HKFOREWORD15 by 10 Chancery Lane Gallery

Introducing New Art from Hong Kong

HKFOREWORD15 By Katie de Tilly

10 Chancery Lane Gallery is proud to present the fourth edition of HKFOREWORD, which introduces new art from Hong Kong. This group of seven artists has been selected from four universities in Hong Kong who offer degrees in visual arts. This is their first professional gallery exhibition in what we hope for them will be the beginning of a long career as artists. The works were co-curated by all members of the gallery who went to all the exhibitions and presented their selections. They were chosen for their diversity and strength. Although their creative processes vary, it can be said that each artwork is the accumulation of the artist’s individual existence during the time their work was produced. The exhibition is not trying to focus on trends but rather observe the inspirations of their age, time and place of being a student in Hong Kong in 2015. The artists were chosen from both the master’s degree programs as well as from the bachelor’s degree programs from their schools. Their general themes vary among the artists but focus on their individuality, the feeling of being solitary and observations on time and space. Surprisingly, there was very little work concerning the Occupy Central student movement that occurred in the autumn of 2014. Although there was plenty of artwork that made it to the streets themselves during the protest and there was much publicity around those works, only a few of the students used the event in their works. It brings to question how important these political issues are to the younger generations or if they chose not to make such works within the academic atmosphere. Two of the artists, however, addressed social issues. Frankie Lemon LEUNG observes the emotional trouble of adolescents through her video and desk installation and Jerry NG focuses on three stories of Kowloon City citizens in his perceptive video works. Fei TSE focuses on the mundane where he creates work by using the repetitive process of photocopying with surprising results of ghostlike imagery on Chinese paper. The work of Brandon Pak Kin CHAN, who made a pile of paper-made bricks that he spent a year making from daily newspapers is texturally luring. Once again the repetitive process of day– to-day activity is seen, but this time to explore value and the frailty of what is important today becoming obsolete tomorrow. The beautiful drawing of the sea by Lok Man DAAI is finely executed in classical graphite. Such training 2

is not common in Hong Kong as opposed to the university art training that is seen in Mainland China that focuses on rigorous technique. However, the powerful meaning of this work might be blinded by its finesse. DAAI describes this work as a metaphor of life being like a mental jail, the ripples give peace within a world that is lonesome and agonizing. Argus FONG is one among a few of the artists who choose to paint. His work, showing construction workers resting on makeshift beds, examines Hong Kong’s endless span of building sites and the human condition. The dark colors and scratch marks create a powerful and intense portrayal of certain lives being lived around us. In contrast, Jesemy MainHsin WANG creates comical surreal imagery by transposing a fish head onto the photographs of Jacques Henri Lartigue allowing the viewer to take distance from the importance of the individual who was originally portrayed in the photo. Once again, an issue of identity is explored through the passage of time and one’s loss of individuality. We propose the works by HKFOREWORD15 artists as a foreword to the next chapter of Hong Kong’s visual arts. Their works tend to lean more towards the subtle than the overbearing. They are thoughtful and perceptive about the world around them and their inner feelings in response to it. Hong Kong artists seem to be on a very different journey than their contemporaries across the border and need to be identified as such. 10 Chancery Lane Gallery wishes to continue to support the local art scene and be a part of helping artists to find a career path in the visual arts which, I am convinced, creates for all of us a more interesting and dynamic city.

《香港起動15》－姬蒂·天利

10號贊善里畫廊很榮幸呈獻第四屆《香港起動15》－一個介

代畫面中人的面孔，在被攝者與觀者間產生一種隔離，模糊

紹香港新藝術的展覽。是次展出的七位藝術家，來自本港四

了照片中人的身份及重要性。

間提供視覺藝術課程的大學。這會是他們的第一個專業畫廊展覽，我們希望藉此對他們寄予祝福，寄望這是其漫長的藝

2015年《香港起動》參展藝術家的作品，可視為香港視覺藝

術創作生涯的起點。是次展覽由本畫廊仝人共同策展，各人

術邁向下一章的引言。他們的作品傾向細膩而內斂，沒有嘩

走訪所有院校的畢業展，選出心中的優秀作品，它們所呈現

眾取寵。他們展示出細心的思考及洞察力，以創作反映他們

的多樣性及感染力是獲推薦的重要因素。儘管每位藝術家的

對環繞其身邊的世界及個人內心感受。香港藝術家似乎被認

創作過程各異，但可以說，他們均透過創作當中的過程和時

定，要與邊界彼端的藝術家走上很不一樣的路。10號贊善里

間，對自身存在等的問題不斷思考沉殿。展覽目的不為關注

畫廊希望持續支持本地藝術發展，幫助藝術家在藝術創作路

當下熱潮或特定風格，而是觀察這批身處2015年香港的年輕

途上尋找方向，我相信，本土藝術最終會為我們創作出更有

藝術學生，在屬於他們的年代及環境所得到的啟發。

魅力與活力的城市。

為籌備是次展覽，我們參觀了各院校的碩士及學士課程畢業展。與預想有所不同，只有很少部份的作品論及2014年秋季發生的“佔領中環”學生運動。儘管抗爭運動期間，有大量的藝術創作走上街頭，且獲得輿論高度關注，但只有少數的學生以此事件作為創作參考。這不禁讓人疑問，到底這些政治事件對年輕一代而言有多重要？還是，他們選擇在學院氛圍下迴避此類創作？各人的選題迴異，但貫穿其中，皆圍繞個人身份的探討、孤單寂寞的感受、以及對時間和空間的觀察。話雖如此，《香港起動15》中兩位藝術家的作品始終論及社會事件。梁敏婷透過錄像及課室書桌裝置作品讓我們觀察到青少年的情緒困擾，而吳碩軒的錄像作品訴說三位九龍城區居民的故事，呈現敏銳而感性的觀察。謝斐思考日常生活中的平凡，以不斷重複的影印在宣紙上創作出令人意想不到的抽象魅影。陳百堅花了超過一年時間，把每天讀過的報紙製成紙磚頭，質感引人入勝。雖然同樣是取材自每天的生活日常，不同的是，後者探索當今社會中脆弱的「價值」－今天重要的事，明天已難逃被淘汰的命運。戴樂文的作品，是一片以炭筆極細緻地描繪而成的綺麗汪洋。相對中國大陸強調工藝技巧的藝術教育而言，這種訓練在香港的教育中較為少見。然而，表面的精緻可能掩蓋作品中的重要信息。戴氏形容其作品中的情景好比一個精神監獄，海面上的點點漣漪正好為這個寂寞而惱人的世界帶來一點安寧。方梓亮是少數選擇繪畫的藝術家。其作品描建築工人在臨時搭建的床上休息的畫面，借此審視香港永無休止的建設工程以及居民的生活狀況。暗黑的色調與筆觸，揭示那些在我們身邊不被留意的一群，對他們的生活作出強烈而深刻的描述。那邊廂，王曼馨透過時間的流逝及個人身份的落失，同樣探討自我價值的議題。王氏的作品，建構了一個古怪荒誕的場景，借用了法國時裝攝影大師迦克·昂利·拉帝的照片，卻以金魚替 3

A wall of bricks made out of clay and newspaper, the installation 24 Hours by Brandon Pak Kin CHAN is a visually arresting work. The young talent has spent over a year deconstructing the relationship between time and space to explore the perishable nature of ‘value’ in today’s world. Artist Statement:

Since May of 2013, everyday, after I have read and digested a daily newspaper, I molded it into a brick. If I could not finish it on that day, then it would be skipped.

A newspaper concretely records the daily information of a city, but also unilaterally. Its frail expiry date exists only

“today”. Within the process, day-by-day, all the memories, contents, value, meaning... are washed as if they had never existed. What has it deconstructed? And what has it built? The only thing that can be seen is the marks of living.

陳百堅花了超過一年時間去創作磚牆裝置作品「二十四小時」；他每天把閱讀過的報紙加上粘土去製成一塊紙磚頭。透過這件作品，藝術家希望解構時間和空間的關係，並探索當今社會容易腐壞的「價值」。藝術家作品自述：自二零一三年五月開始，我每天用一份已被閱讀、被消化的報紙，重塑成為一塊報紙磚頭。若當天未能完成，就只能跳過。報紙既具體又片面地記載了一個城市的資訊，有效日期脆弱地就只有二十四小時。當發現它已經不在的一刻，就已經是「已經」了。日復日的過程中，所有記憶、內容、價值、意義......就好像不曾存在卻留著唏噓印象。消解過什麼呢？又重建了什麼呢？肯定的，就只有一個剩餘下來的現實。

24 Hours「二十四小時」 Mixed media installation, 2015, size varies

Lok Man DAAI treats his artistic journey as a metaphor to the cold and lonesome path one must take in life. His installation, featuring pencil on paper and wood, is a mental jail, and reflects the agony of being in a new environment.

Artist Statement:

‘Solitary’ is about the relationship between an individual and the outside world. It tries to express repressed

emotion through the numbing repetition of ripples, which depict an ocean, and to construct a mental space without being harassed, thereby seeking tranquility and mental rest.

戴樂文而言，人生就如一條孤獨、艱難且必經的道路。這件裝置作品以鉛筆、紙和木作為媒介，表達出一種身處陌生環境的痛苦，好比一個精神監獄。藝術家作品自述：「囚」是關於個人與外界的關係，嘗試透過描繪海洋重複的波紋表達麻木並壓抑的情感，並建構一個不被騷擾的心理空間，藉此尋求精神上的寧靜和休息。

Solitary「囚」 Pencil on paper and wood, 2015, 200 x 70 x 50 cm

Argus Tsz Leong FONG’s fascination with memories and understanding the human condition has led him

to create visually stimulating paintings that are both mystical and intriguing. Night Talk 1 depicts construction workers resting on makeshift beds. Fong creates layers of contrasts; a piece of wood is used as the backdrop to a scene referencing Hong Kong’s constant building work. Metallic colors and straight lines are juxtaposed

with the natural color and grain of the wood. In Remain, the artist draws on memories of his hometown, depicting a partially imagined landscape that is deeply personal to the artist’s life. Artist Statement:

When one experiences silence alone, sensing one’s own existence and confusion, the feeling is like being naked to oneself, everything is too frank and no one can escape from this. Obsolete walls, rough ceilings, and small cracks enlarge and expand in front of our eyes. This is a real and strange world. The world revolves around

memories derived from our own, building up with pieces of experiences. We may be foreigners, in search of a space of our own through living.

方梓亮的繪畫作品往往散發出一種強烈而奇妙的神秘感。他的創作靈感來自他對回憶和人性的理解「夜話一」描繪了一群建築工人在臨時搭建的床上休息的畫面。畫家創造出層層的對比：木塊為媒介並同時用作畫中的背景，暗示香港永無休止的建設工程；金屬色彩及直線線條則對照著大自然的顏色及木頭的質感。「停留」則描繪了畫家極度私人的想像空間－他的家鄉與幻想中的風景融合在一起的世界。藝術家作品自述：每當獨對虛空角落，面對自身的存在及困惑，赤條條的，竟是無處逃避。剝落的牆壁，粗糙的天花，一條小裂縫，都在眼前放大，擴張，這是一個真實而又陌生的世界。它圍繞我們每人各自的回憶，由一片片的經歷堆積而成。我們也許都是透過生活在尋找自我空間的異鄉人。

(top to bottom)

Night Talk 1「夜話一」 Oil on wood panel, 2015, 91 x 152 cm Remain「停留」 Oil on Canvas, 2015, 140 x 210 cm

Come to an Understanding is a mixed media installation that was inspired by artist Frankie Lemon LEUNG’s

experience as a schoolteacher and of working with adolescents. The three wooden tables have been installed with video devices to reveal the emotional rollercoaster of young people and their troubles in love, life and school.

Artist Statement:

I am a school discipline teacher therefore I usually meet adolescents with behavioral problems. They are dominated by desire, confused in the present moment and are also scared of the future. So, I swap clothes and

secrets with them, to study their growth in-depth. Then I create school tables with videos installed inside them

to question the effectiveness of education, and also to reflect the youth’s conflicting influences coming from family, friends, social atmosphere and the virtual network. The work features documentary images, sound and installation, bringing the audience a multi-disciplinary way to exploring individual lives.

梁敏婷的混合媒體作品「諒解的延伸」靈感源自藝術家自身的教師身份，以及其多年來與青年相處的經驗。安裝書桌上的三段錄像描述了年輕人高低起伏的情緒，與他們在感情、生活和校內所面對的煩惱。藝術家作品自述：在學校訓育工作中，我經常接觸到一些有行為問題的青年，他們受慾望支配，迷茫當下，更懼怕將來。透過與問題學生對調衣服及交換秘密，我深入探討青少年成長的脈絡；以三張空置的學生檯椅裝置，塑造了三位長期缺課的問題學生，表達對教育制度的存疑，同時投射了青少年在成長所面對的家庭朋輩、社會氣氛和虛擬世界的矛盾和煩惱。這件作品以紀錄影像，聲音結合裝置呈現，嘗試帶領觀者從多個角度去探究青年個體的生活。

Come to an Understanding「諒解的延伸」 Mixed media installation, 2015, size varies

Inspired by social issues and injustice, Jerry NG uses media installation to portray the lives of ordinary people

living in Kowloon City, Hong Kong in his work City. The viewer is faced with three stories of Kowloon City

citizens which are all true stories collected by the artist as he wandered the streets. The video records still motions seen in Kowloon City with added effects that continuously change in order to reflect the emotions of the text.

Artist Statement:

The city is moving forward, leaving the old days behind. How should we make peace with our memories? ‘City’ uses community art as a starting point. I interviewed more than ten citizens in the shadows of Kowloon City, hoping that the stories of these people can provoke our thoughts towards the city and, moreover, the “greatness” behind Hong Kong.

受到社會上各種問題與不公義所啟發，吳碩軒的創作以媒體裝置為主。藝術家為其畢業作品「城下」親身到九龍城區去訪問生活在該區的普通市民，並搜集不同的故事。觀眾會看到訪問進行時周遭的環境；朦朧的光暗變化配合著受訪者的情緒起伏，觀眾彷彿能以訪問者／藝術家的角度去聆聽故事。藝術家作品自述：面對我城不斷向前走，舊人舊事都將要被遺忘了，我們應當怎麼安置我們的回憶？作品「城下」以社區藝術為出發點，我親身訪問了十多個身處於九龍城區內不顯眼角落的街坊。希望藉著他們身上的故事去啟發我們不只對該區，甚至對香港「燦爛」背後是甚麼的一些思考。

City「城下」 Video installation, 2015, size varies

Fei TSE’s fascination with time and meaning has led him to explore the creative impulses that occur in the mundane orders of daily routines. Using the photocopiers at his university, he created Void, a series of ink printed on Chinese paper, to explore issues of identity and the repetitions of our lives. Artist Statement:

It is not mountains, nor is it water. It is what it is. We normally understand patterns on Chinese Xuan paper this

way: those areas painted with ink are mountains, while those left blank are water. This is true according to the

books too. It all began with an ordinary piece of blank paper. While Ziyou asked what filial piety was, I asked what a piece of blank paper was. I turned to the wise men who had read countless books before – the 46

photocopiers in the 7 libraries at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I photocopied a piece of blank paper. Using the image that resulted in this, I made yet another photocopy. The same process was repeated until a

portrait of ink diffusion gradually appeared on the blank paper, revealing the wise men’s answers: the illusion of mountains and water, or the classical elegance of the Five Dynasties Period, especially when the outcome

was presented on Xuan paper. Everything is constrained by the delusion of perception and existence. You are

constrained by your very perception when you think, and I by my own existence when I made the photocopies. That is all it is about.

沉迷於時間和其意義，謝斐從日常生活中的平凡且不斷重複的規律中找到其創作靈感。藝術家在大學裡以不同的影印機創造出一系列油墨作品，名為「無一物」。作品探索生活中不斷重複發生的事物，及其所引伸的身份問題。藝術家作品自述：不是山，不是水。是山水。那些有墨色的是山，留白了的是水。在宣紙上的圖案大概是這樣理解的，書上都是這麼說的。一切從一張最尋常的白紙開始。子游問孝，我問白紙，問那些閱書無數的智者－香港中文大學七個圖書館內四十六部影印機。我將白紙影印，然後將所得的影像再不斷重覆影印。白紙漸漸變得像墨水的滲化，顯示出智者的答案：一些山，一些水，什或至一些五代的古意，特別是呈現在宣紙上的時候。一切都只是執著於認知與存在的虛妄。當你在想像的時候，執著於已有的認知；當我在影印的時候，執著於自我的存在。僅此而已。

Void「無一物」 Inkjet on Chinese paper, 2015, size varies

Aurum Pisce is motivated by Jesemy’s curiosity about individuality, and the loss of it with the passage of

time. Using the photographic works of Jacques Henri Lartigue, known for his photographs of Parisian female fashion models, the artist composes her bizarre narratives that create a separation between the viewer and

the original image. By imposing the goldfish on the heads of the models, the artist reinforces the idea that the original images of the people themselves do not hold any significance for today’s viewer. Artist Statement:

I am inspired by the writing of the French philosopher and theorist Roland Barthes’s eulogy to his late Mother. The question that often arises from photographs or in this case historical photographs: why do any of these people matter to us? To us it does not matter at all, it is simply a fragment of the past. That’s why people are

turned into goldfish. They do not matter to any of us. We do not know them nor do they know us. Just like a “Goldfish”.

沉迷於研究人的獨特性，藝術家王曼馨認為人的個性會隨時間流逝而消退，啟發她創作出作品「Aurum Pisce」。為了建構心目中古怪荒誕的場景，王曼馨借用了法國時裝攝影大師迦克·昂利·拉帝格的照片，將觀眾從自身的角色抽離並代入照片中的人物角色裡。以金魚用取代模特兒的面孔，藝術家強調照片中被攝的人對今天的觀者來說並無任何重要性。藝術家作品自述：我受法國哲學家及思想家羅蘭·巴特為他已故母親所創作的頌詞所啟發。「被攝者和我們（觀者）有什麼關係？」這個問題經常在人們翻看照片或歷史照片時出現。對我們來說，被攝者並不重要，它只是過去的一個片段。因此我把人們都變成金魚。金魚對我們任何人來說都不重要。我們不認識他們，他們也不認識我們，就像「金魚」一樣。

Aurum Pisces Archival inkjet print, 2014, 30 x 40 cm

This booklet is published on the occasion of the exhibition HKFOREWORD15 at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong Kong in 2015.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in Hong Kong, 2015

Back cover:

Frankie Lemon LEUNG, Come to an Understanding, 2015

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