Sculptors from Hong Kong and Italy went online to collaborate on the Fusion project, discovering things about their own practice and potential in the process. Mariella Radaelli reports.

Artist Danny Lee Chin-fai; Joyce Ng, head of gallery and exhibitions at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center; Carrara marble carver Francesca Bernardini; and Cynthia Sah, sculptor and founder-director of the Arkad Foundation, attend the Fusion 2 exhibition in Hong Kong. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Five sculptors each from Hong Kong and Italy came together for a sculptural exchange program called the Fusion project. Each Hong Kong artist was paired with one from Italy to make new works in which stone and wood were fused together in a myriad of combinations. 

The project was launched in 2021, when Hong Kong’s pandemic regulations — the 21-day quarantine for inbound passengers, especially — practically ruled out overseas travel. Hence the exchange of ideas and technological know-how between Hong Kong and Italy, or more specifically the Tuscan village of Seravezza where the program’s host, the Arkad Foundation, is located, took place online.  

Phoenix by Italy’s Lorenzo Vignoli and Hong Kong’s Yaman Chau represents the spirit of hope and rejuvenation in a post-pandemic world. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

In December 2021, the 10 pieces the sculptors made together that year were exhibited at Seravezza, followed by a showing at the Hong Kong Visual  Arts Centre. These, as well as the fruits of the second phase of the collaboration, are now on show at the Asia Society Hong Kong Center.  

Called Fusion 2, the exhibition features 30 composite sculptures, showcasing a coming together of Chinese and Italian materials and techniques.

Last autumn, each sculptor working in Seravezza carved two pieces out of a block of white, luminescent Carrara marble — the same limestone Michelangelo selected from the quarries of the Apuan Alps. These works were shipped to the artists’ Hong Kong-based partners, who added wooden elements to complete them. In the next phase, sculptures made from teak and camphorwood by Hong Kong artists were sent to be finished in Italy by adding marble elements. 

Dancing Moon by Margaret Chu and Aurelien Boussin draws attention to the moon’s constant presence in people’s lives, whether it’s waxing or waning. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Hong Kong sculptor Cynthia Sah, founder-director of the nonprofit Arkad Foundation, says that initially, Fusion was planned as an artist residency exchange between Hong Kong and the foundation. Then the pandemic happened, and the only way the collaboration could continue was by holding discussions and sharing updates via video calls.

Fusion 2 highlights universally experienced emotions, triggered by distance, separation,  reunion and more such. 

For example, Dancing Moon, a piece co-created by Hong Kong’s Margaret Chu and the Italy-based French artist Aurélien Boussin, draws attention to the moon’s constant and universal presence in people’s lives, whether it’s waxing or waning.

A marble tree is paired with a teakwood piece made in the image of a Taihu stone in Poetry of Nature by Danny Lee Chin-fai and Francesca Bernardini. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Danny Lee Chin-fai and Francesca Bernardini’s Poetry of Nature pairs a marble tree with a teakwood piece sculpted to resemble a Taihu stone. The combination represents vital communication between distant lands, says Lee. The piece also epitomizes his artistic philosophy: “I reduce complexity to simplicity, and beauty emerges in simplification.”

Cristina Conti, the curator of Fusion 2, stresses that the sculptors succeeded in putting their artistic egos aside in order to let the spirit of cooperation prevail. “They listened to one another,” she says, noting that the energy on display was as essential to creating the sculptures as marble and wood. 

The Fusion program pushed the participants to look beyond their usual creative practices. Lee says it was a bit of a revelation to find that it was actually possible to create sculptures with fellow artists based in another continent without even meeting them in person. As the artists got to know each other better via online interactions, the creative process got more relaxing and the artists grew more confident, he says. 

“Being able to combine wood and marble has broadened my mind,” Chu adds. “The two materials complement each other, like close friends teakwood piece having a conversation.”