Exhibition Introduction

This exhibition, Bamboo Art Leap: Evolution from Traditional Craft to Contemporary Art, aims to showcase the age-old craft of bamboo binding with its long history.

In traditional Chinese culture, bamboo has always held a significant place. It embodies the spirit pursued by ancient Chinese literati and philosophers—resilience, perseverance, and unyielding strength. Its growth is not constrained by climate changes, symbolizing humility, eternal youth, integrity, and nobility. Bamboo can be used in daily life, as a construction material for stage building and scaffolding, and as a medium for creating valuable crafts.

This exhibition primarily features the works of Hong Kong artist To Woon (Du Huan), who blends modern elements with tradition, evolving the ancient craft of bamboo binding into contemporary art.

The exhibition is divided into three parts:

• Part 1: Traditional Roots The exhibits focus on mythical oriental creatures like the Kylin (Qilin) and Chiwen, presenting the traditional side of bamboo art. At the center of the hall, a giant five-meter-long Kylin is suspended in the air. Partially covered with silk paper and painted, it reveals the artwork's form at different stages. Viewers can look up from below to glimpse its intricate internal structure.

• Part 2: Modern Applications This section demonstrates the application of bamboo in modern life, such as bamboo scaffolding on building facades, stage setups for Chinese opera, and structures for ritual ceremonies.

• Part 3: Innovation and Fusion This part showcases the innovative spirit of bamboo art, integrating contemporary ideas. Inspired by Cubist painting techniques, the artist incorporates Western art into his contemporary bamboo works, creating different visual effects from various angles.

Additionally, the exhibition concludes with a documentary screening detailing the artist's creative journey in making the Kylin.

This exhibition hopes to guide the audience through the artist's creative process while inspiring the younger generation and emerging artists to inherit tradition and evolve it into unique creations, aiming to keep this intangible cultural heritage alive for generations to come.

Artist Introduction

To Woon (Du Huan) is a self-taught artist who learns and comprehends the essence of art by studying the works of other masters. His creations span Eastern and Western painting, sculpture, and the contemporary reinterpretation of traditional crafts like sugar-blowing and bamboo binding.

His artistic career began in the mid-1990s. His paintings won awards in the Philippe Charriol Foundation Art Competition for three consecutive years (1992, 1993, 1994) and were exhibited in the Contemporary Hong Kong Art Biennial in 1996 and 1998. He held his first solo exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Centre in 1998 and participated in the Inside Out: New Chinese Art exhibition at MoMA PS1 in New York in 2000. He has also held exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, and Zhongshan, with some of his paintings collected by the Embassy of The Bahamas.

To Woon has been dedicated to researching and preserving two traditional crafts listed as Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage: sugar-blowing and bamboo binding. From 2013 to 2019, he was invited to create the leading Kylin for the Cheung Chau Bun Festival. To solve the problem of paper-made Kylin getting wet during the rainy festival period, he developed a new technique in 2015 that made the silk paper covering the bamboo structure completely waterproof. He personally tested the Kylin in the sea, successfully enabling the bamboo artwork to be danced with by worshippers during maritime rituals.