Led by artists and writers Kensa Hung, Ernest Ip, and Anthony Leung Po Shan, this workshop invites participants to use drawing to explore the imageries and meanings of Lo Ting, and imagine new visualisations of this mythical creature.
Humans often picture things beyond their understanding as mythical and monstrous, creating stories they pass down from generation to generation. The Lo Tings—part human, part fish—derive from Hong Kong mythology, though it’s unclear whether they were a tribal gang that descended from dolphins, or from the exiled troops of the historical figure Lo Chun. What does the belief that the Lo Tings once resided in Hong Kong reveal about the city itself? Can we broaden our imagination of Hong Kong through picturing Lo Ting?
According to Greek mythology, the Chimera was a mythical beast with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a snake. Today, the term generally refers to a fantastical creature composed of different animal parts. The Chimera teaches us that new identities can be created by mixing elements of strange and unknown things. If monsters reflect what people fear, then might we use our imagination to transform our fears and anxieties into drawings, merging them into various chimera monsters, to give shape to the unspeakable?
This event uses Lo Ting as a starting point to think about our own fears and desires. It aims to find new possibilities for the future of Hong Kong by picturing Lo Ting in the here and now. This workshop will be faciliated by Kensa Hung and Ernest Ip, and moderated by Anthony Leung Po Shan.
The workshop is limited to fifteen people on a first-come, first-served basis. Free and open to the public with registration.
The event will be conducted in Cantonese.
This event is organized in conjunction with They Come in Droves: In Search of Lo Ting with The 20/F, a talk that took place at AAA on 14 July 2023, as part of the Hong Kong Room talk series.
Kensa Hung is an artist based in Hong Kong. He discovered his love for nature and drawing at an early age, and went on to study Chinese calligraphy and stone carving. Passionate about Chinese and Japanese vernacular arts and crafts, he often re-interprets these practices into new works. Hung has published a collection of drawings titled The Bowl of Water (2017). Hung participated in the New Vision Arts Festival programme Zoo As Metaphor (II) (2018), and held a solo exhibition at foreforehead in 2019. Formerly an instructor at HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, he now focuses on graphic design while maintaining a cross disciplinary, multimedia practice that includes prop-making, beekeeping, farming, drawing, animation, and photography.
Ernest Ip is a writer, critic, translator, and editor based in Hong Kong. He is Editor-in-Chief of Sample, a literary criticism magazine he co-founded in 2017; Managing Editor of Fleurs des Lettres; and teaches in various universities. He is published in Sample, Fleurs des Lettres, O-Square, and form. He co-translated Writing in Difficult Times: A Bilingual Essay Anthology (2022). Ip also co-organised the exhibition Grounding at Tomorrow Maybe (2022–23). His collected prose in Chinese is forthcoming.
Anthony Leung Po Shan is a writer and critic on topics such as art ecology, city space, cultural politics, and art labour. She is published in the Hong Kong Economic Journal, InMedia (Hong Kong), City Magazine, Ocula, as well as in various Chinese language publications, including LEAP, TANC, Artouch, and initium media. Leung is the founder and honorary secretary of Island Studies Network (HK). Leung holds an MPhil and PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and an MA in History of Art from Leeds University.
This talk is co-presented by Island Studies Network (HK) and Asia Art Archive.
