Ho, Siu-kee 何 兆 基
Artworks / Writings
- About the Artist
- Aureola No.1
- Aureola No.2
- Aureola No.3
- Aureola No.4
- Aureola No.5
- Aureola No.7
- Aureola No.8
- Aureola No.9
- Aureola No.10
- Aureola No.11
- Aureola No.13
- Standing Above Water Level
- Visible Sound
- Orbiter No.1
- Orbiter No.2
- The Constrained Body
- The Third Eye
- Inner Ear
- Walking on Two Balls
- Extended Height
- Hands Up / Hands Down
- Sit / Stand / Lie
- Five Handrails
- Head Piece
- Body Cage
- Counting 1-100
- Flying Machine
- Closed System
- Per / Con-ceptual Body
- Gravity Hoop
- Body Memory
- Golden Proportion
- Golden Egg
- Self / Others
- OM
- Lotus Land
- To Melt the Frozen Lake
- Making Brick
- Article: Bodily Synthesis
- Article: Body Gesture
- Article: Perception / Conception / Expression
- Article: The World as Perceived
- Article: “Things” and “Human Beings” and “the World”
- Article: "Craftsmanship", "Bodily Synthesis" and "Art Practice"
- Artist CV
- Review by Josette Balsa
- Review by Gerard Henry
- Review by Oscar Ho
- Review by Pamela Kember
- Review by Fiona Wong
- Links
- Contact the Artist
Golden Egg
Golden Egg
“Golden Egg” is composed of a sculptural object and a video which documents the interaction between the body and the object. The sculptural object is a bronze cast of an egg. There is a classical relief of the Crucified Christ on it. The finishing of the sculpture has been treated to retain its shiny bronze appearance look like gold. The video describes the action of me rolling the golden egg on my forehead. The relief of the Cross on the egg leaves some mottled marks on my forehead. However, the flexibility of the skin, appeared as a material, causes the marks of the cross to gradually fade from my forehead.
The idea of the “Golden Egg” originated from a method of healing a wound in traditional Chinese folklore – heal bruises by using a boiled egg. Past generations of Chinese believe that bruised or swollen wounds can be healed by putting a boiled egg in a piece of cloth and rolling it onto the wound. Modern medicine would suggest that the heat from the egg which helps to speed up the blood circulation and helps the wound to heal. However, as a folklore, the egg symbolizes vitality and transformation of life - since the apparently ‘dead’, the egg hatches and becomes a chicken, may have some relationship in taking it as a metaphor for healing bodily injuries. The transformation of matter shows the transformation of forms of life.
In the West, the idea of redemption in Christianity is completed by Jesus Christ’s sacrifice of his own body when he was crucified. This common image is appropriated in the relief on the golden egg directly. The pain of the physical body appears as juxtaposition of a two-fold image in this art piece - the pain of Christ when he was crucified and the pain on my forehead when the relief of the cross was pressed onto it form, symbolizes the transformation of life. Pain, as an extreme perceptual experience of the body, is often related to therapy of the mind.
“Golden Egg” initially involves a traditional material process of sculpture making, modeling, molding, lost wax bronze casting to the final product as an artwork. Through the craftsmanship and the transformation of material, it is generally believed that the finished artwork carries certain meaning that the artist intends to express. In traditional sculpture, this process results in a finished work. What remains is the interpretation of the work by the audience. However, I try to go further. The relationship between the body and the material, transforms from the above mentioned process of craftsmanship to the action constructed by the coordination of the body and the ready made object - the sculpture of golden egg. Moreover, by means of the action, perceptual experience, the pain caused by pressing the golden egg on the forehead, is formed. The perceptual experience in turn becomes the means of artistic expression through the medium of video. It connects the projection of memory of the audience. The audience receives the performance through sight and projects onto the perceptual experience and concept relating to pain in their own memory, such as the wounds they have suffered on their body or mind, or even religious experiences. Here, the artist and the audiences reach a state of empathy through their own perceptual experience. Bodily perception as a form of artistic expression also becomes an intermediary between self and others.
金蛋
《金蛋》由一件鑄銅雕塑及一段記錄身體與該件雕塑互動的行為錄像所組成。雕塑部份是一隻由黃銅鑄造的蛋，上面有一個基督被釘上十字架的古典浮雕造型，表面處理則保留黃銅金光耀目的質感。錄像部份是我以這隻金蛋在額上滾動的動作，蛋上的十字架浮雕因而在額上壓印成班駁的痕跡，但皮膚(作為一種物料而出現)的彈性又令十字架印痕漸漸在額上消失。
《金蛋》的創作意念來自一種中國民間相傳的療傷方法 – 以煮熟的雞蛋去瘀。老一輩的中國人相信，但凡有撞傷瘀腫，只要用布包裹一種炙熱的熟蛋在傷處滾動，便能去瘀去腫。從現代醫學的角度看，大概是由於熱力加速血液循環，有助患處痊癒，但作為一種民間信仰，雞蛋像徵了生命力及生命的轉化(由雞蛋孵化成小雞，物質轉化，顯現了生命形態的轉化)，以此作為治療身體創傷的喻示，相信亦有一定關係。
西方基督教的救贖觀念，藉由耶穌基督被釘上十字架犧牲自己的肉身而得以成全(這個普遍化的象徵被直接挪用在金蛋雕塑上)，肉身的痛楚(基督被釘上十字架的痛楚；以及金蛋上的十字架壓印在我額上的痛楚，形成兩重意像的並置)，在不同文化中很多時都像徵了另一重轉化，痛楚作為一種極端的身體感知經驗，亦往往與心靈的治療相關連。
《金蛋》試圖由傳統的雕塑物料工序material process與觀念入手，造型modeling、覆模molding、失蠟鑄銅lost wax bronze casting而成作品，並相信完成的作品盛載某種象徵意義，是作者透過手藝轉化物料使意念得以表達，傳統的雕塑創作，到此已告一段落，剩下來的，就是觀眾對作品的詮釋。但我嘗試從這裹再進一步推進，身體與物料的關係，由前一階段的工藝過程，演化為身體配合現成物(金蛋雕塑)構成行為，並藉由行為演示performance造就感知經驗(金蛋雕塑壓印在額上的痛楚)，感知經驗再作為藝術表達的手段(以錄像媒介表現)，聯繫觀者的記憶投射(觀者透過視覺感官接收行為的訊息，並投射到自己記憶中與痛楚相關的感知經驗及概念，例如身體或心靈曾受過的創傷，乃至由創傷、痛楚而昇華的宗教體驗)，於此，作者與觀者，就憑籍各自的感知經驗而達致一種移情共感的狀態，感官知覺作為一種藝術表達的方式，亦成為自我與他者之間的中介。