Julian Tong - Art Portfolio
University of Leeds
Personal ID:1456842462
Programme of Study: Fine Art
This is a collection of work that focuses on my experiences of living and studying in Hong Kong, a bustling urban environment with a diverse background and culture to back it up. Throughout this journey, I decided to explore the themes of Urban Conflict, and also the idea of identity - as I am half Taiwanese and Hong Kong, how can I integrate both of my cultures and traditions into one visual identity?
Title: "Brown wounds"
Medium: Photographic Digital Image
Description: While exploring the Ten Thousand Buddhas monastery in Hong Kong, I noticed that despite how gold and shiny these monks looked as they were sitting or standing in their poses, I couldn't help but notice how identifiable it could be seen that they were deteriorating. This reminded me of how, despite being covered in a thick coat of gold paint, they eventually will start to fade and they will eventually become normal to everyday life. With time, it is up to us to decide what should stay covered in gold and what not.
Pictures Below: To help explore and dive in further into my theme, I went to Mong Kok and Yau Ma Tei, one of Hong Kong's most busiest commercial and residential districts, and also the most densely populated place in the world to find inspiration for my next art pieces. I was fascinated with what i found and made basic trials to convey what I thought was interesting.
Title: “Signs”
Medium: Ink on coloured paper
Description: The things I see around me in Hong Kong are always changing and sometimes deteriorating away. These signs help me remember what Hong Kong is to me, what they symbolise and most of all where I belong. The 24 hours sign (Hong Kong never sleeps), Restaurant name (Where I always went to eat with my family)
Title: “too little space”
Medium: Acrylic on card
Description: In Hong Kong there are a plethora of buildings and there is a lack of space because of that.
Doors, gates and fences that are used for security and our safety (a gateway you could say), but it's also a way to restrict or prevent a passage from one place to another, and because of these blocked passages we cannot cross the boundaries that exist. These buildings are also restricting our overall landscape, and only leaves us with the option to keep us building higher and higher.
i experimented with intaglio with the same image to try and create a different scenario and also looked at more techniques i could use in the future in my artwork.
Title: "Scruffy Noise/Can You Hear Me???"
Medium: Graphite stick, pencil on rough textures
Description: During one of The rough moments during my childhood, my uncle gave me these pair of headphones to listen to something other than yelling and arguing, or also 無線電靜(Radio Scruff/Static), according to my Uncle. Thus I used these whenever the situation arose. I couldn’t hear anyone and I was at peace.
Title: “Lucky you.”
Medium: Acrylic on Card
Description: In my culture we have to follow a set of customs that cannot be changed or shared with other traditions. You could say that this is lucky, but really when you’re not experiencing the rest of the world is it really a thing to be grateful about?
Developmental Pictures/Inspirations
(Photos taken by me. The medium is a DSLR Photo.)
Title: “非法”
Medium: “12x12cm” Aluminium Panels, ACRYLIC
Description: 非法 is Chinese for Illegal, or illegitimate. This setup of metal structures show the use of illegal housing throughout Hong Kong, but even despite this, their culture and the people that live in these are still a large part of our community, either working tirelessly throughout our city, day and night. I was also very interested in the kinetic sculptures the artist tim prentice integrated in his work and it partially influenced me in making this piece.
Title: “the things that change”
Medium: Acrylic on card, plaster
These two sets of Chinese letters mean “light”(光) and “building”(樓). I wanted to highlight the culture that is currently shifting and fading away, due to economical or cultural change, such as the neon lights in Kowloon or the colonial style buildings, contrasting with the new apartment blocks that are blooming everywhere around Hong Kong.
ONGOING WORK
Title: “COnflicted tears"
Medium: Acrylic on card, plaster
sometimes, due to our busy and complicated lives we tend not to think about what we have around us. one thing that i observed was how much hong kong relied on signs - whether it would be on the highways, pavements or even malls and public facilities, signs are objects that we overlook without realising how effective they are. in light of the events in hong kong i wanted to create a piece that despite conveying how the situation seemed (with a sign full of tear gas and smoke), hong kong life will continue to rebuild and adapt to whatever the issues may be, and still be able to create a beautiful quality of life.
i also explored the art of jasper johns to develop some inspiration for my piece, as well as creating compositional sketches of possible designs.
Photos i used to develop the collage, photos taken by myself on canon 7d mkII.
Title: “different steel"
Medium: Acrylic on card, plaster
in Hong Kong, we are exposed to such a great variety of different cultures and traditions, however there are still underlying issues that we don't address well enough, especially problems such as the wealth gap, poverty and different land/corporate issues. this piece, with darker tones is meant to show the harsh reality that hong kong still faces. the skyscraper and the barrier to a shop are meant to show the economic divide hong kong has at the moment, and using darker tones of white and black highlights stress towards this issue.
