I find it interesting to learn to look at the world from a new perspective through art.

Hui Fong-wah, Phoebe

Hui Fong-wah, Phoebe

There are many ways to explore the world: Scientists conduct experiments; historians study literature; archaeologists discover relics. As for artists, they can express their artwork in a variety of ways. One of these artists is Hui Fong-wah, Phoebe, a multimedia artist and JCCAC tenant, who combines text, sound and technology in her multimedia installations to re-interpret the essence and everyday roles of ordinary objects. Her unique artwork helps us to see beyond our normal understanding of things and re-think their hidden characteristics behind traditional concepts.

Hui received her Bachelor of Arts in Creative Media from City University of Hong Kong. She obtained her MFA from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and another MFA in Design Media Art from UCLA.

She has extensively presented her thesis and artwork internationally, including at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MIT Media Lab, and at the International Symposium on Electronic Art and Asia Contemporary Art Show.

Her artwork and concepts have brought her numerous awards, including HKETO Yale-China Art Fellowship, Hong Kong Arts Development Council Young Artist Award (Media Art), Asian Cultural Council Altius Fellowship, Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award, Asian Cultural Council United States-Japan Arts Program Research Fellowship, and Hong Kong Arts Development Council Art Scholarship.

Graphite piano

| Mixed media | 2013

JJCCAC
HHui Fong-wah, Phoebe
JJCCAC
Q1. J

J: Could you tell us more about your artistic practice ?

A1. H

H: My artwork combines text and sound, and utilise distinctive qualities of different materials. Through multimedia installations, I try to provide an unusual way to present familiar things for us to re-think and re-learn their characteristics and patterns.

HHui Fong-wah, Phoebe
Q2. J

J: Why do you choose text and sound as your artistic elements?

A2. H

H: They are intriguing for me. My passion for text began in primary school. Our lessons were taught in English and so I kept translating in my head and became fascinated by the words I heard. My interest in sound started from taking a sound editing course during my studies at the City University of Hong Kong.

Process with Body,
Water & Pendulums

| Mixed media
| 2009-2011, 2016

Q3. J

J: What roles do text and sound play in your art creation?

A3. H

H: Regarding the role of text in my artwork, I am deeply influenced by Franco Moretti, an Italian literary scholar. Rather than focusing on text being a communicative tool, he studied its patterns using statistics. This makes me realise that words are not just for communication but can be seen as a system itself. As for sound, I find that we normally pay more attention to visual than sound. While interning in a movie production project at the City University of Hong Kong, we would spend only a few days to a week in editing the sound track. The experience made me wonder – Can we treat sound as the lead character in a piece of creative work, rather than an extra?

Editor’s note: Phoebe’s sound installation, Wordplay II, extends this idea. In this work, she designed a computer programme in which alphabets and words as appear in dictionaries are translated into playable soundscapes.

Wordplay II

| Mixed media | 2012

Q4. J

J: You hope to re-learn about the world through creation. Besides text and sound, what other subject matters have you explored and used?

A4. H

H: I like to use ordinary things and our daily lives as the topics of my art pieces, as their relevance resonates with the audience.

Q5. J

J: What motivates your curiosity to rediscover things?

A5. H

H: I feel it is difficult for us to totally understand our world. For example, when we interact with people, we cannot possibly understand them completely. Hence, I find it interesting to learn to look at the world from a new perspective through art.

Granular Graph II

| Mixed media | 2009

Q6. J

J: Besides Hong Kong, you also had experiences exhibiting in other countries such as Britain and America. Did those experiences influence your artwork?

A6. H

H: The reactions I obtained from exhibiting overseas have offered new insights into cultural differences. In Hong Kong, most of my audience are often art professionals. In places such as the US, however, the art community can be much broader. For example, last year I had an exhibition at the Yale Green Hall Gallery and the audience were mostly locals from various backgrounds.

The overseas experience also prompted me to reflect on our traditional concept of nationality. Once in a workshop, someone in the audience commented that my artwork displayed some distinct oriental characteristics. But in fact, I had not created that particular piece of artwork with any Asian elements in mind. He could have seen me as an Asian and thought that way. We often like to categorise people and things based on superficial presumptions. My artwork Vexation is a subtle reflection on this issue.

Pendulum Piano

| Mixed media | 2018
Special thanks to Photographer
Judy Sirota Rosenthal

 

Vexation

| Mixed media | 2012-2013

At an overseas exhibition once, an audience member touched my artwork in a manner lacking gentleness, which prompted me to interfere and explain to him the best way to interact with that piece of artwork. The experience has taught me how to interact with my audience and to consider increasing participatory elements in my works.

Hui Fong-wah, Phoebe

Q7. J

J: Have your exhibitions in different places brought about changes in your creative work?

A7. H

H: Yes, one influence is in the effort I put into interacting with the audience. I seldom interacted with my audience before. However, at an overseas exhibition once, an audience member touched my artwork in a manner lacking gentleness, which prompted me to interfere and explain to him the best way to interact with that piece of artwork. The experience has taught me how to interact with my audience and to consider increasing participatory elements in my works. In my upcoming exhibition at the Jockey Club ifva Everywhere Carnival, my outdoors installation will include such interactive elements.

Hui’s works will be seen in the following group exhibitions:

“Factory-made: JCCAC 10-year Retrospective Exhibition”

Date: 2/10 – 28/12/ 2018

Time: 10:00 – 22:00pm

Venue: L3-07, JCCAC

 

Jockey Club ifva Everywhere Carnival

Date: 29 – 30 / 9 / 2018

Time:  14:00 – 23:00

Venue: Edinburgh Place, Central

 

The HKAC 40th Anniversary flagship exhibition – “Wan Chai Grammatica: Past, Present, Future Tense”

Date: 30 / 9 – 4 / 11 / 2018

Time: 10:00 – 20:00

Venue: Pao Galleries, Hong Kong Arts Centre (4/F and 5/F)

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