We find ourselves in the predicament of being well aware of certain accepted models and frameworks for distribution, presentation, and megaphone-shaped expression (press release, book launch, opening), yet have lost track, lost sight of, and become lost within the ‘loneliness of the project’ unsure of how to relay this information, perhaps merely a sentiment, to you. The book Elaine edited and published emerged in the early autumn of 2023, and has since found itself in the shy, awkward hesitations of not knowing how and to where it should go. In all honesty, there is a certain resistance to locating words. If the thing had already departed per se, would it not be better to leave its picking up to chance stumblers and otherwise hunters?

But then, there they are. Release, launch, open. Cici sent Dr. Akomolafe’s text to Elaine over the cusp of the new year, and it felt poignant to read him not simply out of mourning for these last years since 2019, when he first wrote the paragraphs quoted above and when we precariously rode a high tide of solidarity for something as yet which dastardly crashed into most likely never. Suddenly dilated from the navel of 2023 towards our collective ‘decade of the fugitive’, distance gives us a safer space from which to speak at the same time old incursions reignite new urgencies that demand our demurring. How quiet may our protest be? If we left Hong Kong in order to find our voices again, Dear Reader manifests the trajectory of the departed arrow, for acknowledging mat el-kalam—that ‘words have died’ and may now live again through other terms to describe the conditions that beset us, for asking how are you and hope this finds you well and in solidarity across forever time and folded distance.

In this breath of this release, launch, and open at Loong Mah, works expanding from initial contributions to Acts of Departure: Dispatches from The Last Emporium are presented by:

CHEN Jialu + Fred LAI
Jaime CHU
Nihaal FAIZAL
HU Jiamin + WU Qin
Fotini LAZARIDOU-HATZIGOGA + Isabelle SULLY
Maha MAAMOUN
Xiaofei MO + Cici WU
QU Chang / YE Hui + Charmaine LEE
RYBN.ORG
Rahul Subhash SHINDE
Tabloid Flaneur
Fai WAN
Bungee Space

Seemingly disparate, these are movements across home and land, traversing heart and context to, at their most simply, consider the form of address. Like letters and other minor dispatches passed quietly from one hand to another under light of sun and moon, they are for our fugitivity, bearing routes and pathways within their being.

Yours sincerely,
Elaine W. HO + Cici WU