The Monument of One Hundred Thousand Whys

The Cover: The Monument of One Thousand Hundred Whys
Elva Lai
Charcoal and inkjet on archival paper  
144 x 100 cm

Framing: Thin black aluminium frame with glass; acid free mounting

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The series <The Monument of One Thousand Hundred Whys> also investigates the idea of memory image. In the work, cleaning utensils, cutters and tapes were used to tear off and leave marks on photographs of a Chinese classic children book series,The Monument of One Thousand Hundred Whys.

​In 1961, the publisher Juvenile and Children’s Publishing House issued the first Chinese version of “One Hundred Thousand Whys” (“Shi Wan Ge Wei Shen Me”), and up to now it has been published for over 100 million volumes.  In 1990s, the Chinese version of “Shi Wan Ge Wei Shen Me” costs 42.30 yuen for 4 volumes. 
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The late Soviet Union writer Mikhail Il’in (Михаил Ильин) has titled his book “One Hundred Thousand Whys” and quoted a famous poem from an English poet, Rudyard Kipling, in the title page:
Пять тысяч Где,
Cемь тысяч Как,
Сто тысяч Почему!

“Where are the five thousand?
Seven thousand how to do?
One hundred thousand why?”

, where one hundred thousand means “a myriad of”.

The series <Family Photo Album: Washing> investigates memory image by using a family album.

 A family album is a private and intimate thing while at the same time represents collective memory of family and kinship. In the artwork, colour photos in the album are turned into black and white. Raindrops were drawn on the black and white print out. 

​<Family Photo Album: Washing> series, 2013, Pencil, charcoal and inkjet on paper
40 x 60 cm (Each of 9)
private collection.

𝙂𝙖𝙯𝙚

After returning from the United States, I started a series of works about distance and time. Among them, I created the series Family Photo Album: Washing series about the story of my father who escaped into Hong Kong in the 70s.

From the 50s to the 80s, about one million mainland residents fled from Communist China to Hong Kong. This was considered to be the longest and largest number of escapes during the Cold War. Compared with the German and Eastern Berlin walls, there are more than a thousand injured people and more than 200 people who died. The "big escape” from China to HK is a more tragic escape history. My father was one of the freedom swimmers. My father who fled to Hong Kong sacrificed the elegance of his life in exchange for the future of my generation. My father passed away a year before I went to college. It was a wound on my heart. Can art heal our wound? Pursuing his traces became the driving force of my creation.

Then, the<Family Photo Album: Washing> series won the Hong Kong Human Rights Art Award, started my first artist residency stay in Provence, France. I spent the summer and continued to explore the creation of distance-based creation. Includes 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 (𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄) and 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 (𝗦𝗸𝘆). The story of my father’s escape is the key to my artistic creation. It has also become the admission plan I submitted when I was studying in Europe and the academic articles that I presented in an art conference in the UK. Everything is in the hands of my father. His love and blessings to me have not left me. Then in the winter of 2015, I met Syrian refugees in Germany and listened to them telling me about their escape story. I seemed to see my father more clearly.
𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 (𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄), 𝐸𝑙𝑣𝑎 𝐿𝑎𝑖,  𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑗𝑒𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟, 90 𝑥 60 𝑐𝑚
𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 (𝗦𝗸𝘆), 𝐸𝑙𝑣𝑎 𝐿𝑎𝑖, 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑎𝑙 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑘𝑗𝑒𝑡 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑐ℎ𝑖𝑣𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟, 52 𝑥 78 𝑐𝑚

凝望

在美國回來後，我開始了一系列以距離及時間為方向的創作，其中以我父親年輕時偷渡來港的經歷為題材思考生死的距離，創作了 《家庭相薄：清洗》系列。

二十歲的父親，於七十年代初，游過三十公里的深圳灣，參與了人數以百萬計的 「大逃港」熱潮。那是一段模糊而悲苦的中國近代史。上世紀五十年代至八十年代，約有一百萬內地居民，由深圳越境逃往香港，這被認為是冷戰時期歷時最長、人數最多的逃亡事件，史稱「大逃港」。相比起德國東西柏林圍牆，傷者千餘人，死者二百餘人，「大逃港」可是更悲慘的逃亡史。幸運逃往香港的父親，犠牲一輩子的優雅，換取我這一代人的未來。父親在我上大學前一年過身，使我遺憾。藝術可以清洗傷口嗎？追尋他的蹤跡，成了我創作的動力。

隨後，《家庭相薄：清洗》作品獲得香港人權藝術獎，展開了我第一次的藝術家駐留計劃，到法國普羅旺斯的美麗莊園渡過夏天，繼續探索以距離為題材的創作，創作包括𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 (𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗼𝘄) 及 𝗠𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗦𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 (𝗦𝗸𝘆).

父親逃亡的故事，是我展開藝術創作的關鍵，也成了我在歐洲留學時交上的入學計劃書及到英國出席藝術會議的學術文章，一切都在父親的手中，他對我的愛及祝福沒有離開過我。然後在2015年冬天，我在德國遇上敘利亞的難民，聽他們細說自己的逃亡故事，我彷彿更清晰的看到了父親。