IKEBANA PERFORMANCE

What Hands Give, What Ground Keeps, 2026

Ikebana Performance | Installation, mixed media, and collected materials, size variable

Performance duration: approx. 30 minutes

The art of

Kunsthalle Kohta, Helsinki, Finland

Curated by Anders Kreuger, Dr. Markus Lähteenmäki, and Dr. Mika Savela

Artists: L’Esprit de l’Escalier, Henrietta Lehtonen, Hedy Leung, and Eglė Ridikaitė

what hands give what ground keep ikebana installation

In preparation for the participation in 'The art of', Leung will spend a week exploring the Helsinki Wholesale Market, where Kohta is located. The large city-owned market is slated for future redevelopment, and this is one of Leung’s specific starting points for What Hands Give, What Ground Keeps (2026). The work is, she writes, 'inspired by my experience of years of returning to wholesale flower markets in Hong Kong and, more recently, London. Over time, transactions become relationships, and some relationships become friendships. Flowers are set aside before they are discarded. People begin to recognise one another through repeated encounters. Presence within a shared space gradually creates familiarity, allowing relationships – and sometimes friendships – to take shape.'

Yet Leung’s work focuses less on memoria and more the other two components of Cicero’s prudence, intelligentia and providentia. The openness to chance and interaction that is wired into the ikebana tradition, also in its classical incarnations, is grounded in foresight. A preference for the unknowable (but possibly foreseeable) also characterises Leung’s practice. Without sharing any history with the area and the people working in its shops and restaurants, she will scavenge for materials of various kinds, including cut flowers, and will encounters to happen within the physical and social space of the market. 'I will gather materials through three kinds of encounter: what is given, what is discarded and what is refused. Each leaves a different trace.'