Start main Content

Ling U

Ling U

Ling U

Ling U

Ling U

Unfold City: From Invisible Cities to Visible Hong Kong

MACAH VIS511 Curatorial Project

Curated by LIN Runyin Lizzie, WANG Qingyang Rebecca, PENG Xiran Sandy, CHENG Chang Cici, YANG Yunhan Aspen


VISUAL STUDIES Image ALT

Unfold City: From Invisible Cities to Visible Hong Kong

Artists: YEUNG Hok Tak, WONG Kam Chun, Merryn Trevethan , Melody Qingmei LI, Tracy CHENG & Shera CHO

Curators: LIN Runyin Lizzie, WANG Qingyang Rebecca, PENG Xiran Sandy, CHENG Chang Cici, YANG Yunhan Aspen



Introduction


Unfold City: From Invisible Cities to Visible Hong Kong is a thematic exhibition presented by MACAH programme of DA+CI, Lingnan University, Hong Kong.  The show will bring together the work of six artists who are based in Hong Kong: YEUNG Hok Tak, Merryn TREVETHAN, WONG Kam Chun, Melody Qingmei LI, Tracy CHENG and Shera CHO to present Hong Kong's urban narration in different time dimensions.

Urban Narration: From Invisible Cities to Unfold City

Following Roland Barthes asserted that "the city is a discourse", cities can be regarded as a meaningful and joyful text. Inspired by Italo Calvino's novel Invisible Cities, Unfold City mirrors his concept in which he compared the invisible city to a virtual city blending time layers and symbols, reflecting the modern city. The exhibition, therefore called 城事 in Chinese, would display three groups of artworks to present three layers of “time” in Hong Kong’s narration in parallel: Past / Present / Prospect, which respectively correspond to the urban images of three different time layers in the Invisible Cities.

In Hong Kong, because of urbanization, symbolic heritage representing the city’s identities and cultures have been retained while some are constantly and inevitably disappearing. The exhibition not only present stories in Hong Kong, but also witness Hong Kong's signs and metaphors as a city in transition.  This exhibition aims at proposing how we use our own vocabulary to describe a transforming city, such as Hong Kong.

City in Different Times: Three Exhibition Sections

Calvino's Invisible Cities is a narrative of cities with diverse signs and metaphors.  Desires, symbols, memories, and eyes are all signifiers within city symbols, allowing the audience to see reflections of their own city in Invisible Cities.  These signified elements are also present in the artworks showcased in this exhibition.  In the section Past (陳事), artist YEUNG Hok Tak explores lost urban landscapes by intertwining personal memories with symbolic representations, creating narration that transcend temporal boundaries.  In the section Present (城視), in response to Calvino's concept of dual cities in Invisible Cities, artists Merryn Trevethan, WONG Kam Chun, and Melody Qingmei LI capture Hong Kong's dynamic changes through artworks exploring the interplay between individuals and evolving urban landscapes, while Melody's ‘Contemporary Landscape’ series engages viewers in the narrative, offering a fresh perspective on the city's transformation.  In the section Prospect (未來式), from the artists' perspective, presents the discussion about city is an extension of the dreams of citizens The installation by the artist duo, Tracy CHENG and Shera CHO, leads audiences into an imagined future of Hong Kong.





YEUNG Hok Tak

YEUNG Hok Tak has a strong personal style with a local element in his art practice. His works explore the Hong Kong identity and recall collective memories as his painting subjects are uniquely Hong Kong, embodying the collective childhood stories of Hong Kong people in the 1970s.


WONG Kam Chun

WONG Kam Chun‘s works mostly focus on the urban construction of Hong Kong. The present and the future are intertwined in the work, looking into the reconstructed scene, just as the old fragments in the new city written in Invisible City have been replaced to adapt to new needs.


Merryn Trevethan

Merryn Trevethan is an Australian artist currently based in Hong Kong. Her paintings, drawings, murals and objects are often layered in site-responsive installations to reflect different modes of seeing, inviting viewers to relate to and be critical of our surroundings. She examines how people see, navigate and record experiences of urban environments.

Melody Qingmei LI

Melody Qingmei LI engages in creating a series of works like narrative essays. Her works record a common ongoing phenomenon in our urban city. In her work ‘Contemporary Landscape’, which is coherent with Invisible Cities, “Except for the plank walls, canvas barriers, footsteps, iron frames, planks and ladders supported by ropes or sawn timbers, the traveller to Sakra can only see a small part of the city.”, showing the urbanization of Hong Kong.


Tracy CHENG & Shera CHO

Tracy CHENG & Shera CHO, both graduated from the Academy of Visual Art at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2022, are young and work as an artist duo. They have a knack for using humor and alternative perspectives to think about issues that occur in their life situations. Collages of documentary photography, white noise soundtracks from the city and games create a present-day city of the future, inviting the audience to imagine what Hong Kong narration will be like in the future.