Five stages of trauma recovery brought to life by artists amid Coronavirus outbreak and Hong Kong protests help audience deal with current times
- The coronavirus outbreak and Hong Kong protests prove the perfect foil for a new exhibition at OUR Gallery in Wan Chai, ‘The Healing Cave’
- From ‘Outcry’ to ‘Completion’, the five installations were created by 12 Chinese University student artists
When a group of 12 Chinese University student artists put together the exhibition “The Healing Cave”, they could not have imagined the relevance it would have to the present situation in Hong Kong.
The exhibition, which runs until the end of March at OUR Gallery in Wan Chai, is an artistic response to the five stages of trauma recovery, with one installation representing each stage.
It’s an adaptation of an earlier on-campus exhibition that took place in late September during Hong Kong’s anti-government protests, but before the university hit the headlines internationally after it became a battleground between police and protesters.
The onset of the recent coronavirus make the pieces even more tailored to current times, as we collectively deal with the outbreak, having lived through the Sars epidemic 17 years ago.
The first stage, “Outcry”, is a large wash basin that sits in a darkened room; it’s filled with water and engraved in the sink is a graphic that shows a towel being wrung, with the inscription “Let it All Out” (it was initially conceived as a participatory installation, but for hygiene reasons was replaced by a static, resin sculpture).
