Wednesday, October 2, 2019

Once in a decade event 十年一會之約定

What my passion about nature, botanical printing and culture related? 

The seven villages around Sha Tau Kok Peninsula (沙頭角) formed "Hing Chun Engagement" (慶春約)  since the Qing Dynasty (清朝) is going to celebrate the "Tai Ping Ching Chiu" (太平清醮) in December,  a religious ceremony and a reinforcement of their alliances in every ten years.  The ancestors of the villages have developed a unique Hakka culture in South China. The 300-year-old village Lai Chi Wo (茘枝窩) was once one of the most affluent hamlets in the northeastern New Territories. It has one of the oldest surviving feng shui woodlands (風水林) in Hong Kong and is the best-preserved Hakka walled village and has an intact woodland. The majority of the local villages emigrated to UK or other European countries in the 50's to 70's. With the upcoming once in a decade "Tai Ping Ching Chiu" festival, the Countryside Conservation Office (CCO) will organise a series of research, exhibitions, guided tours and experience workshops to revitalize the village. Being one of the invited artists of the project organiser SEE Network, recently I joined their site visit with other artists for the preparation of relevant workshops. My involvement will be eco printing.  With permission I collected some plants for the experiments for the upcoming workshop sharing.  You will see below the environment and  some images of the plants prints.

植物印染與鄕郊文化有何關係?
位於新界東北自清朝至今的茘枝窩是慶春約七村之一,客家族群,鄕村將於12月舉行十年一度太平清醮,建醮酬神,十年一會。郷郊保育辦公室為這次盛會協調策動一系列的記錄、硏究、展覽、導賞及工作坊體驗等活動,亦藉此復育傳承郷郊文化; 硏究機構「思網路」受聘承辦此項目相關活動,我的植物印染將會是工作坊體驗之一。日前與項目成員,當中有生物學專員及其他藝術工作者前往村落視察、研究植物生態等準備,我得到一些草葉回家試驗,不同的面料經媒染處理後,有不一樣的效果。工作坊舉辦前仍需再試驗,且看以下我們視察當日村中環境及印染效果。
Celebration is in order......
 
We took the boat from Sha Tau Kok (沙頭角) to Lai Chi Wo (茘枝窩)
A short ride .....we're arriving
Which direction?

"Hing Chun Yeuk" (慶春約) - formed the seven villages
The original rows of the walled Hakka village (客家) Lai Chi Wo
The temple safeguard the village
"Tai Ping Ching Chiu" festival (太平清醮) - the stage of bamboo is being built in the village square
Extended banyan tree with lanterns
 Following the trail for the site visit while I'm collecting some plants
  Stachytarpheta (牡荊) , Arabica coffee bean (阿拉比卡咖啡豆葉), strobilantes (馬藍)
Through the West gate to another village in the mountain

  

After 30 minutes walk we're there
A few houses being revitalized by volunteers 


Time to go home with handful of plant we left the East gate
by boat back to Sha Tau Kok
Just behind the wall is the Sha Tau Kok (沙頭角) part of China, a close glance before heading home
Sorted out the leaves gathered then done experiments on silk, rayon and cotton with different mordants.

Soft prints on silk

Bold and strong on rayon

Kind of discharge is good

Prints on cotton is different from rayon



 Four pieces of different fabrics prints
Before and After of the prints
 
Among others I find prints of strobilantes with purple/ blueish is impressive.
  I still have to do more experiments for the study.

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