The domestication of Nature
par Sarah Lacombe on 05/20/2016Projet photographique par l’artiste Sheung Yiu.
« Out in the wild, the word ‘development’ implies a much more crude and straightforward form of repurposing vacant lands. The procedure differs slightly for each land owner, but all construction starts with a ‘declaration of ownership’. The government recognised the landowner rights to the land, but in the broad shrubland where every area looks the same, the owners need a more direct way to communicate their property right. This often entails a physical separation of land.
These frontiers human put up marks the boundary where nature ends and ownership begins. The rapid colonisation of nature brings about unique landscapes that characterises juxtapositions of natural scenery and man-made features. In this project, I examine the various strategies of human intervention in the wild, from the long-existing rural endeavor to a more elaborate effort during the recent surge of housing development in Yuen Long. These structures are the materialised representation of ownership. They are symbols of social power and control. Boundaries and borders, I suspect, are the starting point of humanity’s alienation from nature. »
Images et texte via Sheung Yiu.
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