One of artist Vaevae Chan's artistic inspiration is the Haw Par Villa in Singapore, built by the Aw brothers, who created the Tiger Balm lotion.
And that's what visitors are encouraged to do inside Chan's immersive creation, She Told Me to Head to The Sea.
The Post met Ms Chan recently in Repulse Bay, in the southern part of Hong Kong Island, at the temple to the sea goddess Tin Hau. Standing among giant statues of benign immortals on a sunny day, with the sound of gently lapping waves in the background, the darkness of Ms Chan's cave seemed a long way away.
She had a temporary job as part of the team that gave the Eaton Hotel in Kowloon a trendy makeover, and was planning to return to New York afterwards. Then her father died suddenly. "I went in the early stage of the protests. The whole thing was not only my personal trauma, but a huge traumatic event for Hong Kong. I felt really helpless. It felt like the world had gone mad," she said.
The finished"cave", now open to a maximum of three people each booking, is filled with mysterious objects placed in dimly lit nooks and crannies that visitors can explore with pen torches provided. Apart from a video with a clear narrative, visitors are free to make their own associations between the seemingly random selection of objects.
"I went to Singapore on my own in 2018 before everything happened and I felt this comforting energy there, very much like the ambience here in the Repulse Bay temple," she said.
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