The linearity of thickness and thinness is a unique experience of Fragrant Harbor shaped by intense phenomenological stimuli. Be it the glint of light glimmering along suspended street signs; sounding of bells dinging from tram cars; fragrances radiating from food stalls; or the unavoidable bodily contact between commuters in underground trains. The thick and thin of Fragrant Harbor are places where culture, identity, and everyday practices meet. It is also the starting point of our urban drawing project, where the linearity of Hong Kong phenomenology is explored through the lines of graphite, and episodes of young artists discovering, learning, and drawing together the city they inhabit.
In episode one, thin lines of streets were traversed directly and studied through literature. That is to say, young artists drew from different sources of inspiration. By walking through, observing, and getting to know the places, particularly in the hodgepodge neighborhoods of Yau Matei and Shum Shuipo. The direct personal experience was crisscrossed with the stories depicted in Lee Ou Fan’s “Walking along Kowloon Streets”, an observational and semi-theoretical reflection of the city; accounting their histories, literature records, myths, and fantasies. In episode two, the thick underground train lines and stations served as a means to debate the issues of masses and individuals by twenty university students, at a time when freedom, rights, and identity were colliding in their city.
The multi-authored drawing series takes aim at drawing urban conditions and processes through the questions: Can architectural drawing act as a site of memory, documentation, and imagination? Can it perform as a pedagogical device to draw out the multi-temporal and spatiality of the city? The drawings reinterpret the collective paintings of Qing Dynasty artists Sun Hu, Jin Kun, and Cheng Zhidao, and the contemporary drawing practices of David Gersten, Atelier Bow-wow, and Niall McLaughlin.