I worked in the architecture industry for twenty years, and had worked in the same company ever since it was a summer job. To an extent, I already fulfilled my full potential both in terms of development and satisfying my interests. Several years ago, I enrolled in the Bachelor of Arts (Fine Art) programme at Hong Kong Art School (HKAS) which gave me new insight in art. This is not to infer that architecture is not art, but my practice in architecture was more on planning and calculation with strong constraints in creativity. After completing the fine art programme at HKAS, I felt an even stronger need to explore my own creativity. As I am able to sustain my livelihood, I can fully devote myself to artistic work for a while.

After becoming an artist, I develop a fresh understanding towards architecture. Architecture is not only about planning and calculations. Its components also include space, culture and art. When I first became an artist, I did not want to emphasise my identity as an architect because the audience may have different expectations towards your works. However, I now want to delve more into the fusion between art and architecture.

Historically speaking, there had always been patriarchal influences on both architecture and art. I think females look at spaces and architecture differently from males. For example, many male architects aspire to design massive and iconic buildings. Females, on the other hand, pay more attention in the relationship between the building and its internal space. This is the direction that I wish to explore.

“Barren Rocks” was a description in 1841 around the onset of the Opium War. Tension ran high between China and Europe, with Europe frequently sending army or geologists to explore different ports and looking for places to occupy. Perhaps out of political considerations, many documents described Hong Kong at the time as “barren rocks”, essentially a piece of barren land. This became the starting point of my artistic creations. If Hong Kong is not barren enough, I will remove the buildings in postcards or images with a paper cutter. For example, I removed the Victoria Harbour on a postcard with the paper cutter to restore it back to a state of “barren rocks”.

The removed images led me to contemplate on their identities. I feel that they become nothing after being stripped of whatever they were originally attached to. I subsequently transformed them into “creatures” through moulding, collages and so on.

There are more than one hundred objects in “reminiscences” and the exhibition at PMQ can be considered an archive. Visually speaking, the objects are treated as “preserved specimens”. I approached them just like preserving insect specimens, with the objects attached, numbered and complemented with drawings. Not only is this putting “Art is Archive” into action, it also expresses the concept of “Archive is Art”. In addition, I created the 3D scans for all the objects [[which numbered more than a hundred]] and they will be displayed during the exhibition through video projection.

In choosing creative materials, architectural materials such as cement, screws and iron were used. As these tools become art, the transformation is quite fascinating and provides the works with more layers of meaning.

Postcard is a product that promotes or “sells” a certain city. It can portray the city in a most stereotyped and unrealistic fashion that is disconnected from reality. Neither real nor imaginary, it is [[simply]] a product that portrays what is most desirable about the place, and I happen to fancy this [[warped]] sense of false beauty.