Stephen Siu   June 24, 2016

 

Meeting for the first time

 

   

Before and after transformation

 

I first met Kwok Mang Ho on the first class of my college design study.

 

What is design? What is art?

 

He asked us to recall the first person we met on the way to school from home that morning, and then make a representation of the person with a wire. We just graduated from middle school at that time, and art class to us was no more than drawing, water color, and traditional Chinese painting. What was "making a representation of a person with a wire"? However, we managed to make good enough models eventually. It was on that day that we realized art was life, and that art could be created in the hands of yours and mine.

 

 

"Frog King Kwok" was only 10 years older than us. For that year, he called on us to make charcoal drawings, turn them into a collection, take it to Tuen Mun Art Show, hang up everything at hand on the playground, and then burn it all; or he would ask us to mix ink with fish, and then eat it!

 

New York Years

 

Kwok Mang Ho's performance at Arteco Guangzhou, July 2014

 

After a year of fun, we went on with our study, but Kwok had to leave the school. We heard that the school couldn’t tolerate a teacher who didn’t listen--- he worked with fire in the classroom, and turned the walls and floors into a mess; the school had tried to talk to him, but in vain. The next news was he had gone to New York to pursue his dreams. He rented the back room of a Kung Fu training center, along with a bunch of local young artists. It was at a time when Keith Haring and Andy Warhol were rising to fame. Kwok then found modern ways of expression via frog spectacles and water and ink paintings.

 

The New York years didn’t westernize him, and on the contrary, brought out the traditional Chinese streak in him. During those years, Lv Shoukun got out from the Lingnan style of mountains and waters, and brought a group of young artists to explore new ways, taking out the black and leaving behind the white of traditional Chinese painting. Kwok was inspired, and couldn’t stop ever since, forever looking for a way that suits himself, forever finding his own voice with a brush and a palette of ink.

 

Back to Hong Kong

 

 "Frog King" turning his bedroom into studio within an hour at Arteco

 

Hong Kong is just a dot on the world map, but filled with hidden talents, and its attraction never dies down: younger generations from the north have centuries of histories and culture on their shoulders, and the open tradition of Hong Kong has always been a great temptation; on the different soils of the Asian countries around brood sunshine, beaches and ocean, giving out scents of mysteries--- Japanese and Korean artists try to follow international commercial art and Hong Kong is their first stop of trial; Looking out to Western Europe and Oceania, elegance and wildness get along and bring out each other’s best, and Hong Kong is deemed the entrepot of the West and the East; local artists who are born and raised in Hong Kong should keep their own styles as well as try to get along with the bigger world around.

   

Kwok is a mutant in Hong Kong: he’s not an artist of any conventional field, or a commercial designer, or an artistic trainer--- although back in the days he was known for bringing a bunch of young people with an art/design background to paint a rainbow at the art building of Oil Street, North Point; it was a shame that it only went on for several years and the glory didn’t last owing to lack of momentum.

 

Kwok's performance art

 

Cattle Depot Artist Village, another government move, can only be called a footnote for the art scene of Hong Kong--- it hasn’t made any noise or impact yet; it is just like any other government move: immature and ineffective.

     

Kwok moved into Cattle Depot on day one, and up till today, still goes back there every week to create. He’s not satisfied with the situation, and yet hasn’t come up with any idea about the disposal of his works over all these years; “where do we go now” remains to be the theme of his life these years. Friends from Beijing tried to provide spaces to him in between, but the failure to acclimatize and blend in kept him in Hong Kong; the most special move was representing Hong Kong at the Venice Biennial.

 

Artistic ideas

 

Playing with fire

 

Kwok’s artistic creation originates from his loyalty towards Chinese culture, as well as his understanding and representation of cultural art. Perhaps you have different ideas about him mixing different materials, elements and techniques, but you have to admit that harmony and peace among all the chaos are the philosophy behind reality. Take his mixing Chinese characters with English explanations or Pinyin--- it is a reflection of the everyday conversation of Hong Kong people.

       

Life is art. Kwok takes a backpack of works with him every day; when meeting with friends, he introduces his activities in Korea, France or any other country of happening, and then gives away a pair of frog spectacles and takes a picture of the friend in them; as a result, the little Canon camera of his now contains hundreds of photos of witnesses.

 

"Frog King" & frogs

 

Kwok still has the curiosity and passion for practice from his youth; he has to make a living, but keeps the grace of Chinese artists, namely the loyalty to himself against all odds. The expression of “Happening” might be a bit obsolete now, but he is still the first performance artist to pull out a string of plastic bags at the Great Wall in China, presenting to the world the innovative, daring and unrestrained side of artists of the new generation. I need to treasure Kwok’s innocent and pure pursuit of art when I get to know him again; it means I have to make room for his takeoff some day when at the same time writing about his works.

 

He has been creating 24/7 till today; he has the whole world in his hands; he can’t stop, nor would he ever; he is "Frog King Kwok", my teacher.