When a foreign friend asked me once where most artists gather in Singapore, many answers conjured up in my mind, like the Esplanade and more than a dozen art galleries.
In Hong Kong, Fo Tan in Sha Tin is THE place where Hong Kong artists gather and live. But that was not the case a few years back.
Fo Tan (also widely spelt as ‘Fotan’) is a breakthrough for many Hong Kong artists, who used to face difficulties in finding spaces to display artworks. This is because of various reasons one being that the Hong Kong society does not commonly acknowledge the ‘artist’ as a profession. However, Fotan’s abandoned industrial factories gave new hope in the form of very low rents but large spaces for the artists.
They also became ‘citizens’ of these areas.
According to
Fotanian.com, about 20 studios in the factory buildings house 70 artists and their art pieces presently. And these artists are referred to as Fotanians.
Now in Singapore at the exhibition
Inside Looking Out, the artistic works of seven Fotanians conquer the once-empty space of the Osage gallery, namely Pak Sheungchuen, Kwan Sheungchi, Ma Chihang, Lam Tungpang, Lee Kit, Chow Chunfai and Doris Wong Waiyin. Singapore is the third stop after Beijing and Hong Kong.
These work illustrate how each space can be used for different purposes…
Understand the artists to understand their art works
Ma Chihang’s video installation
Mr 221 Diary (07 Memorial edition) shows what these artists think about. Invading their workspaces, Ma Chihang interviewed them to reveal their true selves in this video.
In the video, some of the artists talked about their struggle to be accepted for their work.
Familiar spaces can be unfamiliar
Pak Sheungchuen explored the concept of how a familiar place can be strange too. His mixed media
Familiar Numbers, Unknown Telephone comes with a video installation and photographs. The art itself is what he did: One day, he saw a familiar set of number on a Sai Kung, Hong Kong bus stop: 91 91M 92 96R. Soon, he made a call to that now-unfamiliar number. What happens after that is shown in the video installation.
This experimental concept made me question whether I really know and understand the things or even the people around me.
Declaration of a female boss
Doris Wong Waiyin proves herself to the boss of the exhibition, despite being the only female artist participating in this exhibition.
In her video installation
Tribute to ‘Inside Looking Out’ – For the Male Artists Along My Way, Doris smashes a paper stool on the heads of her six fellow artists.
Her authoritative character in the video indicates female power and got me to think of how females have evolved from existing to only ‘obey’ male beings, to now being their own bosses.
Marvel how different items can be used to make art
SLEEPING
Lam Tungpang used acrylic, charcoal, fabric, nails and rubber bands on plywood for his artwork
Sleeping.
The use of these different materials signifies a certain meaning. Though the plywood simply shows a man sleeping, the other plywood nailed atop indicates another space where the man can’t go.
His other artworks like
Vanish uses similar concept of exploring the usage of different materials.
Impart wise words
Chow Chunfai does this in a straightforward manner with his paintings. His paintings capture scenes of those of a Hong Kong action film.
Through the English and Mandarin ‘subtitles’, he transmits his wise words.
Love in a fallen city, “Come to Hong Kong to eat Shanghainese food”
Farewell to my concubine, “You’ll learn the hard way”
Brood over death
A dead mosquito made by artist’s hair and blood
At first look, it looks like a human thumb had crushed a mosquito. But the write-up beside it gives away the trick.
Kwan Sheungchi parted with some of his hair strands and a few drops of his blood to produce a semblance of
A Dead Mosquito.
The quite insignificant-in-size artwork might have gone unnoticed by me, if not for the write-up beside it.
Sleep!
One important space for us is a space where we can be ourselves - a space for sleeping.
Lee Kit’s
‘My pillow seems like a bed, a pillow seems like my bed’ not only gives the tired a space to rest. The pillows come each with a sentence. One pillow reads, “Pour yourself a hot bath, pour yourself a drink.”
Just a silly thought: will you dream of having a bath and drinking as your head rests on that pillow?
Inside Looking Out runs till Sept 5.
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