Hong Kong abandoned buildings as not seen before in artist’s photo collages
- French artist and urban explorer Daphné Mandel’s collages of ruins are pieced together digitally, before she prints them and layers paintings on top
- A collection of 16 images will be exhibited at Gallery Exit in Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island’s South Side from April 30 to May 28
On a bright spring morning in 2021, Daphné Mandel discovered a door to an abandoned mansion in Hong Kong’s Mid-Levels area left open. The French artist had planned only to take photos of the crumbling facade of the house but, curious, she ventured inside. There was no sign of life.
All that remained was a crystal chandelier, an overpowering smell of mould and, standing alone in the living room, an old music player with a cassette tape of The Merry Widow Waltz on top.
“I didn’t find it creepy, I found it poetic,” Mandel says. “The juxtaposition of a Hong Kong house and a piece of European Belle Époque music is the kind of mash-up that brings a smile to my face.”
That experience is among Mandel’s first memories of urban exploration, a hobby in which people visit – and often photograph – abandoned buildings.
She has now visited more than 150 abandoned sites around Hong Kong and created dozens of artworks inspired by her adventures. A collection of 16 will be exhibited at Gallery Exit in Aberdeen from April 30 to May 28.