3 years ...

please do touch ..

In the past, as a graphic designer, I always justified a good design by using rationality, such as Golden Ratio, color theory or other design principles. The reason was, on one hand my design works related to my client’s job; on the other hand, I took graphic design as a reasonable and calculable task. Thus, I seldom showed my own feeling in my design works.

One day, I needed to take a site visit at landfill in New Territories. My expectation of the landfill is okay. My perception of it seemed interesting because I hadn’t been at landfill before. However, when I got closer to the landfill, some smell from that landfill started triggering my nose’s function. This smell was unexpected and also triggering my hands closed to cut my nose off. When I had got there, I realized that what I see and imagine is different from what I smell. Moreover, this experience have been affecting and influencing myself.

After this visit, there is lot of nonsense questions in my mind. I start feeling confused about this world, but the worst thing is I start feeling confused about myself.
I realize that the real moon is always bigger than what I am looking at. My shirt always changes its color when the light is off. My friend’s voice is so soft when she is far away from me. However, when she speaks on the phone to me, she seems so close to me (but actually she is even far away from me). My mother’s hands were so smooth when I grip her hands in my childhood, but now her hands seem strange to me.

I feel strange to myself. I challenge my sight. I doubt my rationality.
Should I believe what I am seeing? Or should I justify everything based on my sight? Appearance seems oppose to reality.

Am I the one who I am looking at? Am I the one who I understand?

Maybe this is the best time to “know thyself”. I have to understand and define myself before I study the world. In the past, as a graphic designer, I so reply on my sight. One of the reasons is I need to use visual language to draw audiences’ attention. Now, after taking the ceramic course, having my final project, it is the best time for me to use or understand my other senses. My sensibility may help myself to create my art works.

For this final project, I create my works by closing my eyes covered by a mask and working in a dark room. During the process, all my senses seem focusing on my hands. I am really making friend with the material. We start communicating with each other. Also, all my memories of techniques, skills and actions keep refreshing in my mind. The most interesting thing is my sight still tried to dominate my senses at the beginning of the process, even though my eyes were covered. The experience of being discipline is also great. It seems I understand myself more, in terms of sensibility.

The reason of making these boxes is to keep and store my memories and experiences. Since memory and experience are not visible, there is a little thing behind each box. Those little things are kind of hints to remind myself or recall my momentary memories and experiences. Also those little are waiting to be shared and sensed by others.

You are welcome to touch my works and sense my memory.

cycle ..

I realize that my life is accumulated with my experience and memory. I discover that I am similar to a wheel spinning around and around, but my axle of my own wheel has already experienced a lot of different period and things.

Not only does a big ball divided into many small balls, but the small balls also interact with other things in anyways. Also, many small balls can be combined together and form into a big ball again. Even though my daily life is similar, when I look back in different age, the various experience and memory, which I had before, give me different feeling. I am glad that I am not a waterwheel that only turns around in a certain fixed point.

formulaic ..

cup and saucer ..

my first narrative art work II ..

never perfect ..

my vision often dominates my senses ..

As a graphic designer, I believe in what I am seeing. Till I am learning ceramics for own pleasure, my sense of touch has been evoked. Comparing with clicking and holding a cold-blooded mouse, touching and forming of clay is more interactive.

My illusion has been distorting my senses by living between the virtual world and reality. Therefore, I need to reorganize and reinterpret my sensory stimulation to my brain. I believe in what I am touching.

My works are trying to create an illusion by combining the techniques of drawing and ceramics. The darkness of shadow and the brightness of reflected light of my works are recreated and redefined. It is in order to show the concave perception. Unless you touched my works, an illusion would distort your sense of vision.

my first narrative art work I ..

Nowadays everything is turning into the virtual reality. Our habit of communication, conversation, drawing, reading, writing, etc are changing from physical reality into the virtual reality. Especially our reading habit, we are all spending most of our time on different monitors. We study different information and knowledge by looking at digital pixels instead of drip of ink.
Furthermore, our writing habits are also changed. We don’t write but we type. Not only are we loosing our writing skills, but we also loosing our chances to express our personalities. Even though we can still type on keyboards to execute our ideas or record our memories, readers would never perceive our feelings by looking at those formal digital typefaces.

Space is also becoming meaningless to us because our stuffs are moving into the virtual world. For instance, if I want to record my memory, I type and save the document file in my hard disk. I own nothing. But if I write or sketch on a piece of paper, I can still own that piece of paper. If I create a cube by using advanced software, I cannot own that particular space within the cube. On the other hand, if I create a ceramic cube, I can own the cube and also the space in that cube.

Therefore, I would like to express my personal feeling and personality by showing my progress of making many ceramic cubes. It is because every cube is unique. It is impossible to have two same ceramic cubes in the world.
Moreover, in order to recall my memory of making these cubes, I have folded and packed “spaces” up by creating these ceramic cubes.
Creating the progress of ceramic cubes is just similar to writing my narrative paper. Those are unique and can never be happened in the virtual world.

my personal memory index cards ..

These accessories do have meaning to me, even though they cannot talk to me.

These little things refresh my memory because these accessories are the marks in my previous experience. They tell me what I have done, what I have experienced and what I have missed. Whenever I meet these old little friends, I can recall my sweet and sour memory in my mind. These little accessories are my personal memory index cards.

I am going to my next phase in my life soon; therefore, I would like to reshape my previous memory by shaping these accessories. Hopefully, I will make other things to represent my further phases. One thing I am sure that is ceramic will be one of my friends who can recall my present exhausted experience in future.

my memory container ..

I want to stop the time because I enjoy recalling the memory of making what I love to do.

These cylinders are my containers, which contain my time of pleasure. The textures on their surfaces represent what I have done to them. They represent my every move and touch. When the time was slipping away, these cylinders were also turning around and helped me to save my pleasure memory and time. They are my personal container, which can save my time and memory.

stone vs sand .. tree vs earth .. leaf vs water ..

Even though I am been around by the nature, I always ignore the beauty and power of nature.
The artificial products have been reducing my ability to admit and admire the nature beauty. In this city, I am only concerned about the beauty dresses, advanced cell phone, delicious hamburgers, frozen frappuccino, etc.

Therefore, from this art works, I would like to back-focus on the beauty of nature by reducing artificial commodity around me. From the field trip, I rediscovered the relationship of the sunlight, object and shadow. I know it is common knowledge, but this discovery, for me, seems like a starting point to rediscover the relationship between nature and me.
By knowing the shadow of a tree is created by light, I have reproduced a series of art works to represent the power and beauty of nature, gravitation.

I don't have to use any machines to measure the weight of a stone on sand because the negative space of sand represents the weight of stone.
It represents I, myself am not only a physical body. My taste, my thought, my knowledge, my experience and my reaction also can represent myself.

I don't have to use any machines to hold a tree up because the tree can stand and grow up by its roots under the earth. It will not been fallen down by the gravity power.
It represents I have to live with others instead of living alone. I am part of nature and I am part of a group. My group, such as family, friends and teaches, is helping me to grow.

I don't have to use any machines to make a leaf float on water because it can float on water by itself. It will not been sinked into water by pushing it down.
It represents we all have own power and ability to live on.


Yes, they are all common knowledge. Yes, they are all my own experience. These artworks like a series of snapshot of my thoughts from my own journey. The reason that I have brought them to the artificial gallery is I wish all of you can back-focus on the beauty and power of nature. Not only do nature let me know about the gravity, but nature also let me know what is representing, supporting and keeping me to move on. So please do touch it, see what answer nature can give you.

tipping point ..

Tipping Point

Equilibrium between two states. The moment before change. The point before which everything is possible, and after which something is inevitable.

Four artists take on this theme through ceramics, each having their own particular point of view. They explore balance and harmony, visual and spatial perception, growth and personal histories, space and place.

They hope through their work to discover where that tipping point is in their own lives.

2 + 1 dimension ..

From the two dimensional arts, the main elements are dot, line, shape and color. Dots can become line; lines can extent to shape; the variety of colors on shape can create the sense of volume. Therefore, we can perceive a sense of volume on a piece of paper.

Conversely, I hope I can create my volume art forms, which can be sensed as two-dimensional arts. The relationships of dot, line, shape and color (lighting) inspire me to create my series of three-dimensional art forms.
In order to create the sense of two-dimensional shape from the three-dimensional form, I play with the horizontal and diagonal lines of my first piece of work. Moreover, in order to create the two-dimensional sense on my final form, I have created a trick. I executed the folding process to fool my audiences, who will gradually perceive my final form as a two-dimensional shape.

2520cm2 ..

Not only do my vases can contain any subjects, the negative space enclosed by the material also can hold the spacious volume.

many a little makes a mickle ..

an idea house ..

fabric vase ..

the distorted apartment ..

In Hong Kong, most people typically delicate their time, money or lives to their apartments. In order to have their own apartments, they work hard, sleep and eat less to save more money to get a bigger apartment. Having a nice apartment is their purposes of their lives.

In addition, they spend a lot of money and time on other standardized conceptions in their apartments. Most people like to design their interior space like others. Here is bedroom, there is living room or over there is dressing room, etc. Those walls, which divide their lovely apartment into pieces, like the rules and guidelines held in common. They typically follow others perspectives. Their ideal apartments are distorted and destroyed by those stereotypes. Do they really think of their purpose of lives?

Do I? Why should I spend my whole life on having an apartment? In fact, what I need is a place where I can live on, learn more and create more artworks. If I do not delicate my life to own an apartment, then I have more spare time to do something I like. Hopefully, I could be myself.

hot off the press ..

Hot Off the Press

Date: 30 November to 10 December, 2007

Venue: The Exhibition Gallery, the Hong Kong Visual Art Centre

Opening Ceremony

Date: 1 December 2007 (Sat)

Time: 14:00

Venue: The Exhibition Gallery, the Hong Kong Visual Art Centre

Guests of Honor:

Ms. Choi Yan-chi
Assistant Professor, The Fine Art Academy, the Hong Kong Baptist University

Dr. Ho Siu-kee ,
Academic Head, The Hong Kong Art School

Ms. Lam Yuk-lin,
Lecturer, Division of Visual Arts, Department of Creative Arts and Physical Education, the Hong Kong Institute of Education

http://www.open-printshop.org.hk/projects/exhibition_hot_of_the_press.html
http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Apo/en/programmes20071001_2.html

bowls ..

love ..

teapots ..

test tiles ..

pieces ..

boxes ..

imagination ..

reminiscence ..

blossomy ..

my love ..

Love is real, real is love,
Love is feeling, feeling love,
Love is wanting to be loved.
Love is touch, touch is love,
Love is reaching, reaching love,
Love is asking to be loved.
Love is you,
You and me,
Love is knowing,
We can be.
Love is free, free is love,
Love is living, living love,

Love is needing to be loved.

untitled ..

nothing belongs to me .. but I belong to the nature ..

Owing places by building houses is one of most people’s goals. Similarly, trying to create my negative space by making and hanging twisted forms around is my purpose of this art. However, after exhibiting my work, I realized that I am naïve as the nothingness among my twisted forms.

How can my unskillful and misshaped forms create the greatness of the nature? How dare am I?
The fact is that the greatness of nature is showing the truth in contrast to its beauty and my ignorance.

my pillows ..

My life on Monday can be copied and printed on my Sunday. There is no difference between my working day and holiday because I am a freelance designer. Every day for me is the same, no matter whether that day is called Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday. They are all MySameOldDay.

However, I notice my ritual activities are gradually changing little by little by discovering my pillow is changing day by day. Its bright color is fading out. It becomes flat, lifeless and no bounce anymore. Moreover I found them full of creases. Suddenly, horribly enough I perceive the changes and sense that I cannot go back to change what had been gradually changed in the past.

The changing in the past has been fixing who I am right now.