• D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG
  • D.C.
  • BXL
  • Lagos
Semafor Logo
  • Riyadh
  • Beijing
  • SG


Hong Kong installation challenges ideas about nostalgia and memory

Jun 24, 2025, 9:17am EDT
PostEmailWhatsapp
Trevor Yeung, “Cave of Avoidance” (Not Yours), 2024
Trevor Yeung, “Cave of Avoidance” (Not Yours), 2024. South Ho/M+

A new exhibition at Hong Kong’s M+ museum uses empty aquariums as a metaphor for life and memory.

Inspired by recollections of his father’s seafood restaurant, as well as time spent on Hong Kong’s Goldfish Street — a roughly thousand-foot stretch of aquariums and fish shops — Trevor Yeung’s Courtyard of Detachments aims to “preserve a moment suspended in time.”

The fishless tanks, which emit white noise and are bathed in the violet lighting of 1980s Hong Kong, encourage visitors to reflect on the fragmentary nature of time and memory.

“I hope you discover a part of yourself here, and maybe even some solace,” Yeung told Tatler Asia. “It’s about moving on.”

AD
AD
Hong Kong installation challenges ideas about nostalgia and memory | Semafor