KWONG Wing Kwan: Good morning, sweet dreams. 鄺詠君《日出｜晚安》

KWONG Wing Kwan 鄺詠君:
Good morning, sweet dreams.《日出｜晚安》

15 May – 19 June, 2021
 
KWONG Wing Kwan captures in her paintings the seemingly mundane views and trivial details of everyday life. The views she takes in, day in and day out, mirror the subtle changes of her inner world. In her latest series, KWONG documents the transient sceneries from both sides of her window just like keeping a visual journal. While her old home embraced an expansive sea view, she can barely catch a glimpse of the sea from her new place. The sunsets and sunrises as well as the sunny, cloudy and stormy skies are indifferent and ephemeral at the same time.
 
In “Good morning, sweet dreams. I & II” and “Time in suspension VI”, the oil paint was applied in successive thin layers. The process allowed the artist to recall the scenes she once beheld and let her inner sentiment come to the surface. She vividly portrayed the mountains outside her window or the way curtains hang in front of the window panes, the translucent hues creating a crystalline quality just like glass.
 
The depiction of glass is crucial in the conceptualisation of the series and its realisation. The transparent material needs to reflect off light in order to be visible, while what we see are in fact the objects and reflections from both sides. Meanwhile, the ever-changing combinations of reflected and refracted images are the results of the shifting intensities of and the dynamics between indoor and outdoor light sources. In the “Time in suspension”
series, outdoor sceneries are overlapped by visual hints of the artist’s living quarters in the form of reflections. To her, the canvases of this series are artificial sceneries based on indoor lighting. 
 
Windows form a barrier between indoor and outdoor spaces. They screen off the unpredictable outside world and create a safe though artificial interior environment. But the  dividing line between the inside and the outside is more fragile than it may seem. In the “Good morning, sweet dreams.” series, curtains appear as a peculiar metaphor for the mysterious unknown and disquieting uncertainty as we approach them. KWONG took her inspiration from British-American film “We Need to Talk About Kevin”: in one scene towards the end of the film, the protagonist opened a billowing white curtain and slowly stepped from the familiar living room into the eerie reality of the outside world.
 
Other tranquil sceneries at first glance are, in fact, violence and suffering in disguise. The colourful abstract form shaped like a cloud in “Distant thunder III” is a bruise mark on the artist’s body; in “Distant thunder IX”, the beautiful misty clouds in the serene sky dotted with sparkles are in fact tear gas flying in the air.
 
 

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