Lio Cheung

I embarked on a decoding series centered around the theme of "LOVE."

I meticulously created a diagram that mirrored the sentence, letter by letter, transforming the words into a tangible "surface" — a diagram.

Subsequently, I carefully cut out the diagram as a paper pattern and folded it along the lines derived from the pattern. The result was a captivating mini 3D sculpture, presenting the message in a new and visually intriguing form.

The chosen inspiration was drawn from the biblical verses of 1 Corinthians 13: "Love is patience, Love is kind..." While some might perceive these sentiments as old-fashioned, they resonate with an enduring truth. Love transcends time; it is everlasting. Perhaps you might think you feel nothing, but in reality, love can be discovered everywhere even in the most unexpected places.

Now, I invite you to reflect: What does love mean to you in your life?

This project is inspired by Covid 19. Under the pandemic, we primarily use fashion to show the concern by calling up a group of creative practitioners, say fashion designer, fine artist, fashion editor and photographer, and dancers to work out a mindful and beautiful project – S.O.S. Our definition of S.O.S. is not a dangerous signal but SURVIVE, OPTIMISTIC, and STAYCATION. In short, we should be positive enough to face the difficult situation, and use fashion to work with other creative disciplines to echo it! A collaboration between fashion and art:

How COVID -19 affected our life.

S.O.S project contains a play with three Capital letter between the alphabet,

“S” stand for Survive.

“O” stand for Optimistic.

“S” stand for Staycation.

By insert three words into Lio Cheung her development of Diagrammatic form and transform those diagram into paper patterns for an outfit and headpiece.

With the exploration of movement and dance, we created tensional struggles and relationship which resonating human deepen feeling on cautious, worries, let go or flexibility of many uncertainties...etc.

A fun project full of experiments and chemistry.

Based on Lio, the fine artist, who has self-made a ‘circular diagram’ which is used to connect English alphabets by creating a pictorial pattern when a word has been jointed on it. Based on the three words, we have developed the pictorial patterns that we have plotted out of the circle, we then use the shapes that were created for developing two garments and two head accessories. David made the fuchsia dress, which stands for SURVIVE. Kim, the fashion editor and photographer, created the voluminous one with light colors, which stands for OPTIMISTIC. And Lio, created head accessories, which stands for STAYCATION. David's fuchsia garment stands for survive because it represents a signal and an act for us to take precaution. Kim's voluminous garment with light colors for optimistic because we need to stay calm and be strong enough to face difficulties. Staycation means we need to make use of limited space to create comfort zones and so Lio's head accessories are created. Lycras and knitted fabrics are keys because of stretch and tenacity for dance. Bamboos are easy to bend so as to create shapes for head pieces. Dancers dress up in full and perform so as to present dynamic and strength against the odds. Through dancing, the apparels have continuously reacted to the moving bodies. The silhouettes are stretched and shrunk in different ways when dancers move and hop. The head accessories also constantly change depending on what angle you view when dancers move. The overall composition illustrates the feeling of tension, struggle and release under pandemic. To conclude, we believe fashion has love and caring and so we use fashion and other creative disciplines to express what we have concerned about nowadays.

By extending Lio her collection of “once upon a time” her childhood series, she is continuously using her unique signature of looping line drawing to experiment different eras of mistake in an imperfect state but become to be other perfect combination.

“The shopping mall phenomenon” – a term coined by Lio Cheung, describes the 'purposeless' and permanent nature of mall-goers today. The shopping mall has become such an integral part of a culture that is going to the mall need not be fueled by a need or desire, which not only happens for our brick and mortar malls but also online malls, where she observes people just 'flipping' through pages of items, seemingly without purpose or to while away the time. Also, promotions or sales attract huge numbers of visitors to the malls. In this collection, Lio through the use of colors and different materials, portray her unique take on this phenomenon. She explores deeper themes such as the loneliness in the shopper's subconscious, the homogeneity of the malls becoming 'mazes' in our city, and how each of us is but one of the wholes, feeding into this phenomenon.

Dialogue with the Sun (2015) Conversing with the sun through light and shadows, Cheung in this series captures the shadows on canvas repeatedly hour by hour, creating unique and special patterns and shades. It is a documentary of her place where she lived at one point in time, and one dialogue she had with the sun.

Lio Cheung research about her home town -Hong Kong; the people’s mentality of longing for a place called ‘Home.’ During her art residency stay in Singapore in 2017 she creates a Decode painting series;

By collecting different comments from social media on questioning “what Home means to you? ”.Cheung created a series of decode painting, using a diagram to line up what spectator comment with regarding question. Experimentation from letters to lines and lines to objects.

The methodology of this exhibition;

Cheung captured and combined the advisement of Hong Kong and Singapore property selling/renting on newspaper to be a critical material to maintain a theme base on ‘maze’ into mini-sculptures, and painting.

http://www.artitute.com/2017/01/20/there-is-no-place-like-home-by-lio-cheung-hong-kong/

Discovering God His attribute in the way of attraction through Art and Nature.

I collected those good days or bad days of memories, when it sealed into the bottle….all turns an ascents of catalyst that brings settle and cured ; it is a therapy, it is a journey.

A live painting performance collaborates with Chinese “Ku Zhang “ Music concert. -(2016 Sense 1). With the combination of traditional and modern, Cheung experiments her art practices infused with the modern elements into Chinese Ku Zhang music as conceptions of “visual music” performance.

methodology :

Cheung was investigating some painting tools with raw and organic materials like wood, sticks, charcoals, sponge, or leaves.. as a brush, etc), contrary Cheung she has to use Luminous paint on plastic board to finish some of her transitional Chinese landscape painting.

The theme of the songs was surrounding Chinese landscape and nature( Bamboo forest, mountain, and river, raining…etc) the whole concert, the art directed and curated by Lio Cheung.

see the video links below;

Song: (walking in the dark)

https://vimeo.com/257689318

Song: (Fire)

https://vimeo.com/258387146

A live painting performance collaborates with Chinese “Ku Zhang “ Music concert. -(2018 Ver 2). With the continuing of what Cheung had done in 2016. New experimentation combine with relational, interactive with the audience under a theme of “Living in the moment “ on version 2.

Again, between traditional and modern, Cheung experiments her art practices infused with the contemporary elements into Chinese Ku Zhang music as conceptions of “visual music” performance.

Methodology about the theme- living in the moment :

Cheung was inviting the audience down to the stage and draw with her, she set viewers in pairs, instructed them to trace out their partner ‘s moving shadows, at the time in the crowd. Cheung will walk around and trace their shadows on the same large paper, after the activities, She left the article on the ground cross through next songs performance, for the sake of letting the audience to review their work, also Cheung she had come up to touch up (coloring) to finish.

the whole concept of Drawing space concert was art directed and curated by Lio Cheung (music led by professional Ku Zhang musician Cindy Chui).

I visited the refugees and asylum children at Ultimate United Communities in Hong Kong during covid period. And I interacted with them by drawing and tracing the shape of different objects, including their hands and shadow. I collected those pieces as a paper pattern retraced on fabrics. Transform it into a dancing soft sculpture mobile.

This exhibition is the extension of the 2016 exhibition “From Inside of the Outside” happened at INSTINC in Singapore. This time a rich collection of works with a variety of medium and approaches are included; The Hong Kong and Singapore based artists demonstrate a unique blend of culture, values and aesthetic of the urban landscapes, such as traditional and contemporary; nostalgic and banal; heritage and legacy; limelight and alienation. These outer experiences refines ones speculation of self and identity.

Such as the works of Tap CHAN, LIO Cheung, Noelle NG and Elaine WONG explore experiences of intimacy and aloofness of urban culture; Urich LAU, Justin LEE CK and YEO Shih Yun display in their works the history and architectural space of contemporary Singapore society; Ivy YUEN’s drawings is a an on-going process of creating and erasing of marks and the body trace; expand the possibilities of contemporary Chinese ink, combing experimental techniques and compositions into pictorial form of personal expression.

http://www.pixelbread.hk/news/2018-05-09-1059

The independent Hong Kong-based Artist Lio Cheung questions herself  ‘What is the home meant to be?’ as a Hongkonger, there seem to be limitations by certain social issues; ‘We work hard. We are also living so hard!  There is so much difficulty to owning an apartment or even just to rent a room cause it almost drains out their salary!’ Cheung mentioned.

At that point, the artist researched about the people’s mentality of longing for a place called ‘Home’. Cheung tried to collect data from different points of views about ‘What is Home means to be?’ from all around Singapore and Hong Kong (and from the worldwide web) during her stay. By using her customised unique word formula that transforms the words and comments into visualised diagrams painting.

http://www.artitute.com/2017/01/20/there-is-no-place-like-home-by-lio-cheung-hong-kong/