Pauline J. Yao is Lead Curator, Visual Art, at M+ in Hong Kong. Her recent exhibitions at M+ include “In Search of Southeast Asia Through the M+ Collections” (with Shirley Surya) and “Five Artists: Sites Encountered.” She is currently coediting a publication on the M+ Collections.
1
PASSAGE OF NATIONAL SECURITY LAW IN HONG KONG
On the heels of months of escalating protests and amid a global pandemic, the new national security law—drafted by the Chinese government and enacted in Hong Kong—delivered an unprecedented blow. Its swift passage—just hours before the July 1 anniversary of Hong Kong’s handover to China, a day known for large-scale public demonstrations—was tactical and precise. However, the legislation’s ambiguous language creates a gulf of uncertainty, which both sides of the political spectrum will no doubt seek to exploit for years to come. Sometimes the loudest words are those left unsaid.
2
ektor garcia (EMPTY GALLERY, HONG KONG)
The Mexican American artist ektor garcia has been making waves with his intricately woven nets comprising copper wire, cotton, and leather, which fuse the delicacy of traditional handicrafts with raw and industrial forms. Situated in Empty Gallery’s black-box space, these works assumed heightened drama, appearing like magical talismans or archaeological relics from a distant past. In some ways, they are. Conceived and created in the course of garcia’s peregrinations from Oaxaca to Mexico City, Los Angeles to New Orleans and eventually Hong Kong, they evoke a nomadism that is already a faded memory.
3
CAROL BOVE (DAVID ZWIRNER, HONG KONG)
I have long been a fan of Bove’s “collage sculptures,” and this show—featuring fifteen torqued and twisted steel tubes in matte colors offset with glossy discs—was a feast for the eyes. Few can rival Bove’s ability to push the expressive potential of steel, and she managed to propel the conversation even further by placing her multihued concoctions atop geometric pedestals painted in gray scale. The result was a sea of tangled forms in coral pink and mustard yellow that appeared to float weightlessly. Embracing an array of unusual colorways, her coiled shapes sprang forth with new energy.
4
CLOSURE OF ARROW FACTORY (BEIJING)
For a little more than eleven years, the diminutive storefront space was embedded in a residential alley in the center of Beijing. This modest undertaking, set in motion just months before the Beijing Olympics, helped to counterbalance the gravitational pull of the 798 arts district and divert attention from the rampant commercialism pervading contemporary Chinese art. However, few could predict that Arrow Factory’s unique setting—a source of inspiration for scores of artists inside and outside China—would also be its undoing. As stringent urban-planning measures aimed at reducing the inner-city population bore down on the neighborhood and small businesses and illegal rentals were evicted, a valuable channel of artistic experimentation was unintentionally severed.
5
“SUDDENLY TURNING VISIBLE: ART & ARCHITECTURE IN SOUTHEAST ASIA (1969–1989)” (NATIONAL GALLERY OF SINGAPORE; CURATED BY CHENG JIA YUN, JOLEEN LOH, SENG YU JIN, AND SHABBIR HUSSAIN MUSTAFA)
If you ever wondered what the landscape of cultural production in 1970s and ’80s Southeast Asia looked like, “Suddenly Turning Visible” offered valuable clues. Structured around distinct geotemporal points, the exhibition delved into artworks and archival material from three art spaces active during the period: Alpha Gallery in Singapore, the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, and Bhirasri Institute of Modern Art in Bangkok. Mixing Balinese painting with hard-edge abstraction, the show parsed the thorny intersections of experimental art practices, nation-building, and economic development.
6
“MY BODY HOLDS ITS SHAPE” (TAI KWUN CONTEMPORARY, HONG KONG; CURATED BY XUE TAN)
Featuring Thea Djordjadze’s dramatic wall cut, which opened a portal to the outside, and Eisa Jocson’s live and virtual bodies miming forlorn animals in a zoo, this exhibition was a meditative mid-pandemic riff on constraints, limitations, and matters of confinement. It sensitively tipped attention away from the chaos of the world and focused it instead on the troubled histories and onerous psychic loads that lurk within our bodies.
7
HEMAN CHONG, SAFE ENTRY
Chong’s embrace of the QR code—a ubiquitous signpost of daily life in Singapore—is a reminder of the ways in which the digital increasingly mediates our everyday interactions. Leveraging the machine-readable black-on-white icon not for mobile tagging and tracking but for artistic purposes, Chong trains our attention on the graphical interface as a portal to another realm. The code he created links to a seventy-minute video tour of Singapore’s Changi Airport, a once-bustling transit hub now eerily empty.
8
PANDEMIC-TIME OBJET TROUVÉ
If Covid-19 has taught us anything, it is to look more closely at our surroundings. In this spirit, I wish to draw attention to the cordoning-off of public playgrounds and exercise equipment in Hong Kong—a mundane measure that, in recent months, has reached new heights of wackiness. Designed to inhibit human contact and interaction, the restrictive plastic tape is oddly compelling on a formal level while at the same time serving as a haunting reminder that, in our pandemic reality, human beings are walking biohazards.
9
MARIAN PASTOR ROCES, GATHERING: POLITICAL WRITING ON ART AND CULTURE (MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART AND DESIGN OF THE DE LA SALLE-COLLEGE OF SAINT BENILDE AND THE ARTASIAPACIFIC FOUNDATION)
This trove of writings by Pastor Roces, an esteemed critic based in the Philippines, helps to fill a major gap in art history and criticism in the region. Pastor Roces, who has been writing on contemporary art since the mid-’70s, demonstrates her fearless commitment to art and its inseparability from politics.
10
IRENE CHOU (ASIA SOCIETY, HONG KONG; CURATED BY JOYCE HEI-TING WONG)
I never grow tired of looking at Chou’s paintings. Her retrospective arrived on the eve of 2020, and the churning organic forms, dark swirling brushstrokes, and explosive splashes seemed a harbinger of things to come. Chou’s abstraction takes the human body as its point of departure—one can often make out nerves and vessels inspired by scans of her own brain. But the work also feels cosmic, as though it were depicting the universe contracting and expanding at the same time. Drawing from private and public collections across Hong Kong, this presentation highlighted her technical range as well as her unusual talent for tapping into the deepest realms of the psyche.