Curator : Kobe Ko

“Monuments: Flipper, Ada and Honey” is a series of works created by Hong Kong artist Yuen Nga Chi starting in 2019, focusing on the relationship between dolphins and human beings, including captive breeding practices, artificial propagation, and the commemorative significance of the dolphin as a symbol, for example, it is used in Hong Kong as a mascot for the handover or as merchandise for sale in amusement parks.
Following on Chapter 1: Ada – the world’s first wide-snouted dolphin born through artificial insemination, discussing the relationship between dolphins and Hong Kong. This exhibition ‘Chapter 2: Honey’ at Art Center Ongoing in Tokyo takes its name from a female bottlenose dolphin that was abandoned in an aquarium in Chiba Prefecture, Japan in 2018 after the aquarium closed down due to business difficulties. The artist stayed in Japan for about six weeks, exploring dolphin-related paths in Tokyo City, Choshi City in Chiba Prefecture, and Taiji Town in Wakayama Prefecture.
The exhibition features video and photos taken at several aquariums and zoos, including the Inubosaki Marine Park, where honey was abandoned, as well as other places where dolphins have been used as decorations or landmarks, such as Choshi Station, the Inubosaki Lighthouse, and the streets of Taiji Town, and a variety of dolphin-shaped merchandise is also featured in the exhibition in an intriguing way. The artist seeks to understand the position of the dolphin in Japanese humanities from the perspective of an outsider, and attempts to sort out how the same species is perceived in the two distinct cultural contexts of Hong Kong and Japan. The artist takes a distanted perspective to observe the environment, form and condition of animals in captivity in the two places, and further considers how this difference can be understood.

《紀念像：飛寶、愛達與蜜糖》是香港藝術家袁雅芝在2019年開始的系列創作，關注海豚與人類的關係，包括圈養行為、人工繁殖以及作為符號所隱含的紀念意義，例如在香港作為回歸吉祥物或樂園販售的商品等面向。
繼第一章：愛達——世界上第一條人工授孕誕生的寬吻海豚，討論海豚與香港的關係，是次在東京Art Center Ongoing展出的第二章：蜜糖，取名自2018年日本千葉縣一間水族館因經營困難倒閉後，被遺棄在水族館內的一條雌性樽鼻海豚。藝術家在日本駐留約六星期，走訪了東京都內、千葉縣銚子市、和歌山縣太地町等地，探索與海豚有關的路徑。
展覽以影像呈現了數間水族館及動物園所拍攝的照片，包括遺棄蜜糖的犬吠埼海洋公園，亦有圈養動物場所以外，使用了海豚作為裝飾或地標的地點，例如銚子車站、犬吠埼燈塔及太地町街道等，亦玩味性地攝錄了各式海豚造型的商品。藝術家以外來者的視覺試圖摸索海豚在日本人文中的位置，嘗試梳理同一物種在香港和日本兩種截然不同的文化脈絡下如何被看待，以適度的距離觀察兩地圈養動物的環境、形式及狀態，進而思考這種差異又該如何被理解

Event

January 11th (sat)
Opening reception
18:00- Start
19:00- Artist and Curator talk


January 19th (sun)
Curator Tour
15:00 Start
Curator will give a talk about the exhibition.