The Fountain
今期MONDAY ARTPOST 重刊楚喬的小說「噴水池」，原是刊登於DOUBLE DOUBLE 2022年一月號。當時該刊剛從網上版改變成為紙本出版物，每月出版一次。小說寫於大約2020至2021 年間，她剛寫完「壽司草邊的天堂」。發表時作了一回較大的修改。在楚喬的創作筆記簿她寫下心願想寫一個以她自己的作背景的長篇。「噴水池」也可說是她在這方面的小嘗試，為日後的大篇章作為揣摩。楚喬的創作，早在八十年代，她的攝影作品，已有不少以她的家庭背景，身邊的人作為作品的素材。去到文本寫作，纖細內容的梳織，以她個人過往的故事為本，那是自然不過的事。
DOUBLE DOUBLE 於該期開始改為紙本，除了發表我們兩人的新舊作品之外，並每期發表一位客座藝術家。該期發刊了李卓媛。之前我幾次旅港，都看過卓媛的作品，是一位年青而又出色的創作人。我們發刊了她的「The Crescent Void」，是她的較早期作品，也是她獲取WMA大獎的作品。不過，當時我發刊這組作品，有一個主要的選擇因素，還是因為她的以家族為軸的主題。與楚喬的「噴水池」有著呼應的關係。然而，那又是兩個不同世代的創作人。巧合之前卓媛也因為香港動植物公園的一個聯展，她做過一組關於噴水池的作品，而且，她又以該組作品為基礎，作了進一步的發展。
是因為噴水池的偶遇（其實她們所書寫的是同一個噴水池，同一個遠年的記憶），促使了談及兩人一起在WMA的展覽。雖然，這個展覽，經過歲月，已經走離了池水，變成了後來的「壽司草邊的天堂 & 青蛾飯」，其間沒有變的，依然是那個與家人繞纏在一起的追憶。當初大家談及的時候，誰都沒有意料到這是楚喬最後的一個展覽。遠方的噴水池，今天你看到它的時候，四面風景依舊，它層層的噴咀，卻又不時霧噴出一幕一幕，沉重的幻景。(李家昇, 11-11-2024)
In this issue of MONDAY ARTPOST, we are republishing Holly’s novel, The Fountain, which first appeared in the January 2022 issue of DOUBLE DOUBLE, shortly after the publication transitioned from an online format to a monthly print edition. Holly wrote The Fountain around 2020–2021, just after finishing Sushi Grass in Paradise, and made substantial revisions before it was published. In her notebook, she expressed a desire to write a long novel rooted in her own background, and The Fountain can be seen as an early experiment in this direction, a preliminary exploration for future, more extensive works. Since the 1980s, Holly’s photography has often drawn on her family and the people around her as subjects. Naturally, her writing, woven with fine details, also drew from her personal history.
When DOUBLE DOUBLE moved to print, our plan was to feature both new and previous works, along with a guest artist each month. In that issue, we featured Sharon Lee, a talented young photographer whose series The Crescent Void, an early work that earned her the WMA Grant Award, was included for its family-centered theme, which resonated with The Fountain. While Holly and Sharon belong to different generations, a unique connection emerged: Sharon had also created a series about a fountain for a group exhibition at the Hong Kong Zoological and Botanical Gardens and developed the theme into further works with deeper layers.
This serendipitous link to the fountain—indeed, they were referencing the same fountain, a distant memory both shared—led to discussions of a joint exhibition at WMA Space, centered around this theme. Though the exhibition evolved, moving from the fountain theme to Sushi Grass in Paradise & The Rice is Greener on the Other Side, the lingering thread remained: a shared remembrance bound to family. When they first discussed it, neither could have foreseen that this would be Holly’s final exhibition. Today, when you encounter that distant fountain, the surrounding landscape remains familiar, while the fountainheads, heavy with mist, evoke layers of haunting illusions. (Lee Ka-sing, November 11, 2024)