2024, Installation, materials collected in Tsunan (bamboo, cement, soil, farming tools), office waste paper from Hong Kong and Tsunan, spotlights, animation, dimensions variable

Two Places Under the Same Sky created by Matthew Tsang and Cordelia Tam is a work that was inspired by the seemingly large differences in how people in the two places Echigo-Tsumari and Hong Kong perceive the connection with nature and time. People in Hong Kong are surrounded by skyscrapers and often work around the clock. Echigo-Tsumari is a region with great mountain ranges, and the famous local rice is the outcome of the farmers’ respect for and adaptation to seasonal changes and the natural environment.

As artists from the city, Matthew Tsang and Cordelia Tam experienced deeply the local natural environment and Satoyama during their residency in Echigo-Tsumari. They shredded waste-paper from Hong Kong and Tsunan to make handmade paper and transformed it into a natural shanshui (mountain and water) landscape — providing a metaphorical cleansing of urban trivialities. Animated sky scenes and lighting effect shift with the passing hours projected on the wall, mirroring the rapid pace of urban life. Handmade soil plates symbolise the enduring bond between farmers and the four seasons, with farm tools rotating like a clock’s movement, revealing an interesting perception of time between the two places.

Leveraging Hong Kong House as an interface, the work pays tribute to the local way of living in harmony with nature and invites the audience to reflect on this. Despite the differences between the two places, they are under the same sky, and time and nature still flow in parallel.