15/10/2026
SCOTTY SO
Did you know there is a paperbark forest in Hong Kong?, 2026
archival ballpoint pen on Xuan paper, framed
200 x 100cm
Scotty So grew up believing the paperbark was native to Hong Kong. It was only after moving to Australia eight years ago that he learned the tree originates here, brought to Hong Kong under British rule, where it has since naturalised and grows as though it had always belonged. Encountering the paperbark in Australia gave him an unexpected comfort when he first arrived, far from home. Later, returning to Hong Kong and away from the home he had made in Melbourne, the same tree offered that same comfort in reverse. The paperbark came to hold both places at once, and neither completely.
This drawing was made from photographs So’s brother sent of the trees near their family home in Hong Kong. He approaches the tree through the accumulated doodling of marks, the ballpoint a return to the medium of his schooldays, when paperbarks grew beside the classroom. The work holds the fading memory of home and origin, and of a colonial history at once personal and collective. In the paperbark So recognises his own condition, a displacement and quiet alienation that comes of being rooted in neither the place one left nor the place one now lives.
For more information about Scotty’s work please contact [email protected].
