MAX CHENG
INSTALLATION
Stay in a Moment with Incense
停留一炷香
2023
Incense, Wood
Size Variable
Artist visited five small shops in Tai Hang and communicated with the shop owners to understand their preferences. Together, they mixed and created their own handmade incense flavours, allowing them with an immersive experience in the art of incense making. Max invited carpenter Lam Chi to design and produce unique incense trays for each shop and created incense based on the formulas chosen by the shop owners. During business hours, the shop owners will light the incense, allowing customers and passersby to experience the artwork through their sense of smell, connecting them to the memory of the Fire Dragon dance.
The handmade incense of each shop is tailor-made with unique scent. It is hoped that the visitors can spend as long as an hour (the time that required to burn an incense) in Tai Hang, engaging in conversations with different shops, and discovering interesting stories and objects in Tai Hang.
The Wheel of Time
週而復始
2023
Incense, Wood, Metal
Size Variable
“The Wheel of Time” captures the ever-changing and cyclical nature of time by showcasing the transformation of flowers and herbs into scent materials, eventually return to the earth as the mud of spring.
Behind the Scenes
頃刻背後
2023
Nature Ingredients, Glass Bottle
Size Variable
“Behind the Scenes” utilizes herbs, serving as both food and scent-making materials, to showcase the potential of time. By refining spices in the glass bottles for varying durations, a range of aroma is created, allowing the audience to observe the diverse outcomes that time can yield.
Aroma Prophecy
求香解說
2019
Nature Ingredients, Wood, Paper
Size Variable
A portable installation art piece which combines the scent-making experience and the spirit of Chinese fortune sticks.
尋．香山
2018
Incense, Wood
Size Variable
東方紗廠
2018
Incense, Brass
Size Variable
I set out the use incense and their ash as the media of my creation, because they have a paradoxical relationship. By presenting how the Esatern Cotton Mills in To Kwa Wan looked in the past and how they look today, this art reflects the changes taking place in the entire community and the story behind those changes.
Over and Over
一更又一更
2015, 2018
Incense, Aluminium, Wood
Size Variable
The procedure of making art sublimates the materials used for the artwork, in which the attention of the artist gives meaning to apotentially very profane matter. To address and potentially obscure this effect, I chose incense as the raw material for my work. By including the predetermined destruction of the work in my progress, from the ashes and smoke, rises a new definition of what is the work: flashback of my student life.
Consciously Unconscious
2014
Incense stick, Styrofoam, Tooth Powder
Size Variable
Hope sparkles in the ignited incences, yet it disappears along with the swirling smoke and powdery ashes. The structure of work references the residential landscape of Kowloon Tong in an attempt to draw attention to (and reflect upon) the housing problems in Hong Kong.
Youtube Link: https://goo.gl/OVnsiB