Differentiation of Speeds: Occupy central escalator
This is the beginning of the central escalator.
The public infrastructures in Hong Kong’s prime real estate areas are occupied by foreign domestic workers on every typical Sunday afternoon since the 70s, with Hong Kong witnessing a rapid increase in women leaving traditional domestic roles. The shaded corridor that marks the beginning of central escalator also houses this unique Sunday phenomenon that derives from Section 17 of the Employment Ordinance (Cap.57).
In between crowded thoroughfare and parasols parade, there stands the subject as the mitigatory entity bridging the two forces. While pedestrians look at the subject with curiosity, they are uninterested by the foreign migrants’ temporary settlement, as if this programmatic use of public infrastructure has always been there. The visual imagery is inspired by South Korean artist Kim Sooja’s performance video artwork A Needle Woman: it lends the subject of this clip a metaphorical function of a needle that heals and sutures Hong Kong public and foreign domestic workers.
Cropped View: Mirrored Speed
The pedestrian parade on the escalator strongly contrasts to the downward mobility on the right. The noticeboard creates a mirroring effect of the overflowing flux which amplifies this parade.
Unexpected Location: View from an alleyway
This shot is experimentation on applying the unique framed view from an alleyway, the topic from the previous field trip, to the central escalator. Such application vividly caricatures the programmatic use of alleyways and the moving pedestrians on the escalator.
Static Camera: identity
Amid pedestrians, modernist skyscrapers and heritage building, the subject stares at the vanishing point and contemplates about her identity. This conflict is present in many Hong Kong settlers’ hearts. As a foreigner, I can only attempt to depict my understanding of Hong Kong’s identity crisis through lenses.
Framed View: Half Eclipse
This experimentation is inspired by Annie Dillard’s classic Total Eclipse, about moral connectivity between human and the world they inhabit in. Through the frame composed by the roof of the central escalator and its adjacent building, the captured moving cloud illustrates a contained, limited interpretation of nature and life by humans. I tried to depict thematical incomprehensibility of sublime and man’s tiny grasp of the universe.
Lee Hae Jin
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Nice idea to take your girlfriend as continues element of comparison. Not sure about your chosen score though. Nevertheless, your interest of using an alleyway to frame this infrastructure is working very well.