The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

Lett Private matter I 1993 Installation comprising mixed media Shown at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Born in Hong Kong in 1959, Chan Yuk Keung is a typical example of the new generation of Hong Kong artists that emerged in the 1980s. Growing up and receiving much of his formal education in Hong Kong, Chan graduated at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. After working as a teacher for a few years, he continued his graduate study at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in the United States where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree in 1988. During that same year he returned to Hong Kong and has since participated in many group and solo exhibitions. Chan is currently a lecturer at the Fine Arts Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In cultural terms, the generation born after World War II can be distinctively described as the first truly Hong Kong generation. Unlike the older generation of Hong Kong residents who are refugees from China and are, to a certain extent, culturally and emotionally attached to their homeland, the new generation has little direct connection with China. They do not see the need or obligation to continue or revitalise the grand Chinese culture. Artistically, their vocabularies of art are international, and their source of inspiration personal. 60 I ARTISTS: EAST ASIA Right Homage to Magritte's 'Hegel's holiday' 1996 Installation comprising mixed media at the Hong Kong Visual Arts Centre Working with assemblage and using mainly ready– made objects, Chan has been investigating, on the one hand, the symbolic implications of pre-existing objects selected from specific cultural and social contexts; and on the other hand, the interaction of these objects and the new and significant possibilities that may emerge when they are amalgamated. Chan is interested in using humble objects from everyday life and seeks to bring out the poetry contained within most common objects. Like many of the Hong Kong artists of his generation, Chan builds his art upon personal experience and personal perceptions of history and society, expressed in an intimate way. The process could be a subconscious one, in which unknown and undefined space is revealed during the encounter of one ordinary object with another. Formal elements of art play an important role in Chan's production. His formalistic approach to art is reflected not only in his concern with the juxtaposition of formal elements, but also in his concern with the architectural structure of objects. For Chan, the physical character, form and colour of the material are as important as their symbolic association. Meticulously put together, his works are delicate but distanced. In addition to the ready-made assemblage objects, Chan'also works on painting, or painting assemblage, in which a highly textured surface is combined with actual objects. The result is an interesting interaction and a contradiction between reality and re-created reality. Chan's Western education has obviously influenced his artistic vocabulary.There is no deliberate attempt to create a distinctively 'Hong Kong' style. However, he is well aware of the fact that by using the ordinary objects surrounding him, his work will inevitably reflect certain aspects of Hong Kong character. For Chan, cultural identity is not an intended creation, but a subtle and natural part of everyday life. Some of the works, maybe unintentionally, carry a fairly strong local flavour. Untitled 1991, which draws its images from the highly condensed Hong Kong graveyards, is a haunting reflection on death. The withdrawal into personal poetry and formalism is a fascinatingly common trend in Hong Kong art, especially at a time when the city is approaching one of the most unusual historic moments, due to occur in 1997. This particular response might be the result of an awareness of the limitation of art as a political instrument, or simply the result of a lack of motivation or aesthetic interest in making art about harsh reality. Nevertheless, there are still moments when Hong Kong artists respond actively to social and political situations. Chan's 6X4-11990, which uses a meat– cutting board and pictures death as material, is obviously a response to the massacre at Tienanmen Square on 4 June 1989. In this work, the sense of tragedy, death and oppression are dealt with in Chan's quiet, personal, but somewhat distanced way of mourning. Personal, formalistic and strongly influenced by the international vocabularies of art, Chan is typical of the younger generation of Hong Kong artists. The strong emphasis on the personal could be a product of the refugee culture of Hong Kong, where the city is regarded not as a permanent home, but as a temporary shelter from political and military turmoil. The colonial system further discourages the sense of local identity, which nurtures the 'homeless mind'. Or it might just be the result of feelings of powerlessness which result when one cannot control the fate of one's own surroundings. The retreat into a personal world to look for poetic, transcendental experience could be a protest against a situation which one cannot control, but in Chan's case, I think it is simply a personal aesthetic decision. Oscar Ho Hing Kay, Exhibition Director, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Hong Kong