Kwong Wing Kwan 鄺詠君
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策展人語



真空、寧謐、失重、互為牽引……

 

自1969年岩士唐首次踏上月球,人類未曾停止遠征太空。一次又一次的太空漫遊、琅琅上口的星象詞彙,都令我們在處於探索的同時,亦彷似頗為了解大氣層以外這片熟悉的陌生境界。但對於浩瀚而充滿未知數的宇宙,人類所認識的、能夠掌握的只有吉光片羽。面對99%的未知數,甚至有時會顛覆常理、出人意表的例外,藝術家鄺詠君傾向相信無形的控制一直都存在。這股力量不著痕跡地引導著宇宙間、星體之間恆常有序的規律,令個體間互相拉扯、平衡,一般我們都把它稱作「命運」。

 

鄺詠君巧妙地運用「手掌」作為意象,隱喻不曾出現、卻一直都在的控制力量。來自指尖的觸感,是我們認識世界的其中一個主要渠道,自嬰兒期始,我們對週遭的感知便源自一雙手。長大一點的時候,我們學會運用一雙手掌,初開始掌握食物,後來掌握較虛無但更為強大的權力,「手掌」逐漸成為操控的象徵。在社會層面上,「手掌」容讓人與人之間具體地產生連結——與新認識的朋友握手、情侶間牽手、與人約定時勾手指……若然雙手受束縛,甚至形同被奪去整體的自由(警察制服犯人最簡單的策略就是銬住犯人的雙手)。在鄺氏的作品中,每隻手掌都帶有個別的象徵意味,有的似乎把玩著星球,彷彿星球是其資產,是擁有者和控制者;有的圍繞著星體徐徐律動,無意識地舞動手指,則是被控制者。透過將作品兩分為黑白為主以及彩色為主,鄺氏自由地游走於意象的運用。大膽處理黑白和漂染色彩的對比,不獨俐落地彰顯了宇宙的混沌與遼闊的空間感,亦顯示藝術家對色彩與概念表達的純熟和應。

 

鄺詠君的作品向來都有一份冷眼旁觀的抽離感,有如藝術家抽身離開,再回望自己身處的境況,親密卻孤僻。以太空如此遙不可及的空間作為作品背景,距離感油然而生,但藝術家卻創作宇宙的微型縮影,一則拉近作品與觀眾之間的距離,二來亦增強觀眾可「擁有」、「播弄」宇宙的感覺。此外,藝術家在〈零度太陽〉及〈木雲流〉等作品中,亦刻意扭曲星體與手的比例關係,既以精緻的細節吸引觀者的目光,同時以錯亂的比例產生引人入勝的衝突感。從深邃的黑暗中冒出的神秘手掌,輕鬆地把玩本來偌大的恆星,示範一介強者的姿態。而藝術家在創作期間的資料搜集中發現,本來最具毀滅性的黑洞,在吞噬同時亦會為宇宙帶來滋養。人世物事,似乎並不如表象般平和直接。鄺詠君靈活駕馭視覺上或意象上的矛盾,使人難以抽身,或許又是另一層面的「控制」。

 

當人活在營營役役、平穩而麻木的生活中,閱讀鄺詠君的作品的一剎那間常會被隱隱觸動,反思人類面對不可知的命運時該如何自處。較之過往作品的含糊和曖昧,鄺詠君在《懸浮於世》當中一方面承認經受無形操控的現實,另一方面突顯人類可憑一己之力渺小地作動,抗衡無形的命運軌跡,為作品賦予更深層次與可讀性。

 

Cindy Lim
2014 年10月




Curatorial statement

 


Vacuum, silence, weightlessness, gravitational pull to each other......

 



Since Armstrong first landed on the moon, human beings have never stopped the exploration of space. The ever-lasting space travel and the vivid vocabulary related to space odysseys made up the fallacy that we are familiar to the strange and under-investigating space. In face of the unknown space, human beings only know a tip of the iceberg. With all the unknown, uncertainties and exceptions, artist Kwong Wing-kwan tends to believe the control without matter has always existed. This invisible power guides the disciplines and regularities among stars in the space without traces and maintains the balance of entities. We normally call this power 'the destiny'.

 

Kwong Wing-kwan skillfully employs 'Palm' as a meaningful metaphor as the control power that never blatantly shows but always exists. The touching sensation from our fingertips is one of the most important channels for us to connect to the world since baby times. We perceived the world with every touch using our palms. When we grew older, we learnt to utilize our hands, initially started with grabbing food, later grabbing abstract but more solid power, by then 'hands' become the symbol of control. In social aspects, 'hands' allow establishing concrete connections between people, we greet new friends with shaking hands, we hold our lover's hand, we promise each others with our fingers crossed. If our hands got tied, it might even symbolizes the loss of our freedom as a whole because police cuff a suspect to easily deprive him of freedom. In Kwong's works, each appearing hand has its own embedded meaning, some hands play with the planets as if the hands own them and those hands symbolizes 'owners' or 'controllers' while some other hands move around the planet and flipping the fingers unconsciously according to the planet and they are 'the being controlled'. With the dichotomy of black-and-white-mainly works and colourful works, Kwong utilizes freely the different analogy and symbols. She boldly makes use of the contrast of B&W and dyeing colours to not only mimic the boundless and chaotic universe, and also reflect the echo of usage of colours with accordance to the concept.

 

Kwong's works have always filled with a sense of detachment as if she leaves her body but her soul returns to the same situation to observe. The bizarre intimacy at the same time seems to be lonesome. Using the far-away space as the background, the sense of distance is inevitable in her works. Yet she balances it with creating epitomes of the universe, on one hand reducing the distance between the works and audience, on the other hand reinforcing the likeliness of owning and playing with the universe. On top of that, artist twists the proportion of planets and hands in works like Sun at 0 Degree and The Flow of Jupiter Clouds which intrigue audience with the delicate details as well as the sense of conflict created by disproportion. The mysterious hands arise from the dark rotate the originally gigantic Uranus and Neptune playfully, demonstrating the powerful at ease. The artist also found during research that the black hole is not merely destructive. It destroys by engulfing meanwhile benefiting the universe by nurturing. Everything in the universe cannot be judged with its appearance. Kwong evokes magnificent dilemma via visuals and cultural symbols. The sense of conflict strongly captures audience which can be said another kind of 'control'.

 

When people read Kwong's works among their stable but numb life, they are often touched and subjected to reflection upon how to react in response to the unknown destiny. In comparison to the ambiguity towards this issue in the past works, Kwong, in the latest solo show Suspending World, attempts to recognize the reality of being controlled by invisible power and highlight how people counteract the control and the fate with their own power, which adds depth and readability to her oeuvres. 

 

Cindy Lim
Oct 2014

 

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