Sails
Inkgo Lam
Those who go out to sea look forward to returning home; those who stand by the window look forward to the returning boat. This is the island life of the villagers when they were children. The simple life is full of exciting fishing stories.
“Sails” is a large-scale bamboo weaving art installation created by Hong Kong bamboo artist Inkgo Lam, which combines more than a dozen kinds of bamboo weaving craftsmanship. Lam studied the structure of sails with the villagers of Kau Sai Chau and learnt making fishing nets from them. Each of the three traditional Chinese sails has its own name, which are the head sail (front), the big sail (middle), and the third sail (back). They describe the three mood changes at different stages of a fishing trip: going out to sea, returning to the voyage, and returning home. These parts of a long excursion are interlocking and form a cycle.
Looking at the ocean through the window of the big sail, the sailboat will float in the sea between Kau Sai Chau and Jin Island. At the same time, the traditional bamboo pinwheels rotate in the sea breeze, bringing good luck to the villagers and visitors who land on the island.
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Material
Bamboo, wood, lacquer, oil and waxes
Inkgo Lam
Inkgo Lam Ka Yu graduated from the Department of Fine Arts in the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is a contemporary artist specialised in making bamboo artworks.
In 2020, she started learning bamboo steamer making from Master Lui Ming, the last generation of its kind in Hong Kong. In 2021, Inkgo‘s first series of bamboo artworks were exhibited at Art Basel Hong Kong and from 2022, her works were featured in Hong Kong, Japan and Canada which are collected by private collectors. She was also invited as a representative of Hong Kong artisan to attend London Craft Week. Since childhood, Inkgo has admired the perseverance of traditional craftsman. She hopes to pass on the intangible cultural heritage of Hong Kong and transform bamboo craftmanship into the language of art, bringing the aesthetics of ancient Chinese craft to the contemporary art.
