Nightshift resulted from a 2019 residency in Hong Kong. During my residency I became interested in playing fields. The city at times felt incredibly intense and chaotic, with everything piled in, 30+ storeys high all around you. These little green rectangles of empty space felt very inviting, and I found it interesting how different people used the playing fields; Malaysian domestic workers picnicking on Sundays, kids skateboarding in the afternoons, Tai Chi in the morning, protesters assembling at night… I started building a body of work around these spaces, but the residency got cut short due to the political landscape at the time. When I arrived back in the UK I continued working on some of the images, and then the pandemic hit. I carried on with some of the playing field works, such as Nightshift, but the meaning of them changed with the context and they came to explore something different; separation or longing perhaps.
2019
ink and oil on cotton
24.0 x 18.0cm
IP2121
Text & images © Ryan Orme
Portrait of Ryan Orme by Tim Jobling
Portrait of Ryan Orme by Tim Jobling