HKBU, KMK Exhibition Gallery: “Urban Exotic Dilemma 城市刺探“

June 4 – 8, 2015, curated by Craig Cooper and Wang Dong

What a short time for a show! The show was quite special in the aspect that it was curated by two current doctoral students at Hong Kong Baptist University, yet did not show (only) works by students, but works by a number of artists invited by the curators.

At first I did not get the title, but in hindsight it did indeed contain the keyword of the exhibition which was “dilemma”. While presented as one show, the two curators seemed to have worked next to each other almost independently, each presenting ‘their’ artist’s artworks on ‘their’ respective floor (the gallery has two floors). The same approach was exemplified in the talk that preceded the opening where each curator introduced ‘his’ artists and held ‘his’ talk. I guess it should be noted that one of the curators, Craig Cooper, comes from the United Kingdom, while the other curator, Wang Dong, comes from Mainland China. If it wasn’t for the insistence of some Hong Kong artists for English translation, it seemed that both curators would even give their opening speeches in Mandarin Chinese (Wang) and British English (Cooper) only.

It should come as no surprise that Wang Dong’s floor was dominated by China Mainland and Hong Kong artists while Craig Cooper’s floor was dominated by British and American artists. The split was not only in the spatial and culture aspects, but also in the type of works selected, once again showing two different worlds.

Wang Dong’s floor presented quite a well-balanced selection conforming to the Hong Kong idea of art in non-commercial spaces: Work referring to social reality, combined with some more poetic/metaphorical expressions in traditional media easily understandable to the audience. The current Hong Kong interest in political topics has been referenced, but gently in a way that no-one gets offended. In terms of media, there was a balance between video, painting and a large textile patchwork hung over the space. Overall the ground floor has been a “people’s” exhibition of contemporary art – something to wonder about and enjoy for the whole family without much fuss, with critical readings possible by those who looked for them.

Craig Cooper’s (upper) floor was a space with a high ceiling. In some way, Cooper seemed to have attempted something similar as Wang Dong on the most general conceptual level – create an exhibition that will have both something to wonder about and that will look nice. The difference was the cultural background. Coopers floor was set in the Euro-American post/modern artistic discourse, where art can stand in itself and for itself, without needing to be strictly mimetic or referential. Most of the artworks were graphics-based in nature, walls have been covered by a large number of small works. Actually the works were not so small, maybe 1-2 meters in size, but the quantity and large space made them look small. Photographs and digital prints were complemented by video works and sculptures. The balance of media that existed on Wang Dong’s floor has been skewed here by the large numbers of (graphic and photo) prints.

In terms of content, floor two presented a sight which one does not get to see much in Hong Kong’s non-commercial spaces. The works were much more ambiguous and detached in their meaning, and were meant to be approached using more of the ‘right’ (creative/holistic) and less of the ‘left’ (logical/sequential) brain. Safe variants of this art can be found in Hong Kong’s commercial galleries accompanied by marketing materials with dumbed-down synopses, but it was quite special to see it in a university gallery. Within the given context, I missed more of an explanation of the curatorial strategy. In Wang’s floor, it was quite obvious how the locality was involved, but on Cooper’s floor, while I sensed that it was involved, I could not figure out how exactly. While Wang’s floor seemed to be more a result of picking works from artists, Cooper’s floor seemed more a result of picking artists, bringing them over, and then compromising on what should and can be done in existing circumstances.

Overall, the ‘dilemma’ of Greater China vs. Euro-America was the most interesting part of the show: The assumptions and expectations, the communication and communication breakdowns. From Cooper’s side it was an attempt to assert a space within a different cultural context. Do Euro-American ideas have the right to exist untainted in other cultures? Or will their necessarily be adapted by the readers / audiences even against the will of the creators? We can assert aesthetic and moral viewpoints, but in the end, it may just be a numbers game.

In the end, maybe that is a good thing about the unresolved dilemma of the exhibition: The visitor passes through Wang’s floor that they can more directly relate to and then ascends to Cooper’s floor which is more mysterious and abstract, and needs a stronger empathic effort on the visitor’s side. The dilemma has been transformed into a complementary set, in which two very different curatorial/artistic approaches, cultures and styles co-exist.

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Wang Dong’s Floor: I don’t have much photos from this floor, so I even scavenged one photo from the event’s FB (Wen Yau’s work) and another one from Yao Zhiyan’s Weibo. Works by artists: Jaffa Lam (blue patchwork), Leung Mee-ping (video of her maliciously taking as many waiting tickets as possible at a bank), Wen Yau (some Earth and plants from the New Territories people have to walk over), Xue Lei (porcelain shoes video), Yao Zhiyan (flying/dreaming pig series).

Craig Cooper’s Floor: I have more photos from here, but I could not figure out who made which artwork, only tried to piece it together retroactively from a list of artworks, so there may be mistakes. Artists: Sam Basu (Big drawings on transparent plastic and small dual-channel video), Nick Carr (banner with speakers, black and white print under acrylic, black sculpture, salt sculpture), Craig Cooper (big projection video), Alasdair Duncan (digital prints covering one corner all the way up to the ceiling), Huang Jing (black and white Color-and-Tasteless photography – this artist seemed to be from Wang Dong’s lineup).