ONE - Walking in the Dreams

   Having my first experience to truly have a look on modern contemporary art and really think about it made me possess a whole new perspective on contemporary art. I used to not understand those art installation we see on the street or in some exhibition as they are often big and not beautiful like the drawings in the 18th century that may tell you about a person or some background information about that period and so i often just walk past them without thinking. Recently, i had the opportunity to visit an exhibition in the Hong Kong Heritage Museum called Walking in the Dreams which features various contemporary art installation revolving around the topic - dreams.

   I always was that kind of people who would not look at the introduction of an exhibition before we go in. Yet, our teacher from the class spent some time to discuss the introduction with us before we began our visit. This not only made me understand what the exhibition is about, it also made me think about what dreams mean to us. Dreams could be the door to subconscious, dreams may be the door to access the real you and thus dreams, the topic of the exhibition, may be something that reveals who the artists truly are or where they want to go. This thinking process and discussion about the introduction made me wonder what each artist 'dreams' would be.

   A few of the installations really captivated my mind. One of them is called 'Don't blame the Moon'. Before reading the caption, i tried to understand the art work by myself. What i saw was a pile of old toys on the floor surrounded by a toy train track. On the wall there is a video projection featuring clips on different children saying what they want to be when they grow up. My initial thought about this art is: the artist may want to express that sometimes you have to insist on your childhood dreams and just like the children in the video saying what they want to be when they grow up, it shouldn't be supressed when you grow up and when the culture tells you what a good job is like in Hong Kong, most people would think being a business worker or a lawyer is the best. I thought the artist wanted to show how we should just believe in our dreams like she became an artist. After having my own interpretation, i looked at the caption and realized the symbol of different children from different culture/ethnicity are standing in front of a different culture background place and somehow it made a stronger point about not being afraid of established norms or culture. It made me understand more about the artwork and think more deeply about what the message the artist wants to convey. With the help of the teacher, i also was able to understand more. As the title have the word Moon, not only each clip is wiped out in a moon shape, it also means pureness and how the old toys' symbol reflects, just like the moon's reflection, is reflected in the video. This made me understand how to decode an artwork, thinking about how the message relates to me and i surely had fun working out its message just like a detective.

 
The whole experience of visiting the museum made me more appreciative and think about the art installations. Unlike paintings, some contemporary art allows you to go inside and experience and find out the message by yourself.  I think this special characteristic is what made contemporary art so interesting, that it allows you to think and allows you to relate.