EXHIBITION FOOTNOTES

HKSAR 10 Years Post Handover and the Work Tsang Kinwah

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images courtesy of the artist

Its been 10 years since the hand-over - after 156 years of British rule Hong Kong reverted back to Chinese rule in 1997 and is now officially known as Hong Kong Special Administrative Region ( HKSAR). From being an international centre of trade and commerce with a population that was largely not interested in politics at all, the new Hong Kong with three very different cultures fighting for dominance – traditional Chinese, communist Chinese and British capitalism/democracy – is becoming increasingly political. Especially for the younger generation- most of whom are well educated, articulate and are aware of the suppression of the many rights they used to enjoy and take for granted before the hand over.

The artist Tsang Kin- Wah reflects on some of these social and political realities.

Tsang Kin Wah was born in 1976 in Guangdong China and migrated to Hong Kong in 1984 with his parents as a child where he studied and worked for some time. He later travelled and studied at the Camberwell College of Arts, the London Institute under a British Chevening Postgraduate Scholarship before returning to Hong Kong where he currently lives. His work which at the most direct level plays between the difference between appearance and reality and can be described at the same time as both quaint and acidic (this does not seem possible- but here lies the beauty and attraction of Wah’s works); and has been shown in The Room with a View Gallery in Shanghai (2004)  the Hong Kong Art Biennale (2003) amongst many other places (recently at Yvon Lambert Project Space New York) and has also been bought for private collections in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, the United States, the Netherlands and Australia. Tsang has also received the Prize of Excellence in the 2001 Hong Kong Biennale as well as various prizes in painting, watercolour and drawing - which shows through in the obvious attention to craftsmanship of his series of ‘Wall Paper’ installations - a surface of beauty and elegance that masks a deep anger, dissatisfaction and frustration that only becomes apparent clear to the viewer on close examination.

Wah’s ‘ Wall paper series’ (Untitled works 2003/2004, Interior 2003) are hand printed wall papers in the pattern design of William Morris which covers every inch of the gallery space it is shown in . On the surface it appears very “British “, very elegant, very controlled and very tranquil.

It uses text as visual image not unlike another Chinese artist Xu Bing and Wah acknowledges that both calligraphy- which in Chinese culture is considered one of the highest art forms; and Xu Bing, has in fact been an influence. Unlike Xu Bing however who makes it a point that his calligraphy is unreadable – where the Chinese calligraphy is in fact not Chinese characters, but something that was invented by artist and does not mean anything; the point of Wah’s work is that while on the surface they look like patterns they actually need to be read as text for the whole work to emerge.

However, when you move closer to see the patterns and read the text, you realise that the text which makes up the patterns of plants and flowers which intertwine the way wall papers do are actually made up of foul language (”fuck”, “fuckers”, “fuckingwealthycunts”, ” Fuckingmaterialists”, “fuckthepoorman” and so on). It simmers with anger and resentment.

We asked him about this duality in his work, and asked whether this play on a beautiful surface which hides an ugly reality was the essence of his work. He replied, “This is one of the main idea or you can say that is the most powerful thing in my works which switch the viewer’s point of view from one to another extreme. For me, this is one of the things that we experience a lot but forgot sometimes. Nice appearance = nice interior? I don’t think so. To some extent, my work is also a reflection of myself which seems pretty shy and quiet but has much anger towards different things that happens around me.”

In another interview about his work, this time for Shanghai Magazine Wah once said, ‘It is a space of criticism, of contradiction, of nastiness. What the viewer see is selectively presented by the creator, it indicates that some information is either consciously or unconsciously being left out by the creator. To doubt, to explore, to challenge the traditional perspectives that exist can create a new dimension, to enable you investigating what is considered as normal or obvious around you in a critical manner. You can then create a new perspective to inspect everything around us.’ What Wah seems to  highlighting is the difference between the illusion and the truth of the reality it masks - that by somehow being aware of this difference one can engage with the world not as it seems but as it actually is….

This anger perhaps stems from his background. In general, based on current political events, it is safe to say that the people of Hong Kong are angry. It’s the kind of anger that runs deep, the kind of anger that may not be noticeable on the surface but it is definitely simmering away beneath the surface. Speaking about his work Wah comments, ‘This contradictory space is like human condition. To live in the society, we have to suppress our emotions be it happiness or sadness. There is just no way out to express it. When you see the foul languages in these wallpapers, you will suddenly realise those are the messages you want to scream out aloud, messages which are left behind or hidden in your heart.”

Before the handover Hong Kong and its people were essentially not interested in politics. What mattered was commerce, the market, profit, having a good life style – you can say that Hong Kong despite its ties to communist China was the essence and a symbol of free market economy at its best. In fact making money and staying out from politics seemed to be almost a lifestyle. Very few people seemed to want to disrupt the system that was giving them access to an excess of material goods and a lifestyle that was comparable, perhaps even better than many of those found in western countries.

After 1997 however the arrangement “one country, two systems’ meant that China could restrict the rule of law and many basic democratic right. On the 1st July 2003 for example the Chinese/Hong Kong Government decided to control freedom of public speech and proposed to amend the basic law article No. 23 which meant censorship of the kind Hong Kong people have not experienced before. In response to it there emerged a new class of well educated young professionals (with western tradition and values) that formed a very big popular democratic movement all over the territory. People started missing thing that they used to take for granted and which existed in the background like freedom of speech (although still limited under British rule but was there), freedom of free assembly and free expression - be it economic, political or artistic. What was taken away became the focus for many people.

Wah’s work is a reflection of this political reality and is thus intended to be read on several layers - the floral image for example is highly indicative of sex and sexual organs – again another cultural taboo in the new Hong Kong. By using floral imagery however Wah manages to address this taboo and yet be “acceptable”.

We asked Wah whether the play between appearance and reality in his work was a way of subverting certain types of cultural taboos, or even censorship of presenting a somewhat harmless looking work on the surface but which is actually quite subversive underneath and he replied, “The socio-political situation in Hong Kong did affect me quite a lot in the past and still at this moment. I would watch the news report everyday and look at the people or things that happened around. Many queer or weird things/phenomenon (this is my point of view, may be the majority would think that they are normal) gave me much inspiration for my creation. Hong Kong is not subversive and that’s why I want to challenge or may be because I really hate it.”

The younger generation, of which Wah belongs to, have now post hand-over little expressive channels in the face of censorship and the unique problems created by an education under the notion of one country with two systems. Currently schools teach in two languages and two set of values. Young people in Hong Kong also have to deal with values, propaganda/ information from a media controlled by the communist Chinese and the values of their parents and grand-parents that came from a more free democratic past.

Hong Kong never really belonged to the British nor the Chinese. Its peope really are a mixture of both British and Chinese culture- and yet is not identified wholly by either country. Passports are stamped with the phrase “British National Overseas” - but without any of the rights or privileges that come with being a recognised citizen of the United Kingdom - an illusion, an appearance of belonging to something that really does not matches with the reality. For years the joke of ‘having no identity was a unique identity’, was the common response by many Hong Kong people to somehow deal with this schizophrenic identity the hand over had caused.

Wah’s artistic career is in fact is a bit like watching Hong Kong – he belong to the long history and culture of China but maybe he does not, he lived for some time with British culture and can function well in it, reference it, play with it as one would something that is not only familiar but one that you have internalized as his own- and yet it is not his own – the invitation to stay has expired.

At the end of the interview we went back to an earlier phrase that struck us, when he said, ‘When you see the foul languages in these wallpapers, you will suddenly realise those are the messages you want to scream out aloud, messages which are left behind or hidden in your heart.’

This to us spoke of repression and yet it seemed to us at the end of the day that he was still quite a successful artist, his work has been shown in some prestigious exhibitions, he has received numerous prizes, accolades, scholarship and residencies. It seems that instead of being repressed or censored that his work is actually accepted, shown, praised. That he has valuable venue for expressing what message he may want to express. So we said perhaps Hong Kong may have become slightly become more repressive but not so much as he or many others perhaps claimed and his reply was, “Yes, my work has been shown in some ‘prestigious’ exhibitions and it seems that my work has been accepted but I don’t think that they really understand or accept my works. I remember some cultural administrator once told me that they like the images of my works but not the text…

Interview/Collaborative Writing by: KYT + VP & their 5 funny friends…
Artlife 2007
http://artlife.blogspot.com/2007/07/wall-paper-art-life-in-hong-kong-sar.html

For images of other recent works by Tsang Kin-Wah:
[Our personal favourite is the "Fucking Art" series]
http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc235/kinwah02/

Tsang Kin Wah Video on Vernissage TV: http://vernissage.tv/blog/2007/10/09/tsang-kin-wah-at-yvon-lambert-new-york-project-space/

This post is tagged chinese contemporary art, hand-over, HKSAR, hong kong, post-colonial, tsang kin wah, wall papers, william morris