Five individuals, Six Pair of Hands
Jaspar Lau

From the title you can tell it is a collage exhibition, but it does reflect on the direction of Hong Kong and mainland art locally and overseas. As a Chinese woman who went to America from the mainland, Shen Ruijun keeps paper/silk and ink as her tools, but turns symbolized sexual organs in the style of Salvador Dali into bundles of soft tissue. With her medium and subject, it is understandable that she creates a stir. Silia Tung from Hong Kong has studied in Chelsea College of Art and Design and Slade respectively, and her style reminds one of England's new superstar Damien Hirst and his early polka dot painting, and the new pop art of Takashi Murakami's Superflat. It shows how the flat new human has taken the world by storm. Au Hoi-lam too has studied overseas and her formalized style and Mark Tobey's free strokes would each be gallery-friendly, but the joining or the two is another story. Some personal obsession? Li Songsong form Beijing walks a fine line on the handling of his subject matter. But the reprocessing of historical and social subject is enough to meet the international perception of the Chinese politicising of art. Kwan Sheung-Chi has the greatest local flavour, and exhibits the greatest split. The copybook style reflects the struggle faced by a local artist, but the Mustard Seed Garden cigarette packet is a poor imitation of mainland style, which is an embarrassment in a gallery. The workday shirt looks appropriate.

(Jaspar Lau, “Five individuals, Six Pair of Hands”, a.m.post, issue six, artmap, Oct 2004.)