CREATIVE MACAU invited Leong Fei In and Papa Osmubal – two local artists to participate in the exhibition HIDE-AND-SEEK with artworks in the form of paper cutting.
The art of figurative paper cutting has been connoted as popular art for centuries. Transmitting wonderfully in pictorial form, stories, legends, fables and myths. In some countries, it is considered as one of the high cultural artform activities, carried out exquisitely with “scissor technique”, fascinating generations along. Many artists in the world have also used scissors or a blade to give “voice” to ideas of their “lyrical conscience” by creating pictorial worlds.
The exhibition – HIDE AND SEEK will be held from 7th to 29th of October, 2022
Dynamic Silence – Leong Fei In
Endless negative news updates every day, especially in these several years. Stress and anxiety management become my routine. I have a way to reduce the feeling of unease, fear, or panic, which is repetitive task. As a child I used to count to calm my anxiety, nowadays I draw grids. I love drawing grids not only because of their calming effect but also for the pleasure of it because it is simple rules, and potentially infinite. There are three key elements in this project: grids map the surface of the paper itself, and cutting is an act of destroying and creating at the same time, by making a fold, I intend to alter a sheet from two dimensional (surface) into three dimensional (space) object.
As Rosalind Krauss suggests: “The grid’s mythic power is that it makes us able to think we are dealing with materialism (or sometimes science, or logic) while at the same time it provides us with a release into belief (or illusion, or fiction).”1The impetus for this Grid project has come from a deeply personal place; a place of emotional and psychological unease, and that the act of repetition has had a restorative and therapeutic effect.
1. Rosalind Krauss. “Grids,” October, Volume 9 (Summer 1979): 50-64
Undone/Unfinished – Papa Osmubal
Incited by the on-going Russian-Ukrainian war that started in February 2022, ‘Undone/Unfinished’ abruptly came into being, devoid of any plan. This collection is put together from the artist’s existing pieces slowly done in the span of 3 years. It is a collection of historical figures, famous and infamous, popular and unpopular, holy and notorious, peaceful and brutal. Despite their claim to greatness, none of them can ever complete history. All such fame and infamy, popularity and unpopularity, holiness and notoriety, peace and brutality, all put together, can never provide the most basic reason to man’s own doing and undoing. History is always lacking, begging to be completed, and yet no greatness man has, no notoriety man does, no great amount of wealth man possess, history shall remain ‘Undone/Unfinished’. History is a puzzle, a game of hide and seek, a conundrum, a reason longing for audible words.
