thursday, January 20th 2022

–––Hong Kong / Naples / Rome / Bologna

Kee Hong tells us that an order was issued for the culling of 2000 hamsters purchased after December 22, 2021 - there is the suspicion that they might carry the virus from animals to humans. Meanwhile, online groups are secretly organising to try hiding and saving the animals. The culling has already begun.
Hong Kong's "zero-COVID" policy led the country back into strict lockdown: schools and gyms are closed, restaurants are open until 6 p.m., flights are limited, and public parks are sealed with tape. Yet the number of infections is low, about 20 a day.
The slaughter of the hamsters is a disturbing omen. But we get used to everything; it will seem reasonable in a while.

Rebecca and Kee Hong tell us of the image they want to create. Rebecca wants to create a sort of talisman – in the Chinese religious tradition it is a piece of paper with signs inscribed on it, words someone at the temple writes for you on the paper, according to the requests (e.g., marriage, health, exams...). The words are often illegible, the writing intertwines, like the drawing of a cosmology. The paper talismans are then kept in a pocket, a wallet, or a bag - you need to keep them with you, close to your body. People often burn the pieces of paper, dissolve the ashes in water or tea, and then drink them. The literal incorporation of magical words. When I was little - Kee Hong tells us - I used to have nightmares and my mother gave me one to drink. The nightmares disappeared.

The image should resemble a talisman, reinventing it – a sort of public, urban talisman. Can a poster put up in Hong Kong have the power of a talisman, a protective force over the people of Hong Kong in this time of crisis?
Rebecca wants to work on her body, infesting it with images of Chinese goddesses, demons and monsters that often have a protective function. In particular, the Goddess of Mercy / Guanyin (觀音) who, in cosmological stories, almost became a buddha but decided to remain in her body on Earth and not transcend into Nirvana. She is a deity that changes sex, the first trans presence in Chinese cosmology, an actual trans divinity.

Rebecca thinks about the location of the picture. She would like to take it in a bamboo forest outside the city. Discussing together, we think that a cut-out outline of the body could be one layer and the bamboo background another layer.