Kai Tak: A guided tour
In 1998, the opening of Chap Lap Kok International Airport marks the end of the Kai Tak International Airport after serving Hong Kong for over 70 years. After its closure, many redevelopment plans have been generated: for money wise, a massive residential development, a modernized stadium or most recently a terminal for cruises. They even once considered it as the site of the new General Government Office.
Environmental concern groups once bombarded all these redevelopment plans for the contamination it will bring to the environment. The engine fuel in the soil, which has accumulated for years, is highly poisonous. Before a very solid redevelopment plan comes out, the huge amount of land is basically deserted.During these years, government has made use of this piece of deserted land for all kinds of intermediate usages, from flea markets, to second hand car shows, to bowling alley. A government office was once even set up there. Later on, it was transformed to construction waste dumpsites, golf course, temporary bus depots, BBQ park and car parks"¦
Now, in every weekend, the enormous open space provides an ideal ground for South Asian cricketers, the deserted control tower is a battlefield for military fanatics' air-gun battle. Some hobbyists try to restore Kai Tak's full glory by making it into the remote-controlled model planes' airfield.All the strange usages make Kai Tak into an eight-feet monster. The most astounding thing is using it as a construction waste dumpsite, which created a number of dunes and in a way changed the terrain of East Kowloon.
The Kai Tak site is not a ruin, in the meantime, it has a very special "aura", everything "grow" inorganically like weeds without a specific order. It simply explains how human beings can manipulate or intrude their own environment in a ridiculous way, while they want to play god on the planet. I've spent pretty much of my spare time in Kai Tak since 2004, whenever my mood is bad or I'm infertile in creativity. I can feel how small we are in such a void of space, and let myself lose within. It's my playground and it also works as a mental shelter for me. This series of photos may works as a guided tour of the Kai Tak site and indeed a guided tour of my psychological state these years.
2008
一九九八年香港赤鱲角機場開幕，標緻著曾經見證著香港經濟起飛的啟德機場，終結了其超過70年的黃金歲月。這十年來多個重建計劃構思出台：大型住宅項目、大型體育場館、政府總部......到最近落實的郵輪碼頭，擾攘經年，再加上當年環保組織的壓力：土壤下多年屯績了大量有毒飛機燃油，重建計劃一拖再拖，在沒有一個確實的重建計劃的時候，啟德驟然成了一片鬧市中的荒地。香港地少人多，土地矜貴如黃金，卻出現這一大片荒廢的空地，看來荒誕，但亦我從中發現香港人跟自己土地一微妙的關係。
在這個時候這片土地曾嘗過各式各樣的用途：跳蝨市場、二手汽車市場、保齡球場、甚至曾經把客運大樓改為臨時的政府合署。後來空地被用作建築廢料的棄置處、高爾夫球場、臨時巴士停泊處、野火燒烤樂園或最不費工夫的用處：停車場。現在每逢週末這片碩大的土地提供了南亞族裔居民一個理想的木球場、或許那個荒置了控制塔成了軍事迷的戰場，又或是成了一班遙控飛機迷的模型飛機場，算得上是回復啟德機場昔日的光輝。
這些紛紜的用途，活像把啟德變成了一頭怪物，那些建築廢料的堆填區，造成一個又一個的小山丘，活像長出一個個癌細胞腫瘤，一直漫延開去，或許未致於滄海桑田，其實也間接地改變了東九龍的地形面貌，當大家在啟德發展草圖鬧得熱烘烘時，這個時候啟德驟然變了一個有機的生命體，暗暗地不停地不受控制地衍生、變形。
2004年開始沒有間斷地為這塊荒地拍攝，有時甚至覺得那裡是一個避難所，心情不好的時候，或者在創作時遇上膠著狀態都會跑到那裡「發洩一下」，誇張的說一句這幾年這塊荒地發生的事情大概是這十年的心境變化，目睹他的死亡，腐朽後給各式各樣的寄生。這一系列作品固然可以作為一個啟德的導遊圖鑑看待，其實也是我的心理狀態的導遊圖鑑。
2008
