Disinfect every two hours! 《每兩小時消毒一次!》

In this piece, Toland and Hambley repurpose the found poetry from often-overlooked signage in Hong Kong. The signs include text such as “Look Right”; “Disinfect every two hours”; or “Disturbed Slopes Ahead”. In their interactive installation on the stairs that lead up to the Hong Kong Museum of Medical Sciences, passers-by reassemble these words to form their own poetry from the city. The words and their often random transposition offer a reflection on the subtle anxiety whispering below the surface of Hong Kong’s collective subconscious: the fear of contagion, disease, and engulfment. The title of the work recalls this area’s history as the site of a devastating plague outbreak in 1894.