Interview by Rui Pastorin
Have you ever wanted to see a glimpse of old Macau? Providing this is one of local artist Inês Chan I Lei aims in her third solo exhibition “Over the Mountain Streams”, which is on until next Wednesday at the 10 Fantasia Gallery in Calçada da Igreja de S. Lázaro.
Chan’s exhibition showcases art that she created for the book “Macao in Ancient Poetry” by Chon Chit Tang, which compiles 52 old poems about Macau and their meanings. “My job was to present the poems as paintings”, Chan told The Macau Post Daily in an interview on Tuesday, turning their stories into scenes.
Turning words into scenes
Through her exhibition, which includes both new and previous works, the young artist said that she attempted to go deeper into the meanings of the poems that she chose and selected those she found most interesting, after which she created art pieces through the “point of view” of their original writers.
Doing so, she added, enabled her to see a different and simpler Macau, what it was like in the past, what the writers first encountered when coming to Macau, moments of cultural exchange, how they city’s people lived and so on, aiming to present a century or world from long ago through the eyes of the poet, which she also hopes others would be able to see.
The works are watercolour and, using a design software, she put the poems beside her artwork to better visualise what they are talking about. “In these creations, I try to put them [the words and paintings] together so that people can more easily understand the different points of view”, Chan added.
The exhibition also includes work that Chan had done for the book ‘Pátio do Espinho – Oral History’, as well as art related to Na Tcha, a tutelary deity of Chinese folk belief.
Over the Mountain Streams
Asked about the exhibition’s theme and title, Chan said that she had thought about exhibiting her work while travelling with her mum, but couldn’t find the suitable words at first.
The title “Over the Mountain Streams” would best describe the exhibition as it is about history, art and literature, describing it as being akin to going from one mountain to another. Streams, meanwhile, symbolise creation through the different topics between each mountain, she said.
Moreover, the works displayed also incorporate different media including the use of technology and animation. She said that even though these are used in the creation or recreation of her works, what one goes back to looking at is a traditional painting, which she still wants to show the beauty of. Chan hopes to show how art can be combined with different areas, adding that art can be created in different ways in addition to doing so traditionally.
Chan’s exhibition runs until Wednesday and is located in Room A02. The gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is closed on Mondays.
This photo provided by Inês Chan I Lei on Tuesday shows her delivering a speech during the exhibition’s opening ceremony at 10 Fantasia Gallery earlier this month.
Photos recently provided by Inês Chan I Lei
