Following her solo exhibition at the Hong Kong City Hall last month, Hong Kong ink artist Christina Tung will soon be exhibiting her artistic creations, utilising various paper materials and high-grade leather as mediums, at Fine Art Asia 2022. With feather as an overarching theme, her art pieces include three pairs of feather wings made with 1800 pieces of leather, spanning 30 feet wide in total, as well as a variety of artworks showcasing layered texture and three-dimensional visual appeal created with versatile techniques and meticulous endeavours. Adorned with iridescent colours, the light and airy feathers are aggregated into art pieces symbolic of ‘The Wings of Hong Kong’, anticipating a post-pandemic takeoff.
Signature Presence of the Feather: A Yearning for Freedom and a Blessing for Hong Kong
The invariable presence of the feather in Tung’s artworks denotes the revelations in her life and her yearning for freedom. To Tung, the beauty of the feather lies in its lifelessness but that which bestows upon the bird a blissful life surfing the boundless sky. Enlivened with multiple forms under Tung’s brushstroke, the feather is the epitome of softness and strength combined, a life philosophy of resilience: it is at once carefree at the whims of the winds, and at other times audacious, undaunted by limitations.
In Beyond, inspired by the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, Tung took the initiative to personify the feather and portrayed it as a forest. This is a testament to Tung’s first decade of life as an artist, her determination to grant the feather with new forms of being, and her longing for life itself.
A deep-seated belief held by Tung is that oftentimes, the creative process is not dictated by the painter but the artwork. This can be seen in her pandemic-inspired Disintegration and Interconnectedness series, where, rather than impinging on the aesthetic of the artwork, the tailoring of the leather became the beacon of her meaningful piece: it is as if the cut-up leather pieces symbolised the isolation and frustration felt by the people during the pandemic, but once assembled and became unique artworks with meanings of their own, they were exalted as the vessels of hope.
Complex Textures Created with Meticulous Procedures, Strokes Coming Alive on Flimsy Paper
While Tung’s more recent artworks are built on the foundation of leather, her earlier works of utilising different paper materials are testament to an artist’s refinement, and open-mindedness.
Amongst Tung’s repository of paper materials are rice paper, flimsy paper and Japanese linen paper, with flimsy paper having an iconic presence in her works – a relatively rarer medium due to its thinness and the challenge it poses on art creation.
In Delight of Freedom (1), Tung’s ingenious application of various techniques manifested in the unique textures on flimsy paper. Added to that are the colours of heaven and earth and the universe, enabled by ink painting techniques, while the delicately painted feather symbolised humankind’s longing for freedom in a transcendental realm. Up close, the detail of the painting would come alive, allowing the viewer to appreciate the artist’s thought process and intent: the road ahead may be uncertain, but we still possess the power to put our best foot forward and live life to the fullest.
Japanese Linen Paper Offers Vivid Visual Appeal, Enabling Instillation of Emotions
In spite of the bright palette and shading styles in her artworks, showing evident inheritance of the Lingnan school, Tung is able to carve out a place for herself with her signature feather theme.
In Love of My Life, Tung painted on Japanese linen paper an astounding love story – a pair of pheasant feathers cuddle and traveled together amongst mountains and the sea of clouds, a message of fascination over reality.
The Japanese linen paper’s high fibre density demands the mastery and experience of an ink artist. With her brushstrokes, Tung created a tale through the natural transition from the mountains to the clouds, yet again showcasing her decade-long artistic exploration, laboriously striving to comprehend the nature of various mediums.
Hybridising Feather and Leather to Reinterpret Contemporary Painting
Tung’s use of leather for her artworks took flight in 2020, when she won the Salvatore Ferragamo shoe design award. A medium emblematic of various kinds of strengths, the leather carries an unique sentimental value for Tung.
In her Ballet Dance series, Tung accentuated a stark contrast by placing a white feather on a piece of leather. Drawing inspiration from the acclaimed Swan Lake, Tung personified the feather into ballet dancers, embraced by a touch of elegance created with a wool frame, as well as exquisite colours and textures.
