Why should people living in the modern age study objects and landscapes from the past? What significance do things from ancient times still hold for modern life? Values and concepts are built upon the collective experience of the past; what we think, say and do all embody shadows of yesteryear. To understand the present, it is apt to reflect on the past, as the former cannot exist without the latter. If our minds are sensitive to aesthetics, history and culture, even part of an ancient site, a corner of a traditional painting, or a page of classic text, will remind us that history is an extension of the present reality, offering another dimension and significance for people in the modern world.

Artist Cherie Cheuk extracts artistic nourishment from reading historical literature and copying ancient paintings. She applied the gongbi technique in her works to combine different customs and objects, such as the brush pot in the studio of the literati, gongbi bird paintings by anonymous artists, and peacock flowers in floral-themed scroll paintings. By reconstructing various scenes and objects that traverse past and present, her works are like taking the audience to Sham Shui Po's textile street to shop for favourite fabrics to tell modern stories.

Living in the new era, designer Jack Lau is adept at the creative use of multimedia digital technology. For this exhibition, he partnered with Cherie Cheuk, as he used art technology to connect past and present with augmented reality (AR) and motion graphics design to take visitors on a "Visual Journey in Gongbi". Visitors could browse the website on their mobile phones and choose the painting details and thematic colour tones from the fabric installation in the exhibition. The built-in artificial intelligence on the website generates a short video with unique personalised features, thus making images of antiquity on the silk and other materials come alive in the virtual world.

Traversing past and present opens up possibilities for artistic creation, while technology enriches the connection between art and regions so that precious traditional art can survive the ravages of time. The creative collaboration of artist Cherie Cheuk and designer Jack Lau enables the history-prone mind to traverse past and present and study the history-rich gongbi brushwork from multiple perspectives.