Chan Po Fung 陳寶鋒
The Floating Bronze Bell, 2024
Installation Art
300mm x 158mm x 137mm
Found Object, UV-Curing Resins
If there is a God who is over 200 years old, He would ask, “Why is the coast different every time I look at it?
Tai Kok Tsui is located at the seaside, where fishermen and Shui Sheung Yan (those who make their livelihood in the sea) used to live, and where the famous dockyard was once located. In the past, fishermen and Shui Sheung Yan in Tai Kok Tsui used to worship Hung Shing Yeh to pray for peace, and the Hung Shing Yeh Temple in Tai Kok Tsui is a testimony to this. In 1875, the Cosmopolitan Dock was established in Tai Kok Tsui, related industries such as shipbuilding, ship repairing and hardware parts benefited from the establishment of the dockyard. The dockyard supported the lives of many residents in Tai Kok Tsui.
Nowadays, there are only a few Shui Sheung Yan in Tai Kok Tsui and it is no longer an important place for the ship industry. Even though the Move on to TKT team wanted to visit the only remaining ship-breaking store in Tai Kok Tsui and hoped to rebuild boats with industrial waste, the shop was found permanently closed already.
The store is gone, but the temple is still standing.
Hung Shing Yeh Temple is the anchor of Tai Kok Tsui. If it is possible, just want to ask Hung Shing Yeh how he would feel after witnessing the constant changes of the place over the past 200 years, and how he would feel when he sees the coastline differently every time. For him, all the changes are just a matter of a moment?
Let’s build a boat and put a bell on it. When the waves come and the bell shakes, we ask the questions about heaven and earth with the sound of bells.