展覽以劉君冬（香港、澳洲）的數碼擺拍攝影作品作開瑞，作品透過行為表演及曝光呈現一種具超現實主義的感官刺激，並以重複及重新詮釋大膽質疑單一和穩定的「自我」的概念。步進畫廊，黃愷琳（香港）的一組五件陶瓷作品探索窯中有機和無機物質的煉金術。有如珊瑚般華麗的陶瓷作品讓我們理解陶土在藝術與科學的處理方法，並反思陶土和日常生活物質的混亂狀態。Brian Smeets（美國）以影像及聲音建構一次以體驗為尚的旅程。作品逃離一般以消費及官能刺激的旅遊體驗，通過鏡頭和麥克風，提出一種抽象的旅遊方式。 Louise Folliott（英國，南非）用她在倫敦西南部生活的視覺日記，以藍曬法作影像帳篷。藍曬法為古典顯影方法之一，有其原始味道。以藍作像，也讓我們感受到限制的日常活動藍色的憂鬱，作品亦以拍子機作聲音裝置，單調滴答聲效廷伸作品的空間及觀眾體驗。展覽以譚若蘭（香港）由「她」所創作的大自然作結，作品以廢紙作紙漿和中國墨水作大自然，透過物料改變傳統中國山水創作的局限，一組立體的以水墨沖洗的自然繪畫與裝置為展覽劃上句號。
【REDUX】 A group exhibition by the Hong Kong Art School/RMIT University Master of Fine Art 2020 Graduates Exhibition 10th – 30th July 2020, 1a space
1a space proudly presents REDUX- A group exhibition by the Hong Kong Art School/RMIT University Master of Fine Art 2020 Graduates Exhibition. Lockdown. 2020 is a year of lockdown. Travel is suspended. Face-to-face interaction is suspended. Daily activity is suspended. Humankinds are suspended in a particular vacuum of space and time. Artistic activity, however, is not and could not be so. We are suspended in our own concepts of space and time and, through that, to contemplate our own existence. Solitude, solidarity and contemplation. Artists often manifest these concepts through their works. In the time of lockdown and solitude, we bring together five very different artistic souls to 1a space at the Cattle Depot Artist Village. Redux. To bring together, to bring back, to revive and activate the souls, the space and the seeing. These keywords connect the curatorial concept and the exhibits and help us witnessing what this particular time means to these artists through their works.
REDUX presents five emerging visual artists from various cultural backgrounds across different geographical destinations; whereas Hong Kong is the melting pot for these artists to congregate and co-create new sets of languages of objecthood, imagery, sound and space for our viewers to contemplate. The works presented in the exhibition deal with a multitude of concepts and ideas including performative self and identity, entropic disorder and alchemy, traveling through image and sound, home and dislocation, and woman-made nature. These concepts and ideas seem disperse and distant and yet they all bring together a transformative process and/or outcome in the work, to the artist, and for the audience.
The exhibition begins with a staged and digitally manipulated photography work by Gwan Tung Dorothy Lau (Australia, Hong Kong) that accentuates a sense of surrealism through performance and exposure. The work boldly questions the idea of a singular and stable ‘self’ through repetition and reinterpretation. Walking into the gallery we encounter a set of ceramics work by Karen Wong (Hong Kong) that explores the alchemy of organic and inorganic substance from the kiln. The coral-like and flamboyant ceramics objects quietly await our attention to dispel the artistic-scientific treatment of clay and everyday life and household products that reaches an entropic disorder existence. Brian Smeets (USA) employs photographic image and sound to narrate travelogues of purely experiential nature. The works interestingly escape what tourists would be stimulated – the seeing, the hearing and the encounters; and through the lens and the microphone an abstracted way of traveling is presented. The cyanotype fabric tent that Louise Folliott (UK, South Africa) presented is a visual diary of her lockdown life in Southwest London. Employing an almost primitive photographic printing technique, the Sun Print, does not forbid us seeing the melancholy of days and weeks of constraint daily activity. The monotonous ticking sound created by a metronome expands the spatial and aural dimensions of the work and personal experience. The exhibition is concluded by a woman-made nature by Cordelia Tam (Hong Kong). Composed by paper pulp and Chinese ink, the work obscures the boundaries of spatial dimension and material; a three-dimensional ink wash landscape ‘painting’/installation is found.
▎Exhibition ▎ Exhibition Opening: 10th July 2020, 6pm Exhibition: 10th – 30th July 2020 Time: Tuesdays to Sundays 11 am – 7 pm; closed on MondaysAddress: 1a space Unit 14, Cattle Depot Artist Village, 63 Ma Tau Kok Road, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong Enquiry: 25290087/ info@oneaspace.org.hk
▎Public Programmes ▎ Artists-led Guided Tour 18th July 2020 3pm Language: English and Cantonese
Artist Talk 18th July 2020 6pm Language: English and Cantonese
Louise Folliott Louise Folliott 於1979 年出生於南非。2001年完成藝術榮譽文學士學位，2003年於南非開普敦舉辦首個個人展覽《Love and Fear》。她於2004年移居倫敦，於2008年獲挑選爲攝影比賽的決賽入圍者，並獲Getty Images Gallery的刊登。
Brian Smeets Brian Smeets於1984年在紐約出生。在獲得聖路易斯華盛頓大學雕塑與環境研究學位後，他於三藩市從事商業攝影工作。其影像作品屢獲殊榮，並曾在世界各地展出。及後，他移居香港完成香港藝術學院與澳洲皇家墨爾本理工大學藝術碩士學位課程。除了創作攝影和多媒體作品外，他近期也積極探索聲音藝術。他也致力發展短期藝術展覽，並在香港和東南亞的藝術空間中展示他的作品。
Brian Smeets 的作品主要探索旅行景點及其實驗性的特質，期望消除旅遊業的假相。通過大規模的抽象攝影以及一系列精選的聲音與影像，藝術家致力以另類的角度呈現閾限空間和旅行地點。
Louise Folliott Louise Folliott was born in South Africa, 1979. Completed a BA (FA) Hons in 2001. 2003 saw her first solo exhibition ‘Love and Fear’ in Cape Town. In 2004 Louise moved to London and in 2008 was featured in the Getty Images gallery after being selected as a finalist in a photography competition. In 2010 she completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Fine Art at Byam Shaw, Central Saint Martin’s. Whilst raising a young family Louise was chosen to exhibit in the Threadneedle Prize at the Mall Galleries, London in 2010 and 2013. In 2013 she was selected for an AIR Residency in London and in 2019 Tropical Lab 13 Residency at Lasalle, Singapore. She moved to Hong Kong in 2017 and completed a Master of Fine Art from RMIT in 2019.
Gwan Tung Dorothy Lau Gwan Tung Dorothy Lau completed her Master of Fine Art with distinction at RMIT and Hong Kong Art School. She received her BFA (Visual Arts) from QUT and represented the institution at the HATCHED: National Graduate Show in Australia. In addition to being featured in international publications including Vice Creator and RealTime, Lau has participated in the Tropical Lab international artist residency, Creative Mornings lecture series and the BrisAsia Festival in Brisbane. Lau has exhibited internationally in Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia and the UK, notably at ICA Singapore, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts and Metro Arts. Lau also operates a studio that provides consultation and art direction for Hong Kong media productions of music videos and commercials. https://www.dorothylau.com/
Brian Smeets Brian Smeets was born in New York in 1984. After completing degrees in sculpture and environmental studies from Washington University in Saint Louis, he pursued a career in commercial photography in San Francisco, California. His award-winning fine-art images have been shown globally; since moving to Hong Kong completed a Master of Fine Arts with RMIT University. Recently Brian formed a sound art practice in addition to showing photography and multimedia works. He continues to develop pop-up art shows as well as showing his work in the increasingly global art space of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Brian Smeets's project investigates travel destination and their experiential qualities, intending to remove the spectacle of tourism. An alternative view of liminal spaces and travel sites is presented through large scale abstract photography and collections of selected sounds and images.
Cordelia Tam Cordelia Tam was born in Hong Kong and has studied and worked in Canada. She received her Professional Diploma in Fine Art from Hong Kong Art School in 2017 and completed her Master of Fine Art program of Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology University in 2019. Cordelia explores the linkage between human and nature in her works, using everyday material combined with themes of conformity to inspire towards harmony in urban life. Her works are multidisciplinary and include video, installation, photography and other media. In recent years Cordelia’s works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Australia, and during her residency in Taiwan in 2018 she co-created an art installation work which was awarded the 2018 Austronesian International Arts Award-Grand Prize.
Karen Wong Karen Wong graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) majoring in Ceramics and Master of Fine Art from the RMIT in 2017 and 2019 respectively. Karen was selected as an artist of the IV. International Ceramics Triennial UNICUM 2018 in The National Museum of Slovenia. In 2019 Karen has been awarded by the Hong Kong Art Centre for a month Artist-in-Residency at the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Curator Wing Ki Kalen Lee Kalen is an artist-researcher based in Hong Kong. His artistic practice lies between documentary photography, artistic and archival research, and a contemporary take to analogue photographic practice. His research interest includes photographic practices in the East-Asian context, critical digital humanities and media archaeology. His photography projects were exhibited in Austria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Latvia, Taiwan and the UK. He read history of art at the University of Hong Kong and receive a MA in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography at London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, supported by a British Chevening Scholarship. He is currently an Assistant Professor in photography at the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University and a curatorial member of 1a space, an independent art space in Hong Kong.
Presented by 1a space
The public programs of REDUX are supported by the Home Affairs Department Redux is a recommended activity of ‘Cultural July : Joyful Summer Reading’ presented by HKTD
Acknowledgment: Hong Kong Arts School RMIT University
