Spread out on the gallery floor is an eclectic mix of items: packets of chocolate and pasta, face masks, a sewing machine and lots of colourful children’s toys. Added to the mix are two cardboard boxes, one bursting open with clothes and both stamped “SD Xpress”. But this is no courier service.
S and D are the initials of the first names of artists Sharu Binnong Sikdar and Dhafney Dela Cruz Pineda, who have unpacked childhood memories for their installation, which pays homage to their Filipino roots. “When we were young we watched our parents pack boxes with essentials like the items you see here and they would send them to friends and family back home in the Philippines,” says Pineda. They are called boxes, she says, the word a portmanteau of the Tagalog words (to return) and (homeland).
Filipinos love receiving them from family members living abroad – who form a huge community; more than 2.33 million Filipinos work overseas, and more than 200,000 of these as domestic helpers in Hong Kong. boxes are typically packed with material goods but also filled with sentiment, says Sikdar, who is Indian Filipino, the recipients overjoyed at being remembered by loved ones far away.
Showcasing the work of 17 artists, and migrant groups, the exhibition explores the diasporic experience in Hong Kong though music, film and video, print and painting. Curator Nicole Nepomuceno thought marginalia – personal notes written in the margins of a text – was the perfect metaphor to c.
