nowhere left but here, here i am again
Tai Kwun, Artists’ Book Library, March-August 2025

Curated by Ingrid Pui Yee Chu

77 Days: I am still here is a multidisciplinary project by Hong Kong-based artist Sissi Kaplan which based on her artist book, 77 Days: An Experience Report, portrays the artist through various states of isolation. Initially owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, then in having to navigate personal loss, Kaplan “reflects [on] the human desire for connection through acts of creation.”For nowhere left but here, here i am again, Kaplan together with long-time collaborators Tomson Chan, Sam I-shan, Vivian Wang, and Cyril Wong, expand on her book to create another kind of “experience report” including the use of moving images, performance, postcards, and a wall installation. Here, Kaplan’s isolation gives way to a bid for reconnection in multiple ways, not unlike the actions of On Kawara (1932-2014). In fact, on one page of her book, Kaplan writes, “I AM STILL HERE” a phrase often associated with his mail art practice which not only serves as her project title, but hints at the historical resonance of Kawara and other artists whose conceptual approaches are used to mark their continued presence in countless was.

Available here!
Sissi Kaplan’s 77 Days: An Experience Report portrays the artist’s experience of isolation, as an international traveller, then as a patient confined in hospital rooms and her apartment. Even as her loneliness intersected with great personal loss, she concocted fantasies and performances, giving free rein to both memories and reverie. In the face of enforced and eternal separation, this story reflects the human desire for connection through acts of creation.

Edited by Sam I-shan
Designed by Studio Tomson
Hong Kong, 2024