Hong Kong artist Doris Ng explores vulnerability and disability at M+
Doris Ng Toi-yee takes out a wooden tray and shows me its contents: wooden pegs, each scrawled with handwritten notes. Some of them are simply names, like 'Marilyn', followed by three hearts. Others contain more ambiguous text: 'Truth is', 'Play', 'Hope', 'Broken', 'Inner Child'. Each one is an audience response from A Collective Imprint: Adjust the Rainbow (2025), a participatory performance that Ng staged in March at
Supper Club Hong Kong , in H Queen's. (I co-founded Supper Club but was not involved in this event.)
We're at Ng's studio in HART Haus in Kennedy Town, where across the space, a mess of large-scale canvases, performance props, clothes and books evoke a sense of play. In her practice, Ng is interested in vulnerability, connection and 'icebreaker' moments, what she says are embodied in the pegs she extends towards me.
Later this year, these interests will take her to London, where she will begin a PhD at Central Saint Martins, studying participatory art, trust building and crip theory, a growing movement that affirms the lived experiences of people with disabilities. But before that, she is staging a performance at
M+ 's Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival next weekend.
Signage of Reflex #1 (2020). Photo: Jocelyn Tam
What's your first memory of making art?
My earliest memory is of a colouring book that revealed colours with water. It dictated outcomes, leaving little room for creativity. I grew frustrated, brushing so much water that the paper tore. I was five, and my mother bought me many colouring books.
This experience planted the seeds of my desire to embrace spontaneity, push boundaries and challenge controlled frameworks in both life and art.
What's your daily studio routine?
I wouldn't call it a routine. It's more of a pre-studio ritual that sets the tone for my day. I start by exercising vigorously, grab some orange juice and walk up the stairs. Inside, I burn incense and keep the windows open for fresh air and white noise, no matter what the weather's like.
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