Double exposure images in collaboration with G. HO. 35mm colour negative film, Giclée print, variable dimensions. 2014 ongoing.
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Tête-bêche⇋Paramita ( 對倒⇋彼岸 )
2022 London / 2019 Vancouver / 2018 Gansu / 2015 Pomona CA / 2014 Vancouver-Taipei-Hong Kong

For decades, Vancouver has been the destination for the immigrants of Hong Kong. There is a phenomenon of double-reverse migration that, in a way, has been shaping these two cities across the Pacific. Both the leaving and the returning ‘Hongkongers’ have been looking for a better life to the other shore.

‘Tête-bêche⇋Paramita’ is a collaboration between Thomas LIN and Vancouver-based installation artist G. HO. The duo were acquainted in Hong Kong since childhood. LIN invited HO to take photographs of his city and exchange the film rolls with his for the second exposure. The works are composed of a series of unpredictable overlapping images where the landscapes of the two cities merge and blur, which meditate upon memory, history, destiny and probability. This is an unusual photographic process that the subject matter is no longer derived from the photographers’ conscious will but from the merged realities found in their dialogues.

This project is inspired by LIU Yichang’s influential novel, ‘Intersection’ *. Tête-bêche (head-to-tail) is a French philatelic term for an unseparated pair of stamps that one is inverted in relation to the other, while Paramita is a Buddhist term means “to the other shore” and transcendent. The works have been exhibited in London in 2022, Vancouver in 2019, Gansu in 2018, Pomona CA in 2015, Richmond BC, Taipei and Hong Kong in 2014, and were collected by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum.

* LIU Yichang, BBS, MH (劉以鬯) (1918-2018), Shanghai-born Hong Kong-based writer, editor and publisher. He is considered the founder of Hong Kong’s modern literature. His best-known works are ‘The Drunkard’ (酒徒) (1963), considered China’s first Stream of Consciousness novel, and ‘Intersection’ (對倒) (1972), which is composed of two interconnected stories.

‘Tête-bêche’ limited edition prints
24×12 inch Hahnemuhle Photorag Pearl, framed or unframed, edition of 10

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