Wei-Ling Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK) the leading platform for art in Asia, in May 2014. Wei-Ling Gallery presents Malaysian artist Choy Chun Wei at ABHK 14 under the "Insights" section, a unique section for curated projects developed specifically for the Hong Kong show. Wei-Ling Gallery will be the only Malaysian representative on this international platform.

For this project, the artist has used the large number of visitors to ABHK as his source of inspiration. Hoping to embark on an art-making process which involves collecting visitor’s personal information and representing it as art.

The Human Landscape will consist of one gargantuan painting on canvas, which will be in the midst of being made but requires human interaction in order for it to be completed. The challenge is in encouraging audience participation.

With the advent of the world we live in today - gadgets, computers, brands, smartphones – the presence and essence of each indivudal human being is often overlooked, replaced instead by material goods (cars, clothes, shoes, bags, computers) which often define who we are.

The artist would like to breakdown these barriers,to get through to the basic essence of what constitutes each person he encounters.He is aiming to do this through creating ‘bridges’ betweeen himself and the people he meets at the fair by generating conversations which will enable him to convince them to participate in his project and leave a bit of themselves behind for him.Whatever they give him will contribute towards the artwork that he will finish during the course of the fair.

The information that he requires through audience participation will include personal information which varies from shoe and neck sizes to birthdates and bra cups.Personal numbers which ‘form’ that particular individual.Through collecting data from individuals who visit the fair and the booth, he hopes to establish a real human to human connection and to represent tangibly in an artwork the uniqueness of human existence and identity. The artist will reciprocate by giving each participant who has helped him to complete his artwork, a personal artwork that he has made. The interactive aspect of the work will from an integral part of this artwork, as it involves human interaction and strips everything down to the bare basics of who we are regardless of colour,creed,financial or social standing.Through interaction with visitors to the booth,the artist hopes to extend his personal artistic boundaries and create an inclusive rather than an exclusive art environment.

The final outcome is the least important aspect of the work. The process of creating a “changing landscape” at ABHK14 where the artwork is organic and morphs with each day of the fair, growing in tandem with the number of visitors, is the ultimate goal.

The texture and layers which will form the final layer of this painting will serve as the ‘markings’ of the many conversations and interactions the artist has indulged in over the course of the fair.

*image (left)
© Choy Chun Wei 
courtesy of the artist and Wei Ling Gallery