On view till February 25 on the HKCACC Gallery in Po Hing Fong, Sheung Wan, the exhibition is a results of Fowler’s need to find and showcase little-known or deserted pockets of Hong Kong.
The British photographer, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1989, is a video producer by commerce, having produced and directed a lot of cooking exhibits, action-adventure exhibits and industrial movies over time.
When work dried up through the coronavirus pandemic, he started utilizing his digital camera gear to take stills as a substitute.
“I used to be satiating my wanderlust by travelling to all of the locations in Hong Kong that I hadn’t been,” he says. “I hadn’t realised what I’d missed till I began trying intentionally.”
Above all, the photographer was trying to seize photographs that provided a way of ambiguity. “I’m searching for photographs which you could’t actually place in a time-frame,” he says.
That led him to temples and makeshift shrines throughout Hong Kong, the place he found a whole lot of deities and demons that each one had vibrant backstories.
Among the many locations he visited have been a sky filled with gods and Buddhas, the Hong Kong Dragon Backyard, in Tsing Lung Tau within the southwest New Territories, and the Fuk Tak Temple, in Shau Kei Wan on the jap finish of Hong Kong Island.
“I realised that lots of people simply don’t perceive what’s happening contained in the temples,” he says. “They go as soon as as a vacationer, however then they don’t revisit these locations.
“They don’t realise what number of magical tales which can be contained inside, and absolutely the magnificence of those effigies, which have a long time, if not centuries, of patina. All that put on and tear actually provides to their lustre, for my part.”
Among the many effigies on show in “The Artwork of Celestials” are these of Guan Yu (god of conflict), Choy San (god of wealth) and Tin Hau (goddess of the ocean).
The figurine of Sai Wong Mo (also called the Queen Mom of the West) was discovered at a roadside shrine the place somebody had splashed the deserted statues with crimson paint and cemented them in place – historically, it’s thought of dangerous luck to throw away non secular collectible figurines, which is why they’re usually deserted on road corners in Hong Kong.
“If you’re a portrait like this, I can think about them as a residing entity,” says Fowler. “Your mind begins going into the backstory of what sort of individuals they’d be. If he’s a benevolent demon, you’ll be able to think about him being a variety of enjoyable.”
Certainly, demons similar to Qianliyan, the green-skinned one with extraordinary imaginative and prescient from the novel Journey to the West, in addition to his youthful brother Shunfeng’er, who has distinctive listening to, are additionally depicted within the exhibition.
Having died in a fierce battle the siblings grew to become vengeful spirits, however they started utilizing their talents for good after the ocean goddess Mazu intervened.
In the meantime, Guānyīn exhibits the goddess of mercy (additionally recognized in Cantonese as Kwun Yum) in opposition to a graffiti-adorned backdrop, which was added in post-production. By juxtaposing the deities with fashionable backgrounds, Fowler hoped to reinterpret the portraits in a up to date context, he says.
“I simply wished to carry them into the fashionable world one way or the other,” he says. “Clearly an image must be visually arresting on the primary look, however I would like individuals to then go, ‘Dangle on a minute. What’s happening?’”
Different photographs provide a way of humour – {a photograph} of two half-undressed monks having fun with one another’s firm is solely titled Pleasure.
“It’s a bit homoerotic,” Fowler says with fun. “I’m not going to say something extra about that, I’ll simply let individuals make their very own minds up.”
“The Artwork of Celestials”, HKCACC Gallery, 68 Po Hing Fong, Sheung Wan, till February 25; dickiesuzuki.com.
