This week in PostMag: from new true-crime film Papa to gelato and a carpentry revival

In this week’s print issue, we dive into woodworking studios in Hong Kong, solar eclipse chasing in Easter Island, and Sydney’s established White Rabbit Gallery

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This week’s issue covers the woodworking revival in Hong Kong. Photo: Jocelyn Tam

Cat Nelson

Published: 12:45pm, 15 Dec 2024

The romance of “working with your hands” is real. Sure, we all work with our hands in a sense – even us monkeys trying to coax Shakespeare out of keyboards. But there’s an inarguable difference between the furious finger-twitching that comprises the bulk of my day and the kind of physicality of work that transforms rough, raw materials into beautiful objects.

In our cover feature, Christopher DeWolf meets five of the studios behind a new wave of woodworking in Hong Kong. While the stories of how each of them came to the craft varies, a common thread is the pull to make things with their hands. The result? A range of pieces that runs the gamut from arresting to playful, such as Filip Winiewicz’s gorgeous, towering sculpture of stacked wood blocks or Ken Chow Kin-lung’s upmarket but still whimsical take on plastic stools. It’s a craft that most certainly blurs the line with art.

Firmly in the world of art is Australia’s White Rabbit Gallery. Billionaire Judith Neilson opened the Sydney space 15 years ago and since then has amassed more than 4,000 pieces of contemporary art from around 800 artists across mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong, writes Aarti Betigeri. Neilson is a fierce advocate for the region’s artistic talent – so much so that she’s made the sprawling gallery, displaying her private collection, free to the public. One for the Sydney bucket list.

Easter Island is also one to put on the list – and not just the island, but the island during an annular solar eclipse. Jamie Carter, who chases the “ring of fire” all the way to the Chilean territory, describes the almost addictive pull of an eclipse. When is the next one, he and his fellow eclipse-chasers immediately ask. I remember the same feeling from seeing a total eclipse of the sun during my first time at Hungary’s Lake Balaton in 1999. It’s a strange sensation when the world suddenly falls into darkness.

Patrick Suen speaks with Jo Koo Cho-lam who’s hot off her latest film. Directed by Philip Yung Tsz-kwong, Papa is a true-crime story based on a 2010 case in Tsuen Wan. Koo, who plays a mother murdered by her son, describes her hesitancy at accepting the role: “I was petrified by the thought of doing a scene in which I was killed by my son.” The film offers something different than your usual true-crime tale though, with its focus on the murder’s aftermath – the father’s survivor guilt, darkness as encompassing as an eclipse, and how one can move on.

Winter has arrived in Hong Kong but you wouldn’t know it by the recent spate of new ice cream and gelato shops. Gavin Yeung does the hard work of exploring the sweet scene, discovering flavours of all sorts. For me? If pistachio’s on the menu, I’m having it. How about you?