Memory operates in a sequence of associations, the intertwining mental connection between words, images, concepts and opinions. Psychologists utilise these techniques through words association and Rorschach tests to triggering episodic memories. This project utilises abstracted material symbolisms to trigger sub-conscious thoughts, a kin to a Rorschach test.

The British council estate, once the symbolism of a classless society, has now become ”shorthand for general lumpenproletarian venality and violence”, (Hanley, 2007 – p9) deep seeded urban decay as Mike Skinner put it. It is difficult to comprehend the extent of the decline of the Modernist’s new society, from a society that would eradicate class struggle to a metaphor for crime and anti-social behaviour. The estate provided the word ‘monstrosity’ with a new prefix, concrete, the now default descriptive generalisation of post-war buildings has become a “potent and irresistible cliché”. (Grindrod, 2013 – p15)

“A Place I Used To Know” is a photographic series, which explores my hometown of Hong Kong behind its iconic city façade. Capturing the lesser-seen aspects of the city such as back alleys, markets, housing and industrial estates. The collated photographs span across my final four years in Hong Kong (a transition between Secondary School to University, Hong Kong to London). Now that this transition is almost complete, Hong Kong is becoming “A Place I Used To Know” with this series not only illustrating the city from my personal perspective, but also acting as an archive of my home.

CD and booklet design for Unseen Pattern's After Dark mixtape.

Our relation with space in mobility is repetitious, one of monotony. We continually navigate through non-places, compartmentalised and within ourselves. We may be surrounded by a number of individuals, but in reality we are isolated and devoid of human interaction. The anonymity of places do not enough significance to be regarded as a ‘place’. They are separate, transient. A space that “creates neither singular identity nor relations; only solitude, and similitude.” (Augé, 1995) Why do we simply disregard these ‘places’? Modernity has made us “indistinguishable from the world of objects – the dreary, mechanical and repetitive unfolding of the everyday.” (Lefebvre, 1958)