shashasha

Sprayed and painted anonymously on walls, graffiti is one of the most basic visualizations of a city's collective voice. Photographer Chan Dick traveled around his home city of Hong Kong photographing sites of former graffiti. Each photo shows a wall covered in a thick layer of paint, the graffiti underneath erased and the idea it expressed no longer visible. Although the graffiti is no longer visible, the act of erasure remains.
Beginning in bright white, each new image in Dick's series is one shade darker than the previous one, ending with a wall covered in black.

“Once upon a time, when you walked into the streets and alleys of this city, you would see a dazzling array of graffiti, endless creative slogans expressing a refusal to compromise with reality, and one after another spray-painted mural expressing hope for the future.

Then, different factions engaged in an invisible confrontation by continuously covering each other's works with paint, until all the walls were effectively and comprehensively covered, restoring a clean and flawless surface. The overall situation seemed settled, and the people's struggles, restlessness, and anxiety disappeared without a trace.

Living in such a realistic world where the future is uncertain can be truly exhausting. However, when everything becomes unrecognizable, the only thing one can do is not to forget. It was at this time that I walked around various districts of Hong Kong, searching for and taking pictures of these almost invisible traces of graffiti, which emitted an atmosphere that seemed like a suppressed force struggling to survive in the corners of the city. I firmly believe that anyone who looks closely enough will be able to see the suppressed voices and emotions, as well as the historical trajectory of this city's rise and fall from its glory days.”
― Chan Dick