OLIVIA CHOW: When we went swimming one summer during COVID, where there weren’t any social distancing rules at the beach yet, we were swimming in the middle of the ocean, and Trevor can’t swim. He suddenly asked me, ‘Can you imagine me doing the Hong Kong presentation in Venice someday?’ And I said, ‘Why not?’

DOROTHEA LAM: [Cantonese] For the title of the exhibition at Gasworks, does its official name read ‘Trevor Yeung’, comma, ‘Soft ground’?

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] No, just ‘Soft ground’.

JENNY TAM: [Cantonese] We still need to discuss the exhibition’s installation sequence, photoshoot schedule, as well as the schedule for December.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] It’s more important to settle the site visit schedule in December.

FANNY CHAN: [Cantonese] In the week of 21 December, art Technicians would be in the studio for two days. By then, we can start installing the aquarium stand.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] How many days do you think it will take?

FANNY CHAN: [Cantonese] Three days?

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] But we’ll need to go there to check out the courtyard’s ground level.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Shall we go through the items one by one, and work out what needs to be done each day? For me, [the entire plan] remains unclear.

OLIVIA CHOW: Hello!

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] And then you need to subtly pull the door up. Pull that up a bit and draw that towards yourself. It’s like that every time.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Every time?

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] That’s why sometimes I can’t open the door.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] What?

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Keep fumigating the door. Keep going. Take a break first.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] We planned to arrive here at 10:30, and start moving things in to unload things we brought and start sizing the venue. But we cannot open the door. We’ve tried. We’ve painstakingly tried different means to crack it…

Oh! How did you open the door? Okay.

[Cantonese] Can you stand right in the middle, so that I know where the highest spot is. The cross you’re now standing on marks the centre of the fountain.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] If you put it here, at least you can invite the audience to come in more, so they can focus on the artworks.

TREVOR YEUNG: For 1060. 3.67. 7.6, right.

OLIVIA CHOW: Couldn't we just allocate a bit more space for it?

TREVOR YEUNG: In order to channel water to the courtyard, we have to measure the water pipe this way. Lick it.

OLIVIA CHOW: Lick it?

TREVOR YEUNG: This is sea salt. All this they’re going to be scraped away.

OLIVIA CHOW: We can make a can of sea salt as an artwork for ‘Venice in Hong Kong’. Done.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Now we’re heading to the train station to take the 12:00 train to Treviso, where we’ll take some pictures to see what materials and tools we can source when we come back in March. They’ve got these.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Yes, they are fantastic. And they’ve got all this stuff as well.

(Have you known each other for long?)

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Since 2015. At that time, we were preparing the grand opening (of Para Site). It was a large-scale exhibition. Back then, he often dashed into the office saying, ‘Hello, I’m here!’ I was thinking, ‘Who is he?’. And he would say, ‘I’m here to drop off some stuff’. That’s how we got to know each other.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] After that, we were more like friends.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] No. We are friends, we never worked together afterwards.

([Cantonese] So this is the first time you two work together?)

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Yes, our first.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Yes.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] When I received the invitation, they asked me if I am to pick a curator at M+, whom would I choose. As I pondered the question, Olivia’s name very quickly popped into my head. From collaborators to friends with each of us encountering different things, we talk about a lot of things. Not only does it help bring about the exhibition, but it also cements our relationship. I don’t want to carry it back, but it is marvellous.

TREVOR YEUNG, JENNY TAM: Hello!

KIN WONG: [Cantonese] If we lift this up a bit, we can fine-tune it, (to adjust) the top should be quite difficult.

HIUWA LI: [Cantonese] That means this split into three parts same here, and here as well, and we’ll link them up directly here.

FANNY CHAN: [Cantonese] So is that for the I-shaped aquarium stands?

HIUWA LI: [Cantonese] Yes, seven of them.

FANNY CHAN: [Cantonese] Right, so there’re seven stands. But we need to test that… once it’s plugged in it will…

HERMAN LAU: [Cantonese] How wide is each section?

HIUWA LI: [Cantonese] Around 100cm.

HERMAN LAU: [Cantonese] So they add up to 4m.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese]No, no. Not the red (that needs adjustment). We should reduce the yellow colour, while keeping the pinkish tone.

Hide that a little, such that you can’t see it. I don’t need to see the entire mushroom.

South Ho Siu Nam: [Cantonese] I like this one.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Yep, me too.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Tell him we’d like it to be shorter, and… the upper part as well.

OLIVIA CHOW: So I think making it higher might be better. It won’t be on the nose, because it’s so much already.

TREVOR YEUNG: It is too big.

DORYUN CHONG: There is no such thing, Trevor. Never too big.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Actually the one at the back, is stronger than this one, so if we have that one, it will be easier to adjust for the setup and even for maintenance.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] If we run this picture in the brochure, we can then drop 1312, the photo we’ve just seen as people will get to see it in the brochure.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] 13 what?

DOROTHEA LAM: [Cantonese] 1312.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Your hand… Yes, lift it this way.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese]As it rained so much before the water has turned murky. The most important thing to do today really is to try drawing water from the lagoon.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Our exhibition actually features two bodies of water, the outside one is seawater whereas the inside one is freshwater. The work outside requires drawing water from the canal. For the trial run in Hong Kong, we used tap water. Now we’re extracting water from the canal for the first time. There’re only 10 days away from the exhibition opening. The positions of most of the artworks have been decided. The setup here is a bit different from the trial. Say, the water quality here is in stark contrast to Hong Kong’s.

There are water fleas. Can you see them? The water quality is good.

I do feel very uncertain because not everything went as smoothly as I expected. Say the water was very clear to start with. But one day later when minerals started to settle, you’d see a lot of sediment at the bottom of the tanks. Finally, we spent a few days to alter the water quality, or to make it more like the water in Hong Kong. At long last, after discussing with Olivia, we felt it actually sits well with the theme of our exhibition as [the exhibition] ultimately centres on water quality and ecosystems. So, we decided to present the sediment.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] We’ll put away the crate in the afternoon, and we’ve finished installing parts of ‘Gate of Instant Love’.

HIUWA LI: [Cantonese] There’s a profusion of bubbles.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] They’ve proliferated like this one.

HIUWA LI: [Cantonese] Yes. For this one, its right side has been blocked. We’ve unscrewed the air pump, still there’s no bubbles.

KIN WONG: [Cantonese] Later, we’ll let them look at the position for installation, then we’ll put marks on the ground and put on the sticker.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Just at the front.

KIN WONG: [Cantonese] At the front. Just like a stopper. See if the width is right. It’s right.

HERMAN LAU: [Cantonese] It crossed the line a bit.

OLIVIA CHOW:[Cantonese] I think the lighting is okay.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] It’s okay. It feels comfortable. The spotlight holder will arrive on Sunday, so we don’t need to worry.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Great.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] It’s okay to keep it like this. Yes.

Now I need to write my speech for today’s opening. I haven’t finished it yet. I need some peace and quiet.

I’m getting nervous.

JENNY TAM: [Cantonese] Are you going to look at the phone?

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Yes, I’m going to look at it.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] We’ll go up there. My speech first, then yours.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] Shall we go up together?

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Yes, together.

OLIVIA CHOW: There are many moments, one can dream about but to have the opportunity to realise something on this international scale and on this platform, and to do this with a dear friend and with many whom I respect and admire is really a reality that is once in a lifetime. And last but not least, thank you, Trevor for trusting me to be your curator and for being a friend.

TREVOR YEUNG: Even though there is always the name of the artist under exhibition title, but there is no doubt that all of us are working together to do the things we care about. So that we can make it happen. Thank you.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] This exhibition runs on the concept of attachments. When audiences see an exhibition, most of the time they are by themselves. It’s a deeply personal, introspective exploration. When you visit the rooms one by one, you’ll get to see different aquariums and encounter fish in different scenarios. You may see the filters in the artwork and the various accessories or even our interns incessantly wiping the tanks every day. In fact, everything is closely intertwined and that preciously manifests the invisible yet deeply felt attachment between people and in society.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] When we view an exhibition, we’ll usually just see the names of the organising institutions artist, and curator. But, every bit of effort, made by everyone involved should be acknowledged in an exhibition. Before, I used to feel that when working on an exhibition or making an artwork, I was all on my own. But this project made me understand the importance of teamwork and cooperation how we should trust others who work with us in a team.

OLIVIA CHOW: [Cantonese] Can we say mission accomplished?

Everyone: [Cantonese] Definitely.

JENNY TAM: [Cantonese] You have to show your faces.

Now we are like journalists visiting a factory.

OLIVIA CHOW: Welcome to my factory.

JENNY TAM: [Cantonese] Much obliged, much obliged.

TREVOR YEUNG: [Cantonese] At the end of the day, the most important thing is this sense of being in a team.