Between the personal and the political lies Hong Kong-based artist Yim Sui Fong’s long-standing enquiry into how we come to know and relate to the world – an enquiry shaped by playful, embodied, socially engaged practices. Her work often explores how individual agency can generate new ways of seeing and being within power structures embedded in everyday life. Through participatory listening, performative archiving and collaborative workshops, she creates artworks that become public encounters and platforms for collective meaning-making. In recent years, she has developed sonic interventions, such as A Stream A Path (2025-) and Stair Mass (2022), to explore the role of sound in remembering personal experience and sparking collective imagination. These works expand the role of the artist as storyteller, facilitator and social archivist. From June to August 2025, she was a resident artist at Delfina Foundation in London, where she continued researching archives and collaborative learning practices across cultural contexts.

Jessica Wan: What brought you to Delfina Foundation and how has the residency community influenced your thinking or practice so far? Yim Sui Fong: My practice often begins in Hong Kong’s local context, where I develop prototypes for how sound and memory can build structures of meaning with people and places. Coming to London, a diverse city with a vibrant art scene, I wanted to test whether these methods resonate across cultures. Delfina provides the rare space for research without the pressure of a fixed outcome. These situated exchanges – from archives and exhibitions to performances, formal presentations and informal conversations – become food for thought for my ongoing practice.

JW: Your practice often creates spaces where artists, makers and local residents collaborate – moving from individual expression towards collective futures. What draws you to these forms of social interaction and what challenges or surprises have emerged in facilitating them? YSF: For me, each individual encounter is a mirror of larger social conditions. I design workshops as temporary commons – spaces to rehearse new forms of relation through listening, exchange and confrontation. Works such as Assembly of Disquiet, Avatar, The Third Person or Oddkin test different social structures. These processes reveal current struggles while opening glimpses of alternative ways of being. I don’t see the commons as a fixed utopia but as fleeting moments of connection – rehearsals where we experience vulnerability, learning and the possibility of doing things differently.

JW: In works like Chuen Lung Visual Research Archive (2025), you invite people to jointly create archives through memory and storytelling. In those shared processes, how do you think about ownership of knowledge? Do you think that idea needs to be reframed altogether? YSF: I prefer to think of knowledge not as ownership but as a common pot. When villagers in Chuen Lung share childhood games or memories, I act as a scaffolder – to organise, ask questions and translate stories into creative methods. For example, a hand gesture becomes a whistle or a memory of imbalance becomes a sound instrument made of bamboo. These acts ask, in small and playful ways, how we respond to precarity – and how we might imagine otherwise. These workshops turn oral stories into shared creative acts, making the archive relevant to participants who don’t usually enter art spaces. At the same time, I learn from their insights. If an idea resonates, it is generative: I may create an installation for exhibition, while participants may rediscover their own creativity in daily life.

JW: With the rise of AI and digital technologies, we are more globally connected yet often spend less time engaging in face-to-face encounters. How do you think this shift affects interpersonal relationships? Does individual agency still hold the same significance in this context? YSF: I see online and onsite life as increasingly inseparable. In my research at CUHK, I explore how data science can be used to review socially engaged art – mapping relations between materials, archives and participation. In this context, individual agency still matters but it appears in new forms: contributing to shared digital archives or shaping how data itself becomes part of cultural memory. Yet I also believe face-to-face encounters remain irreplaceable. They carry the unpredictability of bodies, gestures and silences, which no digital interaction can reproduce. In this sense, in-person encounters are not less relevant but even more crucial in shaping how we navigate these hybrid conditions.

JW: Sound plays such a central role in your practice – especially when it comes to memory and shared experience. What do you think listening allows us to access that looking might not? How does it shift the way we understand each other, or even history?YSF: Vision has long dominated western thought, often leading to abstract or detached knowledge. Following [philosopher] Jean-Luc Nancy, I see listening as a more embodied and resonant way of knowing. Listening requires patience and openness; it attends not only to what is said but also to what is absent or unspoken. In my practice, listening becomes a mode of learning and speculation – tracing echoes, connecting fragments and offering alternative perspectives on how histories are remembered and lived.

JW: Having spent time in both Hong Kong and the UK, have you noticed differences in how people use and inhabit public spaces? Do any cultural habits around public life or participation strike you as shifting in meaningful ways? YSF: In London, I notice people feel a right to the ground – sitting on grass in parks, on steps, on the museum floor or even concrete edges during lunch. In Hong Kong, where space is scarce and crowded, lingering in public space often feels unwelcome, unless it is a designated or commercial area. During my residency visits to institutions like [London’s] Chisenhale Gallery or [Manchester’s] ESEA Contemporary, I also observed how social practice is embedded in programming. These models inspire me but I also reflect on how funding frameworks shape outcomes, sometimes at the expense of artistic or ethical priorities. That tension itself is a cultural norm worth interrogating.

JW: What ideas or directions are you most excited to be developing at the moment, and what’s next for you? YSF: I’m developing Oddkin as part of Goethe-Institut’s Zeitgeist Hong Kong series, where four artists draw on [academic] Donna Haraway’s idea of oddkin [chosen kindred spirits] to experiment with reading groups and hiking, creating video and sound installations that explore confrontation as a collective practice. I’m working on the Chuen Lung Visual Research Archive for the Hong Kong International Photo Festival, creating malfunctioning sound instruments inspired by villagers’ childhood stories to stage a collective sound play. What excites me most is treating art as rehearsal – not just presenting finished works but testing, negotiating and imagining futures of cohabitation through shared meaning-making.

At the heart of my practice are a few recurring questions: how should people live together? How can we practise that imagination collectively? And how do we respond to precarity – and imagine otherwise? These questions return in different forms across workshops, archives and video and sound installations. They are not questions to be solved once and for all but to be rehearsed – again and again – with others, through listening, making and being in relation.

My practice continually returns to the questions of how we might live together, how we can imagine otherwise and how art can serve as a rehearsal space for practicing those possibilities collectively.

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香港藝術家嚴瑞芳游走於個人與政治議題之間，長期探索我們如何認知及代入世界——這份探索頗具玩味、注重身體感知與社會參與。她的作品常常探討自我控制感如何在日常的權力結構中開闢新的觀看與存在方式。通過參與式聆聽、行動式存檔與協作工作坊等形式，她的藝術作品成為公眾相遇的現場以及集體構建意義的平台。近年她通過《一條坑那條路》（2025起）、《梯間回聲》（2022年）等聲音實踐，探索聲音在喚醒個人經歷與激發集體想像中的作用。這些作品拓展了藝術家作為敘事者、協作者與社會檔案員的多重身份。2025年6月至8月，她作為倫敦戴芬娜基金會（Delfina Foundation）的駐地藝術家，繼續對跨文化語境下的檔案與協作式學習實踐展開研究。

Jessica Wan: 是什麼帶你來到戴芬娜基金會？至今此地的駐留藝術家群體對你的創作思路或藝術實踐帶來了哪些影響？嚴瑞芳：我的創作往往始於香港本土語境，在那裡，我圍繞著聲音與記憶如何與人和地域構建意義結構，發展出實踐原型。來到倫敦這座文化多元、藝術生態活躍的城市，我想驗證這些創作方法能否引發跨文化的共鳴。戴芬娜基金會提供了一個難得的研究空間，讓我無需承擔固定成果的壓力。在此特定情境下的交流——從檔案、展覽和演出，到正式陳述和隨意交談，都成為我當下藝術實踐的養分。

JW: 你的藝術實踐常常為藝術家、創作者與當地居民營造共同參與的空間——從個體表達邁向集體未來。是什麼吸引你投身於這類社會互動形式？在組織這些協作的過程中，又遇到了哪些意想不到的挑戰或收穫？YSF：對我而言，每一次個體相遇都是宏觀社會狀況的一面鏡子。我將工作坊設計成臨時的共有空間——在這裡，人們通過聆聽、交流與碰撞來預演新型的關係模式。像《不安練習社》、《化身》、《第三身》、《Oddkin》這類作品，都是在試驗不同的社會架構。這些創作過程既揭示了當下的困境，也讓我們得以窺見另類的生存方式。我並不視共有空間為一個固定不變的烏托邦，而是一個個轉瞬即逝的投契時刻，乃讓我們體驗脆弱、學習並探尋另闢蹊徑可能性的排練。

JW: 在例如《川龍視覺誌》（2025年）等作品中，你邀請人通過記憶與敘事共同構築檔案。在這些共用過程中，你如何看待知識的歸屬權？你是否認為需要重新定義這一概念？YSF：我傾向把知識視為一個公共湯鍋，而非私產。當川龍村的村民分享童年遊戲或記憶時，我扮演的是棚架工人的角色——負責組織、提問，並將這些故事轉化為創作手法。舉例說，一個手勢可以演變成口哨，一段關於失衡的記憶則能變成竹製發聲樂器。這些舉動以微小而有趣的方式提問：我們應如何應對不確定性？又能否設想別的可能？這些工作坊將口頭故事轉化為集體創作行動，讓那些不常踏入藝術空間的參與者，也能與檔案建立關聯。同時，我也從他們的見解中收穫良多。若某個想法能引發共鳴，它便是具有生成力的：我或許會據此創作展覽裝置，而參與者亦能在日常生活中，重拾自己的創造力。

JW：隨著人工智慧（AI）與數碼科技的興起，我們與世界各地的聯繫更加緊密，卻往往減少了面對面交流的時間。你認為這種轉變對人際關係產生了什麼影響？在此情況下，自我控制感是否依然維持同等重要的意義？YSF：我認為網上與現實生活正變得日益交織。我在香港中文大學的研究項目中，正探索如何運用資料科學來審視社會參與式藝術——旨在梳理素材、檔案與公眾參與間的關係圖譜。在此語境下，自我控制感依然重要，只是以新的形態出現：為共用數碼檔案貢獻內容，或影響資料本身如何成為文化記憶的一部分。但我相信面對面交流是不可替代的。它蘊含著身體、手勢與沉默中的不確定性，這是任何數碼互動都無法複製的。正因如此，在應對虛實交織的狀態時，面對面交流非但沒有減損其重要性，反而是愈發關鍵。

JW：聲音在你的藝術實踐中佔據核心地位——尤其是關乎記憶與共同體驗時。你認為，聆聽能讓我們觸及哪些視覺所不能及的領域？它又如何改變我們理解彼此、乃至歷史的方式？YSF：視覺長期主導著西方思想，往往催生出抽象而疏離的認知。追隨哲學家讓-呂克·南茜的觀點，我將聆聽視為一種更具身體感知、更能引發共鳴的認知方式。聆聽需要耐心與開放，它不僅關注言說之物，更側耳於缺失與未言之聲。在我的創作實踐中，聆聽成為一種學習與思索的模式——它追蹤聲音迴響，串聯資訊碎片，並為歷史的銘記與存續提供別樣視角。

JW：你在香港和英國都生活過，有沒有留意到兩地人使用公共空間上的不同方式？在公共生活和參與方面，哪些文化習慣上的變化令你印象深刻？YSF：在倫敦，我注意到人感覺擁有使用地面的權利——他們坐在公園草坪、台階上、博物館地面，甚至午餐時就坐在水泥台邊緣。而在空間稀缺擁擠的香港，若非在指定或商業區域，流連公共空間往往令人感到不自在。在我駐留期間走訪Chisenhale畫廊或曼賈斯特ESEA當代藝術中心時，亦觀察到社會參與式藝術如何融入其項目策劃中。這些模式啟發了我，但同時也讓我思考資金框架如何塑造最終成果，有時不惜犧牲藝術或倫理的核心。這種衝突本身，就是一種值得審視的文化常態。

JW：當下你最熱衷於推進哪些想法或方向？接下來又有什麼計劃？YSF：我目前正在為歌德學院的「香港ZEITGEIST」系列創作作品《Oddkin》。我們四位藝術家，以學者唐娜·哈拉維提出的“oddkin（異親）”理論（即經自主選擇的親緣關係）為靈感，通過實驗性的讀書會與遠足，創作影像及聲音裝置，探討對抗作為一種集體實踐的形式。此外，在為香港國際攝影節打造的《川龍視覺誌》中，我根據村民的童年敘事，創作一系列故障發聲樂器，用以編排一場集體聲音劇場。最讓我著迷的是將藝術視為一場排練——它不只是呈現完成的作品，而是通過共同構建意義的過程，去試驗、協商，並想像未來的共生圖景。 

我的藝術實踐核心，圍繞著幾個反覆出現的問題：人與人應當如何共處？我們該如何集體實踐這種想像？又該如何應對不確定性，並構想另外的可能？這些問題以不同形式貫穿在我的工作坊、檔案研究以及影像聲音裝置中。它們並非亟待一勞永逸解決的問題，而是需要與他人一道，通過傾聽、創造和建立聯結，一次次去反覆排練的課題。

我的實踐持續回到這些問題：我們應當如何共處，如何想像另外的可能，以及藝術如何能成為一個排練場域，讓我們集體踐行這些可能性。