Hong Kong, March 5 – April 24, 2016, http://www.blindspotgallery.com/
Two shows at Blindspot Gallery, hidden away on the 15th floor of a Wong Chuk Hang (South Island) warehouse, my first visit. The space is surprisingly large for Hong Kong circumstances and with nice design touches. Maridet seems to like travelling, I remember him showing infrared photographs of animals from an African safari a few years ago, and this time, his wanderlust has lead him to participate in an Arctic expedition. Back from there he brought some water, some air, a stone, some photos and many hours of video. The water, air and stone are displayed as an installation in a quasi-scientific way on a little triangular table that is in dialogue with another little triangular table that features a constellation of souvenirs from the African trip.
The videos are present in the form of one very long single channel video showing the frozen shores and ice-covered mountains passing by the ship cabin window. The video watching experience is augmented by a custom-made asymmetric frame from white plastic that looks a like the 1970’s roundish futuristic molded plastic furniture. Actually it was this design-element that I could best relate to the title Fragments of Future Memories. Another video complements the macro-landscape view with a micro view. A three-channel projection of microscopic ice details moving slowly as the recording device shivers and slides over the icy surfaces.
Photographs are present in a prominent series of landscapes combined with a projected text taken from science fiction novels. The photographs are 60×40 cm big, and I could imagine they would look less modest at larger size. The works are accompanied by ex-post produced works alluding to the frosty iciness of the arctic trip: Paper pages with printed quotes and crystals grown over them, as well as water tanks filled with some transparent partially crystallized liquid.
Last but not least, there are three mobile light sculptures that have been already on display last year at Comixhomebase in Wanchai. While last year the installation was broken when I saw it, this time is worked, but the thin metal sculptures reminiscent of Calder’s mobiles but without the colors looked anyway quite fragile. Each mobile sculpture contains a likewise mobile projection head (seems to be a spinning glass pyramid) which produces a not clearly identifiable moving light trace on the adjacent walls.
In the other half of the exhibition space there was a group show of Hong Kong photographer’s Polaroid photos. I wondered to which extent a Polaroid can be a collectable, especially given the fact I did not know any of these artists, but that may be simply due to my ignorance of their local fame.
Unsurprisingly I best liked the work which looked the least like a Polaroid: A series of empty milk bottle images transferred onto a large sheet of watercolor paper. I liked the seriality of the work, as well as its mundaneness. The color was almost monochrome, a bit yellowish. Most of these glass bottles even don’t exist anymore, adding another, historical layer to the conceptual-minimal work. Artist: Hisun Wong 王希慎.
Other artists in the show were Choi Yan Chi蔡仞姿、Almond Chu朱德華、Joseph Fung馮漢紀、Hon Chi Fun韓志勳、Lai Lon Hin賴朗騫、Lee Ka Sing李家昇、Wing Shya夏永康 (image below)、Blues Wong黃啟裕、Wong Wo Bik王禾璧.
Very beautiful free pocket size catalogues accompanied both Maridet’s and well as the Polaroid exhibition. The latter was also very useful in getting a bit of context for the photographs, with not only biographies as usual, but also mini-interviews that gave an introduction to each photographer’s practice.