The Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art exhibition catalogue (APT2)

Facing one of the most unusual situations in political history, it is impossible not to be affected by it. The anxiety, however, can be internalised into personal trauma. This characteristic is found in the work of Ellen Pau, which frequently transforms that anxiety into intimate stories. With rather obscure language, Pau may start a work based on social and political issues around her. Frequently, however, the work reverts to the personal, creating a sense of absurdity which carries a touch of violence. Her work does not attempt to protest, or change the existing situation. Issues are internalised into an expression of personal anxiety. The contemporary art in Hong Kong is an art with no illusion. Realising that one has no power over one's own destiny, art is internalised into personal drama or investigates formalism. Allowing individuals to express their views freely is a great liberation celebrated by the tradition of modern art. In fact, it is an essential quality of modern art. Although mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan all share the same Chinese origins, the reasons for the development of individualism in the art scenes of the three regions are entirely different. Individualism can be used as a confir– mation of the liberation of individual, it can be a final territory where every other possibility is exhausted, or a refuge where one could find peace of mind in a time of turbulence. Individualism takes on entirely different meanings at the three places. Oscar Ho Hing Kay is the Exhibition Director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, co– curator of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial and President of the AICA in Hong Kong. Ju Yao, Fine ArtMagazine, vol.6, 1981. Iwas told that soon after the Tienanmen incident, Fang Lijun tocked himself up for months making art of obscure, little objects. During the Beijing Democracy Movement in 1989, there was abrief moment of production of political art. Today, there is asmall group of political artists, mainly new immigrants from China.Their works,however,are piecemeal and inconsistent Ellen Pau Video vogue 1992 Installationcomprising video and fur Courtesy HongKong Museum of Art Remembering Hong Kong Pat Hoffie One of the things that keeps resurfacing in my inaccurate memories of many visits to Hong Kong is the impact of arrival: the sudden iridescence of neon from the nothing of endless sea. As the plane draws close, the astonishing height of competing concrete against the surreal calligraphy of saw– toothed mountains. And then, in the final stretch towards the runway, the way that your own viewing window seems so close to the windows of actual living rooms of people living on the island. I can remember quick voyeuristic snapscenes of families clustered around pools of light, bent in concentration on their evening meal. No doubt this is a product of my imagination's fanciful conflation. No doubt it's some kind of hybrid inaccuracy pooling together a range of sensations that seemed so Other to a visiting Australian: the proximity of the airport to Hong Kong 'suburbs' ; the comparative congestion of Hong Kong life, where domestic scenes inevitably seep into the streets; and maybe also glimpses of the interiors of highrise units that can be snatched from passing cars on the motorways. Nevertheless, shards of inaccurate memory, however inaccurate, remain convincing, and say much about how observations of 'elsewhere' are transformed by expectation and nostalgia. Seductive inaccuracies. More accurate observations about Hong Kong life were to be provided by my co-curator Oscar Ho Hing Kay. 1 Our first face to face discussion took place at a Chinese vegetarian restaurant. The meal was a long process of elegant little dishes served to appear more alarmingly like meat than meat. There were little tofu meat balls. Lambs fry. Even porkchops. During the consumption of that first meal, we sampled those finely crafted dishes stooped over lists of artists' names, and discussed artists' work between mouthfuls of unidentifiable food. Maybe it was then that the sheer incomprehensible contradiction of contemporary life in Hong Kong emerged to both of us as a latent 'theme' to the selection. Later on, I discussed artists and ideas with Ivy Lin 2 over take-away coffee and cheese sandwiches at a spotless laminex bench just near the Hong Kong Museum of Art at Tsim Shja Tsui. The cheese was the kind that gets welded into the white bread and then re-welds to the roof of your mouth. For an embarrassing moment I realised that Western-style fast foods had rendered me temporarily mute; but Ivy's singular poise and finely tuned sense of humour moved the discussion on to more subtle observations. Still later, Oscar, Ivy and I sifted through a comprehensive collection of slides and catalogues of Hong Kong contemporary art. These included a gamut of approaches that ranged from calligraphic ink painting to state of the art computer generated images. While it was obvious that no two artists could encapsulate the diversity of expression and technique that characterises the contemporary art scene in Hong Kong , each of us agreed that the work of the selected artists reveals aspects of contemporary life in Hong Kong that resist assimilation within more readily identifiable cultural traditions, such as those of Britain, China or the United States. The sheer complexity and contra– dictions of contemporary Hong Kong life make it difficult to describe through any precise theoretical taxonomies. But it is partly this unpredictability that makes art and experience here such interesting fare in an era when assumptions, traditions and identities are constantly mutating globally. Pat Hoffie, Artist, Writer and Associate Professor,Queensland College of Art. Griffith University, Australia 1 Oscar Ho Hing Kay is Exhibition Director at the Hong Kong Arts Centre 2 Ivy Lin is Assistant Curator of Modern Art at the Hong Kong Museum of Art Artists from Hong Kong in the first Asia-Pacific Triennial 1993 were ChoiYan-Chi and Irene Chou. Ellen Pau and Chan Yuk Keung are the Hong Kong artists represented in the second Triennial 1996 1996 Curatorial Team:Pat Hoffie and Oscar Ho Hing Kay. Staff from the Queensland Art Gallery, including the Director,have visited Hong Kong on anumber of occasions Delegates at the Second Asia– Pacific Triennial International Forum, 1995 CURAT ORI AL ESSAYS : EAST AS I A 43