曾建華
曾建华

Attempt at a Revaluation of All Values

source: westkowloonhk

Born in 1976, Shantou, China, Tsang Kin-Wah lives and works in Hong Kong. He studied fine art at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and book art at Camberwell College of Arts in London. His work is well known and critically acclaimed for its innovative use of text and language, which are manipulated using computer technology to create immersive installations. The artist has exhibited globally with solo shows at Pearl Lam Galleries in Hong Kong (2012), the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo (2011), Yvon Lambert in Paris (2008), and group exhibitions at the 7th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale (2012), Asian Art Biennial in Taichung (2011), Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art in Seoul (2010), 17th Biennale of Sydney (2010), 1st Aichi Triennale in Nagoya (2010), and Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki (2008), among others. His work was also showcased in M+’s second public exhibition of Hong Kong artists Mobile M+: Yau Ma Tei, in 2012. His work is held in several important private and public collections including Burger Collection and Sigg Collection in Switzerland, Mori Art Museum in Tokyo and Hong Kong Museum of Art.
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source: theculturetrip

A tall and thin figure always in a t-shirt and a pair of well-worn sneakers, Hong Kong artist Tsang Kin-wah is the kind of artist who is not yet preoccupied by his fame or over-pretentious but simply lets his art do the talking. Tsang made his career by creating art which blends foul language with beautiful and pleasing floral patterns that lingers in one’s head upon encountering it.
Born in 1976, Tsang Kin-wah graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a major cradle where new generations of artists are nurtured to push Hong Kong Art onto the international map. Subsequently in 2002-2003, he moved to London and studied Book Art at the Camberwell College of Arts, this time proved pivotal to his artistic career. Despite being quiet, Tsang Kin-wah is a hard-thinker and is never too shy to articulate his ideas and emotions — including anger and fear, which he expresses through his art, simultaneously contesting the notion of morality in a minimal, precise and concise way. Take his work Untitled-Hong Kong (2003-2004) as an example, it is an installation which features words arranged in William Morris inspired floral pattern and painted in China blue. Upon looking closer, viewers are shocked by the vulgarity of these Chinese words and the slang embedded within, it shows the artist’s resentment towards materialism or maximalism which reigns in the city where he resides. The public loves Tsang’s work because it is dynamic and self-explanatory, he embraces the space with words that snake up on the wall and slither across the floor. Tsang broke into the international world with his word-art installation, his attentiveness in his art keeps him continually pushing boundaries, and he reinvents himself by expanding his questions in ‘what is art?’ a starting point for a more spiritual and philosophical series of work called the Seven Seals.

In 2009, Tsang Kin-wah started off the Seven Seals (2009-ongoing) series by projecting texts onto the walls and floor inside a white box. Taken from the Book of Revelation from the Bible, the Seven Seals series refers to the seven symbolic seals that secure a scroll in the vision of St. John the Apostle. When a seal is broken, a judgment is passed, and when all seven seals have been opened the Christ will return. According to the Book, the judgement comes in the form of apocalypse — warfare, terrorism, and natural disasters. Here, Tsang shares his sentiment towards Nietzsche and expands his interests in the notion of human morality and the external world. This is an urgent issue to the artist as a global citizen; to search for meaning in a difficult time.
The Fifth Seal – He Shall Deliver You Up To Be Afflicted And Killed As He Was (2011), shown at the Mori Art Museum is one part of the series. Walls in the gallery are enveloped with short phrases which appear as if a admonition:
‘the name, the call, the breath, the dead…the soul that sinneth, the body that sinneth, all souls are his, all souls are all his souls,…death shall be victorious, suffering shall be grateful, stand in faultful splendour, stand in sinful splendour,… immediately you will be reborn again, the courage to die for him, the courage not to live for the you, the stepping stone to the vengeance, the stepping stone to the completion, the duty of the devoted, the glory of the devoted, the sufficient sacrifice, and the glorious extinction, this is not the end, there is no end’. The animated texts increase its speed as the ambient sound — reminiscent of cries and pain — intensifies, then congests the entire room, on a continual loop. Immersed in an overwhelming storm of provocative texts, varying feelings swell up within each viewer, leaving them with an inalienable emotional impact.

If the Seven Seals is a critique of hegemony, Ecce Homo Trilogy I (2012) questions reality in politics in a more direct manner. This work uses footage taken from the 1989 trial and subsequent execution of Nicolae Ceausescu as the main subject matter, to investigate the moral complexity in response to a judgement, the deliberation of a legal sentence and the extent to which they disavow our dignity as human being. A breakthrough from his earlier installation, this work revolves from his signature text-based installation, but extends to paintings and four sets of projections of video footages, which are manipulated in a grainy yet painterly manner. The videos are namely the Prelude, Trial, Execution and Burial. If his earlier religious and spiritual work requires contemplation, the Ecce Homo Trilogy I offers a straightforward narration which provokes one’s self-consciousness. It is true that Tsang’s ambition is not alone in engaging viewers’ minds but as ‘witness’ we to seize this genuine painful bodily experience in order to negotiate with moral issues that one compasses.

The way in which Tsang’s work consistently address and questions pressing issues surrounding humanism is admirable. An early phase of the artist’s new attempt, Prelude in the Seven Bowls (2013) takes reference from the seven bowls of God’s wrath once again from the Book of Revelation. It is about plagues sent from God as the world approaches its end. A three-channel video and sound projection, the work uses footages of 311 earthquake-tsunami incidents in Japan in 2011 and creates a journey for viewers to experience natural disaster, highlighting the incapability, vulnerability, anxiety and fear of human beings when facing the real power of nature. It is never an easy task to maintain a consistent belief in the pursuit of such a serious and heavy subject matter. Whether all viewers share the same insight with Tsang Kin-wah, it is undeniable that there is a depth beneath the surface of his words, as language, as pattern, and an honest desire to push and to endorse art is not just something to reflect on, but is a necessary response to life.
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source: westkowloonhk

曾建華於1976年在廣東省汕頭出生，在香港居住及工作。他於香港中文大學修讀藝術，以及於倫敦坎伯韋爾藝術學院攻讀書藝。曾建華以創新的方式處理文字和語言作品，因而大獲好評；他透過電腦技術，創造出令觀者融入展覽空間的藝術作品。他曾在世界各地，包括香港藝術門（2012年）、東京森美術館（2011年）、巴黎 Yvon Lambert畫廊（2008年）舉行個人展覽；聯展包括第七屆深圳雕塑雙年展（2012年）、台中亞洲藝術雙年展（2011年）、首爾Leeum三星美術館（2010年）、第十七屆悉尼雙年展（2010年）、名古屋愛知三年展（2010年）及芬蘭赫爾辛基Kiasma當代藝術博物館（2008年）。其作品亦曾於2012年M+的第二個香港藝術家展覽「M+進行：油麻地」中展出。他的作品被多間重要的美術館和的私人藏家所收藏，包括瑞士Burger藝術收藏和希克藝術收藏、東京森美術館及香港藝術館。
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source: westkowloonhk

曾建华於1976年在廣東省汕頭出生，在香港居住及工作。他於香港中文大學修讀藝術，以及於倫敦坎伯韋爾藝術學院攻讀書藝。曾建华以創新的方式處理文字和語言作品，因而大獲好評；他透過電腦技術，創造出令觀者融入展览空間的藝術作品。他曾在世界各地，包括香港藝術門（2012年）、東京森美術館（2011年）、巴黎 Yvon Lambert畫廊（2008年）舉行個人展览；聯展包括第七屆深圳雕塑雙年展（2012年）、台中亞洲藝術雙年展（2011年）、首爾Leeum三星美術館（2010年）、第十七屆悉尼雙年展（2010年）、名古屋愛知三年展（2010年）及芬蘭赫爾辛基Kiasma當代藝術博物館（2008年）。其作品亦曾於2012年M+的第二個香港藝術家展览「M+進行：油麻地」中展出。他的作品被多間重要的美術館和的私人藏家所收藏，包括瑞士Burger藝術收藏和希克藝術收藏、東京森美術館及香港藝術館。
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source: artefields

Tsang Kin Wah (né à Shantou en 1976, Chine) a commencé par un travail typographique souvent dans le cadre d’interventions qui prennent possession d’un lieu. Il couvre murs, sols et plafonds de phrases ou de mots relatifs à de grands concepts et valeurs tels que le bien, le mal, la mort, la vie et leurs interactions avec l’individu et sa subjectivité. Tsang Kin Wah est très influencé par une éducation chrétienne qu’il réinterprète à la lumière de Nietzche qui, dit-il, lui apporte un éclairage positif sur l’héritage essentiellement négatif de ses influences chrétiennes. L’effet de ses calligraphies itératives et souvent curvilignes fait évidemment penser à l’op art. Néanmoins, l’adjonction d’ambiances sonores – également sérielles – particulièrement oppressantes et le contenu des éléments décoratifs procurent à l’ensemble un tout autre sens, voire même une dimension tragique quoique teintée d’ironie.