You Can’t Walk This Earth Forever; Someday You Will Have To Fly  

Artist Statement

For more than 10 years, I have been suffering from depression. It has caused me to think about life’s meaning. My feelings about death are paradoxical - I dread to think about the demise of people I love, but I feel indifferent and apathetic about my own.

In 2018, my Australian mother, for whom I felt a deep affection, passed away due to brain cancer. This was the first time I witnessed the death of someone I knew, and I experienced a profound depth of grief. I encountered uncertainty about my significance in the larger scheme of the universe. My understanding of such concepts and beliefs about my meaning in life were challenged.

I encountered a sentiment a few days after she passed away — ‘You can’t walk this earth forever; someday you will have to fly’. This is what she used to tell her sons when they were kids. Somehow these words consoled me, and have accompanied me since. Her words inspire me not to be obsessed with the state of living and to accept the mortality as part of life.


十幾年來，我一直受抑鬱症侵擾，這使我不禁去思考生命的意義。我對「死亡」的情感非常矛盾—我懼怕我所愛的人終將死去，卻又對自身終有一死感到異常冷淡並無動於衷。

在二零一八年，我深愛著的澳洲媽媽因腦癌離世。這是我第一次親身目睹、經歷身邊人的死亡，它使我墜入深沉的悲痛而不能自抑。在廣袤的宇宙與其規律間，我感受到自身意義的渺茫。所有關乎生命意義的概念和信念，此時都在我的內心經受著挑戰。

她離世後的幾天，我意外地聽到一句話 — 「You can’t walk this earth forever; someday you will have to fly」（你無法永遠行走在這地球上；總有一天你需要飛翔）。這是她在兒子們還小時經常講給他們聽的。不知何故，我在這話語中得到了慰藉；自此之後，它亦一直陪伴著我。這句話鼓舞著我，不要過份執著和沉迷於「生」，應接受死亡亦是生命不可分割的一部分。

About Starry Kong


Starry Kong is a Melbourne-based visual artist who was born in Kunming, China. She obtained an Honours degree in photography from RMIT University, Australia in 2020. Starry is interested in the intangible and inexpressible sentiments that are characteristic to humankind. She explores this phenomenon through her own experiences of loss, grief, alienation and her long-term mental illness, which has become the foundation and origin of her creative practice. Starry uses photography as the primary medium to express her inner feelings and thoughts, while metaphor and symbolisation constitutes her visual art language.

Starry Kong 出⽣於中國昆明，是⼀位⽣活在墨爾本的視覺藝術家。 她獲得澳⼤利亞皇家墨爾本理⼯⼤學攝影榮譽學位。 Starry著迷於⼈類所特有的、無法捉摸也無從表達的情感。 她透過⾃⼰的得失、痛苦、疏離與⻑年精神疾病的經歷來探索這種現象，並奠定了她創作實踐的基礎和根源。Starry以攝影為主要媒介來表達她內⼼的感受和想法，⽽隱喻和象徵則成為了她的視覺藝術語⾔的重要構成。





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You Can’t Walk This Earth Forever; Someday You Will Have To Fly  is the second chapter of the series Reality Overdose, which gathers three image-based exhibitions, demonstrating individual experiences of how our self-awareness and understanding of life are confined by the realities which we are born into, and how we can use such realities as vessels for authentic self-expression.

Reality Overdose, curated by Yang Jiang, is part of Satellite Exhibitions by Hong Kong International Photo Festival 2021.


「你無法永遠行走在這地球上，總有一天你需要飛翔」是影像系列「我有說話未曾講」三連展的第二章。該系列從個體經驗出發，詮釋了我們與生俱來的自我意識以及對生命的體認如何受既定現實所束縛，而我們又如何將這種現實轉化為全然真誠的自我表達。

「我有說話未曾講」由江小陽策展，是二〇二一年香港國際攝影節衛星展覽計劃的參與項目。