Temporary Autonomous Zone — Traditional Chinese Translation
5,000 copies of the translated text were made available for free in Hong Kong in 2020 with the help of 40+ volunteers.
Media Summary
A collection of photographs taken by either my volunteers or myself documenting the project. Activities included a symposium-style reading at ACO Books, an interview with Free Think Press covering the Hong Kong protests, and distribution through book stations set up at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The University of Hong Kong, coffee shops, music schools, bookstores, and many more locations across the city. Posters bringing awareness to the protest-literature Telegram channel were posted in coffee shops, elevators, and street corners, and shared widely across the internet on LIHKG, Telegram, and Instagram.
Project Statement
This art-as-civic action initiative has several wildly different pieces involved in its making. As an artist, I have always seen art as something that cannot be confined inside exhibits, galleries, and museums. To a lot of people who make art, art exists in the process of making. We make communities in the process of making art. For me, the most fulfilling moments when I make art is when I see people coming together and socialize in the backdrop of an art show. Art should be a platform where unlikely strangers meet and discuss topics meaningful to them.
When I got wind of the massive protests against an extradition law being proposed in Hong Kong, I knew I needed to contribute in some way. Using the translation of the Temporary Autonomous Zone as the center piece, I wanted to create a platform that enables discussions and exploration of new political perspectives. At the end, I ended up with a project which lies in the intersection of art, translation, and civic action. It was a precious opportunity to experience the power of a community, and the tenacity mutual aid provides to a political movement.
This project owes its success to the 40+ enthusiastic volunteers who contributed time and energy to various tasks, including translation reviews, footnote reviews, translation iterations, distribution location scouts, digital messengering, transportation of cargos, and distribution of books. While this project never had a fixed project team, the fluidity of the team's dynamic and the wide set of talent were instrumental to the realization of what would have diminished into a fleeting thought without their contribution.
Book Design & Illustrations
A series of illustrations produced exclusively for the Traditional Chinese translation of the Temporary Autonomous Zone: Commodity Fetishism (found digital media collage), Music as an Organizational Principle (3D modeling and image processing), Fiume (digital media collage and image processing), The Magic of Disappearance (digital design), Islands in the Net (processed photograph), Anne Bonnie (processed historic illustration and graphic design).
Documentation
