M+ presents Ink | Pulse, the first dual-artist commission for the M+ Facade

A collaboration between Taiwanese artist Tong Yang-Tze and Hong Kong media artist Chris Cheung (h0nh1m)

M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, is delighted to present Ink | Pulse, the first dual-artist commission for the M+ Facade. The algorithm-driven work is a collaboration between Taiwanese calligraphy artist Tong Yang-Tze and Hong Kong media artist Chris Cheung (h0nh1m). It will be shown on the M+ Facade at night from Friday, 30 June to Sunday, 24 September 2023.

Ink | Pulse is a site-specific moving image work set within the undulating architecture of Hong Kong’s famous skyline along the Victoria Harbour. Inspired by and based on Silent Music, a series of one hundred ink-based pieces that were collected during Tong’s creative process from 2003 to 2010, the commission exhibits a generative aspect that amplifies the conceptual resonance between ink, calligraphy, and the ever-renewing nature of life.

The weight of the brush, the rhythm of the lines, and the latency of in-between spaces in Tong’s work highlight the ability of ink to evolve, enlighten, and regenerate. Inspired by the energy, poise, and flow of Tong’s calligraphy, Cheung portrays ink as a heart-like vessel for cell division, blood circulation, and the nervous system. A collaboration that emerged from passionate conversations around calligraphy practice, Ink | Pulse pays tribute to the lively dialogue between generations, artistic practices, and mediums, offering a transformative view of ink as a form of energy, philosophy, and spiritual universe.

Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, says, ‘As a pioneering museum of visual culture, M+ is dedicated to engaging and promoting artists working with different mediums. I am truly excited that another successful project incorporating creative technologies will be showcased on the M+ Facade. This spectacular commission allows us to contemplate the imaginative possibilities of ink and new media, reinforcing M+’s role in enhancing cross-disciplinary artistic dialogues.’

Doryun Chong, Deputy Director, Curatorial and Chief Curator, M+, says, ‘Tong is one of the most acclaimed calligraphy artists today whose work often blurs the boundaries between calligraphy and abstract painting. Combined with Cheung’s new media practice, Ink | Pulse allows us to visualise Tong’s soundless and graphical score. It is a work that connects with Hong Kong and global audiences and conveys the infinite potential of digital art.’

Tong Yang-Tze says, ‘Ink | Pulse mixes traditional art with new media and is enchanting, striking yet delicate. My collaboration with Cheung adopts a cross-disciplinary approach to incorporate the perspectives of each medium. I hope this live, generative moving image work will empower everyone to appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters and motivate them to try out calligraphy for themselves.’

Chris Cheung (h0nh1m), sharing his excitement for the commission’s premiere in Hong Kong, says, ‘The M+ Facade connects heaven and earth and is the perfect platform to convey the essence of the human spirit. Ink | Pulse is an exploration beyond the self and existing restraints, unlimited by form and sound. It reimagines ink as an introspective universe and a representation of the microcosmic ensemble of the human body, demonstrating the conceptual resonance of ink and calligraphy with spiritual life.’

Coinciding with the presentation of Ink | Pulse, Cheung will be in conversation with Chanel Kong, Curator, Moving Image, M+ in a free public talk at 19:30 on Friday, 30 June 2023 to discuss the creative process behind the commission and his collaboration with Tong. Cheung will share insights on how his generative art practice figures in his appreciation of traditional ink calligraphy and how his conversations with Tong informed the variations and parameters of the algorithm he created for the work. Attendees of this programme are invited to participate in a demonstration of the artist's algorithm and an outdoor viewing of the work on the M+ Facade after the talk, subject to weather conditions.

For the latest information on the commission and the event, please visit M+ website.

M+ is proud to announce that the M+ Facade won best Animated Media Architecture at the Media Architecture Awards 2023. The awards recognise the world’s best projects at the intersection of architecture, urban design and planning, media and interaction design, and urban media art.

Remarks

About Tong Yang-Tze
Tong Yang-Tze is one of the most acclaimed calligraphy artists working today. Trained in the classical art of writing since childhood and later in oil painting in Taiwan and the United States, she began making calligraphy exclusively in the 1970s. Her signature rhythmic strokes and innovative compositions of characters often blur the boundaries between calligraphy and abstract painting.

About Chris Cheung Hon Him (h0nh1m)
Chris Cheung Hon Him (h0nh1m) is a Hong Kong–based artist whose installations and audiovisual performances incorporate electronic, sound, image, and creative technologies. Paying tribute to both Eastern and Western philosophies, the artist employs traditional concepts as a point of departure in his immersive soundscapes, generative art, and data art. His award-winning works and his collaborative projects as the founder of artist collectives XCEPT and XCEED have been featured in festivals such as Ars Electronica, Electronic Language International Festival (FILE), and European Media Art Festival (EMAF). He has performed at Sónar Festival in Hong Kong and WRO Art Biennale in Poland.

About M+
M+ is a museum dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. In Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District, it is one of the largest museums of modern and contemporary visual culture in the world, with a bold ambition to establish ourselves as one of the world’s leading cultural institutions. M+ is a new kind of museum that reflects our unique time and place, a museum that builds on Hong Kong’s historic balance of the local and the international to define a distinctive and innovative voice for Asia’s twenty-first century.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District
The West Kowloon Cultural District is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural projects in the world. Its vision is to create a vibrant new cultural quarter for Hong Kong on forty hectares of reclaimed land located alongside Victoria Harbour. With a varied mix of theatres, performance spaces, and museums, the West Kowloon Cultural District will produce and host world-class exhibitions, performances, and cultural events, providing twenty-three hectares of public open space, including a two-kilometre waterfront promenade.