The definition of a place coincides with architecture; transliterating market into mar-git, two meeting and bonding together—an intimate relationship. A special bird call at 5 AM accompanied her over there in Phnom Penh. Gobble, gobble, om, om. Taking nine steps to the south on the balcony, sitting by an unknown corner table, observing a long line of ants on their sugar hunt; collecting fruit-skins that curled up in distinctive gestures; a disoriented mosquito, sucking blood, landing on a familiar skin—this act of pausing achieved a balance between movement and stillness. The experience of living together in Phnom Penh allowed them to re-examine the ways in which one may participate in creation. To be caught in an unfamiliar environment can indeed, at first, sharpen one’s perception, but cultural differences, language barriers, and the discomfort and anxiety that comes with the climate interfered on a daily basis; one had to also be mindful of the etiquette and emotional restraint that come with living with others. In an environment of unending heat, an environment of production and material scarcity, the will to create was held back by mundane tasks, and every participant was dealing with a unique emotional challenge. The place where they have lived together, its length, its humidity, its light and shadow change from one hour to the next; its animals, its winds, its some places may refer to a mood, a sound, or a smell, rather than a physical space.

“Evaporates” at Kiang Malingue’s Sik On Street space is organised by Yu Ji, and is the first chapter born out of the self-organised residency program in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Featured in the exhibition are works by all artist friends who participated in PLAY KNOW ATTENTION: Casey Robbins (Vermont, New York), Ho King Man (New York, Guangzhou), Boat Zhang (Tokyo, Shanghai) and Kojiro Kobayashi (Tokyo). The artists reminisce about the space and time of the residency in Hong Kong, living together again at Kiang Malingue in the last month of 2024.

*PLAY KNOW ATTENTION was supported by M Art Foundation

(About the artists)

Yu Ji was born in 1985 in Shanghai, and is now based in New York and Shanghai. She creates installations, performances and videos, and considers sculpture to be the foundation of her practice. Many of her recent projects are location-specific, producing geographical and historical narratives about distinct locales. Yu Ji is focused on ideas that emerge from time, space and movement; she pours, in a minimal gesture, ephemeral materials and beings into a physical presence. Yu Ji has exhibited internationally with recent solo exhibitions including Hide Me in Your Belly, Centro Pecci, Prato, Italy (2024); We the singular in multiple ghosts. I the multiple as parts of whole., ICA Institute of Contemporary Art, NYU, Shanghai (2023); A Guest, A Host, A Ghost, OCMA Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa (2023); Miss Shell, Delta, and Two Noughts, CCA Centre for Contemporary Arts, Berlin (2023); Against Shadows, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2022); Wasted Mud, Chisenhale Gallery, London (2021); Spontaneous Decisions II, Gallery 0, Centre Pompidou x West Bund Museum, West Bund Museum, Shanghai (2021); Forager, Edouard Malingue, offsite at Avenue Apartments, Shanghai (2020).

Casey Robbins is an artist who lives and works in Vermont and New York. She has had solo exhibition at bottomspace, Guangzhou (2019); and collaborative exhibitions at Motto, Berlin (2023); Artist Space, New York (2018); PRACTICE, New York (2016). She cares deeply about words and their textures, but her lack of skill—or, at least her lack of ease for expression—can cause friction in her processes of making things when tied up in precision. That quality will often make room in her work without consent.

Ho King Man was born in Long Time No See in 1988. The name of HKM was adopted by the common translations from Cantonese to English. H never formally studied art. Since running an alternative space PRACTICE (2015-2017), H explores themes of longingness and otherness in his work and possibilities between an exhibition piece and a piece of exhibition, often addressing issues of belonging and authorship. Recent exhibitions include projects at the PP3, Columbus Park (Chinatown), New York (2023); Bungee Space, New York (2023); Motto Berlin (2023). Forthcoming solo projects in 2024 include exhibition in Harmony Community Foundation, Guangzhou. H lives and works between New York and Guangzhou.

Boat Zhang (b.1983, China) graduated from Goldsmiths University of London, since 2016 has been based mainly in Shanghai and Japan. She currently lives and works in Tokyo and on the internet. She sees art as a way of thinking, a game of imagination, rather than a production of visuality and aesthetics and prefers to develop her work in everyday life and public spaces. Drawing on personal experiences and emotions, with humour and ambivalence she tries to respond to unique and universal situations in a personal and improvisational way, freely dealing in conceptual, performance, event, video, image, sound, and text art. She has exhibited her work in various locations, including China, Japan, England, Europe, and Cuba. Her work is featured in private collections and institutions such as the Power Station of Art (Shanghai Museum of Contemporary Art) and the Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong). She was a finalist nominee for the VOCA exhibition in Tokyo (2020) and the Jimei x Arles Discovery Award (2019). She participated in the 12th Shanghai Biennale (2018) and was invited to numerous residency programs, including the Liverpool Biennial Residency Program, Ongoing AIR AWARD, and the Sapporo Tenjinyama Art Studio International Winter Program. Additionally, she writes under other names to earn money for coffee. She is also a member of artist collectives including row&row, ••PROPAGANDA DEPARTMENT, Team Yameyo, and runaway girls club.

Kobayashi Kojiro was born in Shiga, Japan, 1975. He lives and works in Tokyo. He obtained his MA from the Department of Sculpture, Tama Art University in 2003. As a sculptor, he redefines human perceptions by reshaping three-dimensional space and objects, offering fresh perspectives on habitual behaviors and familiar items. Through the process of transforming ordinary matters, he employs repetition, stretching, and inversion of singular actions to uncover potential realities, past possibilities, and their inherent limitations. This exploration is a conscious endeavor to sculpt the ongoing narrative of these matters. He works as individual and artist collective row&row, Conceptual Architect.