A Few Notes on Hong Kong Art / Part One: A Space for Art in the Densest City in the World
Samantha Culp
courtesy of the artist
East and West. Modern and traditional. Colonial and post-colonial. These binaries are breathtakingly boring, but still used incessantly when discussing that capital city of dynamic contrasts, Hong Kong. In a place where skyscrapers tower only a few miles from rural villages, sometimes the clichés of paradox are inevitable. Hong Kong’s visual art-world is no exception to the rule, and the binary approach to understanding it seems seductively simple: Hong Kong art is either pre-97 or post-97, traditional or post-modern, student or professional, safely commercial or unsustainably experimental, flourishing or struggling, "local" or "foreign". Fortunately for the art (but unfortunately for an easy comprehension of it), the real picture is far more subtle and complex. To see where Hong Kong art is at the moment, the first matter is where to look–and many of the big issues and meta-characteristics of the HK art-scene can be seen in the individual art-spaces of this mega-metropolis.
Hong Kong’s art venues can be divided into a few broad categories, each with a particular focus and character: museums and large cultural institutions, galleries, and alternative art spaces. Museums like the Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum primarily display classical Chinese art and contemporary artists working in traditional mediums (ink painting, bronze), while large arts complexes like the Hong Kong Arts Center and the Hong Kong Visual Art Center typically showcase art students’ work and the products of assorted arts education programs. Sometimes this category of art venues does exhibit local contemporary artists (such as the Hong Kong Arts Center’s recent show of Hong Kong illustrator Carrie Chau’s cartoonish drawings, Blind Fly 2), but the focus on heritage art and other ancillary programs prevents truly challenging contemporary work from being shown.
Hong Kong’s commercial galleries are precisely that–highly commercial, and not much else. Clustered in the banking district and expat ghetto of Central Hong Kong, these well-appointed spaces display a range of antique Chinese art, scenic photography, Hong Kong/Mainland artists working in traditional mediums (including crafts like pottery and weaving), foreign painters and sculptors working in similarly orthodox styles, and a few "edgily" contemporary Mainland Chinese artists (mostly painters). This last subset is the specialty of the Schoeni Gallery, a Hong Kong institution whose late owner Manfred Schoeni launched the careers of many current "it" Beijing artists. Showing recently was "A Tribute to my Father’s Artists", organized by Nicole Schoeni, who took over the gallery’s helm after her father’s tragic murder last February. The walls were crowded with large-scale figurative paintings by significant Mainland artists like Yue Min Jun (famous for his "terra cotta army" of generic men with obscenely large smiles) and Yang Zhao Bin (here represented by the grotesquely distorted faces of his 1996 "Police Series")–as well as some lesser works that seemed like unintentional kitsch pieces (Zhu Yi Yong’s pastel concubine holding a lantern would be perfectly at home in the breakfast nook of some Newport Beach condominium). The majority of the pieces, it should be noted, were already adorned with little yellow stickers–this stuff sells. But since all of Schoeni’s artists are from the Mainland, where are the Hong Kong artists getting sold? Hanart TZ Gallery a few blocks away was displaying (and selling, I gathered from the tell-tale yellow stickers) the late Hong Kong photographer Tseng Kwong-Chi’s "Chinese Ambassador" series –self-portraits of a Mao-suited Tseng in front of world landmarks. But these works were all from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Plum Blossom Gallery shows recent paintings by Tung Lo, a Hong Kong-born and Paris-based artist who deals in soft, grey tones and expressionistic faces that appear to be peeking out from a torn and faded newspaper. Rendered with "simple Chinese calligraphic strokes" (in the words of the gallery publicity), Lo draws on tradition but doesn’t get very far–the canvases are "pretty", and though would complement any living room, don’t do anything for the state of new art. The question then becomes, where are the contemporary and challenging Hong Kong artists getting seen and/or sold?
Alternative art spaces to the rescue. Because of a funding scheme set up by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (an umbrella organization for all the HK government’s art activities), a small but exciting group of non-profit art spaces have emerged as the only venues for truly experimental art in Hong Kong. Supported by government grants, spaces such as 1a Space and Videotage can run innovative exhibitions of Hong Kong (and international) artists year-round. Both 1a Space and Videotage are currently located in the Cattle Depot Artists Village, a former depot for holding cattle (as the name implies) in a nowhere Kowloon neighborhood. The unassuming complex of low brick buildings is ideal for such a homegrown artists community. The chambers are perfectly-sized for gallery rooms or individual studios, and little details externalize the physical past of the space–the concrete water troughs in the courtyard, the metal rings for roping up cows still protruding from the whitewashed walls. Though the setting is almost nostalgic (a sanitized version of Hong Kong’s industrial yesteryear), the art genres being explored here are anything but. New media rules the old Cattle Depot, whether in the form of interactive computer interfaces, sound art, video projections, installation, performance, or even traditional materials with a digital twist. As one might expect, these works are hard to sell–on the other hand, they don’t have to worry about selling. As art critic David Clarke points out more generally in his 2001 survey of Hong Kong art, "…the lack of a developed market for local contemporary art meant that there was no incentive for artists to produce objects which could function as commodities…the high cost of studio and storage space in a compact and crowded city also discouraged work in more traditional media." [1]
His analysis is visibly true– the bulk of contemporary and "interesting" Hong Kong artists tend to work in these more ephemeral mediums, including the three artists (Ellen Pau, Warren Leung Chi-wo, Ho Siu-kee) who were chosen to represent Hong Kong for the first time ever at the 49th Venice Biennale in 2001. This observation is also reflected by the alternative art spaces of Hong Kong, especially at Cattle Depot, where Videotage specializes in experimental video art (and plays host to the annual Microwave video festival) and 1a space in video, installation and assorted nontraditional art-forms. In August, 1a presented a show called "Writing Machine Collective", which combined displays of cyber/hypertext computer software with a lecture on interactive computer-text art by City University professor, curator, and artist Linda Lai. Interactive art is a major focus of the gallery at present, and this trend manifests 1a’s greater dedication to audience participation, interdisciplinarity, and the creation of a non-elitist arts community in Hong Kong. Currently up at 1a is "Trespassing: Digital Interaction" by Hong Kong artist Young Hay, best known for his a show called "Bonjour, Young Hay (After Courbet)" performances in which he carried a large blank canvas through assorted cities (Hong Kong 1995, New York and Berlin 1998, Beijing 2000). The 1a exhibit is distinctly different in tone and form than this earlier work– two chalkboard-sized white fabric screens display an interactive interior projection of a rabbit and some musical bars, respectively, which, if touched by the viewer’s hands or stroked with a dry paintbrush, explode into color and sound. Young Hay himself helped develop the motion-tracking technology used in the piece, and the way the screen responds feels very fresh and surprising, even if the visual aesthetic is very "MacPaint" circa 1996 (though this in itself seems a commentary on the instant obsolescence of computer programs). There is also an "Homage to Chuck Close", in which the viewer can hold up a printed card to a fixed web-cam and the wall projection mutates into colorful grid portraits. Overall, "Trespassing" is intriguing but feels incomplete, more like sketches of an artistic application for these technologies rather than full-fledged experiences.
In late September, Young Hay’s works will go on to display in the Shanghai Biennial, a major event that will again highlight Mainland China’s pre-eminent place in the Asian art-world. Hong Kong’s status in relation to its Mainland urban neighbors like Shanghai and especially Beijing is still unclear–as is its individual identity as a world city and art scene. The alternative art spaces of Hong Kong are fertile grounds for vital experimentation, and many more important Hong Kong artists are creating dynamic works about their city and selves. But the works of the significant Hong Kong contemporary artists cannot be found in any Hong Kong museum. And if the government reclaims Cattle Depot as a development project, which will happen sooner or later, 1a Space and Videotage will have to relocate with scant resources. The struggle now becomes forging more permanent and visible institutions to support this and future generations of Hong Kong artists. But the picture is neither optimistic nor pessimistic, here nor there. Somewhere between or beyond binaries we can catch a glimpse of an art-scene in transition, undoubtedly on its way to somewhere interesting.
Seeing Hong Kong Art:
Galleries
Habitus
3F Western Market
Sheung Wan
Tel: (852) 2973-0231
Email: yy@culturejam.net
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12-3pm and 5-7pm; closed on Monday and Public Holidays
Hanart TZ Gallery
2/F Henley Building
5 Queen’s Road Central
Tel: (852) 2526-9019
Email: tzchang@hanart.com
Website: http://www.hanart.com
Opening Hours: Monday – Friday, 10am – 6:30pm; Saturday, 10am – 6pm
Plum Blossoms Gallery
G6 1 HOLLYWOOD ROAD CENT
G6, 1 Hollywood Road, Central
Tel: (852) 2521-2189
Fax: (852) 2868-4398
Email: info@plumblossoms.com
Website: http://www.plumblossoms.com
Schoeni
Main Gallery: 21-31 Old Bailey Street, Central
Branch: 27 Hollywood Road, Central
Tel: (852) 2869-8802
Fax: (852) 2522-1528
Email: gallery@schoeni.com.hk
Website: http://www.schoeni.com.hk/
Opening Hours: 10:30am – 6:30pm Monday – Saturday. Closed on Sundays and public holidays.
Alternative Spaces
Fringe Club
Volkswagen Fotogalerie
2 Lower Albert Road, Central
Tel: (852) 2521-7251
Fax: (852) 2868-4415
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10-18. Sat 10-13
Para Site
G/F, 4 Po Yan Street, Sheung Wan
Tel: (852) 2517-4620
Fax: (852) 2517-6850
Email: info@para-site.org.hk
Website: http://www.para-site.org.hk/
Opening Hours: Wed-Sun 12-19
M63 Artist Commune
Unit 12, Cattle Depot Artist Village,
63 Ma Tau Kok Road
To Kwa Wan, Kowloon
Tel: (852) 2104-3322
Email: m63@artist-commune.com
Website: http://www.artist-commune.com
Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 2 – 8pm; closed on Monday and public holidays
1a Space
Unit 14, Cattle Depot Artist Village
63 Ma Tau Kok Road
To Kwa Wan, Kowloon
Tel: (852) 2529-0087
Email: admin@oneaspace.org.hk
Website: http://www.oneaspace.org.hk
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 2 – 8 pm; Sunday and Public Holiday, 12 – 6 pm; closed on Monday and day after public holiday
Videotage
No. 13, Block PB 567
Cattle Depot Artist Village
63 Ma Tau Kok Road
To Kwa Wan, Kowloon
Tel: (852) 2573-1869
Fax: (852) 2503-5978
Email: info@videotage.org.hk
Website: http://www.videotage.org.hk
Institutions
Hong Kong Art Centre
2 Harbour Road, Wanchai
Tel: (852) 2521-7251
Fax: (852) 2868-4415
Email: hkac@hkac.org.hk
Website: http://www.hkac.org.hk/online/e/about_us/intro/index.html
Opening Hours: Mon-Fri 10-18 . Sat 10-13
Hong Kong Museum of Art
10 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong
Tel: (852) 2721-0116
Fax: (852) 2723-7666
Email: enquiries@lcsd.gov.hk
Website: http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/CE/Museum/Arts/english/intro/eintro.html
Opening Hours: 10:00am to 6:00pm daily, Closed on Thursdays (Except Public Holidays) and the first two days of the Chinese New Year, Closed at 5:00pm on Christmas Eve and Chinese New Year’s Eve
Hong Kong Arts Development Council
22/F, 181 Queen’s Road Central, Central
Tel: (852) 2827-8786
Fax: (852) 2519-9301 / (852) 2824-0585
Email: hkadc@hkadc.org.hk
Website: http://www.hkadc.org.hk
Office Hours: Monday – Friday 9:00am – 5:30pm, Saturday 9:00am – 12:00noon
Asia Art Archive
2/F no.8 Wah Koon Building,
181-191 Hollywood Road, Sheung Wan
Tel: (852) 2815 1112
Fax: (852) 2815 0032
Email: info@aaa.org.hk
Website: http://www.aaa.org.hk
Office hours: Monday to Saturday 10am-6pm
Footnote:
Clarke, David. Hong Kong Art: Culture and Decolonization. Duke University Press, 2001. pg. 73
