The Art Promotion Office launched an exhibition entitled "#ArtTravellers Series I: "Decoding Exotic Lands" today (February 24) at the 1/F Lobby of Trade and Industry Tower. The exhibition depicts the travels of two young female artists, Eastman Cheng and Ivy Ma, who seek out inconspicuous but interesting things during their trips. In this way they explore the hidden uniqueness of places and represent diverse exotic landscapes through their artwork.
 
     The first exhibition of a three-year exhibition project, "#ArtTravellers Series I: "Decoding Exotic Lands" will run until August 23. Under the project, artists of different media are invited to explore the multifaceted nature of travel, presenting in their art anecdotes of vernacular culture and everyday life which may have escaped the eyes of the average tourist, so as to show viewers alternative ways of viewing travel.
 
     In this exhibition, Eastman Cheng has re-constructed foreign signs and reassembled them into landscape furniture - soft sculptures made of various fabrics and soft materials, stitched and embroidered with textures from exotic lands. The three sets of landscape furniture, which appear to be a balcony, a dining table and a floor lamp, are actually scenic microcosms of China, Europe and Africa, expressing the artist's feelings and her experience of different countries.
 
     Ivy Ma took snapshots of historical signs that were difficult to spot during recent trips and has created a novel landscape through magnifying, segmenting and assembling them. She applied geometric and linear patterns with gold leaf and cement to her images, blurring the lines between reality and imagination, and the distance between past and present. Four displayed works by Ivy fuse photography with painting, inviting viewers to critically review their assumed knowledge of exotic lands.
 
     The second exhibition of the "#ArtTravellers" series will be launched in September. For details, please visit the Art Promotion Office's website at www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/APO/en_US/web/apo/decodingexoticlands.html, or call 2512 3000.
 
     The Trade and Industry Tower is located at 3 Concorde Road, Kowloon. 

Ends/Friday, February 24, 2017
Issued at HKT 17:43

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