The Hong Kong metal artist and founder of Playback Concept, Chan Po Fung, shared the concept of his last solo exhibition, the rationale of establishing a brand, and more.
- Can you tell us about your background?
I am a metal artist and the founder of Playback Concept, a Hong Kong local accessories brand that blends contemporary art concepts with jewellery and accessories design. Over the past two years, I have been focusing on metal craftsmanship and metal installations projects.
- How did you decide to establish Playback Concept?
Being a metal artist, you need a spacious workshop to store all the tools and equipment, but you also need to create an environment for you to keep learning. So that’s why I created Playback Concept to keep my inspiration and imagination running. And I think once you establish a brand, you have more control over different aspects, for example, the direction of art development, creative content, and time. This is something that a full-time artist may not be able to get in complete control of all these kinds of aspects.
- What inspires you, and which inspiration sources do you use?
Time, nature, mutability, movements, and elapsed time are the main keywords of my inspiration sources. I’ve been using these elements to create my artworks since I graduated.
- Can you share the details of your last solo exhibition?
Back in October 2021, I hosted my solo exhibition and the main message and concept of the exhibition included my 5 primary inspiration keywords, as well as the natural elements of wind, sound, and coastline. The exhibition showcased how to capture sound, wind, and coastline by using metal. Here are my statements of my artworks that showed in my exhibition.
Sound of Waves – Eight unique tin plates derived from geometric patterns created by 8 solfege syllables, capturing the moment of invisible gracefulness with metal.
The Wind Rises – Wind is everywhere and nowhere into patterned and sound. The artwork documents different corners of the city, using nature-controlled mechanisms, knocking the rhythms that are both existing and non-existing.
Coastline – Coast had experienced different waves and tides, leaving traces of that moment. The bracelet was created using 20 layers of coastlines that measured and recorded the coastline changes in HK over 200 years.
- How do photography and other art forms work together and influence each other?
For me, photography is one of the transmitting/communication mediums to present art pieces or art jewellery to the public and social media channels. When you create a piece of jewellery, only the owner of the jewellery can wear it; however, a photograph of the art jewellery will allow more than one person to see the details of the design and understand the creative concept behind it.
Chan Po Fung BIO:
Started with small metal as his creative media since 2012, Chan focuses on the art forms of material transformation and mechanism creations. He explores the relationships between individual and societies via his artworks; meanwhile, he takes parts in different community art projects — as a way to seek the connection between craftsmanship and the community. His brand Playback Concept is further a way to practice a sustainable and autonomous integration of different craftsmanship.
Please visit https://www.playbackconcept.com/ for Chan Po Fung’s updates and his work.