NEW YORK, NY.- This month, just before Art Basel Hong Kong begins, an array of artworks — some towering, some glowing, another harking back to old Hong Kong — will pop up outside the walls of the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center.
Five of these new, large-scale works were commissioned by a department of Hong Kong’s government for its outdoor art project, “Art@Harbour,” the harbor being Victoria Harbor, which separates Hong Kong Island from the Kowloon Peninsula.
Another piece was jointly commissioned by M+, Hong Kong’s contemporary art museum, and Art Basel Hong Kong. That work, a new black-and-white film by Chinese artist and filmmaker Yang Fudong, “Sparrow on the Sea,” will be projected on the museum’s facade nightly.
One of the “Art@Harbour” projects, “Schrödinger’s Bed,” is by Hong Kong artist Dylan Kwok.
Kwok’s work is named after Schrödinger’s cat, the famous thought experiment by theoretical physicist Erwin Schrödinger.
That experiment, which the scientist proposed as a commentary on quantum mechanics, suggests that, if a cat is inside a sealed box with something that may kill it, it is impossible to know whether the cat is alive or dead until you observe the cat. So, until you open the box, the cat is at once both dead and alive.
Kwok explained by email that his installation, in Tamar Park, a waterfront green space in the Admiralty district, “consists of nine futuristic daybeds that are placed in a tic-tac-toe alignment. Six inflatable cats in checkerboard patterns are (randomly) seated or lay on six daybeds out of the total of nine.” These outdoor couches are programmed to glow in differing patterns from 6 p.m. to midnight, he added, to surprise visitors sitting on them.
“Laying down on a bench seems to be a taboo in any public park, needless to say,” Kwok added. “Having a bed as urban furniture is only a daydream.” So, he said, the pieces are meant to provoke conversations about public space.
Kwok also said the experiment “made us think differently about the nature of reality.”
“The cat in the box can be both dead and alive, at the same time, before observations,” he said. “We can only know if the person sitting on the bench is truly sleeping (or awake) only when trying to wake them up.” The installation, he added, asks observers, “How do we want our public life to be? Can we introduce daybeds in our parks?”
Another piece of the “Art@Harbour” exhibition, also in Tamar Park, is by teamLab, a Tokyo international art collective.
That two-work exhibition, “teamLab: Continuous,” consists of giant glowing ovoids and trees arrayed across land and sea.
The collective explained in a news release that the egg-shaped forms in “Resonating Life which Continues to Stand,” the first of the two works, stand resolutely, no matter where they are.
“The ovoids continue to stand even if they are pushed over by waves, blown by the wind, or pushed by people,” the artists said. “When an ovoid is pushed over, it rises back up on its own and shines brightly.” That light, and the sound the ovoid produces, resonates with other ovoids and trees nearby.
The team added: “When it is quiet and the wind is not blowing and the people nearby are not interacting with the ovoids, their lights begin to flicker slowly.”
According to teamLab, in the second work, “Resonating Trees,” the light of the trees responds to the light of the ovoids. As they respond, the trees may change color.
Another installation in Tamar Park, “Harbour Cup,” by Hong Kong firm Laab Architects, consists of foosball-inspired sculptures.
Asked about the inspiration for the work, Laab Architects said by email, “When we looked for inspiration at the site, we noticed that a lot of people actually came here to exercise. That’s how the sports theme came about. We want to create an artwork that blends in with people’s daily lives, but with a little something off that breaks people’s habit, or makes people rethink the ways of doing things.”
The firm took the sports theme as a jumping-off point, but then played with it. “‘Harbour Cup’ has no goals on either end and no clear definition of teams, people have to negotiate with each other on how to play,” the architects explained. “Through play, we hope that people can get to talk to each other more, no matter they are family, friends, acquaintances, or strangers.”
The “Art@Harbour” works will be on display from Monday, just before Art Basel opens, through June 2.
“Sparrow on the Sea,” which Yang filmed in Hong Kong, features what M+ described in a news release as scenes from “picturesque seaside villages” and “nocturnal city streets.”
Yang said by email that his film was inspired by beloved movies set in Hong Kong, such as “In the Mood for Love,” and that its soundtrack will be provided by the city’s “ambient sounds, of seawater, boats, cars, people and those inside the buildings.”
“Each viewer can have their own unique imagination, combining the sounds that they hear in this city and the visual they see from the work,” he said.
The film will be projected on the museum’s facade from Friday to June 9.
Angelle Siyang-Le, director of Art Basel Hong Kong, said by email that the fair hopes the outdoor art will “attract a diverse range of audiences, both local and international, who are interested in engaging with the vibrant art scenes of Asia.”
“By offering an immersive experience that highlights diverse artistic perspectives, the goal is to connect guests from around the world in Hong Kong,” she said. “This includes art enthusiasts, collectors, curators, scholars and individuals interested in exploring and appreciating contemporary art from Asia and beyond.”
Asked about the importance of interactive art today, Laab Architects said, “We are so used to looking at our phone these days and become unaware of each other’s presence. This is where interactive art comes into play, to disrupt this kind of presence-non-presence situation, to break a little routine, to create genuine connections, even though the connection may just be a fleeting moment.”
This article originally appeared in
The New York Times.
