Translated literally into Chinese as "Baby Swapping Station”, the exhibition Baby Changing Station embraces translation discrepancies and imaginative readings of random texts as the core to Lau Sze Man’s methodology. Stepping outside our rigid cognitive frameworks, Lau turns to painting to explore states of liminality beyond words. Much like an infant coming to know the world through the sense of touch, Lau’s rhythmic lines and layered brushstrokes navigate and gradually give shape to elusive imagery.
For Lau, displacement embodies a longing for home; her painterly gestures capture the contradictions and instability she faces following her departure from her homeland. Where existing vocabularies fall short, she relies on painting as an alternative language to approach and express what words cannot. In They Have Strong Ties, the textual collage stems from a travel visa rejection letter. Through smudging, transferring, and inscribing, Lau transforms the ambiguity of the original text into a collaged poetry-painting centred on dwelling and belonging.
Idyllic and X Idyllic are both painted on ready-made shower curtains. These everyday household objects are often printed with flat yet picturesque landscapes. The juxtaposition of placing these distant scenery indoor draws Lau’s attention to the tension between painting and materiality. Through mark-making and layering over entire surfaces, Lau leaves deliberate traces in response to her state of belonging. Neither purely figurative nor abstract, her work comes even closer to her life in constant transit.
Lau’s artwork titles and their discrepancies from the imagery form an integral part of the exhibition, serving to unlock clues and associations rather than explain the visual contents. Through seemingly intuitive brushstrokes, a form of ‘writing’ that precedes language and the deviation from texts, Baby Changing Station gathers visual passages that emerge as subjects shift across boundaries.