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The Origin of the ‘Heart’ Exhibition

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In 2018, the Asia Society was planning to exhibit the works of Robert Indiana (1928-2018) from his ‘Love’ series. Among Indiana’s works, artist Hung Keung noticed that one would be a large scale graphic piece with a simplified version of the Chinese character ‘love’ printed on it. Since the simplified version was chosen, one element in the traditional version was missing — the ‘heart’ in the middle. Artist Hung Keung has always been concerned with the connections between the simplified and traditional versions of Chinese characters. In response to the theme of the Love exhibition and as a continuation of his interest in the two versions of Chinese characters, the artist chose the character ‘heart’ to set the parameters for the writing robot. By writing the character ‘heart’ with the robot, the simplified version of the character ‘ love’ contained in Robert Indiana’s art piece is ‘perfected’ into the traditional version.  Love is a universal language, and Robert Indiana successfully created a series of works surrounding this theme, appealing to audiences of different nationalities, colors and ages. Artist Hung Keung wanted to use the Chinese version of ‘love’ respond to Robert Indiana’s work carrying the simplified version of the character. Hung Keung, a younger artist who grew up in the East, wanted to respond to the western master’s work with traditional Chinese. Hung Keung also wanted to invite participants of different nationalities, colors and ages to experience how the two versions of Chinese characters are mutually supplementary and complimentary, and get a taste of the aesthetic innovation in Chinese calligraphic art.

 © 2021 by HUNG Keung + imhklab

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