皮囊系列 The Skin Series

I agree with the famed Chinese painter 吳冠中's saying that art comes from illusions (or illusion is one of the main source). Sometimes when our senses are a bit lazy, a little blurred, not working so brightly and clearly, our minds tend to complete the picture by suggesting something from a source hiding deep within. It creates an illusion, which in many cases can be transformed into an art piece. We sometimes call that inspirations. (That reminds me of how in Buddhism we are encouraged to cease our five senses in order to reach higher state of mind)



The new series definitely comes from illusion. One day when I was working on my other piece, I sat back to look from a distance. My eyes were blurred, my body was tired,I stretchecd my arms and turned my head and there I saw, in another chair at the side, was my leather bag sitting there like a thick piece of skin. I was astonished and caught by the way it swelled and deflated, expanded and creased. That's exactly how I would depict skin in sculpture, instead of a drooping flat piece. 　

While retaining most parts of our physical appearances, the "human" in motion was given a strange twist to suggest the otherwise,a skin dwelling (臭皮囊).

So here there are: The Dreamer(AKA The Big Dream)(夢中人）, Dance Dance Dance（歡樂時光） and At Your Service（鞠躬盡瘁.)





P.S. I've made two more for the series.

Riding on Desire 騎著慾望的女人

From "She is Waiting...", comes "Riding on Desire". Now she mounted her snake-like twisting horse, heading off towards a direction her desires led. She seemed a bit perplexed, trying to adjust herself to the beats of the twisting movements.

If her horse was a snake, it was a snake with no head and tail. It just kept rolling and rolling in unpredictably fluidity. She did not even realize how she had mounted it. It seemed just rising from nowhere, or it was just growing out from the inside of her.

This sculpture, The Kowtow Suit and A Swing Under the Sun will be exhibited at the JCCAC Pre-Opening Thematic Exhibition II from 20 - 30 Dec 2007. Please visit http://net3.hkbu.edu.hk/~jccac/ for details.

She Is Waiting....(2007 Collection)

She is waiting...a whole year. Now altogether six of them, all in bronze, beautifully patinated. The first girl was even casted in glass as shown above.



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All pictures are taken by Ryan,my husband. Thank you!

** The series is exhibited at the Neuberg ArtSpace, starting from 26 Sept, 2008.

She is Waiting...她在等...

Usually when I finished one sculpture, I move right on to the next one without much sentimental attachment. Even if my original plan was to do a series, I tend to give up after the first one and have no interest left to explore it more. Doing one is doing all. I will jump to my next inspiration right away.

But this girl seized me back. Something drew my attention back to her again and again. I can almost smell the faint quivering breath hidding in her gentle curves. I don't know where did it come from. But this is the one that I need to explore more.

She is also the first one that I made directly with plaster. I feel quite comfortable working this way.

** She is Waiting (Bronze) was presented as an inaugural present to Mr. Donald Tsang at the Opening Ceremony of JCCAC in 2008.

A Swing under the Sun 太陽下的一球

"Since when did Chairman Mao ever play golf?" giggled my mom. "No too long ago," I said," not too long"


These were patinated in 2009.

Lots of fun patinated the Maos. He's now so fashionable!

All the ten Maos were sold in 2009.

She's a Beauty 唐美人

It's hard to imagine that once upon a time in China, fat women were considered beautiful. Imperial Concubine Yang (楊貴妃 718A.D. - 755 A.D.) must be the fattest one among the long list of all Chinese concubines. I wonder how fat she actually was. Too bad that there's never a record of her official weight.

Threesome Experiment

A little experiment with three heads. Each with one fixed expression but while positioned differently, they seem to express different emotions .

So, are they acting? Or, are we just imagining?

The Kowtow Suit 臣.服

Kowtow, in terms of body language, is a posture that lowers oneself to the lowest, the ground, to exhibit his submissiveness to the receiving end. In ancient China, Man kowtowed to Heaven. Subject kowtowed to Ruler. Civilian kowtowed to Official. Progeny kowtowed to Ancestor. Children kowtow to Parents. Believer kowtowed to God.

With the penetration of Western civilization, the world today steers toward democracy, freedom, law and human rights. Kowtow almost disappears except in special ceremonies.

We modern folks in Western suits do not kowtow anymore. But, do we never lower ourselves of our own accord to a submissive position? Do we, not blindly worship certain powers, political slogans and ideals? Do we not worship money, idols or even fashion trends? After all, do we still practise the ancient tradition, Kowtow, only with our suit on?

The Kowtow Suit was made first in life size as seen in the picture. I made another smaller one and entered the finals of Phillip Charriol Art Competition 2005. It was auctioned and sold.



Another version of the Kowtow Suit made with Tin Alloys.






This one was collected by famous art dealer, Ms. Alison Pickett. Thank you!

無相

This set of wooden blocks were printed with sultra (心經), which can't be seen clearly in these pictures. The light/shadow buddha heads and the fragmentized sultra are electronformed bronze.

The set was auctioned and sold at the Henderson ArtReach.

Tibetan Girl

This "girlie" took me 2 months just to polish it. It was the first time I experimented with hand-casting tin alloy myself. It was very difficult to get it to look this smooth and glossy.

It was auction and sold at the Henderson ArtReach. I am planning to cast a second copy in bronze.

片面

This group of fragmentized faces as shown in the "香港雕民" sculptural exhibition at the Cattle Depot as well as the "香港藝術界慶祝回歸八周年" art exhibition, both held in 2005.

To me, this group represents our memories of people in time.

** The group were sold at the exhibition held by 香港傷殘青年協會.

Lady on Horseback 唐馬仕女像

From ancient 2D Chinese painting to modern 3D scultpure, the graceful lady on horseback took me four months. I had it in different finishes imitating bronze & stone but I like the original white plaster the best.

One of the polyester copy was auctioned and sold.

Leslie Cheung 張國榮像

I made this sculpture in memory of the
deceased HK actor/singer Leslie Cheung.

In order to have the best reference, I screened thousands of pictures. It took me about one month to get to the final version in clay. I even had a lucid dream of Leslie's face during the time which did help me a lot to make good adjustments. After the mold was made, it was cast into a few copies in polyester resin, tutania, cast stone, and cast-marble.

This polyester copy was sold at the Henderson ArtReach Auction.



This sculpture made with tin alloys is unique as the process of directly hand-casting it bit by bit makes it impossible to have two copies of the same surface effect.