The Mysterious Hands Garden At the Museum of Hands (Monomad Challenge)

October 20, 2023

The shaman lifts his hands and draws a geometrical figure around him on the ground. An invisible shield seals him up and he starts to whisper words that are hard to fathom. Spiritual energy later surrounds him, connecting from one clay human figure to another, until it fills the whole room. It's powerful and unbreakable. The ground shakes, as if monstrous creatures are trying to ascend. One by one, hands emerge from the ground, and corpses are brought back to life.

I guess this is the byproduct of watching a movie per day to kill boredom back when I was in Hong Kong. My mind is full of thoughts after seeing the thought-provoking photos I took from a museum. When I saw the photos in my gallery, they reminded me of the movie, The Cursed: Dead Man's Prey, which I recently watched. It's a very good suspense/horror movie I recommend you guys to watch. The link is given, so feel free to tap it! Ever since the young lady went abroad, my life after work has been so boring, so watching movies and series has been my hobby every night. One to two movies a day can take my boredom away. Aha! That's my motto now, lol.

Getting back to track...

One Sunday afternoon in Hong Kong, my boredom struck again, so I set off for a walk. My short journey started at Botanical and Zoological Garden. On my way back to the city, just a few meters away from the garden, I detoured and spotted the way to Hong Kong Park.

Upon entering the park, a huge architecture nestled in between trees with white brick walls and blue glass arch windows caught my eye's attention which I opted to explore first. The park's directory says it's Hong Kong Visual Art Centre, and there was an art exhibition entitled Museum of Hands which started last March and would end on the 18th of September.

Excitedly, I climbed the inviting staircase and looked for the entrance. Upon entering the building, I was led by the staff to the hallway where the exhibition was held. As I looked down the lower floors, I realized that I was on the fifth floor, and the art pieces were displayed on the hallways of the first to fifth floors. So my tour started from the upper to the bottom floor. What an exhausting climb I made on the staircase. There was actually an entrance on the bottom floor on the right side of the building, lol.

The art pieces in Museum of Hands are made by a renowned trio of artists named Brainrental. Trust me, their artworks are incredible and thought-provoking. It is as if you'll be transported to another dimension of the digital world. Artistic, humanistic, and futuristic. Three words that I can use to describe the artworks in this exhibition.

For this exhibition, hand is the main subject, and it shows the pre and post-digital evolution of hands with different perspectives and materials used. Some are hand-made. Some are machine-made.

The disappearing hand as they call it, unexpectedly surprised me from the back. I could imagine it as a monster's hand appearing from the dark and trying to grasp something within its reach. Just imagine if the light is off and the only visible object is this white giant hand. One would literally freak out.

I descended the stairs to the fourth floor and saw the handprint. This exhibition shows the physical and digital existence through physical prints of digital images of hands. It reminded me of a crawling hand in a horror movie I watched before. Can you imagine it too?

On the white facade are portraits of hands in different forms.

Can you do this hands sign? Because I tried but I couldn't. Later I realized that they weren't normal hands. Those have seven fingers.

Have you noticed something odd in this pair of hands? They are united and become one.

Digital hand, do you want? Imagine our hands are robotic. It's easier to retrieve and save files using our fingers. So futuristic artwork that is possible to happen in the future.

Going down to the third floor, the extensions exhibition is full of creativity made by brilliant minds. I bet this installation illuminates in the dark because of the projection at the back.

There is a projection facing the back of a giant hand, and some strands are more like textiles or nylons if I wasn't mistaken, I know they aren't wires, connecting the projection and the hand. From the title of the artwork, this installation somewhat portrays the extension of the human senses and the human's ability to control the world.

Who other else controls the world around us? Only us, humans. More hand extensions on the other side of the hallway. The artists are creative in using the resources at hand. Some are probably from scraps. This part somewhat shows the influence of technology on humans and its role in creating such imaginative artwork.

I call these the keyboard hands because the artwork is made from used keycaps. Technology truly impacts human lives and our daily lives are already connected to it. Just like how we spend more hours in front of the screen and tapping the keyboards. So I guess these represent the digital nomads, those people who rely on keyboards as their main source of income, such as the freelancers, and those working in front of the screens.

The following are more clever and probably represent those behind brilliant innovations. I call these cyborg's hands. Can you imagine a world full of cyborgs? Many say it's possible to happen in the future. I should say I am more worried about it because it might face out the humankind. These futuristic artworks are inevitable to be realistic many years from now.

From the third floor, I went down to the second. The exhibition here is the most interesting one. You can use your imaginative mind to see scenes and stories while looking at the hands garden. Different hands in different forms that one could think different perceptions out of them.

The hands garden is artistic but quite creepy. What can you imagine out of these? They can be trapped souls that are trying to escape or asking for help. It's actually sad to imagine the realistic scenes behind them.

Could these be the hands of the manipulative? Now, this is more realistic. Some used their hands to do bad things for their pleasure and benefit. Meanwhile, some used their hands to create a legacy. What else do you think this scene is trying to portray?

What about the hands of multi-taskers? The hardworking group of humans. This more likely portrays those who want to succeed in life.

Could these be the hands in the fashion and aesthetic world? This, as well, creates a big impact on humans. Being in this world full of aesthetics, society become more stylish. People would follow the trends, yet become irrational where beauty becomes the main basis of creating the judgment. The part I hated the most about humans.

And those with weak hands? I mean, less confident. They would just creep into the dark to avoid being judged and bullied. They would self-pity. How pathetic it is.

I had a shirt back then with the printed words, "All monsters are humans." It makes sense if you get the point. Simply put, humans are the real monsters.

_{Just zoom out the photo to see the prints. Quite blurry though.}

So this exhibition isn't just about showcasing the handcrafted and machine-made evolution of hands, but also allowing visitors to imagine realistic situations behind those artistic pieces of art. You can share your own perception in the comment section ☺️.

After this exhibition, there's only one thing that came to mind.

That makes sense, right?

Anyway, this exhibition ended in the 18th of September. This Visual Art Center, by the way, is the studio space of local artists.

(All photos are mine)

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