30th March 2023 – (Hong Kong) The Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA) has recently launched a new exhibition, “Love Letters: Everlasting Sentiments from the Xubaizhai Collection,” featuring 28 sets of Chinese paintings and calligraphy works selected from its Xubaizhai collection. The exhibition invites visitors to delve into the reserved and implicit emotions encapsulated in Chinese paintings and calligraphy, and showcases the sentiment of love through the works of renowned artists such as Zhang Daqian, Dong Qichang, and Wen Zhengming.
To add a new dimension to the traditional Chinese ink art display, the HKMoA invited local artist Tsang Kin-wah to create a site-specific video projection installation “Freezing Water: Between Here and There.” Tsang’s large-scale projection installation infuses religious, literary, and cinematic elements, along with his personal experience, to offer visitors a glimpse into the emotional worlds of the artists. Inspired by the sentiments encapsulated in ancient Chinese paintings and calligraphy, Tsang’s installation takes reference from the classic “one river, two banks” composition of Chinese landscape painting.
Through the interplay of contrasting black and white images with high and low-pitched sounds, Tsang’s artwork takes visitors on a journey to discover their inner feelings and emotional changes. Tsang, who started out creating text and pattern installations with paint and silkscreens, and later moved on to digital projection, now uses space in different ways to create sound and video installations through which a relationship is established with the audience.
The first phase of the “Love Letters” exhibition and Tsang’s art installation are currently on display at the Xubaizhai Gallery of Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, 2/F of the HKMoA (10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon) until 10th August. The gallery will be temporarily closed later for a change of exhibits. The second phase of the “Love Letters” exhibition will be launched on September 8 and will be on display with Tsang’s installation until 24th January next year.
