“Father's 1927.12.03 - 2010.08.27”, My Father's Hat
Li Lang
黎朗
Production date
2010-2013
Object Detail
Media
archival pigment print with pencil hand writing
Measurements
106.6 x 108 cm
Notes
Li Lang’s series, ‘Father’, was three years in the making after the death of his father in 2010. Each work in the series is an act of mourning, of memorialisation and of tribute. Each black and white photographic print is covered with tiny numerals, representing his father’s dates, representing each day of his father’s 82 years, which Li says adds up to 30,291 days. Li Lang wrote an artist’s statement when these works were exhibited in Hong Kong, explaining that when his father died, he saw his life reduced to a set of numbers – birth and death date – on his tombstone. He wanted to erase this bleak shorthand punctuation and restore every single day of a long, rich life – a process of restoring meaning. Li said: ‘I would be ashamed to let my father’s life diminish into numbers. I wanted to show every day of his life. I had an idea to write each of his day on the photograph I took, because every day is important to him.’ This immensely touching photograph of his father’s hat is imbued with a sense of loss and absence. After the death of a parent or close relative, every object they have worn or touched is invested with a melancholy significance, and so it is in Li Lang’s photographs of his father’s bracelet, wristwatch, hat and other objects. The artist says, ‘If you ask me, my father had a plain life. In society, he is just someone who could be totally ignored, his departure was just as ordinary as any ordinary people’s. It was so ordinary that we could easily forget it. But I’m always resisting such oblivion, resisting the increasingly vague memory and emotion with time elapsing.’
Accession number
2018.110