HONG KONG.- Tai Kwun Contemporary is showcasing Hong Kong curators through two open call exhibitions this season. Running from 15 September 2018 to 4 January 2019, Collections of Tom, Debbie and Harry, and Our Everyday — Our Borders are two art exhibitions presented by Hong Kong institutions and curated by local curators, in an initiative where Tai Kwun supports curatorial practice in Hong Kong.
The open call for proposals was initially put forward by Tai Kwun back in November 2015. The programme welcomed a wide variety of local and overseas artists, curators, arts groups and organisations to participate, and the successful proposals will visualise the theme of Hong Kong contemporary art at the galleries of Tai Kwun. The exhibitions include Collections of Tom, Debbie and Harry, presented by Short Hair Studio, and Our Everyday — Our Borders, presented by Rooftop Institute.
Tobias Berger, Head of Arts, Tai Kwun, said, “Open call exhibitions are an important way for Tai Kwun to fulfil its role as a centre for heritage and arts for Hong Kong. We aim to inspire and encourage artists and curators, while at the same time providing more opportunities for members of the public to develop a curiosity and interest in art. I hope that everyone will stop by and see these two fantastic open-call exhibitions, which showcase diverse perspectives on Hong Kong through an intriguing variety of creative voices and artistic methods.”
Collections of Tom, Debbie and Harry
Presenting a number of local artists, Collections of Tom, Debbie and Harry began its journey in July 2017, when Short Hair Studio organised a series of workshops for senior citizens in Hong Kong. Attempting to solicit narratives around the profound value of keepsakes, the workshops invited these elders to reflect on their belongings and the memories within; stories which have seldom been told. The project and the resulting exhibition facilitate cross-generational conversation and present an exploration of the artistic practice of amassing keepsakes. It brings to the fore amateur or “unintentional” collections which would normally be neglected in a museum context, in turn uncovering the multi-faceted meanings of an object to an individual, a family and even a generation.
The resulting group exhibition is an artistic response to these topics, by seven local artists and artist groups. Yiu Mui Lai, Lee Kai Chung, and artist couple Chung Wai Ian and Ng Ka Chun present artworks inspired by the “unintentional collector” with whom they collaborated in the elderly workshop. Ma King Chu, chooses to intervene the historical and sentimental aspects of a few collectors’ assemblage of newspapers from the old days. Leung Mee Ping, Lau Chi Chung and Chiu Wai Yee will play a dual role of artist and collector, each making use of their own collectible items as the source of inspiration and the vehicle for making art.
Collections of Tom, Debbie and Harry is presented by Short Hair Studio.
Our Everyday — Our Borders
Our Everyday — Our Borders brings together works by two Asian artists, Tang Kwok Hin (Hong Kong) and Motoyuki Shitamichi (Japan). They reflect on the themes of the everyday and of borders, through various forms of participatory practices and explorations. In addition to object-based works of art, both artists have created conditions of dialogue and interaction to produce the setting on display at Tai Kwun. By intervening in the lives of local volunteers, and by establishing dialogue during workshops with secondary school students, they have confronted the imaginary boundaries created by geographical conditions, human relations and cultural traditions. These explorations are frequent themes in the practice of both artists.
In his work, Tang Kwok Hin explores the hidden rules of life and existence by focusing on the concepts of occasion, space, time, memory and the ways symbols are encountered through commodities. His artworks, sometimes taking the forms of collages and assemblages of images, often use erasure to create new meaning out of objects, documents and situations. In these symbolic collages, Tang is particularly concerned with the combinations of daily things and how the questions raised by these new assemblages shed new light on human development. These acts of obliteration usually give to everyday objects an even richer set of meanings, interrogating the existence, rational and usage of such items and, as a result, the very importance of our lives.
Profoundly interested in narratives that have been largely forgotten and buried by our everyday lives and concerns, the works of Motoyuki Shitamichi neither document scenes nor archive historical facts but prefer to address the issues of the everyday through the exploration of personal and public histories. For example, Motoyuki has spent four years traveling around Japan, surveying and photographing the remains of gun emplacements, fighter hangars, and other military structures, publishing these works in the Bunkers series (2001-2005). He has also photographed the Torii, i.e. Japanese shrine gates, remaining in America, Taiwan, Russia, Korea, and other locations from the days of the Japanese colonial occupation of these countries, publishing his work in the well-known Torii series (2006–2012). Motoyuki Shitamichi will represent Japan at the next Venice Biennial in 2019.
Our Everyday – Our Borders is presented by Rooftop Institute.
