'Urban Folly – Electric this' shows two women in their Plexiglas bubble, lying in front of a cityscape in LED and neon light.
The background of the work is the acrylic neon sign Urban Folly neon with lights in various colours in an abstract array, representing buildings. In front of the buildings are two women lying down, mother and daughter, cut out from transparent Plexiglas. Over their heads is text (engraved in the Plexiglas), each speaks half a poem, discussing how to be modern with yet allusions to ancient Chinese habits and symbols. Behind the board are speakers left and right (actually, they are the beloved Hong Kong cell phones) that say the English text in Cantonese. The title of the poem (Electric this) is carved in a Plexiglas cloud and hangs over the buildings like a neon sign. The entire work is put in a black protruding frame as if they are inside a casing or exhibited in some kid’s shoebox diorama.
The Urban Folly neon sign creates the virtual environment that influences the way this mom and her daughter live their lives, lying in front of the city as if on the HK beach. And the mom passes on her urban myth while the daughter comments on her mom as a ‘sheep’ that follows fashion and fads to feel unique, not aware of the transparent bubble she, the daughter, lives in herself. But inside is the ancient Chinese core, unbroken.
Through the conceptual visualisation formed by the root-like winding of the neon light, the work hopes to trigger an underlying light and reflection that resonates with citizens in a certain and also manifold way on this modern and traditional soulful land. The continuity of life in progress and the shifts in the flickering and shimmering of neon lights show us something clearer. It is the way and the opening in the frame that one might have overlooked, the energy of life in all the old and fancy of the new from the past to the present...
