WONG Sze Wai

My artworks focus on the relationship between memory and imagination. They highlight the loss of memories and represent the process of recollection in a way of inscription and erasure, which is also known as palimpsest. The way I paint was first inspired by the ancient Chinese murals in Dunhuang Cave and the murals from the Medieval time in Eastern Europe before developing into a representation of how memory and history being written and erased. Apart from exploring ancient paintings, techniques like multi-layering and repeated wash out have grown to become my own painting method since they create a sense of depth and show traces of time passing. As for the subject matter, I am fascinated by ruin for its metaphorical representation of lost and concealed memories. Ruin has been regarded as a body of memory and history as traces of human activities and changing times fill such abandoned places. From my experience of visiting ruins, wondering about ruins is much alike recalling memories because we imagine the history of ruins, just like we imagine our own memories.

 

A tour of ruins awaits— to remember and to imagine.

 

 

我的作品主要探討記憶與想像之間的關係。作品參照古代的羊皮紙重寫本，以塗寫與塗抹的方式表現記憶的喪失及回憶的過程。作品的繪畫手法最初受到了敦煌莫高窟的古代中國壁畫和東歐中世紀時期壁畫所啟發。後來，這種手法漸漸成為記憶及歷史被書寫和塗抹的示現：一方面，作品使用大量泥土、木炭筆、粉狀顏料和中國水墨等不穩定的媒材，使畫的表面容易脫落；另一方面，藉由多層的繪畫及沖洗過程，營造出一種深遠的視覺效果，以表現時間流逝的痕跡。至於題材的選用，廢墟無庸置疑地吸引了我。廢墟隱喻著喪失和隱藏的記憶，也被視為記憶和歷史文明的載體，因為它承載著人類活動的痕跡和時代的變遷。然而，我們從廢墟裏閱讀到的，並不一定是回憶，而是藉由閱讀來想像回憶。

 

一場廢墟之旅——目睹，以及想像，那些被遺忘的。