Abandoned wooden objects and C-prints
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Extracted from nature to serve human needs, trees are shaped into furniture, tools, and structures, only to be worn down, discarded, and eventually returned to the earth. Stripped of roots and branches, what remains is merely the “body” — a silent shell bearing traces of use, time, and transformation.
In Bodies, Tang Kwok-hin collects abandoned wooden objects from ruins and refuse stations across Hong Kong. He photographs these discarded items, then digitally strips away all color and non-wood elements, isolating their raw wooden forms. These purified images are presented as C-prints within LED lightboxes, transforming the humble remnants of everyday objects into luminous, almost sculptural presences.
The work reflects on the life cycle of natural materials within consumer culture: from living organism to functional object, from utility to waste. The gentle, earthy brown tones of wood — once modest and unassuming — are often concealed beneath layers of paint, varnish, and human design. By returning these objects to their essential wooden “bodies,” Tang reveals both their original dignity and the inevitable entropy of material culture.
由自然提取，以服務人類各種活動，經過折舊，淪為廢物，透過堆填回到塵土，這是樹木被用作物料時不能避免的結局。沒有了深根枝葉，餘下肢體，或如軀殼，經歷著環境、功能及外觀的變化。
作為人類歷史裡最早被運用的天然材料，木材大多擁有著和緩的褐色，褐如土，不會取悅眼睛，淡淡然卻沒有攻擊性。然而，在人類文明技倆的包裹下，木材的特性隱伏於美觀的外表，被大量砍伐及改造，變成傢俬、工具、建築等。
在不同的廢墟及垃圾站收集了各樣的木器具，以攝影記錄後，將其色彩全褪掉，並移去木材以外的部分，追尋那原初的肢體，或如軀殼。
