OCTET

RMIT University Master of Fine Art Graduation Exhibition

7 - 23 September 201 3 Pao Galleries Hong Kong Arts Center

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RMIT UNIVERSITY

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

There is a large team of people we would like to thank both personally and professionally who have helped us at different times and in different ways during our journey in the RMIT University, Master of Fine Art Program:

，Associate Professor Kevin White, Deputy Head International Development, School of Art, RMIT University.

•Rhett D'Costa, Academic Advisor, MFA Hong Kong, School of Art, RMIT University.

‘Kiki Lau and Kay Wong from the Hong Kong Art School (who seem to make everything work for us!)

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The staff from RMIT University and the Hong Kong Art School (who all do what they do to ensure we can get on with our studies!)

.Warm regards and best wishes to our fellow classmates at all levels.

We appreciate their encouragement, feedback and affection. ?

Our wonderful sponsors for their generosity and support.

Finally, our friends and families who so generously have provided love, guidance and support.

WE MADE IT!

Co-presented by

RMIT UNIVERSITY Credits to the following sponsors:

antalis

Just ask Antalis

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i il l l l ih Empire

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Printing & Production Specialist Ltd .

FOREWORD

OCTET 'Octet' celebrates the artistic achievements of a diverse group of students from RMIT University, School of Art's,

Master of Fine Art program.

Each of the students whose work is represented in this catalogue, were already deeply immersed in their respective art practices when they commenced the two year Master of Fine Art program. However, their decision to embark on further studies at postgraduate level committed them to strive for new and higher levels of understanding of the material and conceptual foundations that underpin their work, and how they continue to connect with and interpret the world they inhabit, through their creative endeavours.

The world continues to be increasing in its complexity and it is essential for artists to be flexible, responsive and connected to the emerging challenges of a contemporary global environment. The Master of Fine Art program is designed to provide a solid foundation for interaction and informed engagement. Critical discourse between staff and students in their independent studios and regular seminar sessions provide a mutually supportive foundation for debate and analysis of differing points of view and shifting perspectives.

The students represented in this catalogue have worked with tireless commitment and enthusiasm. The work they have produced is an eloquent testament to their professional integrity and their desire to both refine and develop uniquely personal explorations of both seen and imagined worlds.

It is with a great sense of pride and pleasure that I congratulate them on their achievements and wish them every success in the future.

Assoc. Prof.Kevin White Deputy Head -International Development

School of Art RMIT University

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GLORIA YIP

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

SAMi

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MARGARE1

JACKIE MA

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DANNY LIU Beyond Ink: Modernity and Tradition This practice-led research project looked at aspects of the history and tradition of Chinese brush painting, specifically in landscape paintings from the Sung Dynasty onwards and drew from this rich field of knowledge to use in my artwork. The research was a studio and theoretical investigation, which attempted to extend Chinese brush painting traditions and its conventions beyond material and display; utilizing both traditional and new forms, materials and installation strategies.

The title for my project; Beyond Ink: Modernity and Tradition, acknowledges and values the tradition of brush painting as form, material and philosophy and at the same time asks how Modernity shifts or impacts on these conventions.

Modernity often typically refers to a 'post' traditional position. I am acutely aware of the rapidly changing landscape of Hong Kong as a result of modernization because I use landscape as my motif in my artwork. My everyday experiences

relate to a contemporary modern culture. I am completely aware that I am living in a modern city that is reflected by the cityscape, the technology I use, computers and mobile phones. In most aspects of my daily life in Hong Kong, there is

a constant reminder of this. On the other hand, the visible signs of traditional Hong Kong culture seem less obvious.

Through this research I have attempted to bring together tradition and the modern.

Imagining No.1-9 Ink, tea, colour, plastic figurine on paper in wooden frames 35cm x 315cm 2012

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DAPHNE HO Space Becoming Home a photographic enquiry into space and place My project is an investigation into the personal interpretations of the complex relationship between space and place, through

a lens-based fine art practice.

Space refers to a physical or geographical location, while place takes into account the experiences of emotions and the personal. As Yi-fu Tuan succinctly states; "Space is transformed into place as it acquires definition and meaning. Place is a

humanized space.”? My enquiry draws on sites, both natural and manmade, which conflate the experiences of space and place as distinct. I photograph spaces within my lived experience in Hong Kong as well as overseas which opens up the perceived distinctions between space and place, as having distinct boundaries.

The outcome of the research is a series of photographic projects that considers how space and place oscillate between being and becoming, in the context of; private and public, inhabited and abandoned, imagined and material, physical and

psychological, remembered and forgotten.

(1) Yi-Fu Tuan, "Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience", (US: University of Minnesota Press, 1977), 136

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Fictional Reality B/W Series Museum quality archival inkjet print on 290gsm paper 34.5cm x 105.5cm 2012

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Fictional Reality Colour Series Museum quality archival inkjet print on 285gsm paper 58cm x 96.5cm 2011

GLORIA YIP Found in Translation Artworks Inspired by NuShu My research is practice-led, centering on the cultural and material practices of Nu Shu women, with a particular focus on

their singing, written script and weaving.

Nu Shu originated from a village in Jiangyong, Hunan Province, China over two hundred years ago. The women in this province had almost no opportunities to receive a formal education. As a consequence, they developed their own language and text as a way to communicate with each other.

During the time of feudal society in China, the status of women was very low. Women struggled to be accepted as equal and to be heard and valued. In modern societies, women's status has improved. Western feminist ideas have led us to think more deeply about women's rights. As a contemporary Chinese woman, I believe the culture of Nu Shu stands as a powerful reminder of how women can empower themselves and create a space through their writing, weaving and singing for their voice to always be heard.

Bond Ink jet Print 24" x 36" (unframed) 2012

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Breaking the Moon (Video Still) Video: 3’07 (looped -single channel)

Dimensions variable 2012

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JACKIE MA The Infinite Horizon The Experiential and Spiritual in Painting The project for my MFA put forward two related propositions:

- How can sensorial, atmospheric affects of light and colour in nature, be used to explore the spiritual in contemporary painting practices?

- How

can the horizon line as experienced in nature, be explored in painting practices as a space of liminality?

The project aimed to develop a body of paintings, which engaged with ideas relating to spirituality; primarily in the context of my deep and personal relationship with Christianity.

The ideas and artworks draw directly from my perception of and experience from life. Studio based investigations were made which utilised formal properties in paintings, such as color, format and scale, to bring forward issues relating to the spiritual. It examined ways that the experiential could be utilised in contemporary painting in bringing forward both personal and universal ideas specific to spirituality.

Life is temporary and it is my perception that the fine horizon line in a sunrise and sunset, can operate as a threshold or

liminal space -a point or line suspended between heaven and earth, between life and death.

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Liminality (installation variations) Oil on canvas 80 cm x 80 cm (each panel) 2012

Salvation Oil on canvas 100cm x 120cm (each panel) 2012

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Salvation & Liminality (installation view) Oil on canvas 2012

KASSIA NG Ma Wan Landscape From Distance and Up Close is the culmination of two practice-led research projects focusing on the island of Ma Wan. The observations of Ma Wan Landscape, "from distance" from my balcony and "up close" during my walks, form a stark spatial contrast. The view from my balcony is expansive and distant, and the spatial effect on the senses conjures the impression that as an observer, I am isolated from and not involved in the motif. This sensation instantly vanishes as soon as I embark on my experiential walks to and around Ma Wan village: the motif becomes instantly filled with details of both nature and human artifact. While the scenery observed from my balcony appears to be static, observations made in Ma Wan village embody constant movement, a by-product of my roaming. As a walking observer, I became an active participant of the village landscape.

My two contrasting experiences of Ma Wan landscape -visual versus experiential, from distance versus up close -provides me with different interpretations of my relationship to the Ma Wan environment in which I reside. It raises the question of how divergent perspectives of the same elements can be expressed within a studio-based art practice; and more philosophically, how humans have come to understand the concept of 'sense of place'. The transformation of the Ma Wan landscape

also reminds us that in the pursuit of progress and modernisation, the impacts of development on individuals, families and communities are often overlooked, ill considered or forgotten. From this social perspective, observing the Ma Wan landscape from distance and up close has in fact brought me to the same conclusion. The Ma Wan projects serve as a confirmation of the power of collective memory, the need for compassion and empathy and most importantly, what it means to be human.

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Rhythmic Infinity (8 sketches in the series) Ink and colour on paper 8 sketches in the series 38cm x 112 cm (each panel) 2012

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Walking Through 3.00pm. 12.02.2012. Ma Wan Village (1 1 prints in the series) Photographic print on Fine Art paper 200gsm 42cm x 59.4cm 2012

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MARGARET WONG A Visual Encounter with the Invisible d:

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Yesterday is gone Tomorrow is an idea The present is all you have For me, 'ephemera', brings to mind the idea of decay and disappearance. When something is static, it is easy to neglect or take for granted, until it suddenly disappears. The idea of 'ephemeral' always makes me pause and reflect.

Winter's gone and summer follows, it is a natural cycle. Impermanence and the ephemeral are important and intrinsic to life.

Art making is a process of searching and enquiring. My work is heavily process based -- the slow, labour-intensive speed of working and making the individual artworks contrast with the fast paced speed of living, the speed of remembering and forgetting.

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The Diary of Disappearance Paper, water, time, dust particles, tear drops, a pulled thread, my own hair, a dragonfly wing, Nic's eye lashes, a finger nail, foundation particles, a bobby pin, broken mirror, salt from dinner last night, a musical note from my favourite song, my mum's grey hair, a birthday wish, air from my previous apartment, a lost button from grandpa's jacket, a drop of rain, a lost ear-ring, a blunt needle

Dimensions variable 2012

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Erase (Video Still) Digital Video: 4 mins, 4 sec.

Dimensions variable 2012

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365 Seconds (Detail) Photograph print on paper Dimensions variable 2012

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PAULINE CROGAN Measured Colour My Master of Fine Art project, Measured Colour, was a two year studio based investigation which explored colour, pattern the grid and optics in geometric abstract painting.

I started the MFA program planning to continue making abstract paintings on canvas. Initially, I intended to finish a body of artwork using the urban landscape of Hong Kong as subject matter. However, after I moved to the old quarters of Beijing it became apparent that my immediate surroundings would have a major influence on my art practice. Living in the middle of the vibrant colours of traditional Chinese architecture had a significant impact on my painting palette and the direction my research would take. I also had to consider the consequence of the transitional and mobile lifestyle I was leading. It not only

affected decisions on how to make the artwork but what went on to the picture surface. Setting up a studio in the U.A.E., seemed to confirm for me that my relationship to abstraction, which was modeled on well established Western art discourse and art history, would need to be expanded. I now had to consider the traditional cultures of Islamic and Asian art, design and architecture, specifically in the context of pattern and on how colour could be used to create optical frisson in my paintings.

This idea of a 'cosmopolitan abstraction', a meeting of ideas in abstraction across Occidental and Oriental spaces, set me on a trajectory which seemed to give me permission to think about colour and pattern, not as static but rather as opportunities to create a series of paintings which seem to destabilize the viewing of the picture plane, creating a quiver, through the use of

luminous colour and tessellated patterning.

There are many artists whose artworks continue to influence the way I think about painting; the British artist, Bridget Riley who is synonymous with the Op Art movement, New York based artists Philip Taaffe and Ross Bleckner and Pakistani artists Imran

Qureshi and his wife Aisha Khalid.

Having come to the end of the program my future research will continue to focus on place, looking both contemporaneously in Eastern and Western traditions. I would like to experiment further with the grid and what the American art critic and theorist Rosalind Krauss describes as the artwork being a mere fragment of a larger fabric. This will lead to questioning where to crop the artwork and examining the edges of the paintings. Indeed the pictorial space in the picture and its relationship to the space

it is displayed in opens up whole areas of possibility...

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Lasalle IAcrylic on canvas 30cm x 30cm 2013

Yansoon VII Acrylic on canvas 30cm x 30cm

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Lasalle II Acrylic on canvas 30cm x 30cm 2013

Yansoon VI Acrylic on canvas 30cm x 30cm 2013

2013

SAM I YIM Opulence: Seductive Patterns 靈纖論ll!__

'n everyday life, I am constantly exposed to beautifully produced catalogues by leading luxury and corporate brands. I started my first collage using a luxury brand catalogue and intervened in the pages of the catalogue by cutting and pasting forms, which

subtly subverted the original images. My intention was to use the catalogue to cut out forms allowing chance to determine the visual outcome. There was something both beautiful and mysterious about the visuals produced. I cropped and manipulated

the images digitally, until I ended up with an image that re-contextualized the source information, while maintaining the qualities of beauty and opulence in the final images. Through this process I started speculating on whether it was possible to separate

issues of consumerism and capitalism from ideas of beauty, opulence and glamour in my artworks.

From what I understand, the source of imagination sits within the unconscious and should be accessed to achieve maximum creativity, potentially even enabling the truth to be revealed. I employed this strategy and I aimed to merge the conscious (discipline) with the unconscious (reflexiveness) in my creative process, which links the worlds of glamour with the world of

formal knowledge. Human beings have different values and place value on different aspects of the world they experience; from the tangible and cerebral to the intuitive and the imaginative.

Somehow I see something romantic and at the same time, absurd in opulence. When I think about opulence, I feel like I am falling in love, dancing and following the rhythm of its pattern and color. I associate diamonds with romance, which in

commercial advertising is symbolic for commitment to a relationship. There is a double- edged sword I come up against when I think about Opulence. On one hand it is decadent, luxurious, romantic. It can provide all the promises of an idyllic life. I can be seduced by this, give in to the beauty - but there is a price someone is paying for this. This is the contradiction

and the paradox. This is the flaw. This research project attempted to draw on the complexity associated with opulence.

While my primary focus was on the formal properties associated with the imagery I was working with; color, shape and pattern, I was also aware of the duplicity associated with opulence; alluring, seductive and simultaneously over-indulgent

and elitist. You will see what you are from Opulence; on the other hand Opulence may reveal what your values are and

perhaps what you truly are.

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_ Opulence II. Seductive Pattern Digital print on archival metallic paper 101 x 101 cm 2013

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Opulence VIII. Seductive Pattern Digital print on archival metallic paper 112 x 101 cm 2013

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CONTACT DETAILS DANNY LIU

info@dannyliuart.com | www.dannyliuart.com

DAPHNE HO

photo@daphnealexish.com

GLORIA YIP

gloriayip@ymail.com

JACKIE MA

jackieblma@netvigator.com

KASSIA NG

kassia.ko@gmail.com | www.kko.hk

MARGARET WONG

m9251@hotmail.com

PAULINE CROGAN

pauline.crogan@gmail.com

SAMI YIM

samiyim@gmail.com | samiyim.com