The Works：Chiang Yomei, Lam Tung-pang x Wong Uk Village, M+ Design & trumpeter Paul Archibald

With a background in Chinese landscape painting and calligraphy, artist and poet Chiang Yomei has gone on to work with a wide variety of media. A devout Buddhist, she creates art that embodies her strong interest in the spiritual, in philosophy, in myth, and ritual. “Art is not a singular activity,” she says “The artist only begins the work; it is the viewer who completes it.” In much of her work she muses on the impermanence of reality and the possibilities created by the process of transformation.
There’s a constant tug of war in Hong Kong between conservation and urban development, and it’s one that conservation almost always loses. The public may value collective memory and the preservation of our history and culture. Developers, and the government, apparently not so much. All the same, there are at least a few historically significant monuments that the government has been willing to preserve. “Hi! Houses” is an art project, organised by the government, in which four local artists create site-specific works in four century-old historical sites. We looked at one such pairing, between Lam Tung-pang and the Wong Uk Village in Shatin.
Well, after rounds and rounds of consultation, and the occasional behind-the-scene dealing,much has changed from the initial concept of the West Kowloon Cultual District. One facility that is going to fulfil its orginal purpose is the M+ Museum, the aim of which is to represent visual culture in Hong Kong, focusing on 20th and 21st century art, design, and architecture, and the moving image. The museum hasn’t just amassed and built its collection, it has already also organised a number of exhibitions in advance of its planned completion date of 2019. However, the museum’s smaller venue, the M+ Pavilion was completed last September. The Works featured its inaugural exhibition by local artist Tsang Kin-wah. And currently on show is the museum’s design collection.
Trumpeter Paul Archibald’s parents were Salvation Army officers and keen amateur musicians, often posted to various places around Britain, which gave Paul and his brother a somewhat nomadic childhood. Eventually his mother signed him up to a music course at Clarendon College, Nottingham.
Today, he has worked with the Royal Opera House, the English Brass Ensemble and the London Sinfonietta. He came to Hong Kong in late November to perform and conduct master classes with the brass ensemble of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts.