culture, while growing food on a rooftop in Yaumatei with Uncle Mui - a passionate DIYer and gardener who ran a game arcade, and owned a small rootop garden in the same street.
Alongside with Uncle Mui, the members of Yaumatei Gardener throughout the years include (in alphabetical order): Step Au, Dorothy Cheung, Vangi Fong, Kiki Ho, Phyllis Ting, and Wingman Sum.
The collective has received project grants from Hong Kong Arts Development Council and commissioned by various institutions. Its projects have been widely covered by local and international journals and press including Zoll+ (Austria), Roads and Kingdoms (UK), City Magazine (Hong Kong), etc.
2/ Yaumatei Gardener: Gardener’s Gaze (2015)
Zine for The HK FARMers' Almanac 2014 – 2015/ commissioned by The Spring Workshop
The HK FARMers' Almanac is a collaborative zine project made by seven individuals and groups working in ecology and art in Hong Kong, as part of The HK FARM’s residency at The Spring Workshop. The Gardeners’ Gaze is the zine written, edited and handmade by Yaumatei Gardener, reflecting on urban gardening practices in Taiwan and Hong Kong through text, illustrations, and photos.
The HK FARMers' Almanac was exhibited in V&A, Para Site, and XXI Triennale di Milano.
Home can be a site of resistance.
At the edge of a deserted area, Popo (which means Grandma in Cantonese) continues to farm the land she has cultivated for decades. Two years ago, Chung-xi and Chi joined her after her husband passed away, and she was considering giving up. Since then, they have lived and worked together.
To Live with It is a photographic series that explores the nature of bonds. This commune presents either a long-forgotten or emerging possibility: forming connections based on shared values rather than kinship, becoming self-sufficient, and resisting land injustice.
At the edge of a deserted area, Popo (which means Grandma in Cantonese) continues to farm the land she has cultivated for decades. Two years ago, Chung-xi and Chi joined her after her husband passed away, and she was considering giving up. Since then, they have lived and worked together.
To Live with It is a photographic series that explores the nature of bonds. This commune presents either a long-forgotten or emerging possibility: forming connections based on shared values rather than kinship, becoming self-sufficient, and resisting land injustice.
4/ as a bird that briefly perches (2024/2025)
n her line of work, Dorothy often discusses the notions of identity and memories, home and communities. Departing from her personal experience as a diasporic artist, this three-part video work is a cinematic diary that weaves together her sentiments about homeland with reference to the geology of Hong Kong; an analogy between human nature and greenhouse gardening; and her reflections on the choice of living abroad as she studies the everyday life of migrant farmers and their adaptation on foreign soil, reinterpreting agricultural processes and the migration of species. The work explores the implications of rooting, re-rooting and growing as the artist contemplates on the evolving dynamics between land and human.
(Curatorial text written by Catherine Lau for the exhibition Nature: A Perception)