Liminal Plane and Other Urban Oddities | Horatio Hung-Yan Law

The last eight years have been a dark and tumultuous time. Normally, these would have been fertile grounds for the artistic mind. But the sheer amount of outrage, conflict, and disinformation became daily assaults to the senses. Fear and uncertainty were all around, the future seemed bleak, and our collective psyche was in danger of shutting down or retreating into a fortress. During the COVID lockdown, I half-heartedly started a regimen of walking 3-5 miles every other day to replace much needed exercise. Out of boredom, I began to photograph with my cellphone camera to pass the time. During my walks, I noticed changes in my mood and the way I perceived my surroundings. I began to see that new meaning and fresh experience could be gleaned from the most ordinary objects and scenery, and beauty could be found in the dirtiest corner, if I gave myself time to look deeply and see things in multiple perspectives. I gradually felt the floodgate of pent-up emotions reopened, and I began to allow myself to long for quietude, beauty, and the return of hope, at least while I was on my walks and taking photographs.

As I navigated through the cityscapes, what attracted my curiosity most were the complex reflections of urban shop and building windows. The glass surface, with its ability to reflect and be transparent at the same time, integrated what’s inside the window, the surface of the glass, and the reflected scene. I started to call this surface the “Liminal Plane” – a surface that provides surprise transitions and seamlessly collages together multi-layers of spaces. It becomes a vehicle for merging parallel realities, distance places, and perhaps even different times, blending the past, the present, with the changing future. This exploration of trans- spatial and temporal imagination provides the perfect escape into realms that relieve the frustration of the ongoing political conundrum and allows fresh insights and different perspectives in understanding and perceiving our place in time.

Artist Biography

Horatio Hung-Yan Law is a Portland-based artist whose work in photography, installation, and public art focus on making creative projects with diverse communities. He was born in Hong Kong and came to the US at age 16. The core of his art stems from his Asian American identity and his experience as an immigrant. His projects explore the invisible foundation of a community – identity, memory, and history. His working process includes a strong community element that often engages stakeholders in planning and production of the artwork. His public art portfolio includes works created for the City of Tacoma, the Housing Authority of Portland, Seattle Public Utilities, Oregon State Hospital, TriMet Portland-Milwaukie Light-Rail Line, Portland Parks & Recreations, Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4CULTURE, Asian Counseling and Referral Service, and The AMP: AIDS Memorial Pathway in Seattle. Horatio is a recipient of multiple RACC Artist Project Grants, Oregon Community Foundation’s Creative Heights Initiative Grant, Oregon Arts Commission’s Career Opportunity Grant, and Metro’s Community Placemaking Grant. Most recently, his work had been included in the 2024 Oregon Artists’ Biennial.