Last exhibition of 2015: Un/natural, with Stephen King

Stormcloud

I’m pleased to present my final exhibition of 2015: ‘Un/natural’, a joint show with one of my students – Stephen King*. It runs from 5 December 2015 to 9 January 2-16 at Alisan Fine Arts, Hong Kong. This follows ‘Connection’ at the Hong Kong Arts Center in June, and ‘The Idea of Man’ at the Rangefinder Gallery in Chicago last month in October.

You might have already guessed from the title image that this is going to be something very different from my normal work.

Our concept for this show (composed of 20 pieces) was to explore the tension and similarity between natural and unnatural elements. Stephen’s images are subjects found in nature that appear almost too regular to be natural, yet with sufficient organic clues that suggest man would lack the ability to create them. My images are the opposite: entirely man-made subjects that are irregular enough to be plausibly organic or natural, but with a similar number of minor visual cues – such as text or machined edges – that suggest what you are looking at cannot possibly be natural.

The line between nature and what we make out of it thus becomes blurred.

Both sets of images have simultaneous elements of harmony and dissonance: in Stephen’s case, it’s the asymmetry that contrasts the calming tones. In my images, it’s the intensity of color that both creates and dominates the overall structure of the image. There is a very strong element of abstraction to both – this is deliberate, to almost completely eliminate any sense of scale. It is a reflection of both the fractal nature of both natural and man-made worlds. In fact, the cognitive boundary is blurred enough that is almost possible for the subjects to be from the same origin.

This marks my sixth exhibition, Stephen’s first exhibition and Alisan Fine Arts’ first foray into photography; up til now they have been representing Chinese artists and were one of the first in the art scene in Hong Kong. My work will be displayed as Ultraprint on canvas, with archival pigment and media; as usual for me, the prints will be made by Wesley Wong of Giclee Art in Kuala Lumpur.

The full press release for the exhibition can be found here.

‘Un/natural’ runs from 5 December 2015 to 9 January 2016 at Alisan Fine Arts, 2305 Hing Wai Centre, 7 Tin Wan Praya Rd, Aberdeen, Hong Kong (+852 2526 1091). Sebastian Turner and
Daphne King Yao are representing me for this series of images, and all are limited to an edition of eight pieces each. The opening reception is from 4-6pm on Saturday 5 December; I’ll be there and all are welcome – please drop in and say hi if you’re in town.

*Not the author, but no less illustrious – a well known financier in Hong Kong, amongst other things.

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