IDENTITY ‧ Masters

WYNG Masters Award 2015/16 – IDENTITY Announcement of Finalists

WYNG Masters Award is pleased to announce the six finalists for its 2015/16 award on IDENTITY.  

The six finalists include:

Johnny Gin – The Architecture of Insurgency
Remmus Ha – 7 “I”s
Leung Chi Wo + Sara Wong – He was lost yesterday and we found him today
Dinu Li – The Mother of All Journeys
Emmanuel Serna – No Life
Siu Wai Hang – InsideOutland

Margaret Ng one of the jury members said about the judging process: The last two rounds were the toughest, where a great deal of passionate exchange took place. It was itself an adventure and education through debate among the judges. All judges were agreed that a chosen work must achieve a requisite standard both in concept and in execution, but each individual judge has his or her preferences on the relative weighting. This was made more profound by the richness of the theme of identity”, which could be the identity of an individual, collective identity or even the identity of Hong Kong as a city. Identity can be expressed through tracing history and origin, or simply by visual characteristics. Then the choice of concept must, inevitably, have an impact on the quality of the execution. The concept must be sufficiently rich, and the execution must be sufficiently competent. But can identity be sufficiently expressed by the anguish of a single moment? Can a single facet be taken as the identity of a particular grouping? These questions were even more controversial. In coming to the list of finalists, judges were also highly conscious of whether, viewed collectively, they answer the aim of the overall project, which is both artistic and educational. In the end, having singled out as Special Mention two of the works which had provoked the greatest debate (thereby proving their inherent interest) the judges were reasonably content with the list of finalists.” The WYNG Masters Award international panel of judges is comprised of industry leaders in photography, art, publishing, and non-profit. They include Zoher Abdoolcarim, MaryAnn Camilleri, Abby Chen, Louise Clements, Frank Kalero, Leung Po Shan Anthony and Margaret Ng.

The 2 Special Mentions include: Irving Cheung “15 inches” and Ho Yan Pun Nicole “In & Out” 

A full-colour catalogue will be published to coincide with the exhibition at the Hong Kong Central Library mid-April 2016. The WYNG Masters Award will also host a series of talks, panels, and public seminars during the exhibition period. The winner of WYNG Masters Award will receive a cash award of HKD$250,000. Each of the six additional finalists will receive HKD$15,000. The exhibition will be curated by Hong Kong-based C&G Artpartment. 

The WYNG Masters Award, with a commitment to fostering deeper understanding of issues facing Hong Kong, brings the issue of IDENTITY to the forefront by recognising creative photographic interpretations of IDENTITY. The upcoming theme for the WYNG Masters Award 2016/17 is Mobility and the call for submissions will open in June 2016.