Virtual Exhibition - Letting Go. Carry On : A Capacity Building Initiative

To inspire a sense of resillience

Creative DirectorKingsley Ng
Co-curator Janet Fong & Eugenia Law
Artistic Consultant Peter Benz
AR consultant Rain Chan
Design & Production Studio MARY

"Letting Go. Carry On : A Capacity Building Initiative" is a joint initiative that will provide holistic interactive digital experiences and a participatory programme to foster the learning of resilience.

As the first part of the initiative, "Letting Go" focuses on the introspection of resilience through an exhibition (Jan 2021) and online portal with Augmented Reality (AR) Technology (June 2021). Ten emerging local artists feature works that reflect, consider, and inspire a sense of resilience, the willingness to accept, adapt and remain motivated, to overcome obstacles, and to deal with ambiguity, uncertainty and rejection.

After the aftermath
Onshore Island
2020
Sand, galvanized sheets, steel
200 x 200cm

On 12 Sep 2018, Typhoon Mangkhut stroked Hong Kong. Public beaches were damaged, where four rafts from Shek O Public Beach were either washed to the shore or reported missing. Seven months after the storm, Leisure and Cultural Services Department decided not reinstall the 4 rafts in Shek O Public Beach. News finally came out on 2 May 2019, breaking the hearts of every enthusiastic swimmer. Despite critics such as media and general public targeted the ruthless play by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, they could only claim that a ‘raft-less’ beach seemed safer for swimmers…‘If we count back to the day where everything started, what after the aftermath still haunts every heart of hongkonger.’

Artists Biography
Shawn Pak Hin Tang, obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University, is a Hong Kong-based artist whose practice encompasses diverse forms and mediums, including installation, video, sound, and sculpture. Inspired by anecdotes of daily life and personal experiences, his works often integrate topics of time, place, collective memory and cultural boundaries. His site-specific installations often charged with a particular worldview extracted from reality, presenting narratives with ambiguity and subtleness.

After the aftermath
White Coral (Broken handrail)
2020
Cement, sand, salt
Set of two, Dimensions variable

On 12 Sep 2018, Typhoon Mangkhut stroked Hong Kong. Public beaches were damaged, where four rafts from Shek O Public Beach were either washed to the shore or reported missing. Seven months after the storm, Leisure and Cultural Services Department decided not reinstall the 4 rafts in Shek O Public Beach. News finally came out on 2 May 2019, breaking the hearts of every enthusiastic swimmer. Despite critics such as media and general public targeted the ruthless play by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, they could only claim that a ‘raft-less’ beach seemed safer for swimmers…‘If we count back to the day where everything started, what after the aftermath still haunts every heart of hongkonger.’

Artists Biography
Shawn Pak Hin Tang, obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University, is a Hong Kong-based artist whose practice encompasses diverse forms and mediums, including installation, video, sound, and sculpture. Inspired by anecdotes of daily life and personal experiences, his works often integrate topics of time, place, collective memory and cultural boundaries. His site-specific installations often charged with a particular worldview extracted from reality, presenting narratives with ambiguity and subtleness.

After the aftermath
Signal
2020
Oil pastel on newsprint paper
Set of two, 84.1 x 56.1cm, 84.1 x 3.4cm

On 12 Sep 2018, Typhoon Mangkhut stroked Hong Kong. Public beaches were damaged, where four rafts from Shek O Public Beach were either washed to the shore or reported missing. Seven months after the storm, Leisure and Cultural Services Department decided not reinstall the 4 rafts in Shek O Public Beach. News finally came out on 2 May 2019, breaking the hearts of every enthusiastic swimmer. Despite critics such as media and general public targeted the ruthless play by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, they could only claim that a ‘raft-less’ beach seemed safer for swimmers…‘If we count back to the day where everything started, what after the aftermath still haunts every heart of hongkonger.’

Artists Biography
Shawn Pak Hin Tang, obtained his Bachelor’s Degree from Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University, is a Hong Kong-based artist whose practice encompasses diverse forms and mediums, including installation, video, sound, and sculpture. Inspired by anecdotes of daily life and personal experiences, his works often integrate topics of time, place, collective memory and cultural boundaries. His site-specific installations often charged with a particular worldview extracted from reality, presenting narratives with ambiguity and subtleness.

Screaming in silence II
2020
Porcelain, underglaze, fence
149cmx 90cm x 10cm

“Screaming in silence II” is the newest addition to the “Screaming in silence” series, which focuses on one’s unease and interacts with the city through the materialisation of our anxiety.
A calm crafting process often roots from a raging storm in the heart. The paradoxical fierceness and fragility of each spike on the ceramic boxes symbolise the same dramatic tension within the artist. The visualised soundscape presented in this work explores the relationships between ceramics, sound, this city and the artist.

Artists Biography
Alice, Kan-shan Chan graduated from Hong Kong Baptist University with a Bachelor of Arts (Hons) degree in Visual arts in 2015.
Ceramic is the main artistic medium of her works, which primarily feature tiny and delicate thorn-like ceramics. She received the Giant Year Gallery Award in 2015 for her outstanding performance in ceramics, and has been taking part in different exhibitions in collaboration with numerous organizations and commercial galleries since then. Her works are in the collection of Hong Kong Heritage Museum and also well regarded by private collectors.

Absentmindfulness – the Heavens
2021
Mixed media installation, still image light projection
Dimensions variable

I think of my work as a reminder for myself as well as my audiences that despite the suffocating situation in our city, we may find peace and strength by simply looking up to the sky.
Each of the four images represents a cityscape that I captured in the past few months, at random locations and at different times of day. I arranged the projected images to construct a mural of light that, when viewed from a closer distance one may be able to discern certain details that would give away the images’ actual locations, but in order to see the whole composition, the viewer must move further away. It is my intention to create this non-static viewing experience as a metaphor on how I think we can deal with our difficulties in the current socio-political state.

Artists Biography
Terence Leung was born in 1982 in Toronto but grew up in Hong Kong. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree of Industrial Design from Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design in 2005, completed the printmaking, ceramics, and sculpture art specialist course by the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre, and obtained MA in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University in 2017. His printmaking and ceramics works have won the creative awards in the Art Specialist Courses by the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre. Apart from traditional media, he also works in community art and participatory art in recent years.

In the Presence of You
2019
Collected wool from family and friends; Single-channel video, color, sounds
Size variable; 3’30”

Neps are separated, from a woollen, from a sweater, from the body of someone, and someone is separated and deprived of warmth. I collected the wool fabrics from my family and friends. The personal traces carried on the fabrics are dismantled and reconstructed to open a collective and connected space. Hereafter, the fabrics rub the skin, generating warmth which transmits via the body and fabrics. Fabrics start to pill and neps start to appear, carrying the warmth, interweaving with one another, inadvertently.

Artists Biography
MA Wing Man (b. 1996) lives and works in Hong Kong. She received her BA from the Academy of Visual Arts in Hong Kong Baptist University in 2019 and went for an exchange programme at Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland in 2018. MA is eager to construct spaces and creates experiences through her works, by awakening their senses, memories and emotions towards personal experiences or a place in particular. She is also accentuating the delicate minutiae of everyday life in her work. The inspiration of some of her works came from her body perception and the deepest feeling towards the surroundings, her frustration and eagerness. Recently, she focuses on the exploration of performance art. She begins her immediate exchanges through the conversation between body experience and material, as well as expressing her own spirit in the moment. Her works were exhibited in selected group exhibitions including Hong Kong, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Berlin and Zurich.

In the Lack of
2018
Neps and threads from people connected with; Inkjet print on paper
A palm size; 15cm x 10cm each
Berlin, Copenhagen, Geneva, Korvala, Milan, Munich, Stockholm, Vasteras, Zurich(Photos taken by Olivia Jaques & Mark Li during ACT Performance Art Festival Zurich)

‘I started missing the steadiness and a place I can go back to.’ During my half-year study exchange in Zurich, Switzerland, I was unwillingly moved between ten different apartments under pressure. At that time, the urge of finding a place to stay and the anxiousness of meeting new faces all the time were altogether comprised into the unease and unpredictability lying ahead of me. In despair, I was looking for a home. For me, what gives meaning to a home is the people being together. During the journey, I started collecting neps and threads from the clothes of friends or strangers I met in anywhere at any time, sometimes silently, sometimes noticeably. After that, I created a nest using these neps and threads, which once connected me to other people. At the end of the day, comfort and belongingness are always about people, connections, and relationships. The intimacy of each single action between the two people is what produces happiness in an unfamiliar city.

Artists Biography
MA Wing Man (b. 1996) lives and works in Hong Kong. She received her BA from the Academy of Visual Arts in Hong Kong Baptist University in 2019 and went for an exchange programme at Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland in 2018. MA is eager to construct spaces and creates experiences through her works, by awakening their senses, memories and emotions towards personal experiences or a place in particular. She is also accentuating the delicate minutiae of everyday life in her work. The inspiration of some of her works came from her body perception and the deepest feeling towards the surroundings, her frustration and eagerness. Recently, she focuses on the exploration of performance art. She begins her immediate exchanges through the conversation between body experience and material, as well as expressing her own spirit in the moment. Her works were exhibited in selected group exhibitions including Hong Kong, Chengdu, Guangzhou, Berlin and Zurich.

Blessings and wishes
2021
Mixed media installation, still image light projection
20cm x 30cm x12

Every blessing is a wish, and whether it can be achieved or not depends on oneself. The Chinese New Year is coming, try to examine and talk to yourself with congratulatory words in various categories.

Artists Biography
Kwok Hiu Hin, a secondary school teacher, who is currently the subject panel for Visual Arts.
There are various cliches about educating youth. For example, hopes that students can understand themselves more and hence to set the suitable goals for their future. However, achieving goals is easier said than done.
By looking at this simple and straightforward artwork, Kwok hopes viewers can examine and reflect on themselves.

Fading out
2020
Fabrics dyed with pigments extracted from chrysanthemums
Dimension variable

Flowers will fade, leaves will fall; time will pass, people will change. Probably, there’s no exception to this rule. I thought it would be able to froze the momentary lights and shadows on the fabrics, but it turns out nothing lasts forever in fact.

Artists Biography
MAK Wing Yan, Wing explores a variety of mediums and forms in her practice, spanning ink painting, seal engraving, ceramic, graphic design, and illustration. With a special interest in traditional Chinese art, her works often seek different ways of inheriting and reforming the traditions in ink painting.What she discovers in traditional art forms is the way people cherish their culture through preserving the memories in objects. By studying the mundane and humble objects around herself, she seeks to recall and rediscover her own past. Often inspired by the magic of everyday objects, her practice seeks to connect with their stories behind, and bring them back to life.

Hello?
2020
Mixed Media (One channel projection, Printout image, No sound)
Dimensions variable

We are always hiding ourselves, mentally and physically.
Tree hollow can be formed naturally or artificially.
It has a deeper meaning – a place for baring thoughts and hiding secrets.
This artwork response to the artwork "Hello" in 2016.

Artists Biography
Kelvin Fong was born and raised in Hong Kong. After completed his BSc in Multimedia and Entertainment Technology, he further pursued MVA in Studio Arts and Extended Media in Hong Kong Baptist University.
His creations specialize in moving image, animation and graphic. His works concern contemporary issues, from among he himself and people around him, to the community, by using multi-media installation.

Going Back, or Not
2020
Ink and colour on silk, mixed media
Dimensions variable

In 2020, the whole city seems to have stopped, loneliness and alienation spread like wildfire, life has become living on an isolated island. Everyone is alone with themselves, having a seemingly infinite time but no longer know how to use it, the atmosphere is full of anxiety. "Going Back, or Not" is the work which artist attempts to use Chinese fine brush painting to portray her inner anxiety, and find a new connection in the predicament.
A box is a closed space with boundaries and limitations, and so does the sense of isolation: when placed in the box, you will feel trapped and nervous, just like measuring your own limits every day. Since the box is like a room, it provides a sense of comfort and security that makes people unconsciously accept or endure its restrictions and the deprived freedoms. However, if the box is an open cube and can be seen through, then the audiences will have to face up themselves, examine their inner anxiety and bondage, and rethink the almost forgotten freedoms in their life.

Artists Biography
Chinese fine-brush painter based in Hong Kong, visual Arts graduate of Hong Kong Baptist University. Her excellent works helped her to obtain the Scholastic Award and AVA Keeper of Studies Collection Award in 2015. She has actively participated in art exhibitions such as Ink Global 2017 and Ink Asia 2015, Hi House! Art Project at Dr. Sun Yat-sen Museum, Senses offered by the University of Hong Kong Museum Society, the Cliftons Art Prize exhibition and Asia World-Expo.
Jess’s work are mostly focused on the densenes crowdedness to specific situations, by given a touch of hidden anxiety and oppression. Her works are collected by CNCBI and private collectors.

100 Ways to Say Goodbye
002 Goodbye! With a kite.
2018
Video, photo projection:1'38"

Make a kite,
Put the most beloved one’s face on the kite
Climb the highest mountain.
Fly the kite.

100 ways to say goodbye is a series of practices. The work was inspired by the Artist’s two grand parents who are over 100 years old. It is an ongoing documentation of work where true freedom and liberation is experimented by saying goodbye to the artist’s/our everyday life.

Artists Biography
Kwok Yee Miu (Aza) is a multidisciplinary artist works with variety media, drawings, video, animation, and conceptual works. Daily life, memory, and humor are the key elements of her work.

‍

100 Ways to Say Goodbye
005 Goodbye Diapers.
2018
Installation
92.7 x 81.2 x 55.9cm

My 105 years old
Grandma said:
Diapers are not for me,
They are for old people!

100 ways to say goodbye is a series of practices. The work was inspired by the Artist’s two grand parents who are over 100 years old. It is an ongoing documentation of work where true freedom and liberation is experimented by saying goodbye to the artist’s/our everyday life.

Artists Biography
Kwok Yee Miu (Aza) is a multidisciplinary artist works with variety media, drawings, video, animation, and conceptual works. Daily life, memory, and humor are the key elements of her work.

‍

100 Ways to Say Goodbye
007 Goodbye Cantonese
2018
Neon light Installation
20 x 81cm

Someone says Cantonese is not my mother languageI
made a neon light installation to say goodbye.
But I don’t want to say goodbye.

100 ways to say goodbye is a series of practices. The work was inspired by the Artist’s two grand parents who are over 100 years old. It is an ongoing documentation of work where true freedom and liberation is experimented by saying goodbye to the artist’s/our everyday life.

Artists Biography
Kwok Yee Miu (Aza) is a multidisciplinary artist works with variety media, drawings, video, animation, and conceptual works. Daily life, memory, and humor are the key elements of her work.

100 Ways to Say Goodbye
009 Goodbye Wall
2018
Post-it Wall
Size Variable

The End Is the Beginning
Look into the light.
Write down your way
to Say goodbye.
Stick them on the wall.

100 ways to say goodbye is a series of practices. The work was inspired by the Artist’s two grand parents who are over 100 years old. It is an ongoing documentation of work where true freedom and liberation is experimented by saying goodbye to the artist’s/our everyday life.

Artists Biography
Kwok Yee Miu (Aza) is a multidisciplinary artist works with variety media, drawings, video, animation, and conceptual works. Daily life, memory, and humor are the key elements of her work.

100 Ways to Say Goodbye
015 Goodbye Drifting
2018
Installation
Box: 29 x 48 x 2cm
Curtain: 160cm x 211cm

Kids are not able to go home.
We cannot go back to the past,
unless we have the keys.
Sometimes I find some old keys lying at the corners of the drawers.
I have used those keys to access spaces where I lived in the past.
I hope young people can use those keys,
go back to the spaces where they used to be happy, loved, and protected by their parents.

100 ways to say goodbye is a series of practices. The work was inspired by the Artist’s two grand parents who are over 100 years old. It is an ongoing documentation of work where true freedom and liberation is experimented by saying goodbye to the artist’s/our everyday life.

Artists Biography
Kwok Yee Miu (Aza) is a multidisciplinary artist works with variety media, drawings, video, animation, and conceptual works. Daily life, memory, and humor are the key elements of her work.