Fotanian Open Studios (1).

On 19 Jan 2013, our class visited the Fotanian Open Studio. There have been many idle industrial buildings after the migration of industries to the Mainland, which provides precious space for local artists to create and display their work. And a group of studios in Fotan open for public on January every year since 2001. But to be frank, I just noticed there is such a programme via the course.  Actually there are more than 100 studios inside 15 industrial centers. Like watching flowers while riding on horseback, we only have time visit a few among the crowd and here are some of the studios which impressed me. 

1611 We sculptors (Rm 1611, Block B, Wah Luen Industrial Centre) 

If you ask me about my own experience on art, I would tell you that I seldom do other things out of drawing on a piece of paper. So to me, using solid materials to create an art definitely is a tough work. The group We sculptors started to station in Fotan since early 2012 and before that they have been doing lots of 3D creation by different materials.






 The very first piece of work I see is a series of 4 installations made with firm cartridges. For me firm cartridge is a kind of ”endangered product “from the last generation, while people started to cherish when it is going to extinct. It gives me a feeling of honest and sincere, comparing with the digital memory we are using nowadays. Using such a solid material, the artist, Jimmy LAU resembles the symbols on the control buttons: “Play, Pause, Rewind, Home”, which also the title of it series. Reflect about our life habit under those bombardments of information, materials and entertainment. Seemingly life is enjoyable under the rapid development of technology, but somehow it is just dazzling and annoying. Looking at these works with the order “Play, Pause, Rewind, Home”, remind us to stop from busying and return to the fundamental point, our original “Home”: family, love, nature…

That is simply meaning of the Chinese title: “玩、停、回、家”. Nevertheless, there is another meaning. Generally speaking the meaning of the Chinese “停” as “stop”, but actually the artist uses the symbol “Pause” but not “Stop”. Also, the symbol “Home” on the control have means the audience ready “to started over again”. Which probably implies this circumstance of “Play” is “non-stop”, or I should say, “Unstoppable”. Time keeps running, we continue to live our lives like that and can never escape from the wheel of age.

(to be continued)