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Today’s Living, No. 253, August 2008: Art Corner
Text by Abby & Billy Clarke
Friendly Observations:
An Interview with Nick Gleitzman
Opened back on July 18th last month, Palimpsest — a new exhibition from the Australian photographer Nick Gleitzman — opened in a flurry of media fanfare. Although the exhibition was over in a few days, we got the chance to interview the man, so here is our late contribution to the media parade.
Q: What first brought you to Hong Kong?
I came to Hong Kong for the first time exactly one year ago at the invitation of a close friend, also an Australian who has been living here for a number of years. I fell in love with the city, but I don’t yet consider Hong Kong to be my permanent home; I now divide my time between Hong Kong and my home in Sydney. But as time passes, I find myself spending more and more of my time here, so it’s certainly possible that it will become my first home.
Q: In the associated press release, they define you as a friendly observer. So as a bystanding onlooker, what changes have you witnessed in Hong Kong and what is your opinion of the architectural landscape here?
In Hong Kong, I can see the scale of development that is under way and as a visual artist I can’t help but be aware of the impact that such massive structures must have at ground level – especially the loss of sunlight in these buildings’ shadows.
By ‘friendly observer’, I think what was meant was that I really don’t intend my images to have any political agenda. I don’t think that I’m documenting any important evidence of a vanishing culture, or anything like that – not intentionally, anyway. I see beauty in the apparently mundane, design in the details of the urban landscape, that I think simply doesn’t register with most of its residents as they go about their lives. My images also represent moments in time, and record the state of certain locations as they were at the point of capture in the ongoing continuum of decay and rebirth, in the same way as occurs in the natural landscape.
Q: In your own words, can you describe the urban cityscape that is Hong Kong for someone who might not be so familiar with this unique group of islands?
Hong Kong is astonishingly multi-layered. Hong Kong is a city of contrasts, oriental and occidental, of course, and rich and poor, new and old. I’ve never been in a modern city before where there are street markets in the old, narrow lanes between new chrome-and-glass office blocks. Everywhere you look, life goes on above you, as well as all around you at ground level – retail extends four, five, six stories above ground, and two or three levels below it, too. A massively noisy environment; by ‘noise’ I mean the constant barrage of both visual and aural stimulus that assaults the senses. Bear in mind, that as a non-Chinese speaker or reader, a lot of the sensory input is literally noise, too, as I don’t understand it. I don’t have to interpret its meaning and decide, moment to moment, whether or not I need to retain the information. This allows me to see more easily the design, the patterns, and the details, within the environment.
Q: Describe the concept of Palimpsest and how it relates to Hong Kong?
The term ‘palimpsest’ and the concept behind it arrived in my consciousness as I was photographing ‘Shenzhen series 2’ – the turquoise wall. It occurred to me that, for some reason, I was being drawn to the visual evidence of people’s past activities; that these fragments of other people’s pasts were suggesting to me that there were stories behind what I was seeing, but that I would never know what those stories are. I was intrigued, too, by the parallels between the Chinese characters I was seeing everywhere – but which held no meaning for me – and the particular arrangement, say, of old adhesive tape, left on a wall and painted over, which seemed to echo the calligraphy of the foreign language that I was being immersed in.
Q: Do you think architecture can tell stories?
Yes, I think so. Good architecture can, anyway. I do know that the evidence that people leave on the walls of buildings, and the ground between them – which is all part of architecture, I suppose – tells stories, without doubt. The enigma, to me, is that the stories can’t be known.
Q: What are you trying to convey in this exhibition and what do you hope to achieve?
As I’ve already mentioned, these images form my first impressions of Hong Kong and China. They’re a gimpse, a first glance, at an exotic and complex new landscape for me to spend time in. I hope to show what beauty exists around us, everywhere, all the time, in the most seemingly mundane details of the urban landscape. I feel that Hong Kong has welcomed me, stimulated me, and excited me; these images are my contribution to an already rich and diverse cultural landscape. I look forward to continuing my journey, and sharing the results of my exploration into the future.
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