Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho composes a paradise with ecological conservation as a cored value

“China From The South China Sea”

Being a former Ceramic student at HKBU Academy of Visual Arts, if you asked me about my perception towards Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho’s attitude towards fine art, I would adopt two terms for an appropriate description – “HUMANITARIANISM” and “PERFECTIONISM”. It is Martie’s fundamental faith, that there’s a commitment for a fine artist to tell public a particular sort of “universal cored values”, whereas our fine-art creations must be created with reference to the circumstances of this current epoch that the world of humanity and the natural habitat pragmatically perceive.

Martie adapts to interpret her iconographical inventions by making a comprehensive reference on the authoritative researches done by art historians, geographers, oceanographers, biologists and ecologists from the global academia. Her sophistication towards the interaction between “aesthetic nutrients” and “eco-virtues” provides the fine-art circuits in the highly-metropolitanised regions with a worth-noted theory for them to critically think about their ultimate purpose for developing visual languages, which is, to resolve the contradictory problems being aroused due to the ruin of food chain and our over-emphasis on infra-structural rewards.

Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho collects organic materials from beaches and countryside whenever she has leisure. Shells, clams, conches, starfishes and fragmented porcelain pieces are her favorites. She adheres them to her clay-built sculptures and searches for a fusion between humans’ illusionary perception towards seabed and a reconstructed mechanism of “Biostratigraphy” (生物地層學) in abyssal-plain regions (深海盆地區). Martie believes that, the marine fossils originated from the stratified deposit of animal debris. Thus, she is obedient with the evidence that, the habitat could be rediscovered from the buffing zone of the crusts many millenniums ago. She feels obliged to express this wreckage but immortal source of vitality.

Her two representational sculptural pieces, namely “China From The South China Sea” and “Service Ware For Sea Life”, guide us to reminisce how the coastal Chinese natives pursued a “mutually complementary” mode of interaction with the marine habitat by practicing a fishery mode of lifestyle, whereas the fragmented porcelain pieces are believed as bowls and containers that the fisherman natives adopted for their daily meals. These two pieces proved that, the current seabed has been witnessing the entire process of archeological evolution in Chinese Civilization.

Making animal sculptures with clay is also a unique expertise of Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho’s creative pursuit. Martie encourages her students to explore hand building by composing heads, limbs and organs with many regiments of clay-made semi hemispheres. This approach helps us comprehend the organic exteriority of various biological species, as all kinds of survival substances on the Earth originate from the process of cell fabrications, which makes our anatomical structures comprise a soften and swelling kind of physiques. While Martie was building up a gray fox, she cultivated her mentality that corresponded with the mildness of a Heavenly Creator, as this attributed to her ingenious carving details and kneaded forms for offering the gray fox with empathic souls, sparkling eye-sights and detailed feather distributions. After an extraction of moisture inside the kiln, the glazes that Martie applied corresponded with the protective colorations that animals in tropical forests adopted to divert hunters and developers’ attention on the exact locations of their living habitats.

Martie’s acrylic painting, called “China Sea Tidal Zone”, records her perceptual experience towards the swirls she observes from ocean. Indeed, Martie’s exploration on vivid chrominance and decorative patterns is much inspired by the stylistic approach of his husband, called Kong Ho, who was formerly a BA student from Department of Fine

Arts at The Chinese University of Hong Kong, an MFA student from Texas Tech University, and a Lecturer at The University of Hong Kong. The huge swirl at the middle appears like a conch, and it is mixed with rainbow-liked colors that are projected from the morning glows in the sky. Martie fabricates an aesthetic atmosphere for the coastal area as similar as a symphony of lights. The plant with Chinese sacred lilies and the porcelain-made wall in the middle separate the ocean between two contrasting realms, namely dynamic and tranquility. When the strong wave pushes forward, friction occurs at the middle barrier with Chinese sacred lilies, which stimulates the uprising of seawater and forms a swirl at the upper sky. The swirl, which comprises feministic temperaments, seems to welcome the innocent persons who deserve “Sanctifying Grace”, embrace them for an entry to the paradise, and let them enjoy an eternal mode of spiritual happiness.

The fine-art creations by Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho relieve us from utilitarian burdens by enriching our mentality with myth-based episodes. Martie can be regarded as an empathetic magician who guides us to perceive romantic symphonies and transcendental forces from the “aqua pura”. She interprets her admiration upon the benevolent elements of this secular by visualizing her spiritual reconciliation with the auspicious deities like Bastet and Nereus.

Authour: Vincent LEE Kwun-leung (李冠良)

“Service Ware For Sea Life”

“Gray Fox”

“China Sea Tidal Zone”

20’ x 16’, Acrylic on Canvas2012

(* Declaration of Interests: Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho was my Ceramic Instructor during my capacity as a student at HKBU Academy of Visual Arts. I wrote this art review based on my utmost respect to Dr. Martie Geiger-Ho’s heartfelt education and distinguished art creations.)