2008

ODD ONE IN II: Invisible Travel

The present publication is a documentation of Pak Sheung Chuen’s artwork created after year 2005. Most of them was created when the artist was travelling outside of Hong Kong. The work is thematically related to ‘Seeing’. Artist biography, his travelling schedule from year 2005 to 2009, and his conversation with other cultural practitioners are also included in this publication.

The artist explained the creation concept of his book to the Asia Art Archive (AAA) on 9 July 2009:

The original artist’s concept is to rip off one sheet (p.161-162) from every copy of the book, and the ripped-off pages will be retained by the artist/ author. This is to establish an invisible connection between the author and the readers. Moreover, the missing pages in the book completes the artist’s idea in the narration as it sits in the section talking about ‘missing’ in the book. However, this concept can only be realized in 300 out of 3,000 copies printed, i.e. the artist can only establish 300 connections with the book’s 300 prospective readers. The problem which prevent this concept from full realization comes from the conventional association when a reader or bookstore staff see a ripped-off page, the perception is that the book is damaged. This will trigger a series of returning ‘damaged’ books for replacement or refund, which will bring along chaos and loss to the publisher. However, the artist convinced the publisher to put forward the idea in 300 copies among the 3,000 copies. About 100 copies (with missing page) are distributed in the 53rd Venice Biennale in July 2009.