On the occasion of Hong Kong Art Week, Whitewall highlights here top Hong Kong exhibitions debuting throughout the city, from the cutting-edge projects of Hong Kong-based creatives and collectives such as To & Ling Are Covering Their Ears (To Yeuk and Lai Chun Ling), to the media masterpieces of Edwin Lo, Ip Yuk Yiu, and Tsui Hou Lam.
“Another Day in Hong Kong” at Asia Art Archive
March 18 – August 31, 2024
Exhibition catalogue of “One Day in Hong Kong,” Oscar Ho Hing Kay Archive, Asia Art Archive Collections, courtesy of Oscar Ho.
Asia Art Archive (AAA) newly introduces the alluring exhibition “Another Day in Hong Kong” alongside a novel lecture with Raqs Media Collective. Expanding on the revelatory two-year endeavor Recalling Disappearance: Hong Kong Contemporary Art, the latest project spotlights the importance of archival time with six groups of Hong Kong-based creatives and collectives. Paying distinct homage to Oscar Ho’s exhibition “One Day in Hong Kong” in 1990, which collaged photographs by the public captured within the confines of dawn till dusk, this current presentation draws from archival materials as its building blocks, brilliantly reconstructing 24 hours in a day of art history.
Cutting-edge artists and groups such as Lee Ka Sing and Holly Lee, Siu King Chung, To & Ling Are Covering Their Ears (To Yeuk and Lai Chun Ling), Ocean Leung, Florence Lam, and KK Cheung enhance the show with unique, personal elements, attitudes, and outlooks. On March 27, the Annual Artist’s Lecture was energized with refreshing dialogues ignited by Raqs Media Collective. With their ongoing mission of “kinetic contemplation,” questions including “Can time flow in a spiral?” uplifted historical and philosophical exploration in contemporary art.
“Do NPCs Dream of Electric Sheep” by Videotage at Art Basel Hong Kong
March 29, 2024
Video still of Paul Trillo’s “Jacques – ‘Absolve,'” 2023, courtesy of the artist and Videotage.
Curated by Angel Leung alongside assistant curators Lewa Chan, Myra Chan, and Chung Wing Shan, Videotage takes visitors on an innovative investigation of the contradictions of humanity involved in virtual reality. Titled “Do NPCs Dream of Electric Sheep,” a new series of video projects shines light on both the innocence of journeying through video games as your fantastical self, or raising an otherworldly pet, as well as the shadowed adventures of violent interactions and nightmarish wartime scenarios. Media works including Edwin Lo’s The Fall (2018), Ip Yuk Yiu’s HBG (2018), and Tsui Hou Lam’s Rabu Rabu (2023) embellish Art Basel Hong Kong’s film program with pivotal questions as artificial intelligence begins to permeate our everyday lives.
“Both Sides Now 9: Generations” at Videotage
March 20 – April 10, 2024
Video Still of Tsui Hou-Lam’s “Rabu Rabu,” courtesy of the artist and Videotage.
Historical and contemporary film and video works are juxtaposed in magnetic fashion for “Both Sides Now 9: Generations” at Videotage. Radiating from the complex theme of artificial intelligence, hypnotic video artworks from visionary artists based in Hong Kong, the UK, and across the globe speak volumes through advanced technology and lush creativity. Curated by Isaac Leung of Videotage and Jamie Wyld of videoclub, visually stunning moments of animation, moving image, and documentary express vast shifts within diverse cultures and swiftly changing human relationships. Notable works on view include Kachi Chan’s Reconstructed (2022), Lau Wai’s The Dome (2023), Jonas Lund’s The Future of Something (2023), and Paul Trillo’s Jacques – “Absolve” (2023).
“Manifest Materiality” at Osage Art Foundation
March 23 – June 15, 2024
Ringo Bunoan, “Endings/ No Endings,” 2013, books and book pages, size variable; courtesy of the Artist and Osage Art Foundation.
Curated by Charles Merewether, “Manifest Materiality” at Osage Art Foundation intermeshes the works of 14 deft artists hailing from Asia and Turkey who’s creative shaping of materials pays respect to historical traditions and ushers in a bewitching new era of moments and meanings. 24 chromatic artworks are revealed by visionaries including Au Hoi Lam (Hong Kong), Bea Camacho (Philippines), Dusadee Huntrakul (Thailand), Jompet Kuswidananto (Indonesia), Kate Siu Man Kit (Hong Kong), Pisitakun Kuantalaeng (Thailand), and Poklong Anading (Philippines).
Three inspired categories underpin the presentation: materiality as a meditation on social and environmental living spaces, the importance of materials as a metaphor for daily life, and a laser focus on the visual facets of material abstraction as they relate to our perception of reality. Artists like Ma Shu Qing (China), Maria Taniguchi (Philippines), Nilo Ilarde (Philippines), Nipan Oranniwesna (Thailand), Ozlem Gunyol & Mustafa Kunt (Turkey), Ringo Bunoan (Philippines) and William Lim (Hong Kong) showcase diverse marvels of introspection and wise understandings of the mysteries of human existence.
Carrie Yamaoka’s “lucid/liquid/limpid” at Kiang Malingue
March 24 – April 27, 2024
Installation view of Carrie Yamaoka’s “lucid/liquid/limpid,” 2024, photo by Samson Wong Pak Hang, courtesy of the artist and Kiang Malingue.
New York-based visual artist Carrie Yamaoka rejoices in an inaugural presentation in Asia as well as at gallery Kiang Malingue with “lucid/liquid/limpid.” Surreal works of sculpture, painting, drawing, and photography ebb and flow throughout, with explorations ranging from 2009 to the present. Glimmering planes of urethane resin, silver mylar, and vinyl film express firm reactions to exposure to sunlight in the artist’s studio with a sensorial rippling effect. The addition of jet black paint and a skillful process of rolling the surfaces while wet culminates in the magic of 72 by 45 (lift-off) (2023).
Beginning in 2007, Yamaoka delved into cast flexible urethane resin works, where powdered pigment dancing within resin makes way for a molding practice embellished by reflective polyester film. With heat calling pigment particles to the center, a journey through viscosity, humidity, and placement, probes pathways of metamorphosis, renewal, and radical change. “I want the viewer to lurk in that limbo, that place before an image is arrived at,” stated Yamaoka.
