In What Glows in the Wind, Chan King Long, Ken responds to displacement, uncertainty and the enduring search for belonging in a changing world. Wild blossoms sway in the storm, fireworks and ash dissolve into the night sky, while solitary figures gaze towards distant shores. Across these scenes, fragments of everyday life move between stillness and motion, departure and arrival.
The wind represents the forces that unsettle the familiar world, carrying people, memories and emotions across distance. Yet alongside this movement, light emerges as an equally important presence. A flickering candle, a distant glow or a sudden illumination becomes a point of attraction within the darkness—offering warmth, direction and the possibility of hope.
Yet light does not necessarily offer reassurance. Its attraction can also be elusive, ambiguous, or even consuming. Like a moth irresistibly drawn towards a flame, the desire to move towards the light may lead towards both revelation and danger. This ambiguity lies at the heart of Chan’s vision: light may embody hope, but it may also represent something we are compelled to pursue without knowing where it will lead.
This interplay between movement and light finds a particular resonance in Venice. Like Hong Kong, Venice is a city shaped by water and closely connected to the world beyond its shores. Its history has been defined by navigation, exchange and encounters across distance. Presented between these two water-bound cities, What Glows in the Wind becomes a reflection on departure, memory, attraction and belonging.
The exhibition extends Chan’s artistic dialogue from his March 2026 solo exhibition What Hums in the Rain, presented by Contemporary by Angela Li in Hong Kong, bringing his inward contemplation of a changing world into a new geographical and cultural context. If What Hums in the Rain invites us to listen to the subtle sounds beneath the noise, What Glows in the Wind asks a further question: when everything around us is in motion, what are we drawn towards, and where are we going?
For Chan, art becomes a moment of pause—a space where scattered memories, emotions and possibilities can gather. Through every encounter and parting, seeds gather within the fissures to take root once more.
