Samson Young: Pastoral Music

cover ofSamson Young: Pastoral Music

Samson Young’s “Liquid Borders” was the first exhibition held at am space which opened in early 2012. It was the 15th anniversary of Hong Kong handover at the time, and since embracing the return to the motherland, the people have developed a mutual love and hate for each other, leading to incessant conflicts. For Hong Kong, which had been under a century of British rule, China is like a mother at the other end of the umbilical cord, connected but separated. If it was not for the crossing between Shenzhen and Lo Wu, which is seen as both a blessing and a curse, the long-neglected border should not have existed – just as how the ’97 handover was taken for granted. Young’s “Liquid Borders” delineates this forgotten yet existent boundary using the government’s historical documents, materializing Hong Kong-mainland contradictions in a stern manner, while also offering a poetic interpretation. Like the hitman who lets the child listen to music in the middle of a shootout in Luc Besson’s Léon, a similar figurative approach can be seen in the verse-like music manuscript.