An Artistic Journey: A Comparison of Australian and Hong Kong Art.

In case you missed out, check out the 'First Post' to understand what's going on.

Background: Australia is known as a nation with a country vibe, diverse vegetation, and rich city life. We must plan a trip to go there soon, guys. Yeah so, not only the magnificent cityscape and architecture like the Opera house, but it also has that serene touch of tranquility. The country offers oceans, hiking trails, gigantic hills, perfect intersection of beach and desert life. The following Australian art I will talk about depicts such peaceful and enchanting features that an Australian burg serves to its residents. On the absolute contrary, Hong Kong is renowned as a city of skyscrapers, a financial hub, and a place where things occur tremendously rapidly. Despite Hong Kong being tagged with all these attributes, the Hong Kong-based art I chose however seems to delve into how antique 90’s Hong Kong faded with modern urbanization. 

   Fig:  Crane in Thirroul (top) & Overlooking the Financial Center (Bottom).

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Chapter 1. The First View of the Arts:

(Beginning of the Journey)

1.1. Crane in Thirroul: Named “Crane in Thirroul”, this landscape painting is the reflection of what the author, Anh Nguyen, savored about her hometown Thirroul. She expresses the imagery of her surrounding households through this. In the first view, the art evoked a feeling of solace in the outskirts. As someone in Hong Kong living in the apartments of massive buildings, the portrayed landscape seemed quite dreamy and out of imagination to me.

All the typical town elements like one-storeyed houses with green roofs, black-topped roads with no traffic, clear sky, and greenery are included, whilst focusing on that huge crane which is standing tall in the center of the small town.

1.2. Overlooking the Financial Centre: In this beautiful digital creation, the artist, Liu Siu Jane juxtaposes the high-rise buildings in the foreground with green hills in the background. In the first glimpse, this art seems to be an accurate depiction of what contemporary Hong Kong cities look like (full of buildings). The artist terms this as a “Concrete Jungle”.

As the title suggests, the art comprises the International Financial Centre situated in Central, Hong Kong. Since the art is about OVER-LOOKING that financial center, the focal point lies within the loosely dense Tong Lau (traditional Chinese buildings) which can be seen in the backdrop of the artwork.

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Chapter 2. Diving Deep and Comparing the Artworks:

Crew Announcement: (Welcome Everyone, We've Just Boarded our Flight, Enjoy)

While both artworks abundantly utilize various art elements like lines, forms, shapes, color, and texture, we can see some visible differences in the use of such elements between them.

Since the medium of painting for Crane in Thirroul is Acrylic, we can see thick wet-on-wet type brushstrokes, mainly freehand lines. In the frontal view, the artist has outlined the triangular roofs of houses solidly using horizontal and vertical lines. However, in the background, those lines seem to be a bit casual and fluffy (like hair after keratin:)). This might indicate that the artist struggled to capture a clear distant view of the town, from where she was painting in.

Similarly, such types of lines can also be seen in the other art Overlooking the Financial Centre, where the artist shows firm control while drawing long vertical lines to depict the tall buildings. In the Hong Kong art, artists use cubes and cuboids for buildings that are dense and confined (ofc that’s what we see in real life too, right?), but on the other hand Australian art uses aerial perspective to show almost half of the space as an open sky with fluttering clouds. Well, the GenZ generation likes space better, not only in their personal lives but everywhere :).

Also, in both these artworks, you can notice a cool fusion of warm colors i.e. yellowish orange, and brownish tints with cold ones like sky blue and greens. Having said so, the use of green in the Australian atmosphere is relatively very denser than the Hong Kong one. This is a prime example of how geography can totally shape the vibe of artworks.

All in all, for me, the Australian art had more comfortable synergy within the mind, the poll I did suggested the same for most of us too. But wait, isn’t the Hong Kong art a Digital Art? Isn’t it a modern aesthetic? Shouldn’t we modern people be inclined towards something that utilizes tech? Well, that’s where the thing called narrative comes into the ploy.  

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Chapter 3: The Narratives

Crew Announcement: (Ladies and Gentlemen, we've just landed at our destination.)

In the previous chapter we talked about what was used to compose the art, but now we’ll answer the most awaited: why and how.

So, firstly let’s again talk about ‘Crane in Thirroul’,

Before I delve into my interpretation of this, I want you guys to spare a few minutes thinking about the people of this town. Are they frank and sociable? do people coexist there? or in the dim light of the dusk, do children come by the road to play some ball games? My answer to all those questions would be YES.

But how ??: The rooftops of the quaint cottages are richly painted green in color and are balanced well with the dense thicket of trees along every alternate household. The enthusiasm towards plantation and environmental conservation directly implies unity among the community members. Also, while we're talking recurringly about landscape, you might be wondering what the need for emphasis on that gigantic crane might be. What does it signify? Well, that’s a sign of progressive development in the town. While the town itself is really small, the rate of growth over the years in that area is huge. The writer, therefore, uses the crane to metaphorically depict the heights, and the transformation that she witnessed while growing up in that place.

Now coming to our own Hong Kong art, “Overlooking the Financial Centre”. The title itself is very intriguing. How does the art contribute to “Overlooking” those huge skyscrapers?

We can actually see the buildings are distorted slightly. They are not plainly vertical and straight, rather they are twisted and in some rhythmic movement. If the buildings were in their natural orientation, our vision/pathway to the background would be blocked. But why does the artist want us to see the background? In the backdrop, the hills are pale with no rich greenery. That’s exactly what the artist is propelling us to visualize. She thinks that the city has lost its acquaintance, the greenery, and the beauty to some extent due to modernization. To further control this, she persuades viewers to cooperate for the preservation of cultural heritages and ancient architecture. It’s not that the new age buildings are the complete bane for the city, it's just that obsession towards glass buildings that made the painter make this beautiful piece of art.

Chapter 4 (Sadly): The Conclusion and Remarks

Finally, the storytelling showcased in both the art was beautiful. But is the see-saw of yours still leaning towards Australia? Honestly, mine is still because personally for me Australia is extremely ethereal, but with all these comparisons and the journey of explaining the art, my love for both these arts exponentially grew. I hope you guys had fun with me on this Journey. Please comment on what you learned (if any), Until next time, Thanks, and bye! 👋

(Note: The Blue highlighted words are elements/principles of art)