“Christy Lo Lok Lam remembers her hometown of Hong Kong in her piece Within the Boundaries (2020). Composed of an object and a video, the work opens a window that gazes inward as an attempt to capture elements that have established a psychological and emotional bridge to Hong Kong within her memory. In her work, she reactivates Hong Kong’s cacophonic streets through façade elements while reflecting on the region's social and political context."

Places within Ourselves (2020), Presented by Kunstraum LLC, Curated by Iara Pimenta

Christy Lo Lok Lam is a multimedia artist whose work deals with different forms of connection while also reflecting on the contemporary world. In the series Within the Boundaries (2020), she continues an investigation started in the Perfect Cube (2016), an installation that collected memories of the neighborhood where she was born and raised through its architecture, taking it to larger discussions about her hometown, Hong Kong. Not being able to return home during the COVID-19 pandemic, Within the Boundaries opens a window that gazes inward in an attempt to capture elements that establish a psychological and emotional bridge with the city of Hong Kong. Reactivating fond memories of its cacophonic streets through façade elements, the artist reflects on the region's recent social and political context. A video that is part of the installation takes her comments even further. As she brings the work throughout different urban spaces in New York, the artist talks about the place this piece represents while also discussing its symbolic features centered on ideas around the color white and notions of boundaries. The object's small dimensions and intricate details reinforce an idea of a precious piece to be held with care. This sense of fragility is reinforced through the use of different papers, some of which are very thin. Alongside this fragility, the use of the color white is no longer symbolic of dreams and pureness but of fear, silence, and uncertainty. Neither a landscape nor portrait, the square format questions how one can break away from boundaries to gain freedom.