"As Time Folds", the sixth solo exhibition of Hong Kong artist Ivy MA King Chu will be presented by ACO in June 2018. It will be her first solo since "Last Year" (2015, Gallery Exit), and will present a major shift in her artistic practice.
Ma’s previous works have crossed the boundaries between myriad mediums, such as painting, photography, video, installation and objects. Some of her important pieces in recent years, such as the image series Last Year, Numbers Standing Still, and Gazes all feature a similar strategy of ‘drawing intervention’, in which she extracted images from various sources, such as portraits of youngsters in the Umbrella Movement and the films of Ozu Yasujiro, and intervened the surfaces of the images through drawing. The meditative acts of both erasing and drawing are at once ways of creating a dialogue with the images and their contexts, and also her personal means of disrupting historical discourses. In the end, rigorous traces were left behind, and the texture and meaning of the images were permanently altered.
In 2017, Ma set off on a journey in search of a new direction in her artistic practice. She broke out of previous frameworks, primarily by discarding pre-existing images. This time, her point of departure is experimentation with various materials, which led to a series of abstract works. The new works completed this year feature a range of materials, including charcoal, graphite, wooden boards, paper, stainless steel sheets, curtain, pins and gold foil. These materials serve as an entrance, through which the artist traces an inward path to the raw urge to create. On the other hand, the purely abstract form covertly points to references drawn from everyday life.
In "As Time Folds", one can also hear the echoes of several art historical moments: the tradition of monochrome painting starting from Malevich’s Black Square, the industrial materials and seriality of Minimalism, the tactility and material presence of Post-minimalist abstraction, and the anti-rational use of geometric forms of Neo-Concretism.
The exhibition will be held in Foo Tak Building, Wanchai. In the past 15 years, Foo Tak has come to be recognised as one of Hong Kong’s most important cultural hubs. Located in the city centre, this old western-style mansion was inaugurated as a provider of cultural spaces in 2003, and since then has offered precious art making, exhibiting, administrative, exchange and event spaces for a large number of artists and cultural organisations. Ma was in fact the first artist to establish a studio in Foo Tak - she made many early works there between 2003 to 2007. At that time she often roamed around Wanchai in search of suitable materials for her works, and she has somewhat returned to this mode of art making with this new show. By returning to Foo Tak after all these years, she quietly walks into a fold of time…
● Exhibition details "As Time Folds" Ivy Ma Solo Exhibition Artist: Ivy Ma, King Chu Curator: Evelyn Char Organiser: ACO Date: 4 June - 1 July 2018 Opening times: Thursday to Sunday, 2-8pm (by appointment on Tuesday to Wednesday) Venue: 6/F, Foo Tak Building, 365 Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
● Related programme "Before/after Foo Tak": Talk by Ivy Ma, May Fung and Longtin Registration: https://goo.gl/N2tdb6 Date/time: 16 June 2018 (Sat), 5 - 7pm Venue: ACO, 14/F Foo Tak Building, 365 Hennessy Road, Wanchai
"Intra-/Extra-material": Two-way chat by Ivy Ma and Kurt Chan Date/time: 30 June 2018 (Sat), 6 - 8pm Venue: 6/F Foo Tak Building, 365 Hennessy Road, Wanchai
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◙ 關於藝術家 馬琼珠（Ivy Ma）於2001年獲澳洲皇家墨爾本理工大學文學士（純藝術）學位。同年，她獲香港藝術發展局頒發志奮領獎學金，前往英國列茲大學就讀，取得 Feminist Theories and Practice in Visual Art 碩士學位。馬氏曾多次於香港及外地舉行展覽，作品入選2005年香港藝術雙年展，並為沙田歷史文化博物館所收藏。她曾參加在孟加拉、香港、芬蘭、波羅的海奧蘭群島等地舉行的藝術家交流工作坊及駐場藝術家計劃。她是亞洲文化協會利希慎基金獎助金得主，2008年赴紐約實習及考察。網址： ivyma.net
◘ 關於主辦單位 艺鵠ACO（Art & Culture Outreach）是以書店形式現身於灣仔富德樓內的慈善藝術團體。因著達微慈善基金的支持，艺鵠於2008年成立，推祟「共享」這信念，以書本分享知識，以寄售藝文和工藝創作提倡原創精神，以協作藝文活動滋養人文素質和優質生活。自2016年起，艺鵠展開出版及發行工作，推廣獨立創作，期望帶來更多另類的知識與思考。艺鵠同時亦管理富德樓藝術文化單位，讓缺乏足夠空間和金錢的藝文個體以最低廉的租金贊助形式進駐，從事創作和藝文相關的事情，推廣「富德精神」，令資源由有限變成持續的創作能量。 facebook: Art and Culture Outreach｜艺鵠 || IG: ArtandCultureOutreach
◘ 關於展覽場地 富德樓本來是灣仔區典型洋樓：樓高14層，一梯兩伙。2003年發展至今，艺鵠透過半資助方式，已把當中18個單位由商住兩用轉為藝術文化用途。以低於市值逾半的特惠租金供各藝術文化工作者及團體使用，至今受惠個人／團體已有五十個。本著低度管理，高度自治之原則，富德樓文化藝術社區訂立最少的限制，容許最大的可能性。大大小小的意念／創作／實驗／計劃／行動／組織在這些空間萌芽、成長、實踐、發揮，讓藝術文化能突破社會環境所限，遍植城市。富德樓6樓單位於2017年起為14樓艺鵠書店的延伸空間，如畫廊般運作，令藝術家的作品有更多展示及被收藏的機會。 *富德樓藝術文化單位由艺鵠ACO管理 facebook: 富德樓 Foo Tak Building
傳媒查詢請聯絡羅小姐／連先生，可致電 2893 4808 或電郵至hello@aco.hk
◙ About the artist Ivy Ma (b. 1973) received her MA Degree of Feminist Theory and Practice in Visual Art, University of Leeds in UK, 2002, BA of Fine Arts (Painting) at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)/ The Art School, Hong Kong Arts Centre in 2001. She is a visual artist specialising in mixed media works and a lecturer at the Hong Kong Art School. Her works are frequently exhibited in Hong Kong and beyond, and in 2005 they were selected for the Hong Kong Art Biennial. She has previously taken part in various workshops and residency programmes in Hong Kong, Bangladesh and Åland Islands. She is a recipient of Hong Kong Contemporary Art Award - Young Artists Award, and Asian Cultural Council’s Lee Hysan Foundation Fellowship, which allowed her to stay in New York in 2008. Her works are collected by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Website: ivyma.net
◙ About the curator Evelyn Char (b. 1985) is a writer and art critic based in Hong Kong. She graduated from the University College London with a B.A. in History (2007) and M.A. in History of Art (2010). Currently operating mostly within the parameters of contemporary art and literature, her scope of work encompasses writing, editing, research and curating. She has previously taken part in a research project on experimental art in 1980s Hong Kong, and has jointly curated the projects ‘Mind the Gap’, ‘Talkover/Handover 2.0’ etc. She is the co-author of the book on Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial - Farmer’s Horizon, editor of Paratext, and a member of the group ‘Articipants’. facebook: charyinglam
◘ About ACO Art & Culture Outreach (ACO) is a non-profit charitable body located at Foo Tak Building at Wan Chai in the form of a bookstore, was founded in 2008 with the support of Dawei Charitable Foundation. We believe in “sharism”, we share knowledge through books, we do consignments of independent publications and crafts to advocate originality, and we organize art and cultural activities for nurturing quality life. Since 2016, ACO has been strengthening its role in independent publishing and distribution by engaging art/ cultural personalities for publishing their creations. ACO also manages the art and cultural entities in Foo Tak Building, leasing them the units at a below-market rate to support their sustenance. To put it in a nutshell, ACO aspires to uphold “Foo Tak Spirit” which turns limited resources into creative energy. facebook: Art and Culture Outreach｜艺鵠 || IG: ArtandCultureOutreach
◘ About FTB Foo Tak Building looks traditional and ordinary. It is a typical commercial/residential building having 14 floors with two units on each floor. Since 2003, there have been 18 units leased to art and cultural entities at a sponsored rate through ACO (Art & Culture Outreach); the rental is much lower than the market price. Just as important, ACO exercises low degree of management to leave more room for self-discipline being exercised by the sponsored art and culture entities. ACO has stipulated only a few rules and allowed all kinds of ideas / creations / experiments / plans / actions / organizations to seed, grow, practice and perform here. The 6/F project space has become an extension of 14/F ACO Bookstore, it operates as if a gallery, providing alternative opportunity to showcase artists’ works and to promote art collecting to public. *Foo Tak Building art and cultural entities are managed by ACO facebook: 富德樓 Foo Tak Building
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