Pre Artist
Visual Arts
Description
Description
1a space is pleased to present a brand new young artists’ exhibition. The exhibition titled Pre-Artist, featuring 4 fresh graduates from Hong Kong Baptist University Academy of Visual Arts (BA): Mark CHUNG, MA On Yee, LAU Po Yan, SUM Wing Kiu.
The title, Pre-Artist, named by these 4 fresh graduates, deeply express their direct but intricate question, “How to start to be an artist?” They realize that the most important thing for a visual arts fresh graduate is to keep the momentum. However, facing the pressure of sustain a living, pressure from the family, pressure from being unsure of your own craft, pressure from the success of your friends; a lot of the students give up working as an artist after 2 years out of their institution. Pre-Artist, is a state of unsure (uncertainty) that they find themselves in. However, among them, there is no doubt that they possess the desire and need to be an artist, but perhaps, as they suggest, this is an obvious statement in a humble manner.
This time, 1a space plays a special role, not only providing the venue, but more importantly, to encourage and establish a platform for the fresh graduates to experience a formal exhibition through a professional process. As a non-commercial exhibition venue, 1a space aims to provide alternative vision for art practitioner, who starts from pure emotions, personal experience, textile sensitivities, to search for a future artistic and conceptual approach and establishment.
The graduates that 1a space have chosen for this exhibition tend to show their differences from the “main stream” practice and outcome in the commercial market. Their raw expression with sensitivity towards their mediums and comprehensive conceptual development amplifies the honest directness of their works.
Among 4 graduates, Mark Chung’s and Ma On Yee’s works are concerning about family history. Mark’s revisiting journey (both physical and mental) of his mother’s history extends from his mother’s growing up town to every single little moments as suggested in the photos and footages of the videos. For Ma On Yee’s story-telling strategy, she shows the fragility of her grandmother by carefully dealing with clay as a drawing surface. Lau Po Yan gives a stunning effect by using thick oil paint and the ‘inserting’ ready-made objects onto the painting. Lau’s painting is about the spatial congestion of the place she lives, while Sum Wing Kiu’s installation is from the very inner-self emotion. The tying and hanging of the “organic” material (bread), almost like a staging set presenting a motion of assembled body parts that performs a Kafka-style of alienation and Francis Bacon-style of distortion.
Note：This event record is compiled from "Hong Kong Visual Arts Yearbook 2015" published by Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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