Masters of traditional crafts in Hong Kong team up with younger artisans to create beautiful pieces for exhibition
- Hosted by Crafts on Peel, exhibition features nine collaborative works created by matching up five masters of traditional crafts with 13 younger artisans
- Running until March 25, the show tells a story of retrospection, yearning, arrivals and departures
Master Siu Ping-keung takes a small block of camphor wood and begins carving. His implements lie in a long surgical row before him. He hardly lifts his eyes as he exchanges one blade for another. He knows the worn feel of each one in his hand.
This demonstration is taking place at Crafts on Peel, a charitable organisation that focuses on reviving traditional craftsmanship. Although its name comes from the organisation’s location on Peel Street, it feels strangely appropriate as Siu pares the rind from the wood.
Soon a tiny face emerges. She’s a girl from China’s Qing dynasty, he says, aged about six “and very merry”. He likes to tell a story about what he’s creating.
A few more strokes and she’s 14. Her father has told her she must get married and put her hair up in a bun. A little bulge appears behind her hewn neck.
More peeling. Now she’s older, her forehand lined, her smile slightly hollowed.
“She’s still nice,” smiles Siu, holding her between his hands (his palms are themselves carved with notably long life lines). “But not to the daughter-in-law…” And for a second, you believe it.
Siu has been a wood carver for more than half a century. He began as an apprentice to his father, Siu Yue-cheong, when he was eight, kept it going in tandem with school, and eventually inherited the business.
