'Ink Art Ensembles' Exhibition Explores Beauty of Illusory Landscapes at Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan

"Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area - "Illusory Landscapes" staged in Dongguan

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office under the Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is now on display at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. This exhibition is also the final one of the series. With the theme of "Illusory Landscapes", the two female artists, Barbara Choi from Hong Kong and Wen Qiuwen from the GBA, approach their practices through "gongbi" painting and spatial installations respectively, responding to the regenerative pathways of traditional ink art within contemporary landscapes.

Choi merges everyday urban sites in Hong Kong, such as the Yau Ma Tei Wholesale Fruit Market, the Flower Market in Prince Edward and the "Pang Jai" fabric market in Sham Shui Po in a traditional blue-and-green landscapes schema. For the first time, she has employed AI to render details within her scenes, extending static paintings into a narrative of moving images. In the form of painting and animation, Choi's work "Day and Night of Wholesale Fruit Market" guides viewers through the bustling day and night activities of the fruit market. She also draws inspiration from the meditative process of resinification in agarwood. Recognising nature's inherent capacity for self-repair, she presents a new series of abstract ink albums: "A Suite of Withering and Renewal" and "The Visions of Withering and Renewal".

Wen uses a fusion of the Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage of paper sculpture and traditional lantern-making techniques to stage a spectacle of fantastical creatures and landscapes. Through the interplay of light, shadow and mirrored surfaces, she creates a perceptual experience that vacillates between reality and illusion. Her installation artwork "Mirrored Wings" features a four-winged bird. As viewers move, the reflections of the bird's four wings multiply into layered traces of feathers, creating an expanding visual illusion between the physical form and its mirrored image. At the centre of the installation "Stellar Serpent", a golden mirrored "star" gathers and reflects light, drawing surrounding forms into a cyclical visual relationship between the serpent and the celestial body.

In the collaboration zone of the exhibition, the two artists present an "alternative duet" centred on illusion and perception. In Wen's "Suspended Mountain", portions of the mountain are constructed from layers of translucent gauze, inverted to hover in midair. This transforms the mountain from a massive, solid entity into a permeable, lightweight spatial structure. Choi complements this by projecting her animation "The Twilight of Sea Turtle Mountain" onto the mountain. The divine turtle emerges amidst the crags, appearing relaxed and carefree within the interplay of light and shadow, where the creature seems to inhabit a world of its own.

The exhibition is running until July 12 with free admission at the Guancheng Art Museum, located at 5 Gaodi St, Guancheng Subdistrict, Dongguan City. For details, please visit the website of the Art Promotion Office www.apo.hk/en/web/apo/there_ink_art_ensembles_illusory_landscapes.html, and follow the "apothere" page on Facebook www.facebook.com/apo.there, Instagram www.instagram.com/apo.there and Weibo weibo.com/apothere.

The exhibition is also one of the activities in the Chinese Culture Promotion Series. The LCSD has long been promoting Chinese history and culture through organising an array of programmes and activities to enable the public to learn more about the broad and profound Chinese culture. For more information, please visit ccpo.gov.hk/en.

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows GBA artist Wen Qiuwen's artwork "Fish of the Mountains and Seas", where the fish is constructed from metal armatures and covered with paper. Its forms contain internal light sources, with light flickering through the structure, tracing indistinct contours. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows GBA artist Wen Qiuwen's artwork "Mirrored Wings". As viewers move, the reflections of the bird's four wings multiply into layered traces of feathers, creating an expanding visual illusion between the physical form and its mirrored image. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows GBA artist Wen Qiuwen's artwork "Robin". Within its still and quiet posture, the robin reveals an enduring inner rhythm of life, pulsing softly yet persistently. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows GBA artist Wen Qiuwen and her artwork "Stellar Serpent". Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows Hong Kong artist Barbara Choi's artwork "A Suite of Withering and Renewal 4", exploring the theme of the phenomena of compensation and regeneration in nature through abstract ink works. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows Hong Kong artist Barbara Choi's artwork "An Old Way to the Western Market", exploring the hidden Sheung Wan area in Hong Kong nestled within the landscape. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows Hong Kong artist Barbara Choi and her artwork "Day and Night of Wholesale Fruit Market". Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows Hong Kong artist Barbara Choi's artwork "A Hidden Fabric Hawker Bazaar" and "An Entrance to Pang Jai Fabric Market", depicting the now demolished "Pang Jai" fabric market in Sham Shui Po tucked away amidst the hills, buildings and a sea of clouds. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area (GBA) is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Photo shows Hong Kong artist Barbara Choi (right) and GBA artist Wen Qiuwen (left), and their artworks "Suspended Mountain" and "The Twilight of Sea Turtle Mountain" in the collaboration zone of the exhibition. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Jointly organised by the Art Promotion Office and the Shenzhen Fringe Art Center, the fifth exhibition "Illusory Landscapes" of the "Ink Art Ensembles" Exhibition Series in the Greater Bay Area is on display until July 12 at the Guancheng Art Museum in Dongguan. Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases

Employers, contractors and employees should be aware of electrical safety at work during rainstorms

As the rainstorm warning has been issued by the Hong Kong Observatory, the Labour Department (LD) reminds employers and contractors that they should adopt necessary work arrangements and take suitable safety measures to protect the safety of their employees when they are carrying out electrical work or handling electrical plant.

A spokesman for the LD said today (June 6) that employers and contractors should avoid assigning employees to carry out electrical work (such as electric arc welding work) or handle electrical plant at places affected by rainstorms, and should refer to the "Code of Practice in Times of Adverse Weather and 'Extreme Conditions'" and the "Guide on Safety at Work in times of Inclement Weather" issued by the LD.

Even if electrical work is carried out or electrical plant is handled at places not affected by a rainstorm, suitable safety measures must still be adopted to prevent an electric shock as the air would be more humid. Such measures include:

(i) Ensure that all live parts of an electrical installation are isolated from the power supply source and rendered dead, and the isolation from the power supply source must be maintained as long as electrical work is being carried out;

(ii) Before carrying out any electrical work or handling any electrical plant, cut off and lock out the power supply source, then test the circuit concerned to confirm that it is dead and display suitable warning notices, and issue a work permit thereafter;

(iii) Ensure that protective devices (such as suitable and adequate fuses and circuit breakers) for the electrical installations or electrical plant have been installed and maintained in good working order, and portable electric tools must be double-insulated or properly earthed;

(iv) Provide suitable personal protective equipment such as insulating gloves and insulating mats for employees; and

(v) If live electrical work is unavoidable, a comprehensive risk assessment should be conducted by a competent person and the appropriate safety precautions should be taken to remove or properly control the electrical hazards involved before such work can proceed.

In addition, employees should co-operate with the employer or contractor to follow the safety instructions and use the safety equipment provided.

The LD has published guidebooks and leaflets on electrical work safety. These safety publications are available free from divisional offices of the department or can be downloaded from its website (www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/content2_8.htm).

Should there be any questions about occupational safety and health matters, please contact the Occupational Safety Officer of the LD at 2559 2297.

Source: AI-found images