When the sun shines at our blind spot (Admiralty), 2019, Archival Hahnemühle Photo Paper, 30 x 20in, 1 of 5 Edition + 2AP
Schefflera Arboricola is a hardy plant species frequently used in urban landscaping to green the dark underbellies of Hong Kong's overpasses and pedestrian bridges.
These resilient, hidden life-forms serve as a profound metaphor for the human condition. Denied natural illumination, the plants adapt through extreme physical distortion—their stems elongating and twisting toward whatever fractured light breaks through the concrete infrastructure. They embody the raw, instinctual struggle to survive within an indifferent urban environment.
Initiated during a summer of intense civic unrest and societal transition in 2019, the project involved collecting these displaced plants from various urban centers. Photographed under controlled studio lighting, their dramatic, leaning profiles are elevated into formal portraits of endurance.
Rather than documenting the immediate chaos of the streets, this photographic process explores an alternative form of witness. The resulting images navigate the tension between structural confinement and the persistent, unyielding drive toward light, offering a quiet space to reflect on resilience in times of collective precarity.
