In Between Gallery: Stealing Oranges to Take Home for His Mother
Fion Hung Ching-Yan
Showing this summer is Fion Hung Ching-Yan’s ‘Stealing Oranges to Take Home for His Mother’ and ‘Tears That Brought Bamboo Shoots from the Frozen Earth’.
In 2023 The In Between Gallery partners are: Photofringe, Spectrum Photographic and Jane & Jeremy.
The two images are from the series 'The Skeletons in The Closet'. This photo collage project created by Fion in 2021 and 2022, challenges Chinese stereotypes and moralisations by using 24 Paragons of Filial Piety*, as a visual metaphor to talk about family expectations, self-identity and the pain that her and her family have inflicted on each other. In this series of works, Fion uses a surrealist approach to subvert her family's authority within their traditional values and in doing so, creates a reality that can never be seen in real life.
*24 Paragons of Filial Piety is a collection of Chinese Yuan-dynasty folk tales about acts of loyalty from children toward their parents.
In 'Stealing Oranges to Take Home for His Mother' there is an 'orange sea' in the room, with a hand sneaking from the back of the sofa in the middle. This image references the story from the 24 Paragons of Filial Piety series, in which a loyal son who stole oranges from his relatives' house and got caught. He later explained that he stole because he remembered his parents loved eating oranges. His relatives then forgave him and even praised him as a good son as he cared about his family's needs no matter where he was.
Fion Hung Ching-Yan is an artist based between Hong Kong and London. Working primarily with photography, imagery and text she presents her works as installations and in book form. Her photography practice focuses on exploring her self-identity and challenging the traditional Chinese stereotypes inherited by her family in Hong Kong and she draws on Chinese folktales, visual metaphors and the female body to speak out about expectations, morals and the pain that she and her family have experienced and inflicted on each other.
On 10 July at 6.30pm, Fion Hung Ching-Yan will be in conversation with Vivienne Gamble, founder and curator of Seen Fifteen contemporary photography space in Peckham, London. Tickets £5/£4 available to book here.
About The Artist
Fion Hung Ching-Yan is a Hong Kong artist, who was born into a traditional Fujian family. She lived with her grandparents for many years when she was small and since then has realised that there’s a big generation gap between her and the rest of her family. Fion has been exploring family relationships and resolving her conflicts with Chinese cultures for the past few years.
Fion graduated with a degree in Visual Arts from the Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University in 2016 and her work “To Be Used Someday” received a WMA Young Talents that year. She has been an active participant in the Hong Kong art scene since 2016.
Her project “I Wanted To Be A Mother” was selected for the Photographer Incubator Project of the Hong Kong International Photo Festival in 2020, and was subsequently exhibited in PHVLO HATCH art space in SSP district, Hong Kong. She has also exhibited as part of: the Chiang Mai Photo Festival 2017, FORMAT Photo Festival 2020 and Copenhagen Photo Festival 2020.
In 2022 Fion completed a MA in Photography from London College of Communication, UAL.
The Skeletons in the Closet (2021 - 2022) was a finalist for the Hahnemühle Student Award, and is exhibited in Photo London in 2023 and as a solo show at South London Gallery as part of Peckham24's 2023 programme.
