The Past Life of Neon Lamp Art in Film and Photography

Neon collector Chris? Bressy said, "Neon lights never go out". Have you noticed the neon streets in Hongkong and Macau in Wong Kar-wai's Falling Angels and Du Qifeng's Dark Flowers? Do you still remember the neon-lit online world in blade runner and Ghost in the Eggshell, and the neon lights of Tracy Emin conveying love?

Neons from France to Las Vegas, USA

Many contemporary artists use neon lights to create their works. Since lucio fontana created the first neon device, martial raysse brought neon into painting, and artists brought it from the outdoor to the plane and moved it indoors. But I still love the beauty of neon in movies and photography, free and easy, psychedelic and unrestrained. In Hong Kong, neon is not only a light source, but also a symbol and culture of a city.

? Neon was originally a natural gas. 19 12 years, a French entrepreneur took the lead in making neon lights with it. Ten years later, a businessman from Los Angeles brought it back to America. In just a few years, the streets of Times Square in Paris and new york were covered with neon lights. German silent master Fritz? Lang walked in the forefront of the times. In 1927, he used the light effect of neon lights in the movie Metropolis to create the atmosphere of the future city.

Since the 1920s, neon lights have become popular all over the United States. It was not until the 1930s that Hollywood movies turned neon lights into an element symbolizing the prosperity of the city. Unfortunately, in the 1950s, with the social unrest, neon lights in most cities in the United States had no market. Only Las Vegas, a colorful casino, is still obsessed with neon lights. Eventually, it will be replaced by light boxes in the 1960 s because of the emergence of new technologies.

In Hong Kong, neon is the symbol and culture of the city.

At the same time, there is a Hong Kong craze in the United States. In the movie "Su's Huang's World", the scenery of Hong Kong in that year was truly recorded, and Wan Chai in Hong Kong was turned into the image of a red light district. At that time, Nathan Road, which we were familiar with, was a neon street, and the signs of the old brands "Longfeng Teahouse" and "Qionghua Restaurant" were particularly eye-catching.

Until the 1970s, compared with the decline of American cities, the application of neon lights in urban space in Hong Kong gradually became a craze, among which Master Liu Wen of Hong Kong created the largest neon lights in the world at that time-music signboards. In the 1980s and 1990s, the number of neon lights in Hong Kong reached its peak. Master Liu Wen said that the phrase "Hong Kong's prosperity depends on design" circulated in Hong Kong in those years refers to neon design.

The design of neon lights in Hong Kong is different from that in foreign countries, which combines many elements of China tradition and Hong Kong characteristics. The first is China's calligraphy (traditional Chinese characters). Different bosses will find different calligraphers to write big characters because of their business needs. Tieda Pavilion and Bacon Shop like the simple and dynamic style of the Northern Wei Dynasty, while Jian Gong, a Hong Kong calligrapher, is the representative of the Northern Wei Dynasty style. He always uses regular script of the Northern Wei Dynasty when raising words.

In addition, the shape of the signboard, one is a money-making or bat-shaped whole like a pawnshop signboard; There is also a famous Jin Lu sweater manufacturer who will put a Jin Lu on the signboard; The symbol related to dragons is the dragon pattern that is often added.

The neon in the lens gradually disappears in reality.

Classic neon signs such as "Jinduobao" and "Jin Ligong", together with the rain and crowded arcades in Hong Kong, * * * isomorphically constructed a neon world under the lens of Wong Kar-wai and Du Kefeng. At that time, Qizi's signboard was just a drop in the sea of neon lights, and it was not so conspicuous.

It seems that such a bright nightlife will not disappear, but people are always aware of the disappearance of familiar things. With the development of science and technology, such as LED lights, advertising inkjet; With the changes of the city, Hong Kong has demolished the "handshake building" and built public housing. This almost announced that the application of neon lights in urban landscape will withdraw from the historical stage. Since 2006, many neon signs in Hong Kong have been slowly dismantled.

However, Du Kefeng's various confessions about neon lights in his short film "Neon Light and Shadow" make people feel that he is optimistic about neon lights. He said, don't worry, it will come back. This is its greatness. Just like a movie, just like a Polaroid camera, it may evolve into something new.

What form neon lights will evolve into is unknown for the time being. However, I think that the first online exhibition of M+ in Hong Kong West Kowloon Cultural District on 20 14 with the theme of Hong Kong neon signs might as well be a new exhibition form, collecting photos of past neon signs from netizens and permanently collecting representative and important neon signs. Bringing neon from urban space into internet space, director Wong Kar-wai brought neon street view into the film that year, which made more people understand the special significance of neon in Hong Kong's specific cultural context and how it became an indispensable supporting role in film production.