Art Chase | Across Victoria Harbour: Central in Conversation with Tsim Sha Tsui

In 2001, artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster made ‘Central’, as a part of a loose trilogy of works set in different waterfront locations. Though titled ‘Central’, alluding to the district of Hong Kong Island, the film is set in Tsim Sha Tsui’s Star Ferry Pier and Kowloon Public Pier, the cape of Kowloon Peninsula, with views across Victoria Harbour to Central accompanied by a narrator waiting for her brother to arrive.
Alan Yeung, a curator at M+, invites us to consider the narrator’s perspective, noting how her reflections of the area resonate with other visitors to the harbour. While nostalgia lingers in our memories of the past and in the film’s grainy visuals, landmarks like the Star Ferry and the boats passing calmly in front of Central’s skyline feel familiar despite changes over decades.
And while the surroundings have evolved, ‘Central’ tenderly recalls our role in investing places with meaning over time. Gonzalez-Foerster’s film poetically shows how remembering the past seeds the imagination for the future and how a location’s history is gently woven into its present form.
Work featured:
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. ‘Central’, 2001. Dingle-channel Super 8mm and 35mm film transferred to digital video. M+, Hong Kong. © Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, courtesy of 303 Gallery
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