Hong Kong Students Prize 2016

First of all, the name, Zen Me Le?, is the phonics in Putunghua, which means “What’s up” in English. This painting depicted a scene took place on the street outside National Portrait Gallery in London. The idea of the whole work comes from the artist’s experience visiting the Gallery, seeing the painting Sir Andrew John Wiles by Rupert Alexander. Using the similar coloured lighting, the subject, and the background to create a strange atmosphere to show the struggle between artists and the society’s love of portrait paintings.

As the second part of my triptych series, this painting focuses on Ai Weiwei in the present. Through my commentary, I critique Ai Weiweis political activism against the Chinese governments political ideology. My body of work continuously explores how the expression of architecture can be translated into different areas, such as ones identity and culture. In this piece, I also try to explore the question: will Ais activism change China? Through my exploration in this series, I aim to answer this question. Before Ai Weiwei established his international reputation, he was a student in the US. In the 9 years Ai Weiwei lived in the East Village, he befriended many counterculture individuals, studied the influences of modernists, and began photographing urban life. Photos of him standing in front of famous architectural landmarks represent how his American education may have influenced his beliefs. Ultimately, his environment ignited his desire to use his canvas as a means of resisting the Chinese governments silencing of dissenting opinion. Alongside Herzog & de Meuron, Ai helped design the Birds Nest stadium for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Ai designed it to symbolise the building of a better future for the Chinese people. However, he was disillusioned to find out that the governments hidden agenda was to spread their patriotic education and to glorify it on a world stage. This is evident in the abstracted depiction of the stadium in the background, and the intensity of the Communist Party red. He has been put under house arrest and revoked of his travel rights, yet he never loses the hope of fighting for freedom of speech and thought in China.

I would like to refresh the vitality of Chinese calligraphy in order to shorten the distance with audience nowadays, while still insist in writing by traditional skill.The concept behind the artwork is inspired by the society situation nowadays. The Hong Kong government cannot gain confidence from citizens since they keep covering the bad issues instead of solving the problem efficiently. On the other hand, ??? is a classical script in Chinese calligraphy history. During the writing process, I crossed out the words which I did not write it beautifully. The action is related to the reaction of government when they try to cover problems. At last, we will have a view for the final visual of the artwork if I keep such attitude for doing the artwork. Apart from the concept of acting similar to the government, crossing out the words in black in a classical script is like destroying the tradition of Chinese culture. In the ancient time, children studied ??? for learning various knowledge, such as climate information, the birth of world, cardinal virtues, etc. However, people nowadays seem like forget how important of the cardinal virtues, such as being responsible and respective. The action of crossing out the “unsightly” words in black is conceptually similar to destroy traditional cardinal virtues visually. One of the job of artist is to witness and record the history of society. No matter what kind of impression people received from my work, apparently touched or unconscious, at least it’s a record of the nowadays society situation of Hong Kong in history.

Hong Kong can be seen as a dazzling gift wrapped in patterned paper with flashing headlights in traffic and impressive architecture. I wanted to show that Hong Kong can be a bustling city and yet at the same time, show the quieter moments of an individual. In this case a man standing alone reading, compared to the numerous glowing windows in the background showing the restlessness of the city.

Denial a statement that something is not true or does not exist.Roses, poppies, palms, eyes, waterdrop, arms around myself, some of them are real, some of them do not exist although they are promised. A pure bird is leaving me apart, knots are stuck with my mind. How am I going to face liar? Can escaping help me denying the reality? I am looking for hints through the painting.

June Fourth incident(June 4th) still not yet resolved.This artwork was created in the way that I were a reporter and access the student leader Chai Ling and one of Daibiaorenwu leaders Li Peng .I would ask them if they would regret for their decisions. Chai Ling led the students during the days in Tiananmen Square and fought for democracy and freedom,and finally made the situation out of hand.When Chinese government really sent troops to clear the Square , she just walked away, and subsequently fled to a foreign country to evade her responsibility.Did she regret for what she did which caused the sacrifice of so many innocent lives?And Li Peng was the one of the Chinese government who order to clear, and it makes him condemned by history.

Does Hong Kong have real democracy? Not yet. There is still a long way for real democracy in Hong Kong unless we stand and fight for it together. Goddess of Democracy our dream, our hope.

Monster Parents wish their child to be the best. The poor little child was forced to instill academic knowledge which is far beyond his ability and needs. He feel helpless and suffer a lot .

Since I was small, my grandfather shared with me his life in the past as a fisherman. Those images he described has imprinted in my mind and I tried to render them visually. I painted my grandfather in a cartoon style so as to demonstrate his personality: a delightful old man who loves telling jokes, blends well with young people and enjoys sharing his life experiences to others. In this painting, I depicted him, nine of them, playing happily in his home town, an old fishing village he always mentioned. Originally, this painting was to serve as a present for my beloved grandfather to express my wish for him to be healthy again, to recover from serious illness, as 9 symbolizes luck and long-living in the Chinese folklore. I hoped these nine happy little men could help him to recall all the delightful moments in the old days at his hometown. Though at last my grandfather passed away right after I have finished the painting, it still holds valuable memories of my love to him.

Eddie Tay, who re-interpret Li Shangyin’s poem in his own words.i.by Eddie Tay” Coming and going like an echo, you carried away a promise lodged deep in stone. In the recesses of my mind, I see moonlight playing on rooftops, Hear the distance of a bell. And dream of you in another country I scribble a letter, through this is a longing. With no address. Even as a candlelight ignites these designs Of birds upon the quilt, the faint smell of musk Emerges from lotuses on my curtains. Coming and going like an echo, you carried away a promise lodged deep in stone. I pause, thinking the distance of the hills.”About my artwork ” I pause, thinking the distance of the hills.”, is also a derivative work of Li Shangyin’s poem “Unititled”.I chose to imitate LanYin’s landscape painting as a method, as the painting can strongly visualise the poetic feeling. During the process, I understand more about the original poem by painting, reading Li Shangyin’s original poem, as well as the re-interpreted poem by Eddie Tay.

I believe in destiny. Everything is arranged. Yuelao pulls men and women who are strangers together, and fate makes them become couples or even husband and wife. This is the one who is assigned for you to accompany you for a life time.

Puppeteer is a mirror of society, in which man-made constructs impede upon an individual’s sovereignty over themselves; more often than not, the private affair between two people is unduly interfered with by external parties.

When is your last time have eye contacts with others in the metro? In 21st Century, we are all busy at reading, reading digital devices. The monotone artwork reflects the alienation and coldness in modern society. People packed like herds and indulging with their phones in a small constrained environment. Individuals are reading the same type of digital devices which all consistently united in physical terms. Unfortunately, their conscious minds are not present; they are physically bond to each other, yet mentally alienated.

This piece of work expresses the idea of how life and the city are reflections of each other. A minute being in a huge metropolis.

Silent Scream is an oil painting on wood, which stemmed from the idea that we are being bounded by rules that are perhaps self-imposed. These rules are obstacles that hinder us from moving forward. As a Hong Kong teenager, I am always overwhelmed by what we are told by the older generations. They would reiterate that students have to be good in studies to be successful and that being able to buy a flat in Hong Kong is equivalent to being successful. However, I see it in the different way; I believe that being able to do what you enjoy more important. Unfortunately, the pressure from their expectations is preventing us from expressing ourselves. Inspired by Edvard Munchs The Scream, the style of expressionism is adopted to mark the facial features. The curvatures of the human face are exaggerated with the bold directional brush strokes using palette knife. Silent Scream is a visual manifestation of a muted howl rendered through expressive raw brushstrokes. The artwork is intentionally large so that the hands and face are larger than life to intensify the scream. The barbed wires at the bottom of the artworks are the restriction that the person is trying to free himself from.

Hong Kong is known for its economy and business fields. Meaning that most of the outsiders picture Hong Kong as a modern, developed, concrete jungle. Truth is, old complexes still remain across the territory. There is something particular about old buildings in Hong Kong where they all follow the pattern of same window structure, vents, and drying racks. These elements complete the essence of an olden Hong Kong. Therefore, the concept of my artwork is precisely the exploration of old Hong Kong.

This painting expresses how social atmosphere affect mindset of youngsters in every period. Though the change of the Chinese history, we can see it is effective of our life about culture, costume, life style ,living environment. I want to explain the main message The Influence On Teenagers Of History. by drawing this four part of history, including Qing dynasty, 1930s,1970s-1980s and now.Few people learn and know the life of teenagers in long time ago and they also do not link the history to teenagers as most of them just focus on teenagers on nowadays are effective in social such as the event of Occupy Central. People do not pay attention to know neglected young people in the past. One of the reason is nowadays people can know the news from social media easily. Therefore, I want to compare the behavior of the teenagers between the past and nowadays. The most important thing is the culture, custom ,environment,system, can affect the education of teenagers and the view of value of them.Also different life style and freedom causing the different comportment and behavior of the teenagers.This artwork look like telling the story and mix them together.

The work is a large original oil painting of my father the image was painted from a photograph during my IB diploma art class at Chinese International School. The work is personal to me portraying my father resting on the sofa after a hard days work. The angles presented in the painting indicate strong diagonals that inform the sleeping and slumped nature of the figure.

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self defense against a homicidal maniac- George Orwell The irony in this piece is that the gunman (the homicidal maniac) believes that he is defending himself from his enemies. The truth is, he is aiming at innocent civilians, who are the ones in need of self defense. This piece was meant to reflect the irony of how nations go to war, believing that they are protecting something or someone. This desire to protect is translated into taking from and causing physical harm to others.

The separation between the mental and the physical state is often one that is blurred. Oftentimes, the physical can reflect the mental, in which I chose to use the human figure as a vehicle to represent the feeling of isolation that exists within the mind. Isolation can be described as n overwhelming sense of anxiety and being contained in a box with no direction. This piece utilises the stark contrast between light and dark as a tool for depicting this hyper reality.