Behind 'Timepieces': A Conversation with Ho Tzu Nyen and Wong Hin-yan

Wong: Yes, there are a few songs connected to time. When this project started, I tried to find elements from my songs that fit this work. Some people say my music makes them nostalgic. It’s not my intention, but at the same time, I really like old music, like Cantonese opera and naamyan, which is a kind of folk singing tradition in Cantonese. My lyrics reflect the changes in Hong Kong in the past twenty years, about the passing of time and the disappearance of some parts of Hong Kong.

Tzu and I had discussed conceptual ideas about time, like ‘Is there time at all, or do we shift into another kind of reality?’ I like these concepts very much, so we clicked this way.

Tsang: I frequently struggle with the feeling that we can never truly exist in the present—every moment exists in the context of the past and future. At any moment, one tends to only discuss one’s hopes for the future or one’s memories of the past, but it’s hard to grasp what ’now’ really means. Even when we talk about the present, we’re thinking about the future, right? I feel that Hong Kong is always in this kind of situation. That’s why I feel so connected to your music. Although it often sounds like it's from the past, the lyrics address the uncertainty of the present and the ticking time bomb we are living in.

Ho: Thinking about the past leads to melancholia; thinking about the future leads to anxiety.

Tsang: And the present?

Ho: No thoughts! (laughs)

Wong: I suggest that you all try singing. Because I feel anxious too, but when I sing, it grounds me.

Only when you truly stay in the present can you sing well. If you start thinking about the next bar you’re going to hit, it takes you out of that moment.

Ho: I noticed that a lot of museum exhibitions I saw in Hong Kong are focused on the golden age of Hong Kong film and music in the eighties and nineties. That makes me feel sad, you know? It was almost like the peak, the golden era, was all in the past. I always wonder, what about the present, and where is the future?

Wong: Sometimes I feel sad about that too. But if we look at today, there are many good things happening—but they often don’t get written down as history, so it’s harder for us to see them as trends …

Schmickl: That’s the problem with nostalgia, you know? It’s convenient for authorities to use it because it creates a mindset that feels safe and isn’t dangerous for the present. It’s easier to consume. They know that in our turbulent times, people find comfort in nostalgia. Nostalgia is always your comfort zone, like your mom's cooking—you can go back to it anytime.

Ho: For this live cinema collaboration and also the M+ facade work, it's about Hong Kong's past, but we try not to stay in the nostalgia. We still need to move forward and we're still thinking of the future. I believe this mixture (of film and music) is perfect because it embodies what we hope for in a new collaboration. Each person brings their own unique specificity to the project, and together, we can create something completely new.