The first Decongestant's live event finished with a success on June 10th, 2016! Installations, live drawings in space, performance art, sound art and other mixed media were shown on Nullah Road for all passersby. All the works playfully responded to the theme about different imaginations from mud. Doreen Chan played different roles (such as neighbor, housewife, a typical Hong Kong woman etc.) on a street corner to create different scenes for a box of organes thrown on the ground. She specially bought the organges from Yau Ma Tei’s fruit wholesale market, and put on a price tag of “$58.8” on each one in order to connect this box of oranges with two stories: one being passersby picking up many oranges after a car accident of an old man at the wholesale market, and the other one being the art piece with fresh organes arranged in a pyramid shape in Tate Modern. In the end, Doreen Chan played the role of a museum professional to pack a number of organes with air-bubble wraps and salt in a huge glass container, and then move this preserved artwork to C&G Artpartment for the documentation exhibition. Another artist, Samson Cheung collected sand and rocks from various sites with illegal disposal of construction waste to fill up nearly a hundred of glass milk bottles. On the day of “Mud・Play, ” he piled up the glasses to build a one meter tall triangle, and then tied up a number of colorful ballons at the tip top of the glass hill. More than a half of the glass bottles were blown by the wind onto the ground in the middel of the event. The broken glass pieces mixed with sand and mud then became a very important part of this art piece titled: “Lightness Calibration.”
Peggy Chan re-appropriated the circular part of the Nullah Road sitting-out area as a huge birthday cake. She set up many speakers to be activated by passersby to play out Birthday songs around the cake and triggered one’s memory of the usage of Birthday songs in Occupy Mongkok during Umbrella Movement more than a year ago. Rik Yu’s works involved two symbolic icons of the Prince Edward district: flower market and goldfish. He used tiny toy goldfish in black color, soil bought from the flower market and tree trucks with the same height as the light poles in the park to draw out a straight line to cut across Nullah Road sitting-out area, in order to intervene pedestrians’ daily routines at the site. Man Mei-to’s art piece involved soil and sound. She made a dozen of bowls out of soil from the north-east of New Territories, and then invited each participant to hold a bowl, that has not been processed in a kiln, with water inside, until the mud bowl disolves. While holding a mud bowl, each participant also was invited to put on headphones to listen carefully to the mixture of soil’s disolving sound and the city’s noise.
The documentation exhibition took place from 17th June to 22nd July, 2016, with an artist sharing session on the first day.
有關西九化談 | About Decongestants: (please roll down for English)
Having curated more than ten art activities related to the West Kowloon Cultural District ever since its establishment in 2007, C&G Artpartment has also participated in many art events organized by other units at this cultural-site-to-be. In the past decade, the kind of “high art” we have witnessed, heard and experienced in this “West Kowloon” has much influence on Hong Kong’s art development in many ways. On one hand, it has been shaping the aesthetic values of Hongkongers, especially the local government officials, in terms of evaluating artworks according to their market values for investment. On the other hand, the West Kowloon project has assured the preceding importance of hardware development over the software in policy making. The government has not devoted much more effort to help with the arts and cultural ecology in the area of Kowloon West, nor much more for the overall cultural scene in Hong Kong either. On the other hand of the other hand, while the West Kowloon project is the first white elephant developed after the handover, local cultural practitioners have not been able to critically speak up about it. Chest congestion often comes into place, when one starts to talk about this elephant. Treatment of such congestion has been successfully delayed for almost twenty years. Indeed, to delay important treatments and to consume, therefore, to eliminate, the energy of the civil society, has been the favorite tactic of the Hong Kong government for all its white elephant projects. Millions of problems have appeared ever since….
Let’s start to talk about all these now, and let’s begin with the Hong Kong under “West-Kowloonization.”
“Decongestants for West-Kowloonization” is a long-term art project, driven by artistic practices. It will take place on the second Friday evening, in every other month, at public or semi-public space within Kowloon West. These micro guerilla art activities will attempt to safeguard Hong Kong’s local civilization, to promote local cultural characteristics and to develop the one (green) belt and one (pedestrians’) road for the locals. Participating artists are encouraged to make art in public area, while the public is welcome to appreciate art outside the designed zone of West-Kowloonization. Besides, interactive participation, collaboration and discussion are all encouraged. There will be a particular theme for each “Decongestant.” The series of art activities each time will showcase the subtle but powerful energy in art making and will directly exhibit the artistic ideas to the visitors, in order to open up the scoop under West-Kowloonization.
Artists usually are quite used to be asked: “why are you thinking so much?” However, they may not be comfortable to hear, “Why don’t you think?” Perhaps, I think therefore I am. Contemporary artists in Hong Kong nowadays probably know very well they are amongst this group of “thinking beings.” When it is still legal to “think,” we should take this opportunity to joyfully share more our thoughts with everyone in this city.
The first “Decongestant” was launched on 10th June, 2016 (Fri) from 7pm to 8:30pm, under the theme about “Soil・Play.” Invited artists responded to this theme, through their on-site art pieces. Audience was welcome to visit, to observe, to make his/her own works in response, to share, to discuss etc. There were photography and video documentation during the happening event, for a documentation exhibition afterward, in order to allow more audience members to have a better overview of all the art activities.
Presented by: C & G Artpartment Artists + Documentary Partners: CHAN Pui Leng(Peggy)+YUNG Chi Hau(Edwood)、 YU Wing Kei(Rik)+TANG Wing Sze(Cindy)+CHAK Ka Yi、CHEUNG Choi Sung(Samson)+TSE Chun Sing + Brian YIU、 MAN Mei To+WONG Chun Hoi、Doreen CHAN+CHEUNG Chi Lock Time of On-site Activity: 7:00 -8:30pm,(Fri) 10 June, 2016 Place of On-site Activity: Nullah Road Sitting-out Area, Prince Edward, KLN, HK Documentation Exhibition Period: (Fri) 17 June to (Fri) 22 July, 2016 Exhibition Time: 2:00 - 7:00pm, Thur to Mon(Closed on Tue/Wed/Public Holiday) Exhibition Address: C & G Artpartment, 3/F, 222 Sai Yeung Choi Street South, Prince Edward, Kowloon, HK (Exit B2, Prince Edward MTR Station, Behind Pioneer Centre)
