Hong Kong Students Prize 2020

Past memories are often being forgotten, and even haunting us, hindering our future development. In fact, the present is more important than the past and the future. The important thing is not how much you regret for the missed opportunity, but how to make up for it. In this piece of art, putting together pieces of winning and losing games over the years, it reminds me not only to engross myself in the winning process in the game but also get reference from the memories of losing. This is a reminder, and don’t get tired from the past memories. Memories of the past instead should become something new. At the same time, diving is done for me, hitting the pool wall at the final moment of each competition, so I choose the diving action and leap from the diving platform as described in the work. 

This work is painted with a graphics tablet. It shows my life this year, having been affected by the pandemic. 

It is a painting inspired by life at home. I have to stay home to avoid infection. As a result, my life has become monotonous. Although I have much more time to do what I like, I feel lonely without contact with my friends. In the painting, I am able to do many activities at home, but still look alone in the wide sky. 

Can you see people wearing QiPao on the streets nowadays? Do you think that the number of neon signboards on the streets is declining? Have you noticed traditional embroidery has been fading away? Do you remember the last time you wrote a letter and sent it out with a postage stamp?  

Many cultural practices in Hong Kong are vanishing, but this often goes unnoticed. For me, art shares a deep connection with our society. I therefore, have created this piece of artwork which reflects embroidery culture and historic buildings in Hong Kong. I hope to raise people’s awareness of how unique and precious our society is. 

This painting is based on a celestial being: a heavenly person positioned in the sky who is surrounded by a variety of feathers that enhances her beauty. Regarding the colour usage, this painting uses mostly light colours to convey a joyous and pleasurable mood.  

The peacock-like feather with detailed lines helps accentuate her kindness and benevolence. The flight and semi plume feathers in orange, blue and white help bring out the notions of energy, spiritual connection and angels. There is also a dragon which represents the well-known idiom, ‘crouching tiger, hidden dragon’, reminding people to never underestimate anyone. All in all, this painting is imbued with figurative meaning that requires one to look beyond the surface. 

This work is based on Hong Kong’s 2019. Many unforgettable events happened during this year and I want to capture one of the moments by creating an art piece. 

Some people say that the cultural value of China is like a huge mountain, something that is worth protecting and repairing so that it can grow and develop. But do people behave the same as they say, or do they just want to erase it?  

Propelled by expectations, success under the spotlight buries pain, fire and darkness. 

Unable to face his own ugliness. 

This painting started with a theme of self–reflection and evolution. However, I do not want to jeopardize the audience’s direct experience, so I bring a sense of ambiguity to the title of this painting. 

Isolation is a piece depicting the lives of people lost in society: people who are cast aside, left to deteriorate, and remain an insignificant piece of society that people will never remember, only to be eventually forgotten. As time passes, you get less and less involved with society. People begin to forget and, as you’re screaming to get out there and be one of those people to remember, you realise it’s already too late. Though you’re screaming for help, no one comes. The only thing that arrives is the sound of silence, as you delve deeper and deeper into loneliness. As you become an afterthought, and eventually, forgotten. 

The blood of the Limulus Polyphemus, or Horseshoe Crab, is an extremely valuable substance, costing thousands of dollars a litre because it can detect contamination in medical applications. My work highlights the inner value and beauty of the animal, depicted by their life saving blue blood vessels that interlace between the animal and the layered textured effects on the artwork surface. Its Chinese name acts as a counterbalance seal on the bottom right corner. 

Natsukashii 懐かしい (adj): something that brings you joyously back to fond memories: not with a wistful longing of what’s past, but with an appreciation of the good times. 

Graduation: Is it an ending or a beginning? The bittersweet season where we remember our journey together and embrace new adventures that the future holds. This acrylic painting is made in reminiscence of my friends who are leaving the school. 

Time has the power to attenuate everything, from distancing me and my friends to blurring away our memories together. This painting represents me holding onto these memories by capturing them as a frozen moment in time, a memory orb that stays with me. 

The different directions they are facing represent the separate paths they will embark on. The contrast between grey and gold emphasizes the beauty in sentimentality through creating a sense of tranquility –– the tender, calm sadness of letting go. It feels almost like a reverie, as if this all existed in a dream. 

The work serves as a reminder to not be dismayed by goodbyes ––– the end of one thing is just the beginning of another. 

There are many unique places in Hong Kong, and I believe that these places contain their own sense of ‘rhythm’. In my work, I hope to express that rhythm by painting so that the viewer can feel it too. 

I have been influenced by a famous painter, Piet Mondrian, as my work refers to the rhythm and sound arrangement in his drawings. 

From the front of the work, you can see a total of 20 squares of different shapes, large and small, in which 10 squares are filled with colours and pictures in the hope of bringing a rhythmic visual effect.  The drawings are all based on the original colours of Mondrian and the distinctive scenery of Hong Kong.  All of the original photos were shot by myself, including places and objects such as Victoria Harbour, Big Buddha, Yu Man Fang, taxis, Haishan Tower, Lai Tak Village, Golden Bauhinia, and more. 

Modern “decorations” turned Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot’s tranquil and indistinct scenery into red. 

There is often a misconception of “stairs” imagery, where many believe it takes you to greater heights and a brighter future. I question this notion, as stairs can ascend or descend. However, if either option leads you nowhere, one can be stuck in a perpetual static state. The work’s textured layers and darker tones suggest antiquity aesthetics. The stairs illustrated are also disconnected, leaving anyone caught stranded. 

My painting is inspired by the increasing number of teenage suicides in Hong Kong in recent years. Teenage years are a stressful time. As a teenager, you have to face many different challenges including changes in thoughts and strong feelings of stress from school or peers. The winding rope and the crying toy ducks represent the stress of the school children.  

When they face problems that seem too hard or embarrassing to overcome, they may have thoughts of suicide. In short, teenage suicide is undeniably serious and everyone should take notice of this issue. Everyone in society should have the responsibility to prevent teenagers from committing suicide. If everyone can put in some effort and take action, I believe that the issue may finally be solved one day. 

Lugubrious: this term refers to ‘looking or sounding sad and dismissive.’ It perfectly sums up the expression painted on the canvas.  

This oil painting represents how depression can take over an individual’s life. Silent and deadly, it can snatch away your lifestyle and happiness without warning – just like Death. Your flourishing body and flush skin betray your inner skeleton demon. Succumbing to such stress and negativity shows on one’s face – making one aged and weary. Only when everything is ripped off and exposed, your walls crumbled and shattered, does someone finally notice your pain and suffering. How late do they have to wait until it’s too late? 

This painting expresses the inner feelings of a person who has depression, described by those who suffer from, or who have suffered from, this mental illness. It reflects on the real truth of this condition and the eternal suffering of an individual, hidden underneath all those visible layers.   

I got rid of the existing specification. 

When I embraced my freedom, I became unclean. 

I fall asleep with an exhausted mind and never know where I have been every time…