Beech poles, wooden tables, wooden chairs, wooden decoration and metal strings
Dimension variable
Tang Kwok-hin presents a site-responsive installation that examines the human body, upright posture, and the complex relationship between modern urban life and nature in Thighs. Composed of beech poles, wooden tables, wooden chairs, wooden decorations, and metal strings, the variable-dimension work transforms everyday furniture elements into sculptural forms that evoke both human anatomy and architectural structures.
The title Thighs refers to the powerful muscular connection between the lower leg and the body’s core — the part that propels movement while bearing the weight of civilization. Tang draws a metaphorical line from the soles of the feet, through the thighs, to the mind: how each step on the ground (whether asphalt or soil) carries us from primal physical sensation to the abstract thoughts that govern modern existence.
The artist reflects on humanity’s evolutionary upright stance as the foundation of intelligence and civilization, while questioning how capitalist society has distanced us from nature. Columns become trees, architecture becomes mountains, and wooden tabletops are carved with images of flood channels and planted trees from the artist’s hometown area. Through these materials and gestures, Tang explores the paradox of contemporary life: we yearn for nature while surrounding ourselves with replicated, commodified versions of it.
Thighs invites viewers to contemplate the tension between the natural and the artificial, the physical and the intellectual, and the real and the illusory in our built environment. With its blend of organic wood and structured forms, the installation continues Tang’s practice of using familiar materials to probe deeper questions about memory, place, human posture in both literal and metaphorical senses, and our ambivalent coexistence with the natural world in a highly developed urban society.
有時候，人類以想像作喻，將水瓶的圓口看成月亮；將房間的微塵看成沙石，偶爾亦憧憬未曾感知的意象，如同錢鐘書《圍城》所描述般一個模樣。
是什麼帶引現代人遠離自然生活，然後思想裡又深藏對自然的希冀？建築成山；柱子成樹。直直的，站着的，不止文明的人。直直的，精神奕奕，從遠古而來。直立人在進化論裡，是人類智慧及文明歷史關鍵的起始點。千百萬年後，資本主義社會成日常，流轉積累成規範。
柱子是樹，柱子種在地上，小腿感知的是來自腳掌傳達土地的實感，不論柏油路或泥濘，所有真實的現況早已見證於地，行走在地上的每一次碰觸，從小腿到大腿，漸漸由行動趨近主宰行動的念頭，腳到腦海，僵硬得像塊裂開的石。
直直的，繁華的都會；驟遠驟近的，亦真亦假的自然。在木桌面上刻劃時常路經的防洪渠，那裡有樹木被栽種，抑或被擺佈以環繞沿岸風景。資本世界如何跟樹木共處？只知道我們早能輕易轉化、複製及購買木頭，在矛盾又豐盛的商業運作及魅惑裡，我們一再相信，一再質疑。
