The Unclean Project by Fion Hung

The Unclean Project introduces an intimate, conceptual investigation into discrimination, global inequality, and human worth by utilizing the urban pigeon as a lens to critique historical eugenics, Western imperialism, and the policing of the female body. By intertwining research on the changing human-animal relationship with personal trauma, the work exposes how societies categorize, exclude, and demonize the bodies that deviate from institutionalized norms.

The project traces how pigeons—once revered companions from the Bronze Age to 19th-century Hong Kong—were systematically reclassified from “doves of peace” to “flying trash.” This fall from grace mirrors the mechanisms of Social Darwinism. Historically, Western imperialism glorified the pure white dove while casting multi-colored pigeons as inherently inferior. As a Chinese artist, I identify this color-based hierarchy as a direct legacy of aggressive Western imperialism, where those who failed to meet colonial standards were deemed “unfit” to elevate global white supremacy.

Beyond coloration, the project dissects how the pigeon’s physical features—short spiky legs, broad chests, fleshy skin, and odd-looking eyes—alarm the modern public, rendering them an alien “other.” This reaction connects directly to her family’s trauma with Marfan syndrome, a rare genetic disorder affecting connective tissues. Diagnosed on her father’s side in 2016, Marfan syndrome often manifests in unusually tall, thin proportions and skeletal irregularities, which historically subjected individuals to the cruel nickname of “pigeon man” due to the specific shape of their chest bones.

Confronting this history, the book uses the artist’s own female body as a site of study. Although she tested negative for the syndrome, she sees its symptoms written across her own skin, casting doubt on medical finality. Echoing the pseudo-scientific scrutiny of Francis Galton, the founder of eugenics, the artist turns the camera inward to examine my own body parts. She uses a meticulous combination of color and black-and-white images establishing a visual dialogue between clinical detachment and raw emotional reality. Furthermore, the integration of staged photography and intricate photo collage techniques constructs, deconstructs, and addresses these images. By slicing, layering, and reassembling these visual fragments, the work fractures the rigid boundaries between “normal” and “abnormal,” transforming personal pathology into a universal critique of biological discrimination.