Food Pond Yuanye Online Exhibition

Online Exhibition

Fish Zine

FishZine 

Text: Xiaotong

Shi Jiayin (A Shi) wants to make the reeds from the Dashengwei fish pond into a strip of drinking straws, and then stack the drinking straws into a small wall for those who come to visit to take it away and use it. Reed stems, a natural material, were originally used to make drinking straws, but the material and production process were too slow, and later they were replaced by plastic drinking straws.

On the day of the visit, Shi took a bag of dried sweet potatoes and came to the pond of the Dashengwei fish pond. Floating insects, as well as those reeds floating in the wind by the fish pond.

She wants to use reeds to make art. Since visiting Taishengwei, staying in the village, and getting along with villagers early last year, she has often heard villagers talk about reeds, saying that once the fish ponds are abandoned, the reeds will grow rapidly. If fishermen want to use the fish ponds again, It takes a lot of time and manpower to clear the reeds. In the eyes of fishermen, reeds are such a negative weed. However, once, Shi walked to a deserted fish pond and saw tall reeds drifting in the wind, and flowers grew from the reeds. By coincidence, a group of sheep raised by villagers came over to eat the reeds. , The scenery in front of you is very beautiful.

In the past two years, Shi started to be interested in weaving because he pierced fire dragons in the village of Pingche and danced fire dragons during the Mid-Autumn Festival. When he saw reeds in the fish pond, he felt that it could also be used to make some hand-made weaving. She didn't want the exhibits she made to be useless after participating in the exhibition. Instead, she took a fancy to reed because it is beautiful, a natural material, and a unique product of endless fish ponds. Using reeds, she also felt as if she was helping to clean up the weeds.

"Because of this place and this material, you can do such a thing." She hopes that her work can make people feel the peace and daily life of Dashengwei. At the same time, she hopes that this work will give people some experience, "I think experience is very important, because experience makes it easy for you to remember. It may be smelling some taste or eating another kind of food, and you will remember what you have done."

The "experience" she remembers most about Tai Sang Wai is also related to food. Once, after Aunt Lan fished out a lot of fish in the fish pond, she followed Aunt Lan to learn how to stun the fish, smash the fish and clean it again. This is the first time she has done this in her life, so she is deeply impressed. Later, Aunt Lan used these fish to make fish soup. She drank it and found it very delicious, so she always remembered it.

The first time she came to Dashengwei two years ago was her first close encounter with fish ponds. At that time, she spent a lot of time getting to know the villagers and learning cooking skills from the villagers, and found that most of the villagers here are very researched on food. In her eyes, the "research" is to know where to buy ingredients and how to make fish. Clean, know when to dry salted fish and so on. "Such subtle wisdom is actually very great. It is wisdom gained from experience."

She still remembered that when she first came to Tai Sang Wai, she often saw villagers still cooking with firewood. After the New Year, she learned how to make rice cakes with the villagers, and then steamed the rice cakes, radish cakes, and taro cakes with the villagers over firewood. When following the villagers to collect and wash the fish, she heard the villagers discuss that the fish ponds may soon be left unattended, and more and more fish ponds are left unused. At the same time, she knows that the disappeared fish ponds will not only affect people’s lives, but also affect the previous ones. Migratory birds that come to forage. Fish ponds have affected many lives, but if the people who came to visit explained these principles, she believed that many people would not listen carefully. Only some objects, such as reed drinking straws, allow visitors to experience something and have some connection with Dashengwei.

She cherishes the villages in Hong Kong. It originated from an "Empty City Project" that she collaborated with her friends eight years ago. They used some idle spaces in Hong Kong as performance venues. It was time for the Northeast New Territories development plan. The villagers also wanted someone to care about their villages. So I came to the village school-run art festivals in Ping Che, Kwu Tung North and Fanling North. "It often takes a lot of money to rent some places to do art, but you see that many places are empty, and I think it can be used." Eight years ago, she was still a city person through and through, and she still felt that the soil was really dirty and the insects were terrifying. , But when she wandered a lot in the countryside and heard stories from villagers about raising pigs and chickens in the past, she felt that apart from the urban side, Hong Kong also had a completely different and beautiful space, but it was facing demolition.

She didn't want everyone to pay attention to these places before the village was cleared, so she tried to make different artistic creations in the village to attract others to come and walk, at least to see what the country was like. Therefore, she came to Dashengwei three years ago.