Camy Tam
A joint exhibition entitled “Island” by Leong Fei In from Macau and Zhang Xinjun from Beijing is being held at the Macau Art For All Society (AFA) gallery, organised by AFA and sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC). This is AFA’s “One Plus One” art in residence and cultural exchange programme to be held in Macau every two years.
The programme aims to strengthen the creative and artistic exchanges between local and visiting artists, and also to expand the gallery’s art exchange platform, according to an online statement by the gallery.
Leong was born in 1981 in Macau. She is a visual artist and graduated in 2016 from Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London with a master’s degree in Visual Arts specialising in Book Arts. Her practice includes printmaking, book works, paper sculptures and installations.
Zhang was born in 1983 in Zhengzhou, Henan province. He graduated from the Sichuan Academy of Fine Arts, Chongqing (SFAI) in 2005 with a bachelor’s degree and from the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA), Beijing in 2009 with a master’s degree in painting. He has been holding solo and group exhibitions since 2010 in the mainland and overseas.
This exhibition showcasing the two artists’ installations comprises two topics, “Unknown Island” by Leong and “Orchard” by Zhang. The installations were created by the two artists in a collaborative art project.
Leong says in an English-language statement that she sent to The Macau Post Daily last night that her artwork displays an unknown island installation which is a fictitious place.
Leong also says that she extended the concept of “Island” to a sense of body and worldview, using historical data of the islands in Macau and Southeast Asia that were affected during the great nautical era as a background to create a virtual island story named “Unknown Island”,
According to Leong, “The creative process involved dyeing quartz sand, combining ancient spices and other different materials to build nine islands of various sizes and shapes at the exhibition site, and painting different mountains (islands) with bright colours on the walls, accompanied by a few words.”
On the other hand, Zhang has added “plants” to the islands and displayed images of two officers from Goa who came to Macau during the colonial period.
Zhang used incense to burn white cotton to create the images, and the “plants” are fallen branches collected on Guia Hill which represent the memory he collected from Macau’s history, landscapes and people, according to Leong’s statement.
The exhibition runs until January 27 at AFA Macau on the 1st floor gallery of Tak Chun Macau Art Garden at 265 Avenida do Dr. Rodrigo Rodrigues. It is open daily (except Sundays and public holidays) from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Admission is free.
As part of the government’s COVID-19 epidemic prevention measures, all visitors entering the gallery need to wear a facemask.
For enquiries, please call 2836 6064 or visit the website http://www.afamacau.com/EXHIBITION_XQ.ASPX.
Photos: Camy Tam
