Year: 2017
Medium: Digital video
Dimensions: 48m 45s
Brief biography: b. 1987, Hong Kong
Drawing is the starting point of Kong Chun Hei’s artwork and although he also utilises video, animation, sculpture and installation, all relate back to the processes of drawing. In Hand Practice the artist presents the hand exercises that he uses when preparing to create his careful and detailed drawing works. The exercises look deceptively simple, but become difficult over long periods of time, highlighting the physical strength and mental capacity required for his drawing practice. Kong is most well-known for his work in pen and black ink that capture the surfaces of ordinary objects, often mimicking different material textures. Kong has suggested that “His work has no great meaning,… his aim is just learning how to see in an age when the only thing certain is uncertainty.”
Kong created this work while he was Artist in Residence at Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA), Manchester; the work was then displayed as part of group exhibition co curated by Lindsay Taylor (UoS), Ying Tan (CFCCA) and Ying Kwok (Independent curator, Hong Kong) From Ocean to Horizon (July – October 2017).
Kong Chun Hei graduated from the Fine Arts Department of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2009. Exhibitions have included: PRESENCE: A Window into Chinese Contemporary Art, St. George’s Hall, Liverpool (2018); Synthesis, New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery, University of Salford, Salford, UK (2017); Stay away from those rocks, Gallery EXIT, 3/F, 25 Hing Wo St, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK (2017); Kong Chun Hei: Back unsay shades can go, ASIAN NOW, Paris, France (2016); Back And Forth // Left And Right, Artissima 2014, Torino, Italy (2014).
Artist’s website: http://www.kongchunhei.com/