below is an English translation of the interview transcript
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HEADLINE：BRAVE NEW WORLD
Hong Kong artist Michelle Fung, the winner of the 2024 "Vogue Hong Kong Women's Art Prize", stood out among international works with her wood carving drawing "Red Beanstalk". She shared her creative experience with Vogue Hong Kong and elaborated on how to interpret her vast project "The World of 2084 " into exquisitely crafted artworks.
Text: Peggie Kei
Photo courtesy of SAF and Michelle Fung
Michelle Fung won the "Vogue Hong Kong Women's Art Prize" of this year's "Sovereign Asian Art Prize" for her work "Red Bean Stalk", becoming the first Hong Kong artist to win the Sovereign Asian Art Prize since 2013. This award was established by the Sovereign Art Foundation (SAF). The foundation has been established for 20 years. It has long supported the development of artists and raised funds for disadvantaged children through artwork auction. It is of great significance to both artists and society.
Regarding this award, Michelle Fung said that she was happiest when the judges saw her works and story, "Art is a form of communication. When you send obscure complicated messages into the world, it is incredibly satisfying if someone decodes them. And 99 out of those 100 messages will fall onto deaf ears, so what I’m happiest about is that someone understands my work.”
The award-winning wood carving drawing"Red Beanstalk" belongs to the story of "Contradictoria" in "The World of 2084": In order to solve the problem of air pollution, Contradictoria adopted the "Polluta" project to compress polluted air into building bricks. These bricks are then used to build beautiful artist colonies “Polluta” floating in the air, where artists can live, work and show for free, forever. Then why is the work called "Red Beanstalk"? Michelle explained: "The only portal to the world of "Polluta" is through these "red beanstalks". But in fact, red beans grow from trees, so these "red beanstalks" do not exist. This means that the gate to "Polluta" does not actually exist."
The imaginary world contains the cruel facts of the real world, which is one of the messages that the artist hopes to convey when creating this macroscopic world. "Actually, many of the ideas in my works come from utopian or dystopian literature. Someone asked me whether "The World of 2084" is a utopia or a dystopia? I think the ultimate utopia is a dystopian – an extremely beautiful world will be riddled with flaws, because humans themselves are full of imperfections, contradictions, greed and other weaknesses. "Compared with humans, Michelle prefers to use her favorite animals as an easier communication medium. , "Many of the issues I talk about are relatively abstract, so I choose to use animals as the protagonists, so that the viewer can ignore factors like gender, skin colour and age. I can directly express ideas in a way that is easier for people to relate to."
SUBHEAD：PASSION AND PERSEVERANCE
Being nominated by Kurt Chan, a senior figure in the art world, and then being selected from 171 artists from 15 countries and regions in the Asia-Pacific region, the process was by no means smooth sailing. In fact, Michelle was nominated by senior video artist May Fung last year and submitted two works, but in the end she couldn't even make the shortlist. In defiance, she kept asking her friends for artwork feedback and critique and reflecting on the comments. She didn't get any definite answer at that time, but those conversations secretly laid the groundwork for her success this time. "I think it is very precious to have industry friends around you who can and will communicate with you. If someone gives me advice, I will write it all down in my notes every time and evaluate it later; sometimes I might go back and ask the same person again, or bring the question to the next person. I think this is growth and cultural exchange. After I internalize the conversations, I conduct research and experiments again,” Michelle added, “I believe that my current techniques have improved from six months ago. I have learned a lot. My current problems are no longer the same problems. Self improvement has always been about how to confront higher-level and more profound problems.”
When asked how she first discovered her own creative style, Michelle gave a surprising answer: "I don’t know what my works look like." Despite this state of confusion, her creative progress shows a unique persistence. "First, the work must be honest. Art-making is a very complex form of expression. If you are not sincere, others will feel it. So you must be sincere. Second, the process is not to criticise myself, but to discern, loyal to my own artistic sensibility and technical considerations. If something isn’t working, don’t bother pursuing it.” Perhaps it is through this kind of persistence that Michelle can develop her unique artistic style and create such unique works.
As early as July 2014, Michelle completed the backbone of the story of "The World of 2084" during her staycation in Tai O under the charming fishing village scenery. It was not until 2015 that it was finally completed as a master's degree graduation work after many twists and turns. Presented for the first time as an installation. "At that time, I wrote the prequel to "The World of 2084", and I didn't develop that idea for the first time until my grad exhibition. But at that time, I wanted to do many things, including animation, monologue, and costume-design. In the end, I turned dozens of paintings into an art installation, and eventually won a graduation award." She then spent 5 years realising what she had wanted to do one by one, and created "The World of 2084". The world view gradually took shape, "The animation took three and a half years to produce, and then another version of the performance art was completed and a book was released. The monologue has not been completed yet. Maybe it will be completed in the next 30 years? I don't I know." She said.
Now, Michelle is taking advantage of the rare free time to experiment with a new batch of wood carving drawings for the arctic country Northlandia in "The World of 2084." She is sifting through images from a special research arctic trip two years ago, to build a kingdom of ice and snow centred around polar bears. However, the vast world view of "The World of 2084" cannot be fully presented in just a few works, and Michelle has long been prepared to devote her whole life to it.