Welcome to the wilderness.

Perhaps it is only through wilderness that we can really truly see.

Traveling from Hong Kong to the mountainous region of North India, while walking on the frozen Zanskar River, Lamb said everyone needs some sort of wilderness to maintain a stable state of mind. This series of black and white photographs captures the glimpses of light reflections at the end of a long night, constructing profuse layers of white, pastel to concrete, that fell loosely on the high hills of the Himalayas, crisscrossed above the Zanskar River.

In his eyes, black and white pictures might lack variety in colours but they lack no realism. No colour deviations. Only true dimensions. It is like positioning oneself on a plateau so close to the sky and remote from the worldly distractions. Only then would one see the world.

Sometimes, the yearning for wilderness might come from the desire to escape from reality. Status and identities always come together with the exploitation of our time, wrapping us breathlessly tight. While photography renders the moments before one’s eyes frozen, Karena Lam took the expression to a more profound form on a grayscale map, by throwing the revealed wilderness into the dark. A hundred pieces of moon jars piled up like hills and rocks, divulging a sinking weight. The concentration of repeated wedging, pulling and whirls points to echoes of minutes and seconds, so condensed that one’s identity can be left out of time. She said it felt like being helplessly sucked into a black hole, deep, in which one can fully open up one’s heart while the weight of life stabilized.

Cowrice carved three vividly black and white lino print. It is like a long and winding thread pulled out from a crack in the Zanskar River that extends to the UK and then back to Hong Kong, altogether composing a poem. The scenery of the three places echoed with one another, with an emotional bonding. We could see a flow of memory, a sculpture of time. The shadows of trees linger over the riversides while the space is divided up by sunlight, yet the memory has never been by geographical migration. Having relocated to UK for two years, Philip and Grace kept strolling along British day by day as a means to recall their home near Shing Mun Reservoir in Shatin. During their meditations, the images of glaciers in North India occasionally popped up, they have never been to that place. The images have subtly shaped their visions for the future. The flowing river thus becomes a channel connecting the past, the present and the future. It’s gently infiltrates the icy landscape and the cities, forming an ultimate convergence of waters.  

Wilderness does not necessarily denote grief and sorrow. When time is allowed to stand still and an intense gaze given to the present, the nature of time is no longer framed. It is only through wilderness that we can truly see, amid our torn and weary days, the reality behind the capricious haze.

It turns out that going through the whole world is what it takes to reach our true selves.

~English version by Pui Yee MO

題：荒涼之必要

歡迎來到這一片荒涼之地。

所謂荒涼，並非悽愴哀傷。從香港出發至印度北部山區，徒步踏在冰封的藏斯卡河（Zanskar River）上，阿揚說，人是需要一些荒涼的空間，那是安穩的心靈狀態。

在這一系列的黑白攝影，匆匆捕捉反射，靜候長夜之盡，從暗澹到熹微，光成為深淺濃淡的白。散落於高峻的喜馬拉雅山脈，在藏斯卡河上深邃交錯，漫天遍野舉目蒼白，又微小如健行者頭上照明燈閃爍的一縷光。在他眼中，黑白照雖然失卻顏色，但永不失真，因為沒有偏色，只看到真實的面向，就似身處遠離紛擾、貼近蒼穹的高原，世界才得以世界的面貌透明顯現。

當所有曖晦與明晰的總和在面前展開與收合，內心隨視野變得寬容，良久不滅。生活本來是遊歷，因此，我們能否說出回到日常，假如旅途即日常。有時嚮往荒涼，可能是渴求從現實中的逃逸，只因自己攢得一身記號，被各種時間填滿、包裹。攝影是眼前之景的瞬間擬態，林嘉欣在灰階地圖上來得更徹底，將攤在眼前的荒白投向黑。一百件器皿堆疊如山石，訴說沉澱之重量，我們看到逃逸與空靜的另一種想像。搓捏、推壓、旋轉，反反覆覆，分秒凝結得像靜止，足以把身份留在時間之外，她說，如像不能自主地被吸進黑洞，無垠而深邃，把真實內心敞開，卻穩住了生命的重量。

從一時之地，Cowrice雕刻出黑白分明有致的三幅版畫，彷彿從藏斯卡河的裂縫拉出一條蜿蜒漫長的線，遠赴英國同時回到香港，彼此呼應成一首組詩。三地景色，從空間轉移與情感連結，我們看到一種記憶的流向，同樣是時光的雕刻。河畔拖曳着樹木的影子，日光把空間切割，但記憶從不曾因移動遷徙而被掏空。移居英國兩年的Philip和Grace，日復日散步英國河畔，遙想昔日城門水塘河域，湧現家的存在感，而冥想時偶爾浮現遠方北印度的冰川，即使未曾踏遍，也微妙地變作未來的印象。流淌的河，成為過去、現在與未來豁然連接的通道，緩緩流動，如像穿透冰封極地與城市行道的最底層，其實百川同源。

他們聽任時間靜止，凝視當下，逼向時間的本質，卻不受時間框定。因為唯有通過荒涼，才能在疲澀的年日裏，不偏不倚地看見朦朧而變幻莫測背後的真實。我們通過世界，抵達自己。