Stephen Wong Chun Hei: The Star Ferry Tale
Gallery Exit presents Stephen WONG Chun Hei’s solo exhibition ‘The Star Ferry Tale’, showcasing the artist’s latest landscape paintings, on view from 23 March to 20 April, 2024. During his many years living in Hong Kong, Wong sketches as he rambles through the local landscape, which becomes material for his creation. His works vividly depict the urban and rural sceneries that incorporate idealised imagery from his subjective imagination, at once strange and familiar, prompting the viewer to contemplate the interdependence of man and nature between the real and the surreal. Confined indoors during the pandemic, the artist embarked on a virtual journey via Google Earth, experiencing landscape with the aid of imagination. The change in sensory experience has led to a transformation of Wong’s practice, the tone and mood of his works, carried over to the post-pandemic present. The new works shown in this exhibition further explore that particular way of seeing, questioning the essence of reality through the combination of real and virtual landscapes: When reality changes unawares, the imaginary world may yet feel familiar. From a more abstract and removed perspective, the exhibition speaks to the Hong Kong landscape during the post-pandemic diasporic experience.
The exhibition opens with ‘The Star Ferry Tale’, a set of 11-panel large scale panoramic oil paintings inspired by space documentaries. With galaxies as backdrop, the perspective is extended to outer space, overviewing Hong Kong from above planet Earth. Filled with imaginative elements, the work expresses the artist’s personal response towards the grandeur and infinity of the universe. Under the scrutiny of the telescope, the universe’s past exists in parallel with our present. Likewise, the work adopts a non-linear narrative where different temporal and spatial planes crisscross each other, a Hong Kong space epic documenting the transition of eras. Contrary to Wong’s previous works where the magnified hilly landscape of Hong Kong occupies most of the space, the panorama inspects the Earth’s curved surface from space, where the upper half is of the brilliant galaxies and the lower half the planet Earth submerged in a sea of clouds, with occasional glimpses of the harbour city and the surrounding hills. Under the immense starry sky Hong Kong appears miniscule even when exaggerated and enlarged out of proportion. Local landmarks such as Victoria Harbour and Lion Rock are the sole clues for identifying our subject. Other playful details include the Star Ferry in its space odyssey, lost landmarks like the Star Ferry Pier and Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, rediscovered upon small meteorites floating above the city. The departed becomes stardust in the night sky, reminding us of the beautiful things we once had.
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Gallery Exit presents Stephen WONG Chun Hei’s solo exhibition ‘The Star Ferry Tale’, showcasing the artist’s latest landscape paintings, on view from 23 March to 20 April, 2024. During his many years living in Hong Kong, Wong sketches as he rambles through the local landscape, which becomes material for his creation. His works vividly depict the urban and rural sceneries that incorporate idealised imagery from his subjective imagination, at once strange and familiar, prompting the viewer to contemplate the interdependence of man and nature between the real and the surreal. Confined indoors during the pandemic, the artist embarked on a virtual journey via Google Earth, experiencing landscape with the aid of imagination. The change in sensory experience has led to a transformation of Wong’s practice, the tone and mood of his works, carried over to the post-pandemic present. The new works shown in this exhibition further explore that particular way of seeing, questioning the essence of reality through the combination of real and virtual landscapes: When reality changes unawares, the imaginary world may yet feel familiar. From a more abstract and removed perspective, the exhibition speaks to the Hong Kong landscape during the post-pandemic diasporic experience.
The exhibition opens with ‘The Star Ferry Tale’, a set of 11-panel large scale panoramic oil paintings inspired by space documentaries. With galaxies as backdrop, the perspective is extended to outer space, overviewing Hong Kong from above planet Earth. Filled with imaginative elements, the work expresses the artist’s personal response towards the grandeur and infinity of the universe. Under the scrutiny of the telescope, the universe’s past exists in parallel with our present. Likewise, the work adopts a non-linear narrative where different temporal and spatial planes crisscross each other, a Hong Kong space epic documenting the transition of eras. Contrary to Wong’s previous works where the magnified hilly landscape of Hong Kong occupies most of the space, the panorama inspects the Earth’s curved surface from space, where the upper half is of the brilliant galaxies and the lower half the planet Earth submerged in a sea of clouds, with occasional glimpses of the harbour city and the surrounding hills. Under the immense starry sky Hong Kong appears miniscule even when exaggerated and enlarged out of proportion. Local landmarks such as Victoria Harbour and Lion Rock are the sole clues for identifying our subject. Other playful details include the Star Ferry in its space odyssey, lost landmarks like the Star Ferry Pier and Jumbo Seafood Restaurant, rediscovered upon small meteorites floating above the city. The departed becomes stardust in the night sky, reminding us of the beautiful things we once had.
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