We often use the term ‘rooted’ to describe one’s gaining of a foothold in a place, and ‘uprooted’ as one’s parting with it. Roots have therefore become a living metaphor of how human beings connect with places. If we are to trace the entrenched roots and fallen leaves on islands, are we then able to grasp the stories of the islands’ past and present?

As a sequel to the group exhibition ‘Island(ed)’ that reflected upon the isolated nature of islands, ‘The Call of a Fallen Leaf’, a new solo exhibition by Wenda Yiu, further investigates 19 islands that have disappeared as a result of urban development. These include Kellett Island, Lam Chau and Tit Cham Chau. Yiu has noticed that more and more islands have been flattened or linked to the mainland due to reclamation. As an attempt to preserve and interrogate the traces of existence of these disappeared islands, Yiu visited the artificially reclaimed lands and collected fallen leaves that constituted her new work, Memorandum of the Secret Islands. Yiu has also continued to expand her photography series, This Close, That Far, which was shortlisted for the 2019 WMA Open Photo Contest. In this series, Yiu took photographs at the sites that constituted the former boundaries of the island and the mainland, and juxtaposed them in a rigid manner to highlight the tension between island ecology and urbanisation. The entrenched roots and fallen leaves on islands are also transformed into contours in different paintings. Through the alternate use of hard and soft lines, Yiu reconstructs the maps’ coastlines that are at once abstract and material, archaeological and fictional, disappearing but reappearing at the same time,  as a way to outline the islands’ coastal changes over the past decades.

Curated by Chloe Chow
Registration：https://bit.ly/3SNkF8Y

Gallery address: 8/F Chun Wo Commercial Centre, 23-29 Wing Wo Street, Central