An event entitled “Curiouser and Curiouser”* co-hosted by local artist and curator Mel Cheong Hoi I and Route Arts Association is being held at Macau Tower.
The event is co-organised by Route Arts Association and the Macau Tower Convention & Entertainment Centre and sponsored by Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC).
Cheong told The Macau Post Daily earlier this month that “Curiouser and Curiouser” is a collaboration event initiated by local curators Mel Cheong and Pat Lam in 2017. Cheong said that the event is a continuous project based on the Alice in Wonderland story, and this is the second year. The event is for local artists to create a special gift in the form of an artistic creation for local children each year. “A gift that adults can also enjoy and remind them of their sincere goals and remain their truest self,” Cheong said.
Cheong created an installation for this year’s exhibition. She graduated from the public University of Macau, majoring in English Communication. Cheong learnt Western-style printmaking from local artist Wong Cheng Pou and she held her first solo exhibition in 2009. Her prints have been exhibited internationally. She participated in different Artist in Residency programmes overseas, exploring her inner self in different cultures. She is also a tour guide and art teacher at the Macau Museum of Art (MAM). Recently, her creations focus on “Mokuhanga”, a traditional water-based printing technique originally from China and later perfected in Japan, according to a statement by the co-organisers.
“The installation is based on the blue print of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, a whimsical world built in the real world. The purpose is to give everyone a journey full of wonder, mystery and danger,” Cheong told The Macau Post Daily.
Cheong added that the event’s title “Curiouser and Curiouser” is a phrase from the Alice in Wonderland story. “Alice meant that the land seemed stranger every time she found something new during her adventure, and she was so surprised, that for a moment she forgot how to speak good English. This year’s chapter begins with the inspiration of this sentence, ‘Can you tell me, where can I go from here?’ quoted from Alice in Wonderland.”
Cheong added that “the event allows the audience to retain the truest self in the real world as well to explore themselves”, Cheong said.
Cheong told The Macau Post Daily that she is collaborating with the Route Arts Association which has prepared two mime performances about the story this Sunday (October 4), at 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. for spectators to explore the topic in more depth.
The event also offers Alice in Wonderland facemask holders as a souvenir and a free drink. Visitors are welcome to scan the event’s QR code at the exhibition venue to redeem the souvenir and drink between 11 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. every day during the exhibition period.
The exhibition runs until October 9 on the lower ground floor of Macau Tower. It opens from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day. Admission is free.
As part of the government’s COVID-19 epidemic prevention measures, all visitors entering the venue must wear a facemask, have their temperature checked and present their digital Health Code declaration.
For enquiries, please visit https://macautowerpromotions.com/curiouser-n-curiouser2020/
*According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Alice was so surprised by the strange circumstances she found herself in that she (and Lewis Carroll) made up a word – “curiouser”. The expression is still used to mean that something is getting increasingly confounding.
Photos: Camy Tam
