CHOW Lap Chun
Hong Kong Artist, everything is connected in a very subtle way.
enquiry:
chowlapchun@gmail.com
STONE OF MINE
2019
Ceramics
Set of two: 80 cm × 60 cm × 100 cm, 30 cm × 30 cm × 40 cm
Looking at the stone, looking at the city, looking at self.
Throughout the project, I have been constantly changing my perspective on my work. Starting from the word “transitions”, I have been asking myself what sorts of transition do I concern the most. From a vague concept of transition of spaces, I tried to look little spots that represent mostly a significant transition of space in the city, as I thought that, such a little spot of transition carry the most of the character of Hong Kong. I thought of physical transitions, like bridges, walls, corners, then the retaining wall. I found that the space I looked for carried not only the transition of space nowadays, but also the transforming of time, where the city has been changing all the time. The change of living spaces is what I had experienced in the recent months, which I moved my home. A change of Hong Kong can be very fast and insignificant, yet they also changed our lives gradually. I consider my work as a vessel, which contain volumes. The works is a cast of the existed world, with the alteration of my own experience with the space. It carries a transformed space under my creation, that I think is the most important part of my work, but not only the surface.
I have done quite some experiments with the materials, and at some point I enjoy looking at the transformation of the clay changes into ceramics after firing and has its only characteristics. The firing is a process of waiting, almost like a ritual, making ceramics be a kind of religion. By firing the humblest materials, dirt and mud, become stone. The ceramics processes amazed and inspired me from the beginning to the final products. The process I had gone through in the project was a hardship. Every time I went out to casting it was like a punishment of me. Bringing heavy materials on a cart, working on outdoor area with transport noises and mosquitos, the city had been no difference from a wild jungle for me. However, the experience of me doing these things are like Sisyphus pushing the rock to the peak every day. There are so many things I cannot control in the work, from the space of casting, the clay properties and the unexpected changes in firing, these are like the fate I faced. However, the making of the piece itself is a rebellion of this fate. I cannot change the space I am living right now, but within this box, this frame, I can create my own world to inspire myself and others. It is for me, the most valuable things in my work.
