An Exploration of Landscape Aesthetic, Hong Kong Scenic Sites and Cultural Imagination

The proposed research-based contemporary art project will be built on the PI’s previous projects on landscape art. It will look into the use and reinterpretation of the landscape aesthetic in contemporary Chinese art and the correlation between the Chinese landscape aesthetic and contemporary society. The genre of landscape painting, a representative form of Chinese art, has resurfaced and gained currency in contemporary Chinese art, particularly in the discourse of ink art. Focusing on the use of landscape elements including actual scenes and landscape aesthetic in Hong Kong art, the proposed project will 1) investigate visual and textual representations of Hong Kong’s scenic landscape, 2) offer a new perspective on Hong Kong scenic sites and landscape art, and 3) explore the the relationship between landscape, identity and the contemporary re-imagination of place and space.

The project will be organised into three phases. The first phase will involve archival and library research to collect information for an historical analysis of Hong Kong’s scenic landscape and to construct an image database. In the second phase, the project will explore the cultural tradition of landscape art based on findings from phase one, culminating in a cross-disciplinary symposium for curators, academics and artists to stimulate debate and discussion about the cultural tradition of landscape art. The third phase will transform the ideas and research gathered in the previous phases into works of art, using an exhibition as a site for further exploration of the topic of the Hong Kong landscape. Artists specialising in various media will be invited to experiment with the possibilities of landscape art through art-making, and an exhibition catalogue with visual images of the artwork and the findings of the research will be published. The project will offer a holistic perspective to fill the gap in existing scholarship and advance our understanding of the relationships between man and nature, and landscape and cultural identity. The four key deliverables – the digital database, symposium, thematic exhibition and travel guidebook – will offer a new perspective on Hong Kong landscape and landscape art, and open up a new dialogue on the relationship between landscape and the contemporary re-imagination of place and space.