Curatorial Research and Concept

In episodes of pandemic we most strongly feel the futility of progress. Our species has evolved through so many years, only/but to protect ourselves so flimsily from forces of nature. In Hong Kong, a city of relatively shorter history, two major outbreaks coinciding with a time of heightened public consciousness these two decades prove to be seismic: SARS in 2003 and COVID-19 since 2019. It is widely believed that the year of 2003, plagued on biological, socio-political and cultural levels, evoked a sense of Hong Kong fin de siècle. Such implications and complexities were laid out in the exhibition A Journal of the Plague Year (2013-2015) and the homonymous publication (2015) by Cosmin Costinaş and Inti Guerrero, who wrote:

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The research behind both the exhibition and publication departs from and remains strongly connected to an exploration of the events that affected the city in the spring of 2003: the most significant airborne epidemic in recent history - the SARS crisis, coupled with the tragic death of pop figure and pan-Asian icon Leslie Cheung. These overlapping occurrences marked a collective existentialist moment in a society that has drastically changed since the end of the last century.

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Multiple parallels can be drawn between the extraordinary years of 2003 and 2019-2021: pandemics sweeping the city, repressed socio-political aspirations seeking outlets and the gloomy sense of a Hong Kong identity disillusioned. Feelings of fear and isolation figure prominently as well. Taking the expansive inquiry of Costinaş and Guerrero further from here and now, one may be curious to explore how the present peculiar circumstances in Hong Kong manifest in creative expressions.

Rituals of Passage — A Graduation Show of the Plague Year is a mise-en-scène of resilient living.

Curatorial Development

Contemplating on disruption and discomfort during the plague years of 2019-2021 in Hong Kong, 6 artists stage their perspectives on self-discovery, coping strategies and meaning making.

• Rachel Au re-creates her studio in the quarantine camp of Penny's Bay and proudly presents how she reinvented and feasted on notorious ration meals.

• Chen Yushan invites the audience to a poetic reflection on living alone in a room of memorabilia.

• Raymond Lok and Joanne Lee build an immersive installation that evokes vertigo of urban navigation and enchantment of new discoveries.

• Clara Park magnifies the signs of life, expressions and veins, defaced by virus. 

• Silvery Afternoon by Vicki Wong takes a deep dive into what coming of age means beyond birthday cakes, one clone at a time.

The works of Chen Yushan, Raymond Lok and Clara Park are selected from two Unforeseen Circumstances open calls organised by the HKU Common Core in 2019-2020 and 2020-2021.

The exhibition serves as a narrative of learning and change. Graduation is taken in a broad sense: who are better students in a graduation show about life in turbulence than us, the ordinary people? From what did we evolve, or graduate? In this regard, the exhibition spotlights amateur artists who met their creative selves these two years, each with a deeply personal story to tell. Conceptualised as a finale of the inaugural Curatorship Incubation Programme 2021 by HART and a debut in curatorial practice, the form of a graduation show is also relevant and reflexive for the curator.

The French philosopher Blaise Pascal once wrote, 'All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.' Here's to the wonders of living in situ. We're not out of it yet; we're in this together.

Achievements

• Promptly adapted to pandemic conditions, by rescheduling the exhibition and updating the admission policy under social distancing rules

• Produced audio tour and online library

• Earned media interviews with RTHK Radio 3, the English channel of Hong Kong's public broadcaster

• Facilitated public collections by Asia Art Archive and Glasgow Women's Library

• Exhibited at Over Here Zine Fest 2024, Manchester