Si-Ying Fung

Si-Ying Fung – Week 1 – Surroundings
Jul 4, 2016

My name is Si-Ying Fung, I’m from Germany and one of the four resident artists staying in Sasso during July. My work mostly contains drawing, painting and writing. A topic which keeps coming back to my work is the relationship between surroundings and identity, questions like how do people arrange their surroundings and vice versa. What defines a space and where do I locate myself in it?

So my stay in Sasso Residency will be a small research about this place and its environment. Which elements, moods, patterns etc. are characteristic for this place?

In the first week I spent most of the time discovering the area around the beautiful house, drawing outside, collecting stones and reading about this region, as well as getting to know the other residents Sarah, Jens and Charlie.

http://siyingfung.com/works/#works

Si-Ying Fung – Week 2 – Movements
Jul 12, 2016

The second week has past really fast and was filled with cooking together, baking bread and visits from friends. Swimming in the lake and walking around were a constant part of these days.
When I was reading about this area in the first week I found this interesting documentary about an alternative commune called “Monte Verità”, which was founded in the beginning of the 20th century. It was located near Ascona, on the other side of the lake. The documentary focuses on the ideals the founders had and the people who came (like Hermann Hesse, Rudolf Laban and Mary Wigman) and how they projected it on this area.

Although I will not focus on this historical aspect, it was still very interesting for me and connects to the refelction of landscape and identity.

When walking up and down the mountains I extended my stone collection. Especially a sparkling type of stone seems to be typical for this region, you can even find it in the walls of the traditional houses around.

It’s really nice to observe the different movements and rhythms in the surrounding: Water is running down (waterfalls and rain) and rising up (fog and clouds) the mountains around the lake and when you walk the small footpaths you can always hear the lizards in the woods and hedges of private gardens and hear people mumbling.

Last week I started to make some bigger drawings.

Si-Ying Fung – Week 3 – View
Jul 18, 2016

A nice thing about last week was dimension in space. We hiked up to the top of Monte Gambarogno which was amazingly beautiful. On the way to the top we passed waterfalls and walked through the impressive forest, which constantly changed. In the upper part of the mountain, where the trees become smaller, you can even see the snow covered peaks from the higher mountains around and the winding shape of Lago Maggiore.

Space has also been helpful for my drawings. Since I don’t have a studio at the moment I really enjoy the time and space I have here to work in a larger scale! It’s a very different feeling than in small size works which I have been doing in the last months. The two bigger drawings I made last week helped me to loosen up a bit and I continued to play around with different patterns and colours.

Si-Ying Fung – Week 4 – Lago Lago
Jul 23, 2016

This was the last week of our great stay here in Sasso Residency! It’s been raining since yesterday which makes the departure easier.

We had been in the luxurious situation to have time for wandering around, trying out new techniques and exchange which makes me feel very thankful for this chance I’ve been given here. Like many other times I came with different ideas for the work I planned to do, but once I arrived here, other aspects became more interesting for my work. This might seem unsatisfying at first but actually is one of the best things to happen in a creative process and gave me many new ideas for following works. Thanks for everything to the people from Sasso Residency and Jens, Charlie and Sarah for this experience.