Second-hand Memory

Lam Ching, Ng Tsoi Hang

2024

Second-hand clothes, thread, headphones, MP3 player and drinks

By observing Tai Kok Tsui, I have noticed that the residents often place their household items in public areas. People, particularly older people and shopkeepers, would sit on the street, creating a distinct vibe compared to other parts of Hong Kong. This uniqueness preserves a collective memory that the residents might not fully recognize. During my research, my group and I discovered several TKT community groups on Facebook where members would post about giving away furniture and clothes, often asking for drinks as a token of gratitude. This made us realize the generosity and friendliness of the community. Inspired by this, we decided to collect second-hand clothes by posting on a Facebook group community, which helped us gather the clothes more efficiently. Wondering why we couldn't visualize the mark of these memories, so that once people saw them, they would be triggered to reminisce, we then sewed the clothes into a carpet to serve as the base for our podcast-like project. Our goal was to share the stories intimately, so we created a self-produced radio podcast episode. We recorded the radio ourselves, acting as hosts in a podcast show, and incorporated residents' stories about the clothes through our conversations. Finally, I edited the radio for one of the essential tools in our workshop. For the documentation videos, I focused on selecting audience reactions to the carpet and the process of setting it up on that day. I believe that second-hand clothes carry the stories of the people, and through our project, we can showcase their memories that are connected to the TKT community. We have also established unexpected connections during the project, as we met with the owners of second-hand clothes in person, recorded their stories, and interacted with them.