1a Space
Ends Feb 4 (closed on Mondays)
While most of us are interested in visiting shops that are open, photographer Ceci Liu Wai-yee is drawn to those that have closed. Her latest solo exhibition, Today After Tomorrow, is a collection of images of retail outlets no longer in business. It reflects how the city has developed at street level in recent years.
The project began when the Tai Cheong Bakery - famous for its egg tarts - was forced to shut its original shop on Lyndhurst Terrace, in Central, in 2005. Liu then began to capture images of closed-down stores in different corners of the city. '[Tai Cheong] had operated for more than 50 years and lived through both good times and bad times, and even during Sars. However, it couldn't survive because of the soaring rent,' the 35-year-old artist says.
She adds that in response to shop closures, landlords have drastically pushed up rents to cover their losses.
Her show, which runs until February 4 at 1a space in the Cattle Depot, is an extension of an earlier one titled Carry On till Tomorrow, held at Para/Site Art Space in 2006.
'We don't pay much attention to things appearing and disappearing in the development of the city,' she says. 'Through the exhibition, I want to gather some images [of things] that people neglect and put them together. When I put these images in one place, people will come to look at them.'