2012年2月19日星期日

Interview Questions

1. When I read your painting, I always though that there is a little girl inside you, especially reading your “poem”, very childishness. Can you share something about your childhood? (Personal)

2. Do you think your own experiences or background influenced you when you create your artworks?

3. A news article describes your painting as “each painting has a story behind.” How’s your opinion? (Personal feeling)

4. 《水喉是否關好了？》is reinterpreted your 7-year old child piece. To me, it is very interesting one, can you tell me more about this painting and the story behind? (Content)

5. What’s the idea/story behind《我只是一隻吃水果的蝙蝠》. (Content)

6. As we all know Hong Kong is a city with unique culture background (a combination of East and West). Did you influenced by any unique culture in Hong Kong? (Content)

7. Is there any social background of the art work? (Content)

8. I know you have used various medium to create your works, including Chinese tradition painting materials and other daily writing materials (pen, color pencil, color hard brush and correction pen) why do you choose this kind of material to create your work? (Medium)

9. Most of your work own Chinese painting style, why are you interested in it?

10. Your painting including both scroll and vertical scroll. How do you determine the size of your work? Any relationship to the audiences?

11. I read your blog. I notice that you have a ceramic work “drops of tear”, what makes you want to create this work? (content)

12. From painting to making ceramic work, do you feel any difference? (Personal)

13. In you Artist statement, you claim the work you create has combined Chinese tradition painting and popular culture. How do you develop your way of art and why?

14. Did you take any references to the popular culture? Any sources of it?

15. What way will you suggest to your audiences to read you work?

16. What effect/result you want to create through your work?

17. Any exotic ideas recently?

Did she make any reference to the art history?

Leung Ka-yin started to learn Chinese brushwork painting in 1998. She imitated the old painting in the beginning. She was influenced by a Late Ming Dynasty(明末) painter called 陳洪綬, especially love the smooth stroke and the unique shape in his painting.

陳洪綬（1598年 – 1652年）
字章侯，號老蓮，浙江省紹興諸暨人，中國明代畫家。

白竹蜻蜓

菊花

菊花蜘蛛

玉堂柱石圖

蕉林酌酒圖

仙人獻壽圖

Reference:

http://www.xihuyuren.com/laolian/zuopin/huazuo.htm

http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%99%88%E6%B4%AA%E7%BB%B6

The cultural background of the art work

The Cultural Background of the artwork

Her paintings use the traditional mounting methods. Apart from painting in a single piece, she also paints in scroll and vertical scroll. The form is more diversified.

I Am Just A Fruit-Eating Bat

226.5(H) x 29.5cm 2011

Drawing pen, Chinese ink, gouache, ball pen, colour pencil on paper

Sleep for 720seconds

30.7(H) x 279cm 2010

Drawing pen, colour pencil, Chinese pigment on paper

The figures, flowers and birds are using traditional fine brushwork ways to handle. The painting is realistic and detailed.

Cranky Chrysanthemum, 2009

Fishy Aesthetics, 2008

Pollen, 2010

Sigh City,2009

The medium of the art work

Most of her works use Traditional brushwork to present, she also apply daily writing materials, such as pen, color pencil, color hard brush and correction pen.

2012年2月18日星期六

The Theme and The Form

Her works try to present some interests which commonly find in modern city and express her personal feeling and experiences in a humor way.

Cheese Sausage On The Hot Pan Drawing pen
gouache, colour pencil on paper
58(H) x 149.8cm 2010

溫度不斷向上飆
像在鍋中燒呀燒
這裡恐怕住不了
大難臨頭快逃掉

Temperature is rising continuously
We are like burning in a hot pan
Let’s escape from this place
It’s not for us to live anymore

“Cheese sausage on the hot pan” illustrates the Artist's feeling to the rising temperature. The Artist seems complaining about the hot weather in Hong Kong. The figure’s face looks uncomfortable to the environment. The sweat stick their body in a hot pat, they want to leave the place; however, they can’t move because the sweat is too sticky.

She also wants to describe the behaviors of urban citizens which seemingly wired but very common.

Wishing Well
Drawing pen, gouache, Chinese pigment, ball pen, colour pencil on paper

123.5(H) x 135.5cm 2011

“Wishing well” described the behavior of people making wish by throwing coins into the well. The work has depicted a common phenomenon in urban city that people want to get achievement without paying effort and women want long lasting beauty. These kinds of scenario look absurd in Leung’s eyes. Another interesting is Leung tried to imagine what the turtles in the wishing well are thinking about: they just don’t want to be hit by the coins

A news article describe her paintings as “a story behind the painting” and “it is a record of the imagination in daily lives.”

The form of the art work
1. Japanese comics elements

Her paintings has mixed with Japanese comics elements, the painting has supplemented with modern text.

The Artist delivery the story frame by frame, the wording and images are matched to construct a complete story.

This form of art work appears in early stage of the artist's creation. The following two pieces of work created by the artist in 2005 and 2006. One thing didn't change is the latest work still using "wording" (poem) to present the idea behind, which can help the work be more readable to the audiences.

Perfect Legs

32.5 x 340cm 2006

Mixed media

Story of Yum Yum

32.5 x 259.5cm 2005

Drawing pen on paper

This way of performance can increase the readability of the work and strengthen the narrative. Also, it will be more interesting to the audience.

2. Chinese Tradition Painting element

Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. Traditional painting involves the same techniques as calligraphy書法; And is done with a brush dipped in black or colored ink; oils are not used.

As the calligraphy, the most popular materials on which paintings are made of are paper and silk. The finished work can be mounted on scrolls, such as hanging scrolls or hand scrolls. There are two main techniques in Chinese painting are: Meticulous - Gong-bi (工筆) and Freehand - Shui-mo (水墨). (wiki)

According to the basic information about Chinese painting, Joey’s work can be treated as Chinese painting. Her way to mount the painting, like she uses hanging scroll and and hand scroll on her work. And the material she uses is also developing from Chinese Painting. Joey’s work belongs to “Gong-bi” painting. You can see the painting is very detailed and precise.

《她的桃味洗髮水》Her Peach-flavoured Shampoo

59.5(H) x 127.5cm 2011

Drawing pen, ballpen, gourach, Chinese pigment, colour pencil on paper

See How Joey draws the hair in her work 《她的桃味洗髮水》Her Peach-flavoured Shampoo. The girls and the duck's hair is so detail, each line is clear and smooth. And the pattern on the girl's clothing, it's flower. The petals and leave are also meticulous. The transparency of the bamboo is different in turn of the different layer and the lighting difference.

Other other hand, her works also involve a poem which content is related to the painting. The poem can strengthen the whole idea of the painting and create a perfectly match effect together. In Chinese traditional culture, this idea is not a new idea. Chinese core culture is a matter of “he” (合), painting and poem should be a combination to create a harmony.

3.Pop Art

Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art presented a challenge to traditions of fine art by including imagery from popular culture such as advertising, news, etc.

Pop art employs aspects of mass culture, such as advertising, comic books and mundane cultural objects. It is widely interpreted as a reaction to the then-dominant ideas of abstract expressionism, as well as an expansion upon them. (Wiki)

Joey’s works combine Cantonese poem and the painting, When audiences reading the poem, they can better understand the content of the painting. Joey mentioned that she like to memorize the jingle because she thinks it’s funny and humor. Also, she claims that Cantonese pop song is another pop culture that may influence her creation. Although it didn’t affect her creation directly, living under such environment, the uniqueness of Cantonese influences her unobtrusively and imperceptibly.

《她的桃味洗髮水》Her Peach-flavoured Shampoo 2011

《小睡720秒》Sleep for 720seconds 2010

Translation: Time doesn’t tell me how I should spend my time
It’s too harsh for me to live in reality
I would rather live in dreams
Hey, don’t wake me up, please

↑Example of playing with rhyme.↑

《苦惱虎與聾耳鼠》Worried Tiger and Deaf Mouse 2010

Translation: I am a tiger, a worried tiger

I only know about misery

All because something is missing from my forehead

Tiger king becomes a pussy cat

I don't want to be humiliated

So I try to tell a mouse about my problem

A huge monster sits in front of my door

Blocking the way to my lover

His face appears miserable and worried

As if trying to tell me something

I must not be fooled by his look

As he must be waiting to have me hooked

* "老虎"means Tiger. "苦惱"means worried. When we read "老虎"(Tiger) reversely, the meaning will change into "苦惱"(Worried).

These pop cultures somehow give her inspiration to play with Cantonese wording to create humor and childish poems.

4.Surrealistic style

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for its visual artworks and writings.The earlier artists are involved with Dada because of the interim to World War I.

They aim to revolutionize human experience, in its personal, cultural, social, and political aspects. They wanted to free people from false rationality, and restrictive customs and structures. They believed that Surrealism would advocate the idea that ordinary and deceptive expressions are vital and important, but that the sense of their arrangement must be open to the full range of imagination. (Wiki)

Joey mentioned more than one time which she doesn’t really like put the reality into her work. She think what she did should more than the reality and be more interesting. Most of her works come from her imagination. Her ideas always come from daily life. A little fragmental moment in life experience may trigger her unlimited imagination. Although the moment she captures is very common, she can create a story which combines with her imagination as her idea.

Introduction to the Artise: Leung Ka-Yin, Joey

Leung Ka Yin Graduated in the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Leung finished her master study in 2007.

Her works combine traditional Chinese painting and popular culture in her works. She explores the use of contemporary writing equipments to present the flavor of Chinese art, trying to push the boundary of different media.The stories in her artworks depict her feeling and fantasy towards modern life. It’s also an attempt to introspect the value of tradition in contemporary world.

She has launched number of solo exhibition and group exhibition over many places, such as 2010 Cloudy Fairy-tales (Hong Kong-Grotto Fine Art), 2010 My Humble House - An Exhibition of A New Generation (My Humble House, Taipei) and 2009 Urban Spirituality - Contemporary Hong Kong Art (Rossi & Rossi in association with Grotto Fine Art, London).