LISA REIHANA

Taking this historic tragedy as a starting point, Reihana weaves a speculative tale for DigiRadiance: GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL. To tell the story, the artist uses impressionistic, theatrical imagery with first-person narration to reveal snippets of the saga, offering up four fictional characters: a Chinese merchant, a Maori Whine Wahine from Mitimiti who finds the bones on her beach, a female inmate incarcerated at Victoria Prison for stealing bread, and an Indian prison guard.

GOLD_LEAD_WOOD_COAL is the second commission of DigiRadiance, a digital heritage programme transforming the F Hall Studio into an immersive project space. The ongoing project aims to reimagine and reinterpret the site’s historical buildings in a digital context, bringing visitors back in time in order to develop a deeper relationship with the buildings, and continue to value and treasure Tai Kwun. Last year, the inaugural exhibition used the radial plan prison of Victoria Gaol as a point of departure to revisit Tai Kwun’s prison history and its significance. This year, the project goes farther afield, seeking Hong Kong’s heritage beyond the city’s shores. Join the artist Lisa Reihana and curator Tobias Berger as Tai Kwun hosts an artist talk on 1 November 2024 at 5-6 pm. The session is open to the public and is free of charge. Please register on the Tai Kwun website.