title:   Stall
medium:   site-responsive installation with recuperated wood, found supports, locally-gathered and packaged seeds sprouting in soil
date:   Hong Kong version 2004
presentation:  Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong, 2004
 

Stall is an installation that combines the image of a grocer's stands or market stall with that of stadium bleachers. A number of stepped structures, of the sort used to display produce and sometimes covered in artificial turf, are built in a storefront space, in response to the existing architecture and with reference to the organization of the local urban landscape. The forms are covered with soil, seeded, and allowed to grow over the course of the exhibition, providing a (quietly) animate situation for observation. They are likely to sprout unevenly, softening their architecture and revealing the uneven patterns of natural light in the space. While making reference to commercial cycles of production and consumption, this work favours patience over urgency, replacing product/produce with process and slowed-down spectatorship. It becomes a space for watching and waiting.

The 2004 Hong Kong version at Para/Site Art Space was a series of flat areas improvised from found materials and supports, recalling the makeshift vernacular of the local market displays. Stepping gently up and away from the front window and in parallel with a set of stairs, this expansive floating landscape may also bear references to the city's grand land-reclamation projects.