【 Result Announcement 】

Hong Kong Arts Centre is delighted to announce the four selected applicants of the ‘OPEN CALL: HKAC CREATORS FOR TOMORROW 2024’

Exhibition

Project Summary

Avian Assemblage combines a series of video works, sound sculptures and sculptural interventions into a new site-specific installation. It explores our own position as an animal within the urban environment through a dialogue with bird songs and sounds.

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Heyse Ip works across moving-image, sculpture, performance and sound. His work focuses on the overlap of nature and human technology. Offering alternative narratives by giving voice to the animal or inanimate, he points out the absurdity and humour that exist within these intersectional spaces. By doing so he raises questions about our own definitions of humanness.

Ip, born in Hong Kong, holds an MA from the Royal College of Arts, UK, 2022 and a BA from Chelsea College of Arts, UK, 2018. He was awarded the Cob Award - Runner Up in 2024 and the Rossi Asiaghi Art Award - 1st Runner Up in 2018. His work has been exhibited internationally including a solo exhibition: Capturing an Image, 2019, (Lumenvisum, Hong Kong), and group exhibitions such as: Dystopia Sound Art Biennial, 2024, (Berlin), Medienfrische Art Festival, 2024, (Austria) Untitled (Pipe Dream), 2024, (UK), Fishy Business, 2023, (UK), GRUND1535, 2022, (Austria) and D2.02, 2020, Plicnik Space Initiative in space. As a member of the Five Years artist collective, he also co-curates a non-profit space in London. 

Personal website: heyseip.com | Instagram: @heyseip

Project Summary

Amidst the drifting anxieties of our age, “Anchoring the Presence” seeks to connect life and art, investigating how we may ground ourselves in the here and now. This exhibition represents the second chapter of artist Sin Wah Lai's series delving into the theme of "Home" in Hong Kong, curated by Siu Tung (Venus Lau).

Lai consistently creates work inspired by the moments of everyday life, the work transforms overlooked and transient materials in response to her state of mind and situations from an intimate perspective. This project emphasizes the importance of in-situ practice, experimenting with how a daily practice can be extended to a placed, temporal space such as a gallery, across mediums like interactive installation, mixed-media sculpture, and happenings. Throughout the exhibition, the accumulation of works will endeavor to cultivate a sense of intimacy, with the intention of facilitating connections and dialogue for the viewers.

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Artist

Sin Wah Lai is an interdisciplinary artist. She holds a BFA in Fine Arts from Taipei National University of the Arts, Taiwan (2014) and an MA in Fine Art and Design from HKU University of the Arts Utrecht, the Netherlands (2020). Her practice involves illustration, in-situ collage, installation, performance, and participatory experience. The displays often combine moving image, organic materials and natural elements, text, voice, and bodily intervention. Lai’s research explores ways of thinking beyond the human and non-human divide. She tells stories in response to the living spaces where beings co-exist. By poetically looking into minute moments that happen everywhere in the environment, her work uncovers the intimate relations between one’s inner perception, community, and the outside world.

Personal Website: sinwahlai.blogspot.com | Instagram: @lifeisartinpractice

Curator

As a curator and writer, Siu Tung (Venus) has been actively engaged in Hong Kong with projects such as “It’s Stuffy Here” (2023) and “Transcending the Days” (2022), as well as beyond with “Re-imagining Home” (VR tour, 2021) at the 18th Street Arts Center in Los Angeles. Her critique and articles have been published by various media, including Ming Pao, Art and Culture Outreach, and p-articles. Two of her texts have been selected for the archive of “Hong Kong Oral History Reference Resources” of the Hong Kong Public Libraries.

Personal website: venuslau-siutung.com | Instagram: @siutungcreate

Curator

Sally Leung is a multidisciplinary artist and independent curator currently based in Hong Kong, mainly working in paintings, mixed media and conceptual works. Originating from her delicate perception of daily encounters and people around, she connects and interrogates human emotions, philosophical thoughts and daily observations. Her works mostly explore the inner state of human activities, try to reveal the invisible psychological appearance, and explore the boundaries of different matters. Her practice also focuses on memory, life and death, relationships, cities and communities. She has collaborated with different units, including art organizations, music units, schools, publishers, commercial brands, non-governmental organizations, online media, etc. In recent years, through curatorial and art education work, she tries to get closer to the essence of human beings and open up more possibilities of life.

Personal website: https://leungcp3.wixsite.com/sallyleung | Instagram: @beavisualizer

Research

Project Summary

EnListening is a multidisciplinary practice-based research project encompassing computer music, artificial intelligence, multi-channel spatial audio system and dance improvisation. It aims to investigate the distinctive roles of humans and machines, in search of a balanced and collaborative human-machine relationship in art-making by emphasising both their unique perspectives and artistic expressions through real-time performative interactions.

The concept behind the project highlights collaboration over control between human and machine. What began as a tool has now evolved to a level of intelligence and where its creative potential can, to a certain extent, be compared with ‘human intelligence’. Rather than centering human experiences and expectations in creating digital multimedia arts – which are highly technological-mediated, how can we explore the realm of artistic expressions in collaboration with machines, incorporating their distinct digital perspectives of the world?

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Guyshawn is a sound artist/ composer/ researcher from Hong Kong, currently based in the Netherlands to pursue his Master's Degree at the Institute of Sonology, Royal Conservatoire The Hague. After graduating from the School of Creative Media at City University of Hong Kong, his work has been featured in numerous productions, including films, theatre, live music, and art installations. He has also been invited to teach Sound Design at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His current artistic interests lie in Computer Music and Noise, focusing on algorithmic composition, live-coding, and sound installation, exploring musicality in noise within the concepts of music, information, and structures.

Personal website: wongguyshawn.com | Instagram: @wongguyshawn

Project Summary

When I was a kid, mum had me sign up for painting classes, convinced that developing multiple talents would help me get into an ideal school. Fast forward to high school, when I took visual art as an elective, she worried I'd never be able to find a "proper" job; 

Now that I'm in a field completely unrelated to art, my company can't stop talking about "creativity" in the workplace - "design thinking", "creative problem-solving", and they even want us to learn "Pastel Nagomi Art"! Meanwhile, my mum's the one dragging all the other housewives to the community center to learn photography. Even my 80-year-old grandpa has started taking painting classes at the care home!

What are the impacts of art on people? Why do people say art could solve social problems? We'll be interviewing artists, art project participants of all ages, and social workers to uncover the effect of creative expression on wellbeing of Hong Kong society.

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Applicant Vangi Fong has been cooperating with different social organizations and planning art projects for communities of different ages since 2012. The project duration ranges from 6 months to 3 years.

The first graduate of the School of Visual Arts at Baptist University, majoring in humanities. Engaged in community art education and public participation projects, and is skilled at planning community art experiences and community participation projects. In 2012, The Hill Workshop was established to use various media to plan community art projects for schools and organizations. It is committed to exploring different methods of artistic intervention and is committed to promoting participants to understand their personal positioning, see others, and see possibilities from the creative experience.

Instagram: @the_hill_workshop

The four proposals were selected from over 130 applications by the jury made up of art professionals and Hong Kong Arts Centre representatives: Dr. Vivian Ting, Jeff Leung, Orlean Lai, Tiffany Leung and Gordon Lo. The four selected applicants will be awarded up to HK$60,000 for executing their proposal projects. All projects should be carried out in 2024/2025. Hong Kong Arts Centre sincerely thanks all parties who made submissions, the jury and the sponsor for their participation in this Scheme.

Stay tuned for more information about awardees's upcoming exhibition and events!

CREATORS FOR TOMORROW, initiated by the Hong Kong Arts Centre since 2020, aims to support the professional development of emerging artists, curators, creators, and researchers in Hong Kong. It provides resources like funding and venues to help participants unleash their creativity and bring their proposals to life. Through this programme, the Hong Kong Arts Centre curatorial team works closely with emerging creators, offering guidance and opportunities to gain valuable experience and establish their careers in the art field, enriching public life with innovative art.

The programme has held two successful editions, with open calls in 2020 and 2023. A panel of art professionals and representatives from the Hong Kong Arts Centre served as judges. The first edition received over a hundred applications, resulting in funding for four exhibition projects. In the second edition, applications were accepted in two categories: "Exhibition" and "Thematic Research". Out of over 150 applications, four proposals were granted funding, including two exhibition projects and two thematic research projects.

The third edition of CREATORS FOR TOMORROW is currently accepting applications until April 15, 2024, 23:59 Hong Kong time. The exhibition category welcomes various contemporary art forms and will take place at the Experimental Gallery on the third floor of the Hong Kong Arts Centre. The timeline for the thematic research category will be discussed separately between the Arts Centre and the selected applicants. Successful applicants will be eligible for up to HKD 60,000 funding to complete their proposed projects.

Application Guideline: click here (Floor Plan)

Application Submission: click here (must use Google account to log in)

Enquiry: CFT@hkac.org.hk