portraits of consumerism

'portraits of consumerism' started out with my urge to draw. to draw whenever possible. wherever possible. the only tool i need is a pen. scaps of paper can be found everywhere.

for example payment receipts. i never seem to run out of them. small pieces of paper of different sizes, various content and lengths. witnesses of my life as a consumer. these payment receipts tell part of my story. maybe more than i want. 

the paper of these receipts is very smooth. thermal paper. it doesn't get printed on with ink.  thermal paper gets imprinted with heat. over time, the letters and imprints will fade until the paper is plain white again. until the act of consumption is no longer visible. only the black lines of my pen will remain.

i keep searching. my black pen tracing some of the facts on these receipts. tracing, drawing, looking for myself. usually i draw my face. lines about wanting, about manipulation, about behaviour and awareness, about cause and effect, about my actions and my reaction. lots of little traces that add up to a bigger picture.

water-mountain-waste

the beach is my canvas

waste is my paint

with these bright colours

i’m painting a portrait

of each and every one of us

i’m afraid it is not a beautiful one

rubbish - colours - awareness

I’m proud to be part of  “Midsummer Groove” on 21^st of June on Lower Cheung Sha beach this year! 

I will be doing another landart project called “Chinese landscape 垃圾山水” made entirely from waste, found objects and natural materials found on this prestigious beach. It will be in the shape of a colour wheel this time and I will be there from 9am until sundown. Please join in at any time to add your own colour!

In the morning I will assist children from Lantau International School and Pui O Public School to create this “Chinese landscape 垃圾山水”. I believe by working directly with the left-overs of our consumerist society the children will gain a new point of view of their own consumerist habits. 

From 3pm onwards there will be dance and choir performances, games, homemade food and stalls and of course a lucky draw with amazing prizes! Join us on fb for more info http://www.facebook.com/events/133243596869447/ 

All money raised on “Midsummer Groove” will be donated to three worthy local charities: 

HK Shark Foundation (http://hksharkfoundation.org), 

Plastic Free Seas (http://www.plasticfreeseas.org) and 

Lantau Buffalo Association (http://lantaubuffalo.wordpress.com).

Looking very much forward to seeing you there!

some photos from 'time being'

what you touch touches you

'pretty' seems to be the one big excuse of our consumerist society. it looks 'pretty' so it can't be bad, can it? the moral compass stops right there at the surface. let it be the wrapper of a candy, the design of a flip-flop, the colour of a lip stick... no one seems to ask where it comes from, how toxic the production is, who manufactures it, where the waste goes... hundreds of questions no one is able to answer, and only very few are actually asking. all of this ignorance in the name of 'pretty'. we are aesteticizing morals, keeping them on the surface. any questions that look deeper are consistently ignored. what are we doing??! 
as an artist i'm also aestheticizing. i'm aestheticizing rubbish. it's a language people do understand. but the message is not a pretty one: we're all in this together - doers as well as victims. isn't it time for us, the doers to at least be aware of our deeds? 

chinese landscape / 垃圾山水

this is the first installation from trash i did in 2011. i was camping with my family on a secluded beach on south lantau when i noticed the trash that's been washed up and caught up in the undergrowth. coming from a background of a painter i started sorting the trash by colours and putting it into the shape of a colour wheel.

and this is how big the installation gets in 2013!

in anticipation of earth day 2013 environmental activist tracey read (www.plasticfreeseas.org) and me join forces to do the biggest installation ever. i call these outdoor installations "chinese landscape" or "垃圾山水" (trash mountain water): the reality of chinese nature as it is at this point in time. the landscape is still as beautiful as on any ancient ink drawing, but there is a new element: 垃圾 = trash.

for earth day 2013 my concept is to cover the whole beach with trash, sort it by colour and lay it out like a rainbow. in 6 hours tracey, me and around 50 volunteers bring to light the volume of 85 big rubbish bags full of trash, not including two refrigerators, half a boat, a government rubbish bin, construction pipes and ropes for shipping... and sadly that's only a fraction of the garbage on this beach. 

the most important message i want to convey with my "chinese landscape/垃圾山水" is to open your eyes to the massive problems of hong kong's excessive consumerist society. and at the same time i want you to see the beauty of hong kong's nature.  the best and most direct way to experience this is to volunteer at a "chinese landscape/垃圾山水". you get in physical contact with the left-overs of our consumerist society and you get to spend the whole day in the magnificent outdoors of hong kong. this is a much deeper experience than to just grasping it on an intellectual level. 
when people look at my photographs they usually perceive them as being beautiful and pleasing. only later comes the recognition that the colours are actually made up from lots of different pieces of trash.and that's hopefully the moment we start thinking about our consumerist habits, our life styles, our relationship to nature.

apple daily tv has done a report: please watch if you got two minutes (and understand chinese:)
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/news/art/20130422/18236632

'time being' - a short tour

thank you. thanks to everyone who came yesterday and shared this special moment with me: it was the first time that i filled an entire gallery with my soul, and the first time in hongkong to actually say: hello here i am! 

this is a short video for all those who couldn't make it to my exhibition. 

thanks especially to kate and abid who are running the beautiful timeandspace.hk gallery. a big thank you also to lillian and betsy from winenthingshk.com for the sparkly and the perfect service. and thanks without words to my husband who gives me the inner and outer space to persue the art that is in my heart. and to my chilrden who try their best to do the same.