Ellen Pau’s Elegy to a Vanishing Hong Kong
Hong Kong video art pioneer Ellen Pau presents her first major US survey at SculptureCenter in New York, featuring 15 works spanning from the late 1980s to present day. The exhibition, curated by Freya Chou, uses water in its various states—melting ice, evaporating mist, tears—as a metaphor for Hong Kong’s perpetual transformation and impermanence. Central to the show is the 1988 installation “She Moves,” where water droplets descend a white wall beside veils and a wooden chair, inviting viewers into an intimate, ambiguous space. A newer work, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” (2026), combines burnt candles from June 4 Tiananmen vigils with film negatives, melted wax, and infrared heat maps documenting visitor presence. Each piece explores themes of historical preservation, ephemeral experience, and collective memory through mixed media including video, installation, and found objects, reflecting on loss, documentation, and the fugitive nature of both cities and human presence.
Original article published on Hyperallergic — AI-generated summary. Visit the website to read the full article at the source. Image via Hyperallergic.
