Nocturnal is Rusty Fox’s latest photobook capturing the body-like forms of plants in the city. Starting during the pandemic lockdown in Macau, the artist sneaked out at night and wandered around and noticed that the plants were thriving more than ever. The vividness of the plants at a time when everything else is in perfect stillness has initiated the project. Despite his subject being plants, their body language speaks louder than words. Nocturnal is an invitation to the parallel but alternative world, starting with the texture of the paper, the imagery narrative, and ultimately the whole reading experience, as if reading a mysterious tale from a vintage novel.

Curator’s Statement

Nocturnal is a body of work begun during the Covid lockdown, an intense experience for everyone, in which Fox found a creative subject through the medium of analogue and digital photography to explore the untrimmed trees and flowers that began to grow without the rigorous care of government gardeners.

According to the artist, the interpretation of this series of photographs is left to the viewer, so the current curatorial take should be understood as one of many possible readings about the work itself. The published photobook, Nocturnal, contains the complete set of trees, but not the flowers showcased in the exhibition. In it, one is clearly free to exercise one’s imagination and see what one’s subconscious is led to.

Anthropomorphic figures, conveyed through the portraits of trees or insect-like flowers and plants, are Fox’s nocturnal explorations of the local flora. The tree trunks depicted have such a physical expression – even sensual at times, one might suggest – that there is a haptic stimulus created by the contrast in surface texture. In Fox’s uncanny close ups, these living figures aren’t still, they’re pulsing with energy: walking, dancing, stretching, much like people in an urban environment.

If we were to define the style of the Nocturnal series, it would belong to the genre of Japanese street photography, derived from the spontaneity of the snapshot in the chaos of the city (Daido Moriyama), capturing the living moment, photographing the world but also oneself (Hiromix), while the subject matter is highly subjective and personal (Takuma Nakahira). You have to be out there, exposed to the overwhelming elements of the environment, then focus your attention and start shooting. The thinking comes later, in the silence of the studio…

João Ó

Rusty Fox

Wang Lap Wong (Rusty Fox) was born in Macau in 1991. He acquired his Master degree in Documentary Photography in University of South Wales, Newport, UK, and Bachelor degree in Photography in University of East London, UK.

Fox’s works have always been concerned with the balance and imbalance within the city, his interest mainly focuses on the relation between living organism and inanimate objects. To him, documentary photography in itself has no limits of its presentation. His body of work allows viewers to aware the neglected connection of living beings and inorganic things, leading us to the hidden message underneath through his pursuit of extraordinary truth from ordinary. Therefore, allowing the images to speak for themselves

Supported by:Cultural Development Fund of the Macao SAR