Fok's Creative Double Act

by Scott Murphy
South China Morning Post, Hong Kong

Carolyn Fok's paintings are filled with a multitude of images that are intriguing and difficult to pinpoint. The multi-talent attributess this sense to her Chinese-American upbringing and the pursuit of more than one interest in the arts - painting and music. Fok honed her technique at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. When she graduated in 1989 with a Bachelors in illustration, Fok had already showcased her work in San Francisco and New York. Last year she took time off from freelance illustration work to devote herself to painting and music, a move which paid off this year as she was awarded first place by the Philippe Charriol Foundation for an oil painting titled Multiple Traits of woman. Fok claimed she was heading artistically toward her "epic goal", where today's technology, nature and human instinct became intertwined. "My paintings store information and experience," she said.

Fok often meshes femininity with hard technological imagery that represent a masculine side. In one of her latest paintings, yet to be titled, a virtual history of man is observed as ancient gods give way to near photographic images of human atrocities and the effect that a cold technological world has on today's society. It is a push-pull theme that is echoed again and again. Fok's sense of creativity is reflected in her other great passion, music. She believes her art is fuelled by it. "I think musically, as my musical sense comes into art. "When I hear a soundtrack or something musical, I see an image," she says excitedly. Her interest in music began when she picked up a guitar at the age of 10. Concentrating on sounds rather than songs, Fok explored a multitude of instruments before dabbling with multi-tracked recordings. This led to work with several bands and more than half a dozen experimental rock albums in which the latest synthesised technology took precedence over songs. Operating under the stage name Cyrnai, Fok uses a dizzying array of processors, keyboards and samplers. "Doing paintings is an isolated process, so for social needs I collaborate with other people in various musical projects to escape isolation."