Garden Whispers: Attuning to the Ecologies of Coexistence
Into the night garden of HART’s latest exhibition…
Woo Hannah, Bleeding_Tunsten, 2024, fabric, cotton, beads, acrylic spray, steel frame.
Garden Whisperers is, at its core, a love letter to nature, the night, and the tenuous balance between the wild and man-made. Its goal is to “invite audiences to listen closely to the many ‘whisperers’ who dwell among us.” Guests who visit the studio bear witness to a journey across audiovisual mediums as they wander through the space, watching the comforting dark recede in favour of Hong Kong’s late summer sun, and patrons are surrounded by both carefully nurtured plants and the vibrant, constant hum of Kennedy Town through a carefully constructed sound system.
The exhibition itself is split into five key components: the Garden Gate, Beacons, Hang-Out, Deep in the Nexus, and In the Field, all of which are meant to be experienced in that order. Each of the fifteen installations on display is the work of thirteen artists working all around Asia.
Chung Wong, A Secluded Trail towards an Unoccupied ___, 2026 version (series created in 2023), 18 minutes sound, San Tin clay ceramics, bird nests, plant textiles, sound installations.
“Visitors are invited to carry voices, gazes and traces of the garden with them, imagining possibilities for coexistence with the more-than-human worlds around us.”
The experience of Garden Whisperers is not only visual, but auditory. Beyond the narrated short films like Chen Dandizi’s Spotted Doves and Modern Men (2022-2023) by the Garden Gate and Tang Kwok Hin’s The Spine Passerby (2010-2011) in the canopied Hang-Out, the experience of Chung Wong’s A Secluded Trail towards an Unoccupied ___ (2023/2026) is meant to be experienced with the ears and hear. According to Wong, she went on a journey through Lower Shing Mun Reservoir, Butterfly Valley Reservoir and Mirror Pool Waterfall, on a quest to collect the sounds of Hong Kong’s wildlife.
Dorothy Wong & Benjamin Ryser, Eyes Vanishing into the Night, 2026, inkjet print on archival paper, stereo sound 230 x 125 cm.
Similarly, artist duo Dorothy Wong and Benjamin Ryser brought their installation Eyes Vanishing into the Night (2026) to the exhibition and participated in the artist talk on September 12th. They shared details of the “deeply immersive” filming process that involved setting up a series of thermal imaging cameras amidst the brush of Hong Kong’s mountainous regions.
“You need to use your imagination to see the road these animals walked.”
Outside of the photos on display as part of their installation, Wong and Ryser screened video footage captured by the very same cameras at the aforementioned talk, as well as snippets of the guided walk: a hike from Chuen Lung to Tai Mo Shan and back, complete with commentary and ASMR-esque recordings during Garden Whisperers’ opening afternoon. Footage of the long trek, grass crunching underfoot, and wild animals cautiously investigating the foreign device in their territory or simply passing by with nary a blink.
It echoes both halves of Garden Whisperers; the passage of time in an environment left largely untouched by man, and the way nature has gradually come to coexist within the concrete jungle of Hong Kong. As the sounds of Hong Kong’s buzzing metropolis make an appearance, so too does the garden, “extending into the city and becoming a way of paying attention.”
About the Exhibition
“Garden Whisperers: Attuning to Ecologies of Coexistence” is an award-winning exhibition project from the HART Curatorship Incubation Programme. Curated by Mankit Lai, the group exhibition features works by artists working across Asia, they are Chen Dandizi, Melody Qingmei Li, Florence Yuk-ki Lee, Liao Jiaming, Green Mok, Tang Kwok Hin, Shawn Pakhin Tang, Timur Si-Qin, Tong Wenmin, Benjamin Ryser, Dorothy Wong Ka Chung, Chung Wong, and Woo Hannah. On view at HART HAUS G/F and 3/F from September 12 to December 6, 2026.
Book your visit here.
