The Green Messenger by Trevor Yeung
As we have seen a shift in the global conversation about environmental issues, we are keen to deep 
dive into the work of Hong Kong artist Trevor Yeung and get more insights about Art & Environment. To which extent the art community should also be part of the global conversation? How can the artist use her/ his inspirations to convey or express the changes of our time?
Born in 1988 in Guangdong Province in China, Trevor Yeung graduated from the Academy of Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2010. Trevor currently lives and works in Hong Kong.
Trevor uses botanic ecology, horticulture, photography and installations as metaphors that reference the emancipation of everyday aspirations towards human relationships. Trevor draws inspiration from intimate and personal experiences, which culminate in projects that range from image-based works to large-scale installations. Obsessed with structures and systems, he creates different scales of organizations that allow him to exert control upon living beings, including plants, animals, and spectators as well.
Cactus… Humidity, water, light control: microclimate… Picky plants… I was warmly welcomed in the artist’s studio, or should I say, his botanical garden. This is the takeaway of the lively discussion we had that afternoon.
Plants
I have always used plants as my artwork, in fact plants are what I use to create because when I was an art student, we had the freedom to choose any media, and so I chose what I liked the most. I can express myself through plants, use them for photography or installation projects.
Hong Kong
I’m a typical guy who grew up and has been educated in Hong Kong. In the past, the art education system was very different in a sense, since we did not study contemporary art. In fact, we focused more on traditional art forms such as sketching, drawing, and painting. As a result, there wasn’t much critical thinking about art forms. Of course, those elements are part of the arts fundamentals. They give you some entry points in Art History, but when I went to university I started to explore beyond those fundamentals.
I went to college in Hong Kong, where I discovered local art forms. Seeing different local artists triggered my curiosity. Therefore, I tried to question many things in order to deepen my understanding, I endeavoured to do many different things, to experience different directions.
Influencers
I studied science in high school so I have a tendency to admire art installations because they involve so many mechanisms: Olafur Eliasson is someone I find very inspiring. I’m impressed by his work. It is very sentimental and I focus very much on emotions, so his works speak to me.
Sophie Calle is another great influence: when I was in school I studied her 1986 project “Blind” whereby she interviewed blind people about their imagination of beauty. It was really amazing to have their perspective on aesthetics and imagery. I love that approach because it’s all about curiosity.
Define you art
I don’t like to be classified and to be put inside a category. Let’s put it this way, I’m against this idea to be put in a box. My art is approachable, my art is about curiosity and finally, it is about accepting your emotions. When I’m using plants or other media, the topic is always about the relationship between people in the society. I focus on the struggles and communications that people experience daily. My artworks drive emotions, especially those emotions we want to hide.
Inspirations
My inspirations come from two different sources. First, I’m very much influenced by what surrounds me. The cultural encounters I make and the emotions they create drive my creativity. Secondly, I also have my personal struggles and some fulfillments I haven’t achieved yet in my life. I try to deal with these feelings and taking care of plants is my gateway. I can use it as an escape to study them and their eco-system. I study plants to get an understanding of these living creatures. It takes time to build some knowledge and this time spent is also a way to handle my unfulfilled sentiments as well. From the time I devoted to comprehend plants, I learned to observe: I mean, how to look at plants. In fact, this is a great way to revisit how I can handle my struggles. How do I observe my personal issues? In communicating with people, how do I look at the communication system between individuals? These are questions I integrate into my artworks. I don’t believe my work is a way to solve my problems, but it is a way to look at situations and it is a way to connect with people facing the same issues. I force myself to face the issues I need to deal with.
Environmental issues
As an artist who uses plants as a subject it’s funny because not all my works are about Nature, although this is something I have concern about. I think when we talk about Nature it should be very rational because we know for a fact that things are happening now. In the artwork I’m not a direct person, I prefer to use a poetic way to address my audience hence I would leave different possibilities to allow the audience to interpret my message. For example the work I did in Paris in 2018 is about Nature, but the narrative is about typhoon. I don’t take the informative data about the damages of the typhoon, the fatalities, the material costs, nor the weather specificities. I chose in fact to focus on how people feel during a natural event like a typhoon. It became an interesting point of view because that typhoon exhibition took place in Paris, where there is basically no typhoon. In a way, we can say that Parisians people have never experienced such kind of natural disasters. However, when they see what happened in areas struck by that natural disaster, they can feel and sense somehow the manifestation of Nature. This is a first step to elaborate on how to connect one to another. It’s a great experiment to touch people sensitivity because they can put themselves in the context of Hong Kong or Asia thanks to this exhibition.
Lockdown
Typhoon is a natural disaster that requires moving to a shelter. So people exposed to typhoons are people who have experienced lockdown. That exhibition revealed the anxiety of uncertainty. When it comes to the virus it’s more extreme: being isolated, living with high uncertainty, quarantine, travel restrictions, stress, fear…
Does that mean I can do an artwork today about the COVID-19 lockdown situation? No I don’t think so. We are still living the moment and I think it takes time to process all the impacts and implications of the crisis. It’s an interesting material to address our relationships, to reflect on our feelings and our struggles, but I would like to step back first and to wait for more time to digest the whole event. As I said, I’m not a direct person so I would indulge myself first in slow process thinking.
Mobility
Artist in residence: I was travelling, I was experiencing different things. I always travel with my camera, taking pictures, interacting with people… I use these insights as inspirations. Today, artists do not receive invitations any longer, exhibitions are cancelled, art galleries shut down, and trips are discouraged…
I don’t necessarily see it as negative because my creative process requires time: time for me to 
nurture my artistic direction and time as well to perform and work on my subjects. When you use plants, you have to follow Nature’s cycle, and time becomes a key element. I can rebalance my focus and for some artworks that need my presence, I’m more effective. In addition, I also recognize some downside to mobility. I was talking to some Scandinavian artists friends who are rethinking the way they travel because it damages the environment. For example they will travel by train when it is more relevant environmentally speaking compared to flying. As an artist, how much do you care about your impact on Nature and environment: is it necessary to travel all the time? At the moment, I’m working on an exhibition project in Cologne in Germany and we are trying new ways of working. Technology is a key enabler: now we do video calls and we can somehow execute the work remotely. It’s not easy because a lot of things we do for that exhibition are site-specific so it creates new challenges but also new ideas to face the current situation. The new normal is here and we can’t produce and ship artwork like in the old days. The world is changing.
Art & sustainability
Being a Hong Kong artist is very interesting because as you know, space in Hong Kong is luxury. The cost for spacious locations is very very expensive for everyone, including artists and art community (i.e. art galleries). For instance, I use wrapping material for my artwork and it is in plastic. With the awareness of environmental issues, I can’t rely on this high consumption of plastic in my artwork or color printing anymore, for the obvious reasons of the impact on environment and sustainability. I’m in the process of rethinking my waste because this has a huge impact on producing or shipping artwork. To be honest, it’s a long process – sometimes more expensive – but I understand the urgency and I try to make my contribution at my level but I’m not yet at zero waste.
Next projects
I’m working on several art pieces I wanted to make for a long time. Now I have more time to do things because I don’t travel and I can stay in Hong Kong and focus on my fishes & plants projects.
在藝術的氛圍中 – 楊沛鏗Trevor Yeung
正如我們看到的有關環境問題的全球對話轉變一樣，我們熱衷於深入了解楊沛鏗Trevor Yeung的作品，並獲得
有關藝術與環境的更多見解。藝術界反應在多大程度上參與了全球對話？藝術家如何利用她/他的靈感來傳達或表達我們時代的變化呢？
楊沛鏗Trevor Yeung（1988）出生於中國廣東省。於（2010）畢業於香港浸會大學視覺藝術學院。他目前在旅居在香港生活和工作。
楊沛鏗Trevor Yeung使用植物生態學，園藝，攝影和裝置作為隱喻，指的是對與人際關係的日常追求的解放。他從親密的個人經歷中汲取靈感，其最終結果是從基於圖像的作品到大型裝置的項目。他痴迷於結構和系統，創建了不同規模的組織，使他能夠控制包括植物，動物和觀眾在內的生物。
仙人掌…濕度，水，光線控制：微氣候…挑剔的植物…在藝術家的工作室，或者我應該說他的植物園中，我受到熱烈歡迎。 這是我們當天下午進行的熱烈討論的主要內容。
植物
我一直以植物為藝術品，事實上，植物是我創造的東西，因為當我還是藝術系學生時，我們可以自由選擇任何媒體，因此我選擇了最喜歡的媒體。 我可以通過植物表達自己，將它們用於攝影或裝置項目。
香港
我是一個典型的人成長在香港接受教育的人。 過去，從某種意義上說，藝術教育體係是完全不同的，因為我們沒有研究當代藝術。 實際上，我們更專注於素描，繪畫和繪畫等傳統藝術形式。 結果，對藝術形式的批評就自然不多了。 當然，這些元素是藝術基礎的一部分。 它們為您提供了藝術史的一些切入點，但是當我上大學時，我開始探索那些基礎知識之外的東西。
我去了香港的大學，在那裡我發現了當地的藝術形式。 看到不同的本地藝術家激發了我的好奇心。 因此，為了加深理解，我嘗試了很多事物，做很多不同的事情，經歷不同的方向。
影響者
我在高中學習科學時，便傾向於欣賞藝術裝置，因為它們涉及許多機制：Olafur Eliasson(註：奧拉維爾·埃利
亞松，丹麥裔冰島籍藝術家，以雕塑和大型裝置藝術聞名。他善在作品中使用光、水等元素或調節空氣溫度以增強觀賞體驗。 1995年，他在柏林創建了奧拉維爾·埃利亞松工作室，該實驗室專注於進行空間研究。)是我覺得非常鼓舞人心的人。 他的作品給我留下了深刻的印象。 這是非常感性的，我非常注重情感，所以他的作品跟我有著共通的語言。
蘇菲·卡爾（Sophie Calle）(註：蘇菲·卡爾（法語：Sophie Calle；1953年10月9日－）是一位法國作家、攝影師、裝置藝術家和觀念藝術家。 卡爾的作品傑出之處在於使用隨心所欲受限制的攝影場景，喚起了1960年代名為「Oulipo」的法國文學運動。 她的作品經常性的描述出人類的脆弱，和身份與私密性的檢視。)是另一個對我深具影響的人。在學校的時候，我研究了她的1986年項目“盲”（Blind），在那裡她採訪了盲人關於美的想像。 他們對美學和圖像的看法真是太了不起了。 我喜歡這種方法，因為這全是出於好奇心。
定義你的藝術
我不喜歡被分類，也不喜歡被歸類。 讓我們這樣說，我反對把這個想法放在盒子裡。 我的藝術是平易近人的，我的藝術是關於好奇心，最後是關於接受你的情感。 當我使用植物或其他媒體時，主題始終是關於社會中人與人之間的關係。 我專注於人們每天經歷的鬥爭和溝通。 我的作品激發著情感，尤其是我們想要隱藏的情感。
靈感
我的靈感來自兩個不同的來源。首先，我對周圍的事物影響很大。我進行的文化交流以及它們所創造的情感驅動著我的創造力。其次，我也有自己的個人掙扎和一些成就，這是我一生中尚未實現的。我試圖處理這些感覺，照顧植物是我的避風港。我可以以藉此逃離並來研究他們及其生態系統。我研究植物以了解這些生物。建立知識需要時間，而這段時間也同樣可以用來處理我無法實現的情緒。從致力於植物的那一刻起，我就學會了觀察：我的意思是，如何看待植物。實際上，這是重新審視我如何處理自己的鬥爭的好方法。我如何觀察我的個人問題？與人交流時，我如何看待個人之間的交流系統？這些是我整合到我的作品中的問題。我不相信我的作品是解決問題的一種方式，反而是一種看待情況的方式，並且是與面臨擁有相同問題的人們聯繫的一種方式。我強迫自己面對這些需要處理的問題。
環境問題
作為一個以植物為主題的藝術家，這很有趣，因為雖然我對此有所擔心，但並不是我的所有作品都與大自然有關。我認為當我們談論自然時，它應該非常理性，因為我們知道眼下正在發生的事情。在我不是直接塑造人物的藝術品中，我更喜歡用詩意的方式向聽眾講話，因此我會留下不同的可能性讓聽眾解釋我所留下的信息。例如，我2018年在巴黎所做的工作是關於自然的，但敘述是關於颱風的。我並沒有獲得有關颱風造成的損害，人員傷亡，材料成本或天氣特點的信息。實際上，我選擇專注於人們在颱風等自然事件中的感受。它之所以成為一種有趣的觀點，是因為該颱風展覽是在巴黎舉行的，在那裡基本上沒有颱風。某種程度上，我們可以說巴黎人從未經歷過這種自然災害。但是，當他們看到遭受自然災害襲擊的地區發生了什麼的時候，他們會以某種方式感受並感知到自然的體現。這是詳細闡述如何相互連接的第一步。藉此感動人們的敏感性是一個偉大的實驗，因為這次展覽可以使人們置身於香港或亞洲的環境中。
封鎖
颱風是自然災害，需要搬到避難所。 因此，遭受颱風襲擊的人就是遭受封鎖的人。 那次展覽揭示了不確定性的焦慮。 當涉及到病毒時，它更極端：被隔離，高度不確定的生活，隔離，旅行限制，壓力，恐懼……
這是否意味著我今天可以製作有關遭COVID-19疫情影響的情況的藝術品？不，我不這麼認為。 我們仍然活在當下，我認為需要時間來處理危機的所有影響和弦外之音。 處理我們之間的關係，感情和鬥爭的有趣材料，但是我想先退後一步，等待更多時間來消化整個事件。 正如我所說，我不是個直接的人，所以我會首先沉迷於緩慢的思考過程中。
流動性
旅居藝術家：我旅行，經歷著不同的事情。我總是帶著相機旅行，拍照，與人互動……我將這些見解作為靈感。
今天，藝術家不再收到邀請，展覽被取消，美術館關閉，並且被勸阻旅行……
我不一定會認為它是負面的，因為我的創作過程需要時間：我需要時間來設計自己的藝術方向和時間軸，以及在主題上進行表演和工作。當您使用植物時，您必須遵循自然的循環，時間成為關鍵要素。我可以重新平衡自己的注意力，對於一些需要我參與的藝術品，我將會更有效率地完成它。此外，我也認識到流動性的一些缺點。我在和一些斯堪的納維亞藝術家的朋友們聊天時，他們正在重新考慮他們的出行方式，因為這會破壞環境。例如，當與飛行相比在環境上更相關時，他們將乘坐火車旅行。作為一名藝術家，您對自己對自然和環境的影響有多大的關注：是否需要一直旅行？目前，我正在德國科隆參加一個展覽項目，我們正在嘗試新的工作方式。技術是關鍵的推動力：現在我們正在進行以視頻來通話，並且可以以某種方式遠程地執行工作。這並不容易，因為我們為該展覽所做的很多事情都是針對特定地點的，因此既面臨著新的挑戰，也面臨著新的變化。新常態就在這裡，我們無法像過去那樣製作和運送藝術品。這個世界在正在轉變。
藝術與可持續發展性
成為香港藝術家非常有趣，因為眾所周知，香港的空間是一種奢侈。 寬敞地點的成本對每個人來說都是非常昂貴的，包括藝術家和藝術社區（即美術館）。例如，我將包裹材料用於藝術品，而包裹材料是塑料的。 意識到環境問題之後，由於對環境和可持續性產生影響的明顯原因，我不再可以在藝術品或彩色印刷中再使用這種大量的塑料。 我正在重新考慮自己造成的浪費，因為這對製作或運送藝術品有巨大的影響。 老實說，這是一個漫長的過程–有時會更昂貴–但我了解它所代表的緊急性，在我還沒將之化之為零之前，我會盡我所能來做出自己的貢獻。
下一個項目
我正在從事我一直一來想創作的幾件藝術品。 現在我有更多時間做事，因為我不再旅行，人可以留在香港，專注於我的魚類和植物項目。
Author: Sanza BULAYA
Translation by CHUANG Shih-Ning
