Artists in the Neighbourhood Scheme IV: Imagine ─ Sculptures by Johnson Tsang
Exhibition Introduction | Introduction of Artist | Artist's Statement | Artworks | Videos | Exhibition Photos | Invitation Card

The Ancient Greek philosopher Epicurus said, “Death does not concern the living, because when we are alive, death does not exist; but when death does come, we no longer exist.” This is similar to Confucius’s answer to his student Zi Lu’s question about death: “If you do not know about life, how you could understand death?” Yet, to us mere mortals, death is definitely a mysterious and unresolved riddle. Death is a common theme for my sculptures. Some of my works are visionary pieces that merge objects and plants with human beings. However, what my works are actually exploring is not the unknown of death, but how we should live and make our choices. That is the topic that I concern most.

Mentally, human beings long since isolated themselves from all other beings. We crowned ourselves as the paragon of the universe, and thought that we could master and manipulate everything. Hence, human beings often opt for controlling or even destroying the nature. We have been exploiting and plundering natural resources to improve our lives. However, would this really make our life better? Aren’t the abnormal weather and natural disasters signs that warn us to stop and think? Discrimination, discontent and hatred, struggles and even wars happen every day. What I am trying to do is to stimulate the audience to reassess the relationship between human, the nature and interpersonal relationships through the strange phenomena shown in my works.

Life is short, and flashes away in a blink. We come to the world with nothing, just as we leave with nothing. When looking back, you will find the happiness, anger, sadness, joy, honour and despair in our lives are as trivial as dust. In spite of this, the most frustrating feeling between life and death is remorse. Only when our beloved pass away can we realise the missed opportunities to tell them how much we loved them. Only when the natural views are gone would we begin to miss the fine old scenes. Why don’t we learn to cherish the things and people around us in the moment? Why don’t we radiate more positive energy to the world and people around us when we are still capable of doing so?