concept

curator
Sabrina M.Y.Fung

artists
anothermountainman
Chan Yuk-keung

artwork
anothermountainman
Chan Yuk-keung

Chan Yuk-keung
hollow inverted, suspended inspiration, installation about the artist

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hollow inverted, suspended

The city, suspended in the air, severs the sky from the sea.

Plastered on its upper surface is a mosaic of
the glory and decay,
the ebbs and flows, of history,
Rubbing up against each other.

Yet, amazingly, a shimmering silver light floods
the landscape on the under side,
From genesis to the present,
Time and its marks, sink into oblivion,
And the column stands submerged in the tranquil sea.

The City that was born out of a well of life,
Branches out in all directions,
Spinning a web that becomes the water-sky connection.

Take a look back,
And see that above and below have changed places,
And sea and sky have blended together into a single colour.

On the banks of the canal,
I catch a glimpse of a city suspended and inverted.
And I take my leisurely stroll, becoming lost in the silvery brilliance.

Where I stand allows no time for contemplation -
The early tide of October runs ashore and soaks my feet.

inspiration, installation

hollow inverted, suspended
Chan Yuk-keung

inspiration:
My idea was inspired by the book "The Description of the World" written by Marco Polo in the 13th century. It is his personal account of travels and explorations. This semi-real, semi-imagined account of a voyage is in fact, a mixture of documentary and fiction, which on the one hand illustrates the writer's 'real experience' acquired through his travel to an exotic place, while on the other hand, it inevitably reflects the fact that it is both a work of literature and a product of the writer's imagination, which was itself influenced by his own cultural background and state of mind...

Improvements in modes of transport and rapid developments in information technology, along with an overriding concern for safety and convenience, have meant that travelling is becoming more and more formulaic and standardised; travel destinations and experiences are becoming more homogeneous, and travellers are no longer forming unique, personal and individual impressions of the places they visit...

installation:
Initially I work with images of the cityscape with reference to the map of Venice. As in my previous work exhibited in 2003, several boards will dissect the exhibition space horizontally. Unlike last time, the boards will be suspended from the ceiling, around eight feet from the ground, and on the underside of the boards, an inverted city will be built.

I am inverting the city because I want to stress the fact that the 'city' seen by the spectators is unreal: it defies gravity and its 'real weight' is actually in the air, connoted by the opened paper bags suspended from the bottom of the board and above the viewer's head. The spatial relationship between the city and the viewer is thus inverted.

The viewers will then be guided onto a ramp, which leads up to a platform, from where they will be able to walk through the 'canal' that dissects the two main regions of 'the city' and survey another 'landscape' from the top of the boards, on which the entire surface is covered with silver leaf.

This shiny surface symbolises the past splendour of the city, which is said to be sinking deeper into the mud every year—this process perhaps being the most touching metaphor for the fading glory of such a beautiful and legendary city.

The experience of travelling can only be real and complete in our memories, but this means that it is always being reinvented.

about the artist

Chan Yuk-keung
Born in Hong Kong in 1959