Performance and installation in Shatin
Park, Hong Kong
record of the whole project:
54 min full version:
part 1: http://vimeo.com/106536448
part 2: http://vimeo.com/106539707
part 3: http://vimeo.com/106542054
part 4: http://vimeo.com/107172705
part 5: http://vimeo.com/107176560
Shatin was historically known as “Spine Park” (棘園). In The Spine Passerby, Tang Kwok-hin stages a durational performance and installation within Shatin Park, Hong Kong, exploring humanity’s complex relationship with nature, shelter, and civilization.
Hired as a park “passerby” for approximately ten weeks, the artist appeared in the park every Tuesday to Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. Over the course of the project, his appearance, clothing, tools, and behavior gradually evolved — transforming from a primitive, ape-like figure toward more civilized forms. This slow “evolution” served as a living experiment in adapting to and inhabiting the park as a surrogate home. By treating the manicured public park as a re-created natural environment, Tang questions how modern housing and civilization have distanced us from our original dwelling place in nature, potentially fostering emotional detachment and coldness in human relationships.
The project reflects on the evolution of human shelter: from caves and treehouses to the secure but isolating “boxes” of contemporary architecture. Parks, as artificial simulations of nature, become hybrid spaces that fulfill both primal and social needs — places for rest, play, conversation, and contemplation. Through this performative residency, Tang asks: What would it mean to truly live within nature again, even if only temporarily?
Documented through extensive video, photography, and on-site installation, The Spine Passerby is both a social experiment and a contemplative meditation on progress, adaptation, and belonging. It invites viewers to reconsider the invisible boundaries between wilderness and civilization, public space and private life, and the subtle ways we learn (or unlearn) how to coexist with our environment.
沙田古稱「棘園」，其公園含有多樣特色場地，尤以共置中西庭園設計為人熟知。
在沒有房屋概念前，人類都居住於自然環境裡，陷於一種隨時有猛獸進襲的危機。因此，房屋的演進，由自然環境當中逐漸遷離自然，又或者將自然的元素由居住的地方剔除。洞窟、樹屋、磚屋，以至鋼筋石屎建築等，家居最終演變為一個盒子局限於四面堅實的牆壁，那是棲息的安全感，野獸與惡劣天氣均被拒諸於外。人與人群落間的信任、感情；人與大自然的關係，是否亦基於不同個體在近代較完整地被保護及保障的情況下而受到影響，變得冷漠？
文明令人類更懂享受，我們有著更大的力量去改變生活及生存條件。就如自然以公園的形式重新被創造，其仿林園小徑，草地水池，承載著許多人類活動。無論閒適閒聊；小睡散步；下棋看書等，都分擔了居所的角色。事實上，自然本是我們原初的棲息池，即使這裡是仿造的，即使，這裡依然遠離自然。如果人類還居住於自然環境，當下會是怎模樣？
這裡有一個棘園過客，我們聘請他工作於園裡，逢星期二至六下午一時至晚上五時上班。在約十個星期的時間，你將看到一個人的演化過程，由猿人至終局，每一個星期都有著變化，其外觀、服飾、工具、行為等，展現了他如何逐漸適應公園生活的同時，他的知識亦隨之累積。
