HKADC Award 2010, Souvenir Book P.94-97
Master of Fine Arts degree from the Chinese University of Hong
Kong, formerly a visual arts teacher at the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of
Creativity.
He won Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial
Award in 2009 for his sculptural work The Photo Book of Mu Mu Dao,
and the “40 Under 40 Award” by the Perspective Magazine in
2010. In addition, his work Entanglement was selected as
an entry for the Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2010.
His works have been collected by the Hong
Kong Museum of Art, Deutsche Bank, Amelia Johnson Contemporary, and private art
collectors in the United States, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Overseas exhibitions held in 2009/10
included “Eniminiminimos: Artists Who Make Things Small II” in Singapore
and the PULSE Contemporary Art Fair in the US; whereas his
exhibitions in Hong Kong included “Sculpture on Hong Kong Sea”, the Hong Kong
Contemporary Art Biennial Awards 2009, the Hong Kong International Art Fair
2010, “Spirit and Re-invention: Hong Kong Sculpture Biennial 2010”,
“Exhibiting Experiment•Experimenting Exhibition” and “Containers as Evidence of
Presence”.
Besides, he curated “Whose
Quality Control?” and was a guest speaker at the Hong Kong
International Art Fair 2010 and the “Hong Kong Art Talk: Hong Kong Identity,
Hong Kong Art”. He was a guest artist in the “Walking to Canton, The Art of
Reciprocity” group exhibition, and he hosted workshops at the Hiking Arte
gallery in K11.
“If I were to sum up my work in a phrase, it
would be ‘a synthesis of symbols’ or ‘a collage of symbols’. I deal with a wide
range of topics, most of which are harvested from everyday life with the aim of
evincing the binary opposition between nature and urban development,” said
Tang. Growing up in a walled village in the countryside, he feels compelled to
voice his opinion about the hectic pace of the city, and how ideals are
abandoned in favour of wants. “Works of art can make a noise in society, even
if they cannot change anything directly,” he explained.
Exploring Social Reality by Creating Art
One piece of work from 2009/10 is
particularly memorable and endearing for Tang. It is Fields behind
Landscape, a large-scale installation and tribute to Professor
Lui Chun-kwong. In homage to the cyclical imagery of things that come full
circle in the professor’s landscape paintings, the artist used paper to cast
and replicate small plots of soil that – hiding behind a landscape painting
– give the vision of endless ploughed fields. By planting in the “fields”, the
artist has attempted to retell a story and reveal the metaphor contained in it.
Consisting of an assortment of snack food packages, Energy Loss
Cabinet is the artist’s musing on fast-food culture, consumerism and
life values.
The Photo Book of Mu Mu Dao is a composite of 100 Googled images, which
the artist printed out and stuck on glass planes for further sculpting.
It’s a thought-provoking process in more ways than one that involves delving
into the roles popular search engines play in an age of visual overload, and
how our perceptions of the world are constricted and defined by
exposure to essentially the same diet of images.
Tang jokingly said that Lady Luck never seemed
to favour him until his award-winning streak began recently. The awards give
him tremendous encouragement and they fill him with gratitude. Beginning a new
chapter as a full-time artist this year, he plans to devote more time to going
on study tours or enrolling in short-term artist-in-residency programmes.
“I like Hong Kong. It’s where my roots lie. But venturing outside my world will
bring me different perspectives and new ways of doing things,” he said.
Remaining Steadfast
The artist also wants to take Hong Kong art
outside its home territory. “I’ve seen some notable exhibitions overseas, and I
realise Hong Kong artists are just as good as their international counterparts.
One of the biggest constraints Hong Kong artists face, though, is physical
space. It’s virtually impossible to create large-scale pieces here. Of course,
the lack of funds doesn’t help either,” he remarked. Despite these limitations,
there’s no shortage of art pieces that are small in scale yet with a deep
potential impact. “Hong Kong is a unique city. It’s a cultural melting pot
where a constant influx of ideas from the outside world become inextricably
woven into the fabric of our art,’ he said.
Dedicated to promoting art, Tang is a
regular speaker at educational talks and seminars. He encourages young
artists to hold on to their dreams. “For financial reasons, artists may choose
to do a lot of graphic work, such as paintings, without realising that such
work might take over their creative imaginations and steer them away from their
purpose. I can’t stress enough how important it is for artists to work hard to
find their own place in art, to voice their own opinions instead of focusing on
the financial aspects of art.” Acknowledging that this takes nerves of steel.
Tang advises fellow artists to seek alternative avenues, such as applying for
grants and entering competitions, and whatever else is needed to realise their
art fully.
Panelists’ Opinion
A very active young visual artist, Tang
Kwok-hin devotes himself enthusiastically to a wide range of artistic
activities that encompass creative, curatorial and teaching projects.
Individual exhibitions aside, he also participated in an array of joint
exhibitions and cultural exchanges, both at home and abroad, during 2009/10. By
deconstructing and reconstructing symbols and texts that are in common
currency, his works respond to modern living, the world of the Internet, and
the ties between the two. He is a prolific artist who takes pride in
professional quality and personal style, producing works of substance and
making bold moves. Brimming over with creative energy and potential, he is a
promising talent among the new crop of artists.
