An Art of Illustration Exhibition between San Francisco and Macau has not only broadened horizons for the artists involved, it has taken the territory’s name to a new audience too, thanks to the latest project by Yunyi Arts and Cultural Communications Association
When Christine Hong understood that her passion for the arts went beyond music, she set about finding ways to create opportunities for local artists and ways of getting Macau on the art scene around the world.
“My background is in classical piano. I studied in New York for eight years and when I returned to Macau I worked in different fields. During that time I really understood my passion for art, not only music, and I wanted to do something about it so I founded this non-profit organisation, Yunyi, as a platform for artists and musicians from all over the world, as well as local artists to showcase their work and establish connections.”
Since Yunyi Arts and Cultural Communications Association’s initiation in 2010, Hong, as Project Director, has worked on ways to bring different projects to Macau, and to take local projects abroad.
“We keep things small and only work on a few projects a year, but we ensure that they are well done.”
Technology and the way it is shaping the world is something that has caught the project director’s attention lately.
“My biggest ambition at the moment relates to technology and its relationship to art, and how they work together, be it equipment, apps, things like that, so I am constantly exploring new ideas, learning about it and finding ways to bring it to Macau.”
Last year, Yunyi inaugurated its an annual exhibition series, focusing on artworks between Macau and other cities. Hong and curator/illustrator Christina Dias worked together in 2015 to host a joint illustration exhibition between Porto, in northern Portugal, and Macau, launching the first show in the series. The exhibition was on show in Porto last summer and later the artworks were exhibited at the Rui Cunha Foundation in Macau in October.
This year the partner city for the cultural exchange is San Francisco. The San Francisco and Macao Art of Illustration Exhibition brings together a total of 20 illustrators from Macau and the USA. The US show was curated by Louise Ieong, herself an artist with roots in Macau.
The theme assigned to the US artists was “If I were in Macau, I would…” and for the Macau artists “If I were in SF, I would…” encouraging them to research the cities they were the illustrating and “bridging the two places with the distinctive visual languages of this international group of artists whose imagery shares a sense of humour, surrealism and graphic appeal,” Hong explains. By using a theme, Hong wanted “to promote Macau as a city” and was “interested to see the things the artists chose to illustrate about the two cities.”
The exhibition features new works by Macau artists including: Crystal Chan; Big Ear Cow; Dor Liu; Joao Jorge Magalhaes; Julia Lam; Karen Yung; Lin Ge; Molly; Yolanda Kog; Lan Chiang, and west coast artists: Jeff Cheung, Carly Dooling, Sanaa Khan, Leah Labrador, Louise Leong, Cynthia Navarro, Melody Overstreet, Kenneth Srivijitakkar, Max Stadnik, and Lynora Valdez.
The San Francisco exhibition was a great success and took place from 12 to 14 August at Tiny Splendor, a publishing press based in Berkeley and Los Angeles. The Macau exhibition is set to run from October 18 to 29 at the Rui Cunha Foundation.
When selecting artists from Macau, Christine explains: “We tried to pick works that were very different from each other, to really show the style and characteristics of each artist.”
Curating the Macau show, Hong was delighted to learn that there were in fact a lot more artists around than she had previously thought. “They are young and they are energetic, and willing to make new art.”
Hong is dedicated to creating opportunities for artists in Macau, and is also starting to get another project off the ground in the form of a cookbook on Macanese cuisine, to be published in Chinese, Portuguese and English with illustrations by local artists.
“My hope is that different industries will work together with artists to create opportunities for them. Art is commercial, it’s not about struggling artists anymore, and overseas there are more and more artists using their craft to work, making a full-time living from their work. I would like people to see art beyond gallery pieces and as something that can be commercialised. That is what I hope to see in Macau one day.”