In 2003, the SARS virus attacked Hong Kong. It was spread rapidly and had enormous influence. Back then, we associated SARS with the rapid development of biennales around the globe withinthe visual art world. Because of this, we went to Venice in the same year to conduct a performance art piece, “A Survey on the Contagious Biennales,” outside of Venice Biennale.
2013 is the 10th anniversary of the war with SARS, and also is the time for the rise of panic over avian flu virus H7N9. To make the association with the visual art world again, it is not difficult to think of the upcoming outspread of the “Mutated Art Fair Virus.”
In the recent decade, art fairs have become more and more popular all over the world. Many different kinds of art fairs appear. Hong Kong has at least six different sorts of art fairs within a year. As art fairs become more popular, art becomes more commercial as well. In theory, this would be an encouragement for artists as they would have a higher chance to be rewarded through art-making. However, the truth is the development of art is in Hong Kong being polarized by the rapid growth of art fairs. On one hand, some artworks become more delegate, more commercial and market-oriented. On the other, some run in the opposite direction: going completely against commercialization. Due to the dislike of the market, and the current political and social atmosphere in Hong Kong, some local artists tend to address the contemporary society and politics more directly. They do not rely on sites like art fairs to exhibit their works at all, and their works can hardly be commodified.
Facing these two polarized tensions, people who are in the midst of hesitation about entering the art-making mode become so frustrated that they eventually back off after their first few attempts in the arts. A large amount of art-making-leftovers (cultural leftovers) are often produced during such art-making mode with frustration. These include all sorts of ideas, plans, materials, energies, semi- finished works, reference materials etc. Usually, “cultural leftovers” can hardly enter the art fair market. However, after careful re-organization, leftovers can be turned into numerous tasteful art fairs also.
For the current exhibition, C&G Artpartment attempts to organize a few hundreds of artworks, mainly paintings, left behind by those who were “in the midst of hesitation about entering the art- making mode” in the past five years.
Exhibition Period:(Sat) 27 April to (Mon) 27 May, 2013 (except 13-17 May, 2013)
Exhibition Time: 2:00 - 7:30pm, Thursday to Monday, (Closed on Tue, Wed and Public Holiday)
Image: © C&G Artpartment
