It was
the second time for me to participate the Fotanian Open Studio event. It is an annual activity for local artists who have studios in the
Fotan to disclose their works to the general public. In my point of view, this
experience was similar to treasure hunting. As I didn’t select some particular “must
visit” artists, I could discover some “unknown” artist and their artworks by
using the map. Walking through the industrial building, using the cargo lift
and finding studio with unexpected mindset, these constructed a fun art
treasure hunting experience to me.
The
industrial activities are almost faded out in Hong Kong. Much space in industrial
buildings is empty and the amount of rent is much lower than urban area. The
invasion of artists into the industrial buildings is actually adding
characteristics to this original dying region and also help breeds the local art development.
The coexistence of these two kind of activities, indeed, reveals the high rent
problem faced by the Hong Kong artists in reality. In this visit, not only the
working situation and environment of artists are shown, the daily operations of
the industrial area, “unique” smell are also recorded in our memory.
Unlike
visiting the well-established exhibition in museum, the open studio is more
approachable for visitors. We can get closer to the display without some line
surrounding it and there is no security guard to monitor our acts but artists
and assistants. Visitors can feel free to talk with artists and it is more
interactive. Also,
studios
are places for creation and home-liked base. Other than appreciating the art
pieces, we can have a glance on the working environment of artists.
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| A talk with Wilson Shieh |
One of
the favorite artists I have visited is called Wilson Shieh. His Studio is like
a crowded cube full of visitors and his works. I am a fan of Wilson Shieh. When
I suddenly saw his studio in the industrial building, I was so surprised and excited.
His work can be generally divided in to two categories, figure painting with
Chinese gongbi and paintings with acrylic. The former is one of the famous
subject matters of Wilson’s works. The contents of figure painting include
different topics that Shieh concerns, such as gender, male and female roles and
clothing. A painting describing a woman with a modern dark dress in which a
baby is hidden caught my attention. The painting raises the question about women’s
role and the view point of breast feeding in the general society. Breast feeding
supposes to be a moral and affectionate action, however, the perception of it
is different in the general public. From Shiehs’ works, we can see these issues
from his sensitive and distinguished insight.
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| Women's role and breast feeding |
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| Style of Anita Mui in 1980s' |
Other than the figure painting, Shieh
is working on acrylic painting in recent stage. Words become an important
element in the painting and that is a huge difference with Shieh’s figure
painting before. Most of them relate to political issues, for example the transformation
of the ruling class of Chinese government and the performance of the Chief Executive.
To me, the recent creations of Shieh highly concentrates on the expression of political view. More and more art works relate to political ideas. It raises my
concern to question about the origin intention for the
artist to do their works. “Will their works become political driven instead of using
arts to express their feelings?” This is one of the myth or question raised
after visiting Wilson Shieh’s exhibition.
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| Transformation of Chinese Government |
Apparently, everything in daily life can become the theme of art as art is a carrier to express the artists' view to that issue. Political issue can be the inspiration for artists. Through out the history, many works are related to political perspectives, such as Edouard Manet's Execution of Maximilian, and Goya's The Third of May 1808. Artists can criticize or express their opinion to the political situation through their works. The effect can be profound as the political scene depicting in the artwork and the artwork can be read by the public in a visual form. Everyone can understand the artist's view and interpret the image or artwork with their own thinking. In this way, art can provide a stance of artist to the political issue. We can see many artists are producing series of political paintings, especially in China. Many Chinese artists create artworks with the theme of political issues as there are abundant political stories in history. Sometime, I feel like artists may be political driven to post some statements or stance to the public in order to pressure the government. In this sense, art become a tool to conduct political influence. The origin of art is lost. In my point of view, the line between art is political driven or not depends on the intention of the artists. If artist want to use their art work as a tool to pressure the government or ignite some social response, it should be political driven. In Hong Kong, more and more artist also create artworks relate to political issues. How do they classify between art and political issues? It is a interesting question to look into.
