Cheong Sio Pang

A full time researcher in university and an amateur art commentator, Cheong obtained his master’s degree in Public Policy at Willy Brandt School of Public Policy at the University of Erfurt and is formerly a clarinettist of the Erfurt Philharmonic Orchestra in Germany. He loves classical music and now serves as conductor of the orchestra in Escola Choi Nong Chi Tai, by which he can connect art to everyday life. Cheong is also a book lover.

Art vibrations

07 2015 | Issue 7

I went to the Cultural Centre for a documentary screening about Mio Pang Fei. There’s a feeling of certain heaviness to this film. About 20 minutes into it, close to one-sixth of the audience began to walk out one after another. Before the screening, I had a limited understanding of contemporary paintings mainly because the genre was often too abstract for most people’s liking. However, from his simple life as a painter to his realisation of artistic ideas at a later stage, the 90-minute documentary showed effectively how abstract concepts could be integrated into everyday life. Portuguese director Pedro Cardeira offers a brand new take on the painting style of Chinese artists by tackling the uniquely charming oriental material with Western perspectives. Moreover, the artistic resonance gained from viewing his works was more deeply felt after learning about the painter’s life events.


In modern and contemporary paintings, using the medium to capture and express the uniqueness of one’s creativity and personality is a surefire way to evoke powerful emotions in the viewers. To borrow Hebert Read’s words, when artists project themselves in society or life, they manifest their value through works that reflect their subjective versions of empirical or metaphysical reality. Art is not necessarily equivalent to evoking an aesthetic experience, but the relationship between art and people’s lives is self-evident. The value of artworks is strongly determined by the earnest feelings presented through the works by the artists.


Unlike popular culture, fine art encompasses more than just visual arts but also other art forms, mainly because art forms inherently share common elements—the connectivity between music and visual arts is especially frequent. The hazy beauty of the works by Georges Seurat (1859–1891), an Impressionist painter best known for his Pointillist paintings, appears to have an interconnection with the music of Debussy.

By the same token, Debussy’s La cathédrale engloutie and Monet’s Rouen Cathedral Series show objects that reflect different colours under different lighting conditions. Debussy underlined the light-dark polarity of music by using the change of chords, contrary to the dominant third/sixth chord commonly used in German music throughout the 19th century. More extended chords were also often used by him, such as the seventh, ninth, or eleventh chords. Debussy’s free use of chords, coupled with loosely structured rhythms, bring out the unique musical character of his pieces.


But of course, this trend was simply not a result of the composer’s solo effort. Debussy was influenced by the Salon Culture in Paris at the time, where artists on all points of the spectrum participated in debates, allowing alchemy to flourish across the arts, which led to the boom of Impressionism.


Dialogue appears to be all the more important if a society is in need of more cultural flare. Recently many cafés have emerged on the scene not solely to provide a place to eat or drink, but to serve as a pleasant platform where individuals with their own characteristics can interact with one another. Unfortunately, dedicating one’s life to the serious pursuit of art is no easy feat. Mr. Mio made it clear that as far as he is concerned, art is like a religion. However, without cognition, there is no faith. Therefore, bringing in a new way of life by getting to know art—other than choosing something like material progress—will add richness to one’s life.