Eleanor McColl

Eleanor McColl studied Fine Art at U.W.E Bristol, England. In 1999 she moved to Hong Kong to pursue her career as an artist and art educator.

McColl's work is rooted in her curiosity for the urban environment.  Her work draws the eye to the often unnoticed details of the city. Drawn to the dramatic palate of dilapidation, refurbishment and renewal, her cityscapes explore the interface between Hong Kong's unique verticality and it's impact on its people. 

“I am interested in capturing those small but arresting details which catch my eye as walk through the city. It could be a flash of colour from a dangling piece of washing, or a mop resting against a rusty peeling door."

Island Weave

Island Weave forms a composite image using two photographs, one in focus, and one out of focus. The resulting weave makes the eye restless as it searches to connect the interspersed squares of clarity and blur. The effect destabilises the signs and symbols of the urban landscape. The inflexible realism of the photograph is reduced to impressionism and abstraction. Each handwoven image is part of a limited edition collection of 10 available online here.

Hong Kong People

Hong Kong People explores the idea that the city ‘clothes’ us or that some part of our identity is derived from the place in which we live. The collages in this collection depict the silhouettes of characters from this city. By crowding these easily identifiable characters with anonymous tramways, fast food kiosks, taxis and aircon units, the image echoes the bustle of street life. Jagged and sharp lines recreate the tension between the organic and artificial that is ever present in the metropolis. Available online here.

Portholes

These pools of focus draw the eye away to pockets of activity and detail that we so easily gloss over.  An open window, a clockface, the hem of a skirt all come to occupy their own worlds within the greater composition. Each image is one of a Limited Edition of 10. Available online here.

Hong Kong Zodiac Signs

In China, the units of time are named after animals. Photographs of transport, accommodation and commerce are ripped, torn, then spliced together, eliciting the ever-changing face of Hong Kong: the cycles of time overlapping like the pictures in the collage. Available online here.