More Details of Stella So

Thanks for all of your comments. It seems that So's work really has a resonance for you guys! As being a Hong Konger, her work is representative and remarkable. You can google her graduation video: Very Fantastic.It is an excellent animation in which a young woman carries a bucket through an elaborate and somewhat mysterious tenement block from old Hong Kong. This is one of my favourite video, as it is continually surprising.

So's first inspiration came from her graduation project. As she witnessed her home, school and church in Wan Chai were torn down and rebuilt, she tried to draw the ideal city through her works.

Stella So: "Hong Kong has many visual elements along its streets, especially elements of the older culture. Because the government wants to earn money from buying land and re-building on it, these elements will fade away. There’s no way to stop it. I draw them in my illustrations to collect them and in hopes that I can reconstruct the city in my mind. How can we let our lovely memories fade away? Hong Kong culture along the streets is very colorful and interesting. When you talk to shopkeepers, you hear many interesting stories."

She created "Stella's Private City " which was composed by her imagination.

I feel very confused after reading her work. As it is grateful that the future generation can understand the history through her work vividly, on the other hand, these heritage cultures should be preserved rather than recorded documentarily. What a shame!

I am really appreciate what Stella did to archive the old culture and historical elements as I am sure people will forget them when the time went by and lost the memory especially in busy live of Hong Kong. Therefore, I will focus on preservation of culture in my research.

My Selected Artist- Stella So

What is your understanding/interpretation of the artwork?

So's artwork expresses the memories of old Hong Kong and she tried to capture visual elements along the streets, buildings and culture before they are faded away under the rapid development. What is more, It indicates that the old buildings only exist in the memory and most of them are disappeared already. We should not only pay attention to the old culture, but also strive to preserve there valuable, historical heritages in such a transformed and advanced city.

Do you like the work and why?

I really like her work as it evoked memories of my youth. I used to lived in a old Chinese tenement in Sham Shui Po during my secondary school and it was one of the happiest period ever. People were full of human warmth, like I chitchatted with neighbors, shopkeeper recognized old customers and so on.  The distance between each person was much closer..... Unluckily, my building was included in the clearance project and it was replaced by a fancy private storey-building. These memories arouse when I read her work which captured the disappearing Hong Kong culture and collective memory of our times.

What do you think of other people's(critic/historian/art writers) comment on the work?

歐陽應霽(Writer,Artist)－Stella是新一代土生土長漫畫插畫家中最具有本土意識的一人。她把最沉重的最難解的殘酷現實用最輕鬆最活潑的色彩造型最潑辣的敘述方法放在大家面前，叫大家嘖嘖稱奇地落手落腳地去懷如此新鮮的舊，去動如此真如此深的情。

Most of the comments are very positive and focus on the idea of her work. I agree with the comments that she tried to alert Hong Kong citizen to a growing movement to save Hong Kong's heritage, to protect our local culture from being demolished. Hong Kong people feel actually extraordinarily attached to places which represent collective memory and history for them, like the Star Ferry. 

Please visit her website and blog if you are interested!!
Website: http://www.smstella.com/
Blog: http://stellaso.blogspot.hk/

References:

1. http://hoodedutilitarian.com/2011/03/two-comics-by-stella-so/
2. http://hk.asia-city.com/events/article/hong-kong-artist-stella-so
3. http://www.hkac.org.hk/30th/chi/bio.html
4. http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/cinematheque/current/apt7_cinema/mountains_and_waters_chinese_animation_since_the_1930s/hong_kong_contemporary_animation

My Selected Artist- Stella So

Hi, everyone! Welcome to my blog.

I would like to introduce the artist that i have selected- Stella So. As a Hong Kong comic(Manhua) lover, Stella So is one of my favorite artists.I started to buy and read her books since high school. Reading Hong Kong comics was the best way to relax before the AL exam.....

Her artwork:
 City of Powder — the disappearing Hong Kong 粉末都市---消失中的香港(6/2008)

Very Fantastic 好鬼棧 (2007)

Who is the artist? 

Stella So, a Hong Kong nativea, graduated from Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Design with a BA (Hons).Her graduation project "very fantastic" won a gold medal at the 2002 Hong Kong Independent Short Film & Video Award (IFVA). She was described as one of a new generation of born and bred Hong Kong cartoonists. The ideas of memory and a mercurial Hong Kong are addressed in her illustration work. So keeps capturing and recording as she is fascinated by the sensory environment of the city.

蘇敏怡就讀於香港理工大學設計學院期間，已製作一齣創意非凡的動畫短片《好鬼棧》。這是一齣有關香港本地文化及保留本地傳統的動畫，當中獨特的動畫及畫風 令蘇敏怡贏得不少本地及國際獎項，包括2003年香港獨立短片及錄像比像金獎、柏林Interfilm 2003及杜林的VideoEvento D’arte2003。她的最新作品是黃耀明歌曲《下落不明》的動畫音樂錄影帶。

addresses the ideas of memory and a mercurial Hong Kong through - See more at: http://hk.asia-city.com/events/article/hong-kong-artist-stella-so#sthash.OZYTeWOy.dpuf

What is the form, media, materials used of the artwork? 

I would like to review one of her books called "City of Powder — the disappearing Hong Kong" which is one of my favorite books. One of the features of her artwork is drawing on a grid design(Chinese 9-square calligraphy paper) which is typical of practice books for writing Chinese characters. It is very creative. It can raise readers' memories of Old Hong Kong as I believe most of the people had used practice books in primary school.

Also, So likes combining texts and graphs together, you can see a story inside each artwork. The storytelling artwork can share a common culture or collective memory

of local citizens.

I draw them in my illustrations to collect them and in hopes that I can reconstruct the city in my mind. - See more at: http://hk.asia-city.com/events/article/hong-kong-artist-stella-so#sthash.OZYTeWOy.dpuf

I draw them in my illustrations to collect them and in hopes that I can reconstruct the city in my mind. - See more at: http://hk.asia-city.com/events/article/hong-kong-artist-stella-so#sthash.OZYTeWOy.dpuf

The artwork shares the elements of semi-realism. It is not simply drawing old Chinese tenements like a sketch. She collects and reconstructs the city in her mind. Some exaggerated angles, such as using fish-eye that formed the objects into different shapes,are common in her work, emphasis her ideas.

What is the artwork about?

The artwork is about expressing the ideas of memory and a mercurial Hong Kong. As Hong Kong has many visual elements along its streets, especially elements of the older culture, So is afraid that these elements will be faded away in the future under the rapid development. So’s book is not only a record of faded electronics, old furniture, and tiles but also a collection of chromatic reminiscences.

What is the cultural and social background of the artwork?

She captured the disappearing Hong Kong culture and collective memory of our times. She sees the work as solace for her disappointment with the epoch, using a range of mediums including illustration, comics and animation to express her experiences of living in Hong Kong. Also, to illustrate her concerns about the rapid modernization of the city and the loss of its historical architectural landscape.

Please visit her website and blog if you are interested!!
Website: http://www.smstella.com/
Blog: http://stellaso.blogspot.hk/

References:

1. http://hoodedutilitarian.com/2011/03/two-comics-by-stella-so/
2. http://hk.asia-city.com/events/article/hong-kong-artist-stella-so
3. http://www.hkac.org.hk/30th/chi/bio.html
4. http://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/cinematheque/current/apt7_cinema/mountains_and_waters_chinese_animation_since_the_1930s/hong_kong_contemporary_animation

elements will fade away

addresses the ideas of memory and a mercurial Hong Kong through her illustrations and animation work. - See more at: http://hk.asia-city.com/events/article/hong-kong-artist-stella-so#sthash.OZYTeWOy.dpuf

addresses the ideas of memory and a mercurial Hong Kong through her illustrations and animation work. - See more at: http://hk.asia-city.com/events/article/hong-kong-artist-stella-so#sthash.OZYTeWOy.dpuf