Nadim ABBAS
HOMELESS FORMS FOR FORMLESS HOMES
屋即是空 / 空即是屋
2023

19x19cm | 162pp
Risograph book block
Offset spot colour insert + dust jacket

1st edition 500 copies printed at Ink’Chacha

Publication realised and supported by Rockbund Art Museum on occasion of the project RAM Commissions

This book began as a homage to the manga form.  However, after a spate of storyboarding and character development, it soon became evident that I was not really interested in telling a story per se.  Initially tempted by the prospect of spinning a gory tale set in a post-insect dystopia, I came to realise that in this respect, I would prefer to remain a reader rather than author.

Which is not to say that I had to completely start again from zero, since there were still various traces of world-building, of which this book is now a further reduction-in-progress.  Reduction that is, not in the sense of big-to-small, but like a sauce that is reduced to highlight certain flavours, by removing extraneous elements.

So if it is still possible to place this book in manga territory, it would be a curiously ‘ambient’ one; sans story, characters, a beginning or an end.

Next comes my fascination with the delicate science of package engineering, and the starring role played by moulded expanded polystyrene (EPS) foam, which itself merits a story of its own.  Or perhaps it is precisely the apparent lack of a story that drew me towards these discarded object-voids and their strange elegance.

Pictorial depiction in parallel projection allows for significant ambiguities with regard to questions of scale.  So if the reader momentarily confuses an EPS foam form for a building, you are not alone!

這本書最初是對漫畫形式的致敬。然而，在一連串的故事構思和角色發展後，很快就明顯地意識到，我並不真正對講故事感興趣。起初受到在後昆蟲末世中展開一個血腥故事的誘惑而產生構思，後來我逐漸意識到，在這方面，我更喜歡扮演讀者的角色，而非作為作者。

這並不意味著我必須由零重新開始，因為它仍然存在著一些世界構建的痕跡，而這本書正是這種縮減中的進一步演變。縮減，不是指從大至小，而是像把醬汁濃縮，通過去除多餘元素以突顯其味道。

因此，如果仍然可以將這本書歸類為漫畫領域，它將是一本奇特的「氛圍」書籍；沒有故事、角色、開始或結束。

接下來是我對精密的包裝工程科學的著迷，以及模塑擴展聚苯乙烯（EPS）泡沫所扮演的主角角色，它本身就值得擁有一個故事。也許正是缺乏故事性的原因，吸引我對這些被丟棄的虛空物體和它們奇特的優雅產生興趣。

平行投影的圖像描述允許在比例問題上出現多重觀點。因此，如果讀者一時將EPS泡沫形態誤認為建築物，你並不孤單！

Nadim Abbas examines the mercurial properties of images and their ambiguous relationship to reality.  This has culminated in the construction of complex set pieces, where objects disappear into their own semblance and bodies succumb to the seduction of space.

唐納天是活躍於香港的視覺藝術家。他的作品探索記憶和映像，在形神之間的穿插：複雜的裝置中，物件與其映像關係曖昧，形體與空間交錯。