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香港当代艺术尚未广为外人所知，考实于本地亦非热门的文化主流。当代艺术步入九十年代以后悄悄成长，形成边沿的文化反省地带，也逐渐塑造出本地的艺术个性和对应现代生活的方式。谈香港话题无法单讲，必须牵涉中国大陆，可是当代艺术跟中国大陆的艺坛却恰恰是不互相对流的。大陆对香港文化界是庞大的背影，既是远去的旧梦也是眼前的生机，是厘定自身文化特性的他者，也是不断被抗拒的资源。香港当代艺术在上海展览，正好题点出这微妙的两地关系。
香港是由内地移民形成的城市，也是经西方殖民政治塑造成的一块地角。是中国现代化经历中关键的站口，也是新经济转型造就的国际大都。这些熟悉的特征都为香港与上海所共有，难怪一直到改革开放的八十年代以前，对广东人来说所有南来的外省人都是“上海人”。在“广东人”与“上海人”逐渐磨合为“香港人”的二、三十年间，艺术界的主流是“新”或“现代”中国文化，岭南派和新水墨可作为典型，其主调论述是中华统绪的延续。八十年代中英两国就香港前途开始谈判，港人移民潮同时开始，“香港人”在去留的抉择中渐渐成形。从二千零七的今天回顾近年对六十、七十年代的怀旧和争取保卫集体记忆，如对湾仔喜帖街与旧天星码头拆迁的抗议和广泛参与，可知香港人的自觉地方身份意识已在怀旧中被确定。九七以后的当代艺术是香港现实里提炼出来的艺术，有强烈的地方意识，并对当今日益制度化和商品化的生活提出各种对应方式。
若说集体怀旧掀示香港人的身份认同，则香港人是先游行再集体怀旧的。集体意识建立于自发的社会行动，在香港可见于几度大游行，从八九年六月至前几年反对董特首政策的七月一日游行；正如中国大陆的现代集体意识是被毛泽东几十年不断的政治运动塑造成的。然而香港却是政治意识尤其薄弱的地方。香港政界的主导是商人和行政官僚，没有政治家。经济逻辑统辖了政治的范畴。虽然游行凝聚香港的身份认同，可是香港生活的公共凝聚力却是来自一波波不断的经济浪潮，股市楼市像季度节庆，鼓动了集体兴奋和沮丧。于艺术而言，香港之缺乏政治生活也让带有“公共”性的艺术，或以意识型态为主导的作品难以成立。面对现实，艺术作为思考工具也就更注目于渗透在生活层面里的意识结构和制度约束。
2007年7月8日在上海MOCA开幕的《地轴转移》展以香港艺术家对回归十周年的回想为主题，中若干作品则是以香港上海两地为对照的，梁志和的《吸＋呼X4》更在四年前已成形，可见这两个都市在艺术想象里的互相影映。梁志和用针孔拍摄上海旧房屋的上空，以呼吸的韵律把四壁的天空带近推远，以身体的生命节奏融入上海的天地。梁志和另一件《域多利》也是关于意义转换的方式，那是香港在中英名称翻译中不经意流露出对商业利益的热衷。不必幽默，无忌市俗，多金多利的宏愿像碑铭镌刻在商厦大堂的指南“水牌”上。程展纬的《上海街照相馆》以香港上海街的居室作黑箱，用针孔法拍上海街街景。香港以国内大都命名街道，一如上海有各省街名。中土地理缩于近前，可为胸中强域推展版图，而上海街实际形象则又被见于自身的相机眼，心目两种意境于此重叠。时空对照在程展纬另一作品，中港两地的《公园家庭照》，更为明显。香港家庭合家逛公园已成为罕事，因此程展纬用三分钟才定形的针孔照为家庭留影。三分钟的默坐亦使被摄者成为被观看的表演者，公园成为舞台。被摄的家庭不是被动而成为主角。公园这类公共空间始于民国，象征步入现代世界的中国新公民空间，平等而带有公共生活意义（包括政治与公民权益）。可是在香港这种公共空间已急速被商业空间取代；虚拟世界的感官刺激消费，商品的视觉丰盛，商场的景观化，联手改造了原本属于平等大众的都市公共场地。反过来看，上海人民公园还是保留了公园服务大众的功能，两地的对比更突出了程展纬侧击的批评意图，反映了香港地产商业日益扩展侵蚀的势力。
徐世琪的《地下想象》是香港和上海两地的改制地图。浦江东西的街道与维港两岸马路互相对换。香港人和上海人立即换上对方的称谓，把远方的路标加在一个熟悉的地理中。观众在这既熟悉的陌生中迷失，浏览，衍生新的幻想与回忆。这是一份使记忆杂交的蓝图。洪强制作《我们都爱祖国的天空》和《出出入入》时还在英国读书（一九九七），他从一个在殖民地文化成长的经历想象被融入民族国家的境况，而以感性幽默的手法表现出来。献身的、不带个人面目的、愉悦而普天下的爱大概是洪强对民族国家的爱的理解。
“九七”这个观念在期待的年间代表一个历史终结，一个历史预设计划的来临。“九七”与乌托邦和革命历史观的近此至此为此。“九七后”没有预设某种意识型态的极乐世界，时光不会停顿。不过跨越九七后使人更容易立足于目前。郑波的两件作品都往“后”看，或换言之是向以“前”看的。对历史向前进步的宿命他不肯苟同。《家庭历史教材》源自一组家庭长辈的回忆录音，他从中发现了前此不知道的自己的家庭史，也从参与家庭回忆录把生命延向以前。《贾厉布群岛》像寓言，也像对影像世界的反思。作品假设一个时光倒流的世界，倒流的情节是从老电影剪辑下来的。相对发展和进步，贾厉布群岛反是缓慢而倒流，结果让主角决定在此岛长期留居。这个先知结局再看起因的逻辑看似荒诞，其实恰恰就是历史决定论的逻辑，也是二十世纪社会革命背后的神话基础。
同样采取宏观时空视野的作品是黄琮瑜的《伊甸园》和《世态图》。《伊甸园》以随机的无定的规则操作，摹拟人种从家庭发展成群体，并随缘随机茁长与衰灭，循环不息，兴盛败亡。作者用冷静数码方式演示这场大剧目，尤其衬托出背后的宇宙之恢宏。《世态图》用水墨画形式结合数码媒体，在表现大自然的永恒之主题下以人间的世变反映自然天地的变动不居的恒理。香港近代的艺术以新水墨最具规模和影响，水墨传统在九七后亦有多方面发展，而结合数码媒体和借用动漫效果是最近的新成绩。
梁巨廷可说是水墨界的前辈，他近年援用移拓和装置等非传统手法，使这媒体在新一代的艺术中得以延续。《节气都市》以场景装置的方式悬示作者的帛布山水画，并以录像和装置隐喻天地四时节气。如何在文人书画世界远离新工商社会后保留书画精神？这是水墨界一个长年以来的追求。九七后香港水墨一方面以流行新媒介给传统精神提供新面貌，用经典的立场呈现这个愈来愈不包容“山水”天地的世界。这份努力是在大自然无法提供绝对超越的意境之下推动的山水创作。
九七前后香港艺术界广泛推出过不少主题展，但明显的是没有太多直接受到这个历史时刻催化的深刻作品。对于建立香港文化的特性和身份认同，在九七前早就因为要相对于大陆的文化主流而强调差异，发掘偏差。大家早就开始留意属于香港的大众文化，通俗电影，探讨自身不中不西的传承。九七前香港当代艺术一个特色是自觉的边缘化，倾向不透明的私密性。当代艺术在社会上的边缘地位被引进创作策略，“私密性”成了应对现代生活和抵抗传媒泛滥以自保清醒的方式。在拒绝为私人的语言译码之下成立自身的独立。九七之后香港艺坛开始涉入全民的社会主题：如九八金融风暴，零三非典等。而且由于政府一个弃置空厦向艺术家开放，因而开始形成艺术界的阵地，同时地产低迷的数年间让艺术界开始流行独立工作室，这些变化都是香港艺坛的主要催化剂，促成了艺坛“文化圈”。当代艺术进入九七后逐渐介入切身的社会文化主题，如此次展览缺席的曾德平和苏恩琪都就本土记忆和小区文化创造过份量较重的大作品。二零零一年香港首次参加威尼斯双年展，当代艺术在缺乏本地市场和主流认同之下踏上国际舞台，开始应对新的观众。以香港这样一个典型大都会，当代艺术所带来的启示是有普遍意义的。九七后的当代香港艺术衍申了以前强调的私密性，并发展出新的创作策略，其中较为特出的趋势是把艺术埋伏在生活中。香港人好讲钱的话题，好讲财运，白双全把硬币遗在路上，用粉笔描了花，以作为《给路人的一朵小花》。他又在买六合彩票券时选号故意排成字型，成为《必胜六合彩》。诸如此类的小品、小联想累积成册出版，或作为不定期刊在报纸上的专栏图页，偶尔也在展馆出现。他会涉猎社会和政治主题，但不会正面交锋，而用一贯的妙想化为出奇的应对。被邀参加台湾展览，他跑到大陆相同地理纬线与香港经线的交叉点，请村民觅找形状近似台湾岛的天然石头。他经常留心的事物全在日常情境里出现。雨后路面一泓水，成为一个迁移水块的活动；月亮朔望间的盈虚，成为《饲养月亮》的作品。白双全与一些新一辈的香港艺术家把创作策略定为一种自我启蒙的过程。从习惯性，制度化的生活里觉醒，通过向后退一步有距离的推敲而建立直观的“知识”。
李杰的艺术定位应该是“画家”。他在布面上画的抽象条纹画又刻意与一般的印花条纹布靠近，故意引起错觉，引起联想。画成的布被用作野餐地布、窗帘，拍摄成记录照片。艺术品往生活品的身份靠拢，一如香港艺术家的作者身份被半隐在寻常生活里。李杰的餐桌现场布展须进入美术馆才让人清楚是“艺术品”。对于习惯了工业产品的现代人，物质文化的“人性”只在“设计”和“设计师”的层面出现。所以把艺术埋伏在生活里是为了唤醒对物质的直觉，不失为对手工制品的感官认识的良策。
曾建华的墙纸像变色龙，以近似熟悉的欧洲十九世纪花纹为保护色，掩埋了粤语和英文的市井俚语粗口，把香港生活里的涃杂和不文编织在约定俗成的图案内。香港所代表的中产秩序与拒绝被编制化的生命活力两者的矛盾在这些作品中反映得真切，一如广东人抗拒普通话的“普通”和规范，但又能在这成规下自行发挥。朱力行的《电视钟》和《股市音乐》的幽默在于让人愕然失笑。原来即日的股票市场波动隐藏了这么象样的音乐，习见的电视钟原来附带着即场的电视台节目。在不经意的日常细节中我们发现隐伏的意识层次，那么我们身边的事物是否都埋伏着诱惑的讯息，随我们不觉之间潜进感官意识中？谢淑婷的作品没有直接的批判意识。她的白瓷衣物在陈列柜上让人错觉是真的衣服，可是又如此脆弱细腻，凝定不变。日常被制作程序改变成永久，变易的日用品被凝固为观赏对象。这跟曾建华、李杰等的作品同样是对日常的审视，对日常的颠覆。
从消极的层面考虑，给制度征服的知识文艺界所能作为的事功起码就是自我启蒙，从制度和权力架构与觉识的狭缝间争取心灵自由。颠覆日常的生活空间和行为习惯才能审视浪费文化和产业经济在物品设计、行为模式、思想型态中夹带的后殖民值价和现代主义霸权。从积极的层面考虑，淡化民族论述，淡化各式各样的文化和政治论述，也是寻求脱略的途径。发掘埋伏于生活里的妙想，以生活的亲情把事功化为游戏，是香港青年艺术家开始倾向的艺术工作策略。
地方文化面貌的筑构除了以他者的差异成为反射镜之外，也必须以内部的多元立场提供差异和对话。香港九七后的当代艺术是对照欧美和大陆艺坛的状况而自我调整成立的；九七后的香港开始有一个可以捉摸的“艺坛”，有了具体的对话平台。从这次展览征集的作品中，可见到各种自我论述和自我解释，这些互相击荡的解释标志香港当代艺术已走到了新的成熟阶段。
Art in Camouflage “Reversing Horizons” – Reflections on the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Exhibition
Chang Tsong-zung
Hong Kong contemporary art is not just unfamiliar to outsiders, it is also a side show somewhat overlooked at home. Over time contemporary art has quietly claimed for itself a zone of reflection that, since the 80s, has developed a cultural character attuned to contemporary life. It is not possible to discuss Hong Kong without bringing in mainland China, but contemporary art is precisely the area where the two regions do not appear to find common ground, neither in social role, creative approach nor aspiration. Nevertheless, China is an enormous shadow looming over Hong Kong, it is a distant dream and the future, and it is the Other that defines the Hong Kong self. An exhibition in Shanghai brings to light the subtle relationship between Hong Kong and its ancestor-land.
Hong Kong, like Shanghai, is an immigrant city, a metropolis shaped by colonial politics and a spearhead of Chinese modernity. It is thus understandable that for native Cantonese in Hong Kong, until the Open Policy era of late 1970s, all northerners were “Shanghai-ese”. During the decades when “Cantonese” and “Shanghai-ese” reckoned with each other to bring about “Hongkong-ese”, the mainstream in Hong Kong art concerned themselves with the master narrative of “modern China”, whether it is Lingnan School, New Ink Painting, or Zhong Yuan modern art society. When negotiations about Hong Kong’s future between Britain and China began in the 1980s, so did Hong Kong’s out-going immigration wave, forcing home the challenge to come to terms with a local Hong Kong identity. A sense of “Hongkong-ese” started to emerge. As we look today at the recent surge of nostalgia for Hong Kong life of the 1960s and 1970s, and the call for preservation of heritage highlighted by activism against demolition of “Wedding Card” street and old Star Ferry, it is clear that a local sense of community and identity is in place. Contemporary art post-1997 has a distinct sense of locality and indigenous history, and it shows a special sensibility in dealing with the increasingly commercialised and regulated daily life among the already restricted public spaces of Hong Kong.
If public nostalgia illustrates Hong Kong’s sense of identity, then it was public protest marches that first made room for nostalgia. Hong Kong’s collective identity came with an assertion of public will, in particular the several major city-wide protest marches, that erupted in the past two decades. Having said this, it is important to qualify by saying that Hong Kong as a developed metropolis is particularly weak in political consciousness. Politics is dominated by businessmen (especially developers) and bureaucrats; there are no statesmen to speak of (aspiring politicians, perhaps). Economic logic dominates local politics. While Hong Kong identity is anchored by protest marches, its collective public life is shaped by totally un-political forces. It is the tidal wave of the speculative market, of property and stocks and shares, that periodically rocks the city to euphoria or depression like seasonal festivals elsewhere. In art, the lack of public life has the effect of marginalising art with a public angle, making it difficult for ideologically motivated art to work its way into the fabrics of local culture with any depth. In facing the realities of life, art as a tool for critical thinking tends to focus on the regulated controls and the ideological agenda hidden in daily life.
Opening at MOCA Shanghai on 8 July 2007, the exhibition Reversing Horizons takes the reflection of Hong Kong artists on the handover anniversary as the theme. Several works in this exhibition bring together the two cities of Hong Kong and Shanghai. Leung Chi-wo’s (Suck+Blow) x 4 was photographed in Shanghai four years ago in 2003, long before any prospects for exhibitions, which illustrates Hong Kong’s secret fascination with Shanghai. Leung took pin-hole photographs of the sky of Shanghai showing tips of buildings; by drawing the images in and out from the four surrounding sides in a breathing rhythm, he simulates a physical experience of the heavens of Shanghai. His other work in the exhibition is about interpretation; by looking at how Hong Kong businessmen translate names of corporations between English and Chinese, it exposes the city’s inner passion for gain. Without irony, unabashedly the gods of profit are engraved on the tenant’s directory panel in the foyer of commercial buildings. Chen Chin-wai’s Shanghai Street Photo Studio uses an apartment as the black-box to photograph a pin-hole image of Hong Kong’s Shanghai Street. Hong Kong dedicates many streets to major cities of China, just as Shanghai names its streets by Chinese provinces. Vision evoked by the name is here overlaid by a physical image seen through its own resident black-box; the double mental image shows the incongruity of ways a distant place may be imagined, especially when viewed in Shanghai. Palimpsest of space and time again forms Chen’s Family Pinhole in Hong Kong Park. Today it is rare for Hong Kong families to visit public parks on weekends, and Chen celebrates families making the visit with a 3 minute exposure pin-hole camera photography. Instead of the usual passivity imposed on photographed subjects, the 3 minutes of stillness turn the family into actors on the stage of the park as they present themselves to the world passing by. Public spaces such as parks were introduced to China in the early decades of the 20th century when the Republic embarked on its modernisation programme, and it was an important centre of modern life serving both political and cultural functions, acknowledging equal citizen rights. In Hong Kong this important public space is being swallowed up by new commercial spaces: shopping centres built as spectacles, malls promising sensory stimulation of virtual experience and fashionable commodities. By contrast Shanghai People’s Park continues to serve the public as a communal space, Family Pinhole in Shanghai People’s Park not only present a view on Shanghai but also highlights the artist’s critique of Hong Kong, and exposes the expanding control of property developers over Hong Kong daily life.
Thoughts from Underground by Angela Su are two maps, of Hong Kong and Shanghai respectively. She has swapped the street names of the two cities, so that residents of either place would get confused and bemused in exploring what should have been familiar. Imagining possibilities as the reader weaves through the streets, stale memories are startled out of complacent corners. Hung Keung ‘s I Love My Country’s Sky and Eating and Growing were both made in 1997 when the artist was studying in London; from the perspective of his colonial cultural upbringing, the artist tries to imagine the emotions of nationhood. With humour he seems to articulate national love as a devotional, joyful, universal and featureless experience.
During the suspended years of waiting for “97” to arrive, the term “97” represented a terminal date for history, the arrival of a predestined historical plan. However, similarities between “97” and concepts of utopia or the historical time of revolution end here. After 1997 time has not stood still, and there has been no grand solution. But having crossed the date there is no longer any excuse for not addressing Hong Kong issues on its own terms. Zheng Bo’s two works both look back at the past, indicating the artist’s disavowal of the optimistic faith in the progress of time. Family History Textbook is based on a series of recorded interviews with his own family, through which he discovered family stories he never knew. Through this artwork he takes part in extending collective memory into the past. Kalibu Islands (a work created together with Ling Chin Tang) is a utopia story in reversal time, and a reflection on the visual memory of films. The protagonist finds herself in a place, Kalibu Islands, where time flows backwards, and an archive of film clips is being screened backwards as well. Against a world bent on going forward and getting ahead, Kalibu is about slowing down and reversing the march of “progress”. The protagonist finally decides to make this island her permanent home. The absurd logic of starting with the end result, starting with death and senility, then move backwards to the beginning, sounds like fairytale, but this is in fact precisely the logic behind historical determinism, the foundation of the fairytale that empowered the great social revolutions (mostly disastrous) of the 20th century.
Taking an equally broad canvas is Wong Chung-yu’s Garden of Eden and Ways of the World. Garden of Eden is a cold digital model of chance and human development, based on random encounters, calamities and procreation. Its cosmic vision gives a sobering view of the fragility of life and society, putting into perspective the vanities of the world. Ways of the World represents an admirable attempt to revive the possibilities of ink painting for the interactive digital era. The work paints a picture of the human world as it plays out its fortunes in the limited sphere of the globe we live in. It is interactive; digital elements come onto a screen with an ink painting of a landscape, which sets the stage for global struggle for resources and control. Taking a long historical view, the future of this world is equally sobering as the artist’s Garden of Eden, and it makes a perfect backdrop for Zheng Bo’s land of reverse time.
Hong Kong’s indigenous New Ink Painting movement that started in the 1950s is an important thread linking the territory’s cultural history. In this exhibition is included Leung Kui-ting, a pioneer who has been actively involved in the movement since the 1960s. City of Morality is an installation incorporating paintings and furniture, the solar terms are evoked as a reminder of the effects of nature on urban life. In recent decades, one of the main missions ink painting has appointed itself is to remain a relevant voice within the post industrial world. Hong Kong ink painters have made efforts in engaging various new media, in order to interpret a new cultural world increasingly less sympathetic to the spirit of “landscape” art. The effort is heroic and visionary at the same time, as the ultimate spiritual source of this art, that of a regenerative nature, has been so exploited and denigrated that today, human effort (or restraint, rather) is conversely needed for nature’s sustenance.
Around 1997, ten years ago, numerous art exhibitions were created around the historical event of Hong Kong’s political Handover. However, not many memorable works have appeared. In fact, long before that date the search for identity was already on: comparing differences between Hong Kong and mainland China, seeking out local life styles, popular culture and film, seeking a balance between the dual, yet both incomplete, heritage of East and West. Long before 1997 artists started to exploit the marginality that made them both insignificant and special; the result was a conscious move towards opacity and secrecy. Turning their marginalised social position into creative strategy, privacy served as a protective mask against the disorienting noises of an unsympathetic world and preserved the independence of personal artistic language. After 1997 contemporary art started to engage in wider social issues, and began to assume a public face. Also, importantly, through the availability of a government subsidised studio building in 1999 an art scene was initiated; from here on the awareness of an artistic community started to develop and diverse voices began to appear. For the first time in decades a clustering of artist studios appeared, thanks to the depressed real estate market during the years of the Asian financial crisis and SARS. Ambitious projects reflecting on social topics started to surface, and two artists that deserve mention are Kith Tsang Tak-ping and So Yan-kee, especially as they are not participating in the present exhibition. In 2001 Hong Kong took part officially in the Venice Biennial for the first time, and contemporary art began to engage a new audience even as local acceptance and market support were still lacking. For a major international metropolis like Hong Kong, whatever form of contemporary art forthcoming should have bearing on the understanding of global modernity as a whole; any local form of artistic production and strategy would provide essential knowledge in dealing with the complexity of contemporary life. One aspect of Hong Kong art post 1997 that deserves elaboration is the strategy of camouflage, camouflaging art within the texture of everyday life, and this is an artistic practice that echoes, and builds upon, previous experiences with privacy and personal language.
Hong Kong life is obsessed with the topic of money, people love to talk about luck and winning. Artist Pak Sheung-chuen puts coins on the street and draws with chalk flower petals around the coins, then takes daily stock of the fate of the coins. The work is Gift of Flower to Passers-by. He bets on the Mark Six lottery and chooses the numbers to compose the form of the word “win” in the lottery ticket to make Sure Win Mark Six. Witty works like this, small thoughts, are exhibited as a special weekly column in a Hong Kong daily; a collection has also appeared in book form, Odd One In: Hong Kong Diary. Only occasionally do the works appear in exhibitions proper. His topics range from society and politics, but they are never engaged front on. When Bak was invited for an exhibition in Taiwan, he studied the meeting point of the longitude and latitude of Hong Kong and Taiwan, which lies somewhere in South China, and then visited the village to ask villagers to seek naturals stones formed in the shape of Taiwan island. What Bak takes note of are invariably close at hand, his work sometimes involve no more than a shift of viewpoint, such as turning the cycle of moon into the work Feeding the Moon. For Bak and many of his peers, art production is employed as a process of self enlightenment. Lifting the mind out of habitual routine by taking a step back is their strategy for generating intuitive knowledge.
Lee Kit is a playful painter. He paints stripes on plain cloth to resemble printed tablecloths and curtains, playing on the fine difference between art and mass product. Lee uses his paintings as picnic cloth, table cloth and curtains, and records the soiling as part of the work-in-process. Identity of the art is buried among daily goods, just as Hong Kong artists bury themselves in local business life; only during exhibitions are the identities clearly defined. To hide art among daily goods alerts people to the texture and quality of our material world. Most urban dweller only understand material culture in terms of “design” and “designers”, here Lee brings a gentle reminder of the personable intimacy of art.
Tsang Kin-wah makes printed wallpaper with designs resembling 19th century Victorian patterns, when in fact they hide a riotous outburst of vulgar slang and political incorrect sayings in both English and Chinese. In Hong Kong the resistance against the regulated life of the middle class by those who refuse to be assimilated takes a tangential path, often humorously subversive; an exemplary case is the general resistance against Putonghua Mandarin by the Cantonese. Henry Chu’s TV Clock and Music of the Market draw a smile upon close inspection. It comes as a surprise to find that the fluctuation of the stock market can hide such rhythmic tunes, or to notice the current TV programme when studying the time. It makes us wonder how much unnoticed information is hidden in daily life surrounding us. Sara Tse works with familiar household things. By turning clothing into white porcelain, malleable forms are fossilised into permanent, yet fragile, objects. The everyday becomes objects of scrutiny. Like Tsang Kin-wah and Lee Kit, Sara Tse’s art draws the gaze of the audience towards the familiar to transform their experience of the world.
At a personal level, the least the cultural world can do is self enlightenment, apart from trying to pry open a space of freedom within the matrix of institutional power and ideological persuasion of all forms. Subverting daily life and customary behaviour is the short path to exposing the values embedded in product design, social behaviour and thinking pattern. As a general artistic approach, Hong Kong artists’ tendency to slip out of nationalistic narratives, side-stepping cultural and political discourses of all description, points to openness. For the new generation, transforming regulated life through the intimacy of the everyday, and excavate hidden wit and inspiration in the mundane have become a widely accepted strategy.
The making of a cultural identity is both an external and internal affair, it takes both the gaze of the Other as well as discourses within oneself to arrive at the complexity that makes understanding and artistic production possible. Since 1997 Hong Kong has seen the new beginnings of a contemporary art scene, and the stage is set for bringing together not just internal dialogue but also worthwhile international discourse. From artworks made available for the present exhibition it is clear that not only can we speak of a “Hong Kong” art, it also represents an important voice that responds sensitively to the uncertain modern world we all live in.