A city once referred to as a “cultural desert,” Hong Kong has since blossomed, not only through the development of a stable commercial arts sector, but also through cultural revitalization projects that have added to its burgeoning roster of arts venues. In recent years, one such project, the old Police Married Quarters, now simply dubbed PMQ, has come to fruition in the Central district, reopening in 2014 as a destination for both retail stores and studios for creative industries. Looking ahead, the city continues to cultivate and reenergize old monuments and buildings, bridging Hong Kong’s history with its present. Opening its doors in late 2016, the former Central Police Station will be reintroduced to the public as Tai Kwun, an arts and heritage compound located within the city center. The most recent addition to Hong Kong’s lineup of conservation projects is The Mills Gallery, a cultural endeavor spearheaded by local property developer Nan Fung Group. The Mills Gallery, to open in 2018, will transform what was once a cotton mill in Tsuen Wan, New Territories, into one of Hong Kong’s largest private art spaces, spanning roughly 2,800 square meters.

Taking into account the history of The Mills Gallery’s building leads one to reconsider the textile and garment industry of Hong Kong, which was a leading contribution to the city’s economic boom during the 1960s and ’70s. Moreover, during this period Hong Kong was considered the top producer of textiles and garments in the world. Focusing on the original function of its space, The Mills Gallery invited Hong Kong conceptual artist Leung Chi Wo as the subject for its inaugural show, “Tracing Some Places,” which opened at its temporary gallery in Sheung Wan.

The old cotton mill was a nostalgic starting point for Leung, whose parents both worked in the trade. Leung’s father was a garment factory worker, who experienced first hand the 1967 Leftist riots—a labor dispute-turned-violent demonstration against British colonial rule—that erupted at an artificial flower factory nearby his workplace. Both this historical moment and personal memory comes together in Leung’s Frater (2015), one of the newly commissioned works for the show. Placed on a steel frame, a vintage Brother sewing machine—one similar to the model Leung’s mother used at home as a seamstress—punctures a hole at one-minute intervals into images from a roll of black-and-white film negatives, a subtle action that without careful attention can be missed. A detailed look at the negatives reveal images of a bouquet of artificial flowers. Frater not only acts as a tribute to Leung’s parents, but also directs one’s awareness toward the notion of time—prompting further reflections on history, and whether events in the past still resonate today or are simply overlooked and buried in the present.

This poetic idea of time wearing down memories is visible more explicitly in a group of three black-and-white photographs—each print consisting of two frames—that are made from the film negatives of Frater. Displayed side by side, the images of Untitled (Roses) (2015), magnify the progression of a sewing needle piercing the negatives—each hole getting larger and less distinct. With more time, one can imagine that the images of the artificial flower bouquet will no longer be visible among the perforations, and instead serve as a symbolic gesture to the loss of society’s collective memory.

Meanwhile, Leung’s “Tracing Some Places” not only harks back to the old Tsuen Wan cotton mill, but also marks other key moments of sociopolitical change in Hong Kong’s history, with 12 other works in the show that span from as early as 1996 to the present. The earliest works, Dream of a Path (1996) and Untitled (After Dream of a Path) (1996), were created when Leung first co-founded the independent art space Para Site in Hong Kong. The former work, a photo installation, displays images set within a steel-framed structure, which memorialize the area surrounding Para Site’s original location on Li Po Lung Path—in other words, a snapshot of life before the art space succumbed to the sweep of gentrification. Complimenting this work is Untitled (After Dream of a Path) a group of five, large oil rubbings on paper depicting a neighborhood noodle shop’s menu, which Leung had also engraved on the floor as part of his original work, Dream of a Path.

Protruding from a nearby wall is Leung’s Peak of Victoria (1997), a pyramid-shaped object formed from four wooden triangular pieces merging, though not completely, at the tip. The slight opening invites visitors to look inside the sculpture, which depicts five pinhole photographs taken of the Peak Galleria shopping complex at Victoria Peak from different vantage points—four facing each of the cardinal directions and one at the sky. Building upon the artist’s investigations into researching and preserving Hong Kong’s history, the photos were taken the same year as the handover of Hong Kong from the British to mainland China in 1997. Navigating the crevice to view the slightly blurred, angled photographs prove challenging, but anticipating this, Leung helps aid this process by providing a hand-held light to be used by viewers. This act of looking, therefore, transforms into an act of searching—namely, for pieces of Hong Kong’s past.

For The Mills Gallery’s inaugural show, “Tracing Some Places,” Leung has formed a layered timeline that touches upon events significant to the new art space, as well as to his own practice and the history of Hong Kong, reminding local visitors that while certain moments and places may have disappeared from our foresight, their rediscovery helps to inform our perspective of where we are today.

Leung Chi Wo’s “Tracing Some Places” is on view until January 9, 2016, at The Mills Gallery’s pop-up space at The Annex, Nan Fung Place, Hong Kong.

Sylvia Tsai is associate editor at ArtAsiaPacific. 

• Hong Kong