Enclosed Landscape

From: 2017 – 2022

Enclosed Landscape investigates a seldom-explored dimension of Macau’s urban environment by focusing on the construction site hoardings that increasingly dominate the city’s peripheral skylines. Unlike the conventional portrayals of Macau that emphasize iconic casinos or romanticized everyday life, this work deliberately turns to the mundane and repetitive scenes that remain largely invisible in artistic and photographic representations of the city.

Historically, landscape art—whether painting or photography—has served not merely to document scenery but also to construct ideological and political narratives. Selecting what to depict and how to frame it imbues the image with layers of meaning, often reinforcing dominant cultural identities or development narratives. In Macau, such visual representations tend to valorize rapid modernization or nostalgic tradition, thereby shaping a polarized understanding of the city’s character.

By appropriating the formal conventions of traditional landscape photography, Enclosed Landscape reframes these uniform and temporary construction hoardings as worthy subjects in their own right. These structures act as visual and physical boundaries, interrupting daily sightlines and defining limits of urban imagination. Their persistent presence at the edges of the cityscape speaks to a transitional phase in Macau’s development, one that is often hidden behind more spectacular imagery.

This work challenges viewers to reconsider their perception of the urban landscape beyond familiar symbols. It prompts reflection on how seemingly prosaic elements contribute to the evolving identity of Macau and invites an open-ended reconsideration of what constitutes the city’s future. In shedding light on the overlooked, Enclosed Landscape offers a subtle critique of established visual narratives and opens space for an alternative understanding of place—one grounded in the ordinary, the provisional, and the in-between.