Monica Tang
Works of Mr. Woody Lee
A contemporary Hong Kong artist--Woody Lee was graduated from the department of Fine Art, the Chinese university of Hong Kong .He is actively taking part in the field of local Visual Art. He starts his art business since the 90sˇ¦. He has been a designer and art educator. He thinks it will be too superficial to perceive art as visual pleasure and it should bare social responsibility in some extent. For instance, the artworks could reflect our social phenomenon, personal belief etc which are most important than its aesthetic style and technique. The main theme in his works is about the attitude of human and the relationship in between them and their living environment. Mr Lee said: ˇ§How do you think about overdevelopment of our city? How is the ideology in pursuing of perfection and self-enhancement in genetic industry?ˇ¨ As an artist in this commercial city - Hong Kong, he could not get rid of these problems. Thus he tried to express his ideas form painting to installation, from paint brush to computer. His works look simple but tongue in cheek.
In the year 1995, one of his installation works called ˇĄFitting Room ˇV Exhibition Venueˇ¨. This time he attempted to decorate the venue as a tiny boutique and arose emotion of the people on window shopping. A typical sensor was set on the entrance of the exhibition venue which interactively generate a ˇ§din donˇ¨ sound when we walk through it. A rank of brand name catalogues were putting against the wall liked the clothes which had been hang in boutique. All these commercial elements were filled in the exhibition venue arouse an echo of the audience to think about consumerism. As a matter of fact he wanted to portray the over pursue of high sounding ˇ§qualitative lifestyle" of people nowadays. He wanted to elicit peopleˇ¦s introspection of ˇ§why do they consume and what do they consumeˇ¨ needless to say the "real value" behind the products. People feel like they were shopping when they are actually visiting an exhibition. He created a contradictive arousal of visiting a boutique and exhibition successfully by this simple setting. The semi-translucent lace fitting room also portrays ˇ§what is the real value of the fitting roomˇ¨. Are there any personal secrete behind the fitting room in the public area?
The other remarkable artwork is the one shown in his studio; this is a chair and a working desk with fancy decoration. He wrapped it with lace as fancy as a delicate product. Despite its decorative function, laze is actually a delicate and impractical material in use on furniture. Again Mr. Lee bought the audiences into a contradictive situation,ˇ¨ whether I am looking at an artwork or a commercial productˇ¨ What he wants to tell is ˇ§why people pursue perfection by all means and finally what they got are something impractical and worthless like the chair and the desk.ˇ¨ Moreover the special arc of the working desk is obviously designated to match our body shape, i.e. to make us more comfortable when we sit there. However, the arc actually did restrain our moving area, it may bring about lots of inconvenience but people might still regard that as a quality life when the desk is put in the shop. In addition, there is a circle shaped carpet which was placed on the floor. Itˇ¦s limited area could only cover the wheels of the chair. The carpet are said to be served as the protection of the wheels. Ironically, the fancy carpet is in fact making the wheels of the chair functionless ˇV it limited the moving area of human. It is just like we are doing lots of works to enhancer our living standard but disregarded the side effect of destroying our environment at the same time.
The work impressed me most
In 2002, a series of artwork called "Foppish City" which were exhibited at Fotan, Wha Luen Industrial building. They are the continuous chapter of his T-shirt project - ˇ§Deckerˇ¨. He regard T-shirt as a cultural container to give out his massage. T-shirt is a typical commercial product in the market. Despite its commercial function, I saw art value in it as well this time. There is a series of 4 T-shirts portraying 4 different social scenes. He uses the digital images and presented them with artificial light. He wants to call upon the introspections of the audience about the real side of the commercial products: ˇ§all of them are like the image of T-shirt, they are just fake illusionsˇ¨. He capture the usual social scene and rearrange the images in pattern. Again the works create a certain extent of contradictive atmosphere. ˇ§We are seeing something usual but under an unusual arrangementˇ¨. In fact the patternlization is one of the most essential elements in the commercial world especially product design.
The cat in the image is dressed in a fancy way by its master. ˇ§Petˇ¨ is something being kept by people, they no freedom and serve like a toy. People think that ˇ§petˇ¨ is here to entertain them but we never bother their feeling. For instance, the pets which were being dumped, they used to beloved by their master and they used to be being dressed fancily. However days are gone many of them were left because of the limited living space in Hong Kong. Besides, while the masters of the petˇXwe people, think that with the fancy dressing, our pets will be very glad but actually they feel restrained. We can see via the facial expression of the cat above.
This is a cure side of the people; sometimes people keep pets just as to exhibit their superiority. This is concern with the ethical problem of us human. We are said to be the highest vibrate but see what we are doing to our environment. We are destroying the nature, working on the artificial fertilization, mixing their species unnaturally and finally keeping them to entertain us. Mr. Lee is also here to reveal the selfness of man, not only in the keeping pet thing but the industrialization, overdevelopment etc. We pursue our qualitative life by one hand but on the other hand doing harm to our society / environment.
The outer square is composed of houses which are closely packed like Sadin Can Food. It implies the overdevelopment and the overcrowding condition of the city. We are living like breathlessly and cannot even get in touch with tress but plants. All the plants in the city are artificial and so few compare with the mass housing. The image portrays our living condition and the instability of human live. We working everyday for money but what it can buy are the closely packed houses and the overcrowding estates. This image is the scenes of ˇ§poor peopleˇ¨, we think that we are improving our living condition and ignored what we lost. Our original breeding ground, the nature is obliterated by us.
The people in the image are burning insane, worshipping their ancestors. In fact the posture is very familiar, just a sitting posture which is rational. Nevertheless, when we take a deeper look, they were doing something ˇ§irrationalˇ¨. It reveals that people nowadays believe some extraordinary things blindly. It portrays the overwhelming stereotype and conformity. People with no unique and critical mind but just follow the others. The lost of faith in them push them nearer to those absurd believe, for instance, Fa Lun Tai Fa. So whatˇ¦s the point for people to pursuit so called Hi-tech and modern life? Mr. Lee wants to call upon the introspections of the people about their real self and real belief.
This is image of the stained glass of the church. The blur image is the hand of people. A crowd of people are rushing towards something/body. They are the fans of the celebrities. All of them are there to support their favorite celebrity. They act like worshipping god. In the past , before the soaring development of the media, people will worship god. In this work the shape of the stained glass implied the church. Under the peer pressure, the vast media and the psychological pressure, many teenagers chasing starts blindly. They let go all the other important businesses like study, family to support their favorite celebrity. The same logic can be applied to different classes of people. The grown ups blindly believe money is the only key for all the problems, the elderly believe the existence of Fung Shui, China government believe Tai wan should be submitted etc. However no one have ever dare to stand against the stereotype, all of them were submitted to the superiority of conformity.
Installation
1995
Installation
1998
