Two island cities, surrounded by sea, punctuated by mountains – Hong Kong and Penang are related yet distinct, familiar yet strange, close yet distant.
Over Mountain Over Sea explores this gap which connects and separates the two cities. In a body of work created for Blank Canvas’s new home at Lorong Soo Hong in George Town, South Ho Siu Nam, known for his gentle yet perceptive photographs of his hometown Hong Kong, turns his eye on the streets, hills and waters of Penang.
Approaching George Town as a flâneur – a wanderer, walking the streets with a photographer’s eye – he investigates the character of the island in broad strokes and fine detail. But he is also a traveller, a Hongkonger, and in each image he finds echoes of his own home.
Alongside photography and video, South Ho ventures into new mediums for this exhibition with tin sculptures and a kinetic installation. A Datuk Gong shrine is reimagined as a set of painted bamboo blinds and tin pineapples, rearranging the iconography of Penang’s living cultural symbols into something both familiar and new.
For us Penangites, Over Mountain Over Sea invites us to look at our hometown through Hong Kong eyes, to become aware of what is constant and what is changing, what is shared and what is unique, what is said and what is left unsaid.
A dusky leaf monkey watches the sun play on the water from a rooftop on Penang Hill, with Gurney Drive and its land reclamation before her. Somewhere invisibly over the horizon, Victoria Harbour and the Peak gaze back.
BEAUTIFUL NEW WORLD 美麗新世界
(Beautiful New World 美麗新世界)
(Pineapple Pinang Tree 旺來檳榔樹)
(You’re Welcome 歡迎到來)
Acrylic paint on motorized bamboo curtain
180cm × 280cm each
Unique
2025
Beautiful New World 美麗新世界
Pineapple Pinang Tree 旺來檳榔樹
Band of lucky brothers and sisters 旺來八兄弟姊妹
2025
Tin bismuth alloys, acrylic paint
Dimensions Variable
Blue 藍色
4.5cm (W) × 5.0cm (L) × 12.0cm (H)
White 白色
4.5cm (W) × 4.5cm (L) × 11.2cm (H)
Black 黑色
4.5cm (W) × 4.5cm (L) × 11.7cm (H)
Red 紅色
4.5cm (W) × 4.6cm (L) × 11.7cm (H)
Yellow 黃色
4.6cm (W) × 5.0cm (L) × 11.6cm (H)
Green 青色
4.5cm (W) × 4.8cm (L) × 11.4cm (H)
Brown 褐色
4.8cm (W) × 4.8cm (L) × 11.7cm (H)
Pink 粉紅色
4.5cm (W) × 4.6cm (L) × 11.5cm (H)
Twins 雙胞胎
2025
Bronze frame, archival inkjet print
26cm × 28cm × 18cm
ver Mountain Over Sea 1–4 又過山又過海 1–4
2024–2025
Archival inkjet print
112 cm × 152 cm each
No Parking 不准停泊 60mm
Love Lane 愛情巷 68.4cm (L) × 29.4cm (W)
Love Lane 愛情巷 63.5cm (L) × 24.5cm (W)
No Parking 不准停泊 45mm
Lorong Soo Hong 四方巷 112cm (L) × 24.5cm (W)
Berhenti 停止 60cm (L) × 60cm (W)
Jalan Sehala 單行道 70cm (L) × 37.5cm (W)
Lebuh Armenian 本頭公巷 100cm (L) × 24.5cm (W)
Lost in Jalan 迷失惹蘭
2025
Galvanised iron sheet
Dimensions Variable
CITY FLÂNEUR – PENANG
城市漫遊者 – 檳城
Inkjet print on reusable sticker
Dimensions variable
2024–2025
Dialogue with Artist
2 September 2025, Tuesday, 2:00pm
South Ho, in conversation with KY, founder of Blank Canvas
The session will explore the exhibition and how his research in Penang shaped the works on view. Beyond the exhibition, South will reflect on his artistic practice which extends his experiences working with institutions and fellow artists to his independent art space in Hong Kong and Tainan, Taiwan. This conversation offers a chance to gain deeper insight into South’s creative process and his ongoing dialogue with the cities and communities that inform his work.