Hong Kong Students Prize 2015

‘Apple of my eye’ is an idiom that refers to something or someone that one cherishes above all others.Nowadays, the apple that the idiom refers to is very often the apple i-phone or other brands of phones. People hide behind their phones and forget the outside world, and soon the only real thing for them are the internet and games, anything outside becomes flat, plain and unappealing. Gradually, people become ‘enslaved’ by the addiction and turn cold and unemotional like the phone itself.In this piece, I want to bring awareness to the uprising use of of electronic phones and the lack of human contact. This is shown in the piece when the only realistic things are the iris and the phone. The impact of cyber addiction is shown where the phone melts into grey metal which coats the originally skin toned hand.

As conflict around the world grows, more and more children are exposed to the brutalities of war. Whether they are living amongst the ruins of their home; hiding out in a bomb shelter, the victim of a school massacre or whether they are recruited to fight for the country; I wanted to produce a painting that juxtaposed the innocence of childhood with the reality that many face.

創作反映香港過去與現今的差異。作品校上的情景是表達香港現今的樣貌、代表建築有青馬大橋，而較下方則表演了昔日的香港情懷，如拉人力車、漁船、養鴨場等，反映了香港昔日的種種、今日的異同。

This piece was inspired by the often congested and busy roads of Hong Kong. People often view traffic congestion as something that is negative, with all the time taken away from us in our tight schedules and work hours – one does not wish for such to occur. While it often carries a negative connotation, the view of this situation is dependent to our perspective on it. Like Shakespeare’s Hamlet once said ” There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so”, congestion can be seen as a beautiful scene. An opportunity to take in the mesmerizing, breathtaking environment that we often miss in our hectic lifestyles.

This work is inspired by the modern phenomena of online identities and how as individuals it easy to become something you are not through the facade of social media. For all the fun, laughter and enjoyment these sites can give us they also have an element that can become deceiving, hurtful and a cause of anxiety especially for people my age.

The fight between animals is full of energy and power. Male bettas flare their gills, twist their bodies, and spread their fins if they are ready for a battle.Their bodies, especially the hage tail, flow with water and show their flexible movement under water. Eagles fly in the sky chasing each other and attack against one another by their sharp claws. In nature, animals battle for survival vehemently. “Dynamic” is an abstract concept, but I used the technique of splash-ink to translate the concept of dynamic into painting. Using complementary color such as red and blue can express the conflict between the fighting animals more clearly. I want to express the dynamic of fighting animals and also the vitality of natural creature through this work.

Chinese people’s hypocrisy makes many people feel dissatisfied. Authorities and the public with a fake face to live, people cheating and taking advantage of each other. The public pretends to worship Chairman Mao. Mao pretends to give people more freedom. Between human beings there are only two alternatives, either sincere or fake. Obviously, they chose to become a fake one. I use the color of a sacrificial offering doll to paint Mao and student’s face. This color makes the people looks like a dummy. Mao’s head is huge that is mean his authority is larger than anyone. Moreover, I make the painting more monotonous to indicate the fake of China.

Technology is well develop nowadays. It helps us a lot in different ways .But do we need to further develop or just be satisfied? Because there are clearly good and bad influences at the same time. Electronic gadgets could get people escape from reality but at the same time good technology let us be capable of protecting our country.

After looking at Japanese artist Miyoka Lhara and her series ‘ Misao and Fukamaru’ I decided that I would also document my own grandmother; not only would this allow me to spend more time with her, but would enable me to truly get to know her better. I realised that I knew some of my grandmother’s routines, such as, that she teaches Chinese Opera Singing, but I had never in my 18 years, heard her sing.

I have a dream ? become a artist! And i think a successful artist the biggest element is to make their works inspirit others. what is more, every success artist must have lots of thing to be inspirit and inspire others. On my painting,there are lots of bushes, colors ,papers,to name but a few,these are the needs inspiriting me.On top of it, there are lots of artists who are admiring and inspiriting. Therefore, i hided six of their paints inside my work. As showing my love and respect to them.

An experimental watercolor piece that combines different textures and watercolor techniques, such as adding salt or impressing with different materials, as well as ink line-work and different levels to create a composition of koi fish in a pond. The concept is to show beauty in nature and in simple things.

This portrait for my dad was from his last photo with us. Even though he was smiling, it showed his tired from the torture of cancer. Also, it seems like the ashes of papers, and it was disappearing. His image was fading both in my life and my memory, you can know from the bottom of his image. At the background, there are the messages from my dad that I imagined. I used the Chinese calligraphy to express my emotion at that moment. I didnt practice and I just follow my feeling to write it. However, the result was unexpected amaze. It looks like a monument of my dad as well as a little bit worn. It enables people feels pretty warm at the beginning but after a while, I am pretty sure they will feel sad when they read the words.Anyway, i miss you, dad.

Before a baby is born, mother and her baby is connected not only physically, but also emotionally. Their relationship is incredible because of their exchange of love. The work on the left mainly focuses on the affection that mother has towards the baby. Her love is represented through the abstract patterns beside her rib cage. The string that is connected from baby to the heart of his mother represents that they are connected with love. The right piece represents wish of every mother that her baby to feel safe and sound as if he is surrounded by nature when the baby is inside of her womb.

What is our home going on ? Why are there many things seemed so unreasonable? Did I truly recognize my birth place , Hong Kong ? 28th September, 2014 was a critical and significant day to Hong Kong showing that students and plenty of protesters, the hope of future, really had an enthusiastic passion to protect the core value of Hong Kong—— democracy and autonomy. Inspired by this great scene, I think the protesters are really like a mother who are protecting their children far from danger with all efforts and even feel sad to the situation. The children in my painting are the metaphor of the future of our ‘ home’ and hope to express my anxiety to our society future and development. Therefore, the vital message I want to bring is that it is a high time we brought change to our society and insisted on spirit of Hong Kong.

Skyfall features the changes in architecture as old and historical buildings are either demolished or replaced by modern buildings. Through the metaphor of symbolizing traditional architectures as debris crashing down from the sky, Kwok morns the rapid disappearance of old buildings. She hopes to put viewers in the eye of the old man sitting on top of the new buildings; to allow them to see the significance in preserving heritage. It is very sad and disappointing to see the lack of action to preserve architectures with historical and cultural resemblance not only in Hong Kong, but all around the world. Therefore, through this piece, Kwok hopes to highlight the importance in valuing the heritage of architecture, because the beauty, truth and memories reflected within its history is what makes architecture special.

Nowadays, it seems that “Slim” and “Whitening” are equal to “Beauty”. However, I did not have both but I think that I have alternative beauty. I made reference to the Chinese ancient beauty paintings real mode, and re-interpreted the painting as “Ten Beauties”-nine tantalizing modern ladies and one ordinary me. I hope others can admire women’s inner beauty more than their outer beauty through this artwork.

How many people can really take a break in such a hustle and bustle city like Hong Kong? Mr Van Gogh deserves it.

A painting depicting the abnormality of the ocean, the unnatural beauty of water which shouldn’t exist, in order to emphasize how human activity has led to the extreme change in the natural form of water. I chose to approach this matter in this way because I wish to look at this problem at a different perspective. Instead of expressing the ugly side of pollution, I chose to work on the opposite. I want people to feel the irony when they relate the title to the painting, thinking that it looks nothing like water, because this is exactly what is happening in the nature right now. I produced this painting referring to the photographs taken by J Henry Fair, which explores the sites of environmental pollution by oil drilling activities.