Bones of Our Land at WMA Space
In Hong Kong’s dense urban landscape—where concrete, infrastructure, and development often blur what lies underneath—Bones of Our Land offers something quietly rare: a prolonged pause. Hosted at WMA Space in Central, the exhibition is a collaborative installation by artist Tsz Wai Pun and ecologist Coşkun Güçlü, inviting visitors to confront the persistent memories embedded in the territory’s soil, geology, and shifting ecosystems. Developed under WMA’s annual commission theme centered on hope and ecological restoration, the exhibition focuses on a particular hillside site near Tai Mo Shan currently undergoing environmental recovery. Rather than separating art from field research, Pun and Güçlü build the gallery into a kind of living archive—a record of Hong Kong’s terrain shaped by both observation and imagination. Even the title—Bones of Our Land—points to what is foundational beneath appearances: geological formations, rooted vegetation, and damaged landscapes that still sustain the city despite decades of relentless human intervention. As you move through WMA Space, the installation brings together lens-based media, soil samples, topographical maps and soundscapes. The works resist treating land as mere scenery or real estate. Instead, the installation frames territory as something more like a body that holds memory. Visual components capture subtle changes occurring on the hillside—such as the regeneration of native plant species—while also making visible the physical traces left behind by erosion and long-term development. The inclusion of ecological data grounds the aesthetic experience in environmental reality, emphasizing that nature doesn’t simply “exist” in the background; it actively works to heal itself when it’s given space and conditions to recover. What makes Bones of Our Land especially resonant is its nuanced perspective on urban resilience. The exhibition nudges city dwellers to reconsider how they relate to the natural terrain around…