55 Squared is a seasonal initiative to activate the outdoor space in Tai Kwun and to engage creatively with the visitors. Artists will be invited to create a unique artwork in response to the historic site, current issues and contemporary concerns.
The mural Unfurling the scroll of space and time by the artist Cheng Hung forges an illusion of three-dimensionality and a spurious sense of time. While the artist imagines the mural as an unfurling scroll that endlessly exposes an empty room, her use of the colours of dusk suggests the passage of time between day and night.
Inspired by the arched columns of Tai Kwun, Cheng in this large work perpetuates and extends such architectural forms, constructing a virtual and enigmatic space. The perspectival vanishing points in the scene fluctuate with the weather, creating an ambivalent zone of relation.
The work intentionally delimits the borders between space and time, detaching the viewer from reality. For instance, the artist paradoxically places a “window” that reveals the vanishing point of the infinite on the limiting boundary of the “wall.” Sometimes, “reality” and its boundaries can be indiscernible in our skewed perception.
Unfurling the scroll of space and time is Tai Kwun’s second commissioned work for “55 Squared”; the work was painted and composed by Cheng Hung, Chan Chun Hei, Lau Ka Chun, and Lau Hoi Nga Livy over ten days. “55 Squared” is jointly curated by Louiza Ho and David Chan.
CHENG Hung was born in Hong Kong in 1993. She graduated with the Degree of Bachelor of Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Major in Fine Arts). Her works were exhibited in Art Kaohsiung 2017. She was awarded Fresh Trend Art Award and Grotto Fine Art’s Creative Award in 2017. She completed the artist residency program in Treasure Hill Artist Village in 2018.
Charcoal became one of her major media to explore. Cheng uses the variation in the monotone to create a distant and calm space and blurs reality spaces into personal spaces. She explores imaginative shortcuts to escape the world.
More information of the first edition of "55 Squared" and the commissioned work "I Will Always Be WIth You", please click here.
