Nga Ching Ko MFA

"(...) Being the minority is not easy. We, humans, often follow the public popular opinion to believe and behave, even if the idea is a preconception, we can believe it without knowing it or force ourselves to believe it.

My works are showing the process of me making compromises, the emotion of resistance, struggle or anger. Also, expressing the pressure and suppression that I encounter of being included in a group.

As an inclusion in Hong Kong, the preconception of the words “Chinese” and “China” leads one's national identity to a political position, “I love China, I am Chinese”, are political statements, it can be a truth for somebody, meanwhile it can be a compromise for others.

Some people emphasise their love for China from time to time in order to be safe. This kind of manifestation is an empty speech to me. Inspired by this, I made the sentence in my pieces in a superficial and meaningless way. The round shape and the movement are made  to repeat the sentences endlessly like brainwashing . The stamping is like putting all the messages together by force.

The handwriting in my pieces is similar to how I learn to write and also the punishment that I had in my primary school life. Repeatedly writing the same word can only learn how to write the word but can not learn about the deeper meaning of the word.

As an inclusion in the diamond industry before, seeing many diamonds used to be my daily life, even “diamond is rare” is a lie for me,  but I still needed people to believe in the diamond illusion - “diamond is forever”, “diamonds are rare”, also the diamond grading system, so that I can earn my salary and live.

In the stone pieces, I use reflection and overlapping to repeat the words. Besides, Unlike the faceted diamond, I try to keep most of the natural surface of the stone which I think is rarer than the quantity of diamond.

The repetitions of information made persuasive words and important in advertisements. When the bias constantly repeats in our daily life, people can be more blind to it."