Shan Hai Jing (2010)

 Shan Hai Jing (2010)

Parks, like libraries, are gems in our city. Bountiful and beautiful. I've been wanting and waiting to photograph them. It took me ten years to realize this is my response to Shan Hai Jing. Shan Hai Jing, literally translated as Collection of Mountains and Seas, is an ancient literature on geography and mythology in China.

After the law of constant change is the law of birth, death and re-birth. How much has our world changed since the first century? How does a person of the 21st century view the world with vision pondering the present, future, and past? Rewind, fast-forward and pause.

Ancient travelers had mighty encounters. They described them with their own understanding that could be shocking, confusing and most often misinterpreted. Yet we are inspired, and even enriched by the same ambiguous, enigmatic 2000 year old texts.

My passage is not guarded nor ruled by time. Moving between the real and the imaginary, springing and bouncing off the trampoline to create free falls. Geographically speaking and timing wise it started from Latitude 43.643996, Longitude -79.427669 in the year of 2010.

 .............

 
A collection of park panoramas. A travelogue through time, myths and imagination. First work was exhibited in What's Next 30x30 at The OCT Art & Design Gallery in China in 2011. More work from the series was shown in a three-person show at INDEXG in 2013. These archival pigment prints are in the size of 22x8 inch, 10 editions.

LOMOSAMPLER (2002)

 LOMOSAMPLER (2002)

It was a project initiated by Gallery TPW (Toronto Photograhers Workshop) for CONTACT - the Annual Photography Festival in Toronto. Each photographer was given a Lomo camera to shoot within a period of time. I produced a series of pictures and it was bound into the form of a sampler. I called it LOMOSAMPLER.

Hollian Thesaurus (1993-2024)

 Hollian Thesaurus (1993-2024)

The Hollian Thesaurus series has more than ten works and is a contemplation on Art, Politics, Religion and Power. Most of the images touched on the period of historical change in Hong Kong: the pre-and-post 1997, when Hong Kong was critically searching for it’s identity.

These two pieces are vintage photographs from a suite of four, originally printed for an exhibition curated by Kohtaro Iizawa New Images from Hong Kong (Yokohama 1996) with contemporary works by eight Hong Kong photographers. Subsequently, they were shown in the exhibition On Hong Kong organized by NuNaHeduo (Hong Kong City Hall, 1998) and New Voices (Zhung Zheng Gallery, Taiwan 1998). Additional photographs from the Hollian Thesaurus series were shown on different occasions - in the inaugurated exhibition of the Hong Kong Heritage Museum (2000),
Re-considered Crossings: Representation Beyond Hybridity (Fotogalerie Wien 2001), Conceptual Photography since the 90’s, works by Chinese Artists from Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China (2004, Hong Kong Central Library).

Bauhinia, in Front of Hong Kong Harbour, circa 1997
C-type Photograph
49 x 39 inch, framed
vintage

Jinx, in Front of Hong Kong Harbour, circa 1994
C-type Photograph
46 x 38.5 inch, framed
vintage

Travelogue (1992-2001)

 Travelogue (1992-2001)

1. Berlin 1994
2. Camden, Maine 1994
3. Cat Postcards 1989-1994

1, 2 and 3 are collaged works published in a special issue on "Journey" in Dislocation Magazine (Vol. 4, Issue 6, June 1995).

4. Maxilla & Mandible, New York City 1992
5. Blacksmith, Praha 1992
6. Toronto May and Candle Cheers, an Email to Beatrix, 1999.

Both 4 & 5 were first published in Dislocation Magazine (Photo Transfer Issue December 15, 1992). All three (4, 5, 6) were exhibited at Gallery 44 Vitrines in Toronto in 2001.

Cibachrome Photograms in Triptych (1991)

 Cibachrome Photograms in Triptych (1991)

Three vintage unique photogram panels (each measures 32 x 24 inch) were produced for a four-person exhibition Pin-Pun (1991), with Lau Kin-Wai, Lau Ching-Ping and Lee Ka-Sing. First exhibited at the Hong Kong Fringe Club and went on tour to the Hong Kong Chinese university and Hong Kong Polytechnic University in the same year.

Untitled #1 - 3 untitled, 1991
Cibachrome photograph, triptych
32 x 24 inch
vintage

duo

 Duo (1991-2015)

 

The DUO series consists of three sets (each set two images), all archival pigment prints in the size of 17 x 22 inch:

1. DUO: Aunt, Mother, Lolly and Me I & II
2. Cameraworks, Holly & Wingo / We knew each other since tender age
3. Lady with glossy lips and red nail-polish / Lady in black cheongsam with flower pattern

DUO is the first pair, produced for the DUO issue of DISLOCATION magazine (see 1) - These are images with layers of old and new family photos.

Cameraworks, Holly & Wingo is a constructed photogram on Cibachrome paper, while We knew each other since tender age was old photographs manipulated digitally (see 2).

The third pair (see 3) are re-generated photographs from old pictures of my mother and my aunt.

In 2012, The Hong Kong Heritage Museum organized Beyond The Portrait, a large scale exhibition of portrait photography by Hong Kong photographers. Two bodies of of portrait works were selected, my earlier black and white portraits My Friends, Artists and Others, as well as works of family photographs from the DUO series.

DUO I: Aunt, Mother, Lolly and Me, 1992
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

(Diptych right)
DUO II: Aunt, Mother, Lolly and Me, 1992
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

Cameraworks, Holly & Wingo, 1991
Archival pigment print (with scan from the original photogram)
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

We knew each other since tender age, 1996
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

Lady with glossy lips and red nail-polish, 1991
Archival pigment print (with scan from the original photogram)
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

Lady in black cheongsam with flower pattern, 2015
Archival pigment print
17 x 22 inch
Printed in 2015

89* Golden Lotus* Footstep of June (1989)

 

89* Golden Lotus* Footstep of June (1989)

These three vintage photographs were originally made for the exhibition Contemporary Photography: Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan (1994, Hong Kong Arts Centre). Footsteps of June was an outgrowth from The Golden Lotus, an experimental dance/theatre piece (1989) conceived by Sunny Pang. This series was first shown in 1989 at Le Cardre Gallery and 97 Brasserie as a suite of six works, in smaller print format.

Mui Cheuk-yin, dancer
C-type Photograph
36 x 17.5 inch, framed
vintage

Footsteps
C-type Photograph
36 x 17.5 inch, framed
vintage

Peter Suart, musician
C-type Photograph
36 x 17.5 inch, framed
vintage