My Art Journey
During the search for a subject to define my practice, I discovered that what concerned me most was in fact my affiliation with the city I live in, its people and its culture; so the city of Hong Kong has become the central theme of my work for some eight to nine years till today. As my understanding of this society grew, my focus of interest shifted from the kaleidoscopic visual elements to that of the city’s social behavior in individual social spectrum. My research on this city during the past four years helps me gain a heightened awareness on our cultural heritage and a broaden knowledge on the formation and change of the city’s social consciousness, identity and its sense of self.
My present project aims to participate in the discourse concerning issues relating to Hong Kong’s identity and to define our cultural consciousness and heritage through my own personal perspective. The practice is informed by the struggle and developments that this city has gone through over the past 40 years from the social turmoil of the 1960’s to the search of a cultural identity in current time. It aims to give reference to the city’s business culture, social attitude and behavior against a backdrop of a colonial past and economic growth. In order to establish a visual language relevant to the cultural context of Hong Kong in the twenty-first century, the ancient Chinese philosophy, Taoism, the Western medieval alchemy theory and relevant contextual symbols such as aluminumare borrowed as catalysts to portray the ironies and polarized values in society, which stem from the contradictory attitudes of Confucian and Western philosophies. ‘All That Glitters is not Gold II’ (2007)and ‘Glittering Roofs’ (2007) made direct reference to these observations, attempting concurrently to bring the dialogue on the relationship between glamour and value to the fore.
All That Glitters is not Gold II, Aluminum and mixed media, Size: variable, 2007
Glitter Roofs, Aluminum and mixed media, Size: variable, 2006
Prior to my search of new artistic directions some ten years ago, I was engaged in the practice of contemporary Chinese art for a span of twenty years, attempting to translate the message of nature onto paper. When my focus of interest shifted in time from landscape appreciation toward specific social issues, I felt an urgency to expand my horizon in art-making in order to articulate my purpose. With the belief that art should have no limits, I embarked on my journey of discovery and experimented for ten years in the multiple universe of Western art, exploring its evolution and multiple art media. This experience has proven invaluable and provided me with new directions in my personal pursuit for artistic expression. Today, after traveling a full cycle, I feel that it is time to re-introduce Chinese art, its medium and spirit, to my work in order to depict the multi-dimensional culture of this city. I integrated calligraphic references, abstraction and diverse formats, such as 2-dimensional painting, mixed media construction and installation, to create a synthesis of Western and Chinese aesthetic or borrowed from a Western artist’s sense of spirituality and compositions to describe an association between ‘the foreign’ and ‘the local’. This inclusive amalgamation does not aim to be another ‘East-West paradigm’. The integration of different art forms are intended to highlight not only the aspect of plurality and today’s trend of globalization, but also the belief that art should have an open horizon and the flexibility to encompass and assimilate foreign elements, cultural or non-cultural, in order to allow the visual language to enter new dimensions.
The advent of the second millennium has seen new shifts in philosophy and civic attitudes within Hong Kong. At this particular moment in time, eleven years after its return to China, Hong Kong society is experiencing a new awareness of its own values and assets and is conscientiously searching for the many positive aspects of its collective character. These hard-won qualities – openness, fairness, harmony, tolerance and respect for the law – can rightly be claimed by Hong Kong residents as vital aspects of their identity. With this imperative in mind, I launched on working with this subject ‘reconstruction’, aiming to give a presentation on the sense of reconstruction of some social aspects within my work. ‘Reconstruction’ could mean the rebuilding of many facets of the society, such as its collective ego, identity, spirit, social consciousness, civic attitude, culture and national pride. By employing a traditional and highly symbolic material such as bamboo to represent Hong Kong culture, I was able to present a series of works in relation to the society’s current sentiment, in an attempt to give a depiction on the city’s resilient spirit along with a gradual build-up of nationalism and new-found awareness of its own self. ‘Reconstruction I’ (2006) aims to present a manifestation of this particular spirit in today’s Hong Kong.
Reconstruction I, Bamboos and mixed media, Size: variable, 2006
My research and experimentation have helped me clarify my own perception of important aspects in the search for a Hong Kong identity. Despite Hong Kong’s obvious embrace of certain aspects of Western culture, it has in principle, preserved a large part of its deep-rooted traditions. I am not alone among artists who are striving to express the fusion, and/or clash, of local and foreign cultural elements. My project is intended to engage directly with this on-going dialogue and to search for the integration of diverse cultural concepts in art.
Lucille Yuk Yin Lo, DFA
2. November 2008
Artist Statements
For the past ten years, my work focused on the changing identity of Hong Kong and subsequent changes to the culture of the city, spanning a period from the 1950's to the decade following 1997. The work strives to express selected aspects of the city's contemporary social phenomena, namely the Chinese and Western interaction, the local outlook on wealth and development of social consciousness and behaviour following the return of Hong Kong back to China in 1997.
In response to the city's new shifts in philosophy and civic attitudes ten years after its handover, a series of my work, using bamboo as a symbol, defines the reconstruction of a new identity with an aim to depict Hong Kong's resilient spirit, collective ego and a new-found awareness of its own self.
'This is Not Pure Wine' makes a direct reference to the way Hong Kong Chinese spoken language is developed.
From ancient scripts to that of traditional and simplified characters, the Chinese language has undergone significant evolution. 'This is Not Pure Wine I' explores the evolution of the Hong Kong Chinese language - from ancient Chinese oracular bone symbols to the 'melange' of illegible English words with a piece of illegible Chinese text.
Tao, Dow, Dao 道, 道, 道
The three words, Tao (道), Dow (道), Dao (道), are homonym in Chinese language. The words Tao and Dao are two English transliterations of the Chinese character, 道. 'Tao' is an ancient Chinese philosophy, teaching simplicity in life, while 'Dow' represents a leading international stock market index. By using the character '道 ' as a symbol, the artist plays with its diverse contextual meanings, striving simultaneously to bring out the polarized values of the traditional and the contemporary Hong Kong society, their extremes and contradictions.
Illusion 虛幻
Referencing to Taoist principles of impermanence and the medieval alchemic belief of changing metal into gold, 'Illusion' attempts to express the perspective on certain aspects of Hong Kong's contemporary consciousness, aiming to provoke awareness on the notion of transience in the secular world.
Nu Yishu 女藝術 (女紅)
In old days China, the term 'Nu Yishu' was interpreted as women's needle work, embroideries of sewing - proper activities for ladies in their secluded homes. Yet in contemporary time, women's occupations have extended far beyond their predecessors' domestic engagements to participate in the competitive arenas of the stock market. 'Nu Yishu' attempts to manifest modern-day women's involvement in the sophisticated number games of the financial world.
in 'Contemporary Nu Yishu', indexes of different stock markets or trade codes of iconic stocks are burnt on the garment. The process of 'burnt and loss' speaks out the treacherous ups and downs of the financial world.
