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Art review: Inside Art Basel Hong Kong 2019

  • By: Vimvam TongEdited by: Wallis Wang
  • 2019-03-31

Take one day off busy work, and enjoy a chance to stroll the art world. The seventh edition of Art Basel Hong Kong launched on this Friday in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

242 galleries from 35 countries participate in this annual art event, displaying a variety of contemporary art through the diverse mediums, including installation, paintings, sculptures, prints, photography, videos, and digital art.

"La dépossession, 2014" created by Latifa Echakhch, locating in EN4 booth of sector Encounters, shows a disintegrating and falling sky. The folds of the work are laid out on the ground in layers, like a huge canvas in an unfinished state, being folded with haze of mild sorrow.
The futuristic sculptures and large-scale installations created by Korean artist Lee Bul form a fantasy landscape influenced equally by utopian aspirations and failures. "Willing to Be Vulnerable – Metalized Balloon" evokes the infamous Hindenburg zeppelin. A symbol of progress and modernity in the early 20th century, its spectacular destruction and well-documented crash has penetrated popular culture and remains vibrant in our collective memory. Reflecting upon this tragic story, Lee Bul's work investigates the intrinsic fragility that exists in any utopian attempt.
Elmgreen & Dragset created "City in the Sky” specifically for this exhibition. It manifests an imaginary city in a scaled model, installed upside-down. Inspired by the new financial centres of megacities such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, and London, it offers a kaleidoscopic overview of a fictional urban landscape in which illuminated skyscrapers are rendered as post-architectural archetypes.
Over the past three decades, Emmanuel Perrotin has exhibited and supported contemporary and modern artists through numerous collaborative projects. This piece of artwork is his latest work to exhibited in Art Basel HK.
In "Where Are We Going?, 2017 - 2018", the site-specific work created by Japan’s artist Chiharu Shiota, boats from around the world and of all sizes figuratively sail across the space. Made of black metal hulls and white plasticized cotton, they seem as if they are pencil-drawn. They hang from the ceiling floating upwards as if departing from the bottom of the sea to create a sky of clouds. Ms. Shiota says "I see this piece as a metaphor: we cling to the idea of destiny to accept uncertainty; we ride the sea of time in search of a destination. Boats are the bearers of dreams and hope."
"Théière Collection de Nuages, 2018" is from Leandro Erlich using extra clear glass, ceramic ink digital printing, wooden wengue vitrine, led lights to make fragments of illusion.
"Rabbit and the Moon, 2017 - 2018" has the same name of the tale of rabbit and moon. Dan Colen shows it in a different way in sculpture.
In the Kaikai Kiki Gallery, "Goin To A Go-go!!, 2014" shows creative work reflecting the Japanese "cute" subculture marked by an obsession with adolescence, manga, anime, video games, etc.
Galerie Neugerriemschneider exhibits Olafur Eliasson's latest large work "Light matter collective". Through the changes of light and shadow, and the movement of the footstep when watching, we can see the different mirror changes produced step by step, which is the charm of Ms. Eliasson's works. This work concretely symbolizes that the only consistency of all things, that is, change.
The work from China’s artist Xu Zhen "Under Heaven-2812NH0174" is popular among artworks which has been sold already. This artwork is like a thick layer of cream mounted on fresh baked cake. The color that makes people present a kind of pleasant and crazy feeling.
"At Twilight: A Play for Two Actors, Three Musicians, One Dancer, Eight Masks (and a Donkey Costume)" from Simon Starling encapsulates a discourse between tradition and the avant-garde in a dramatized tussle between history, mythology, and Modernism.
Mit Jai Inn's work "Planes, Electric, 2019" is inspired by Hong Kong. It convey the sense of speed of the city and mercantilism, and the atmosphere of information explosion. Single or multiple width of vertical combination is also the alternative expression of light and shadow. To the impact on the vision, it more filled with the smell of paint with different feelings to distinguish between the different levels of the space, allowing the visitors to move back in the works.
Kim Tschang-Yeul is regarded as one of the most influential figures in Korea’s modern art history and is renowned for his "waterdrop” paintings. "Waterdrops, 1974" is one of them. Mr. Kim explains that water is the origin of all things, highlighting that nothing in our universe would exist without water.
Tomás Saraceno's work "NLTT 5306 b/M+M, 2019", using arachnology, or the study of spiders, to create structures that suggest alternative ways of living, he employs tridimensional webs to better understand how unique building blocks create distinct forms.
"I think about decay not in a negative way, but in the sense of creating a space for things to start growing," explains David Altmejd, an artist known for severed werewolf head sculptures and other compellingly grotesque works. "Portrait of a Man with Rose, 2019" is his latest work
Widely known as the "Painter of Seorak", Kim Chong Hak evokes Mount Seorak—the third-highest mountain in Korea, situated in the east of the country—on his canvases with motifs from nature, such as flowers, insects, and weeds."Flowers in Bloom, 2019" shows the flowers bloom frontal-facing in various bright shades.
Taking experiencers to fly to the moon. Laurie Anderson and Huang Hsin Chien bring the visual art work "To the Moon".
From the series "Deity, 2019" of "Air Deity", "Water Deity", "Fire Deity”, “Earth Deity", incorporating virtual reality, gaming subcultures, and popular music, Lu Yang creates wildly original and provocative experiences that celebrate the internet and its offer of control over one’s identity, partially liberated from the rigid confines of nationality, gender, and sexuality.
"Unlimited, 2012" painted by Michael Lin is hung on the wall which has the same background as the painting, which challenges the boundaries of daily life and highlights the depth of aesthetic significance of images, bringing a natural visual effects.

《The Young Reporter》

The Young Reporter (TYR) started as a newspaper in 1969. Today, it is published across multiple media platforms and updated constantly to bring the latest news and analyses to its readers.

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The Young Reporter

The Young Reporter (TYR) started as a newspaper in 1969. Today, it is published across multiple media platforms and updated constantly to bring the latest news and analyses to its readers.

新報人

新報人(SPY)創刊於1970年，因應傳媒業變革及科技進步，發展成多媒體資訊平台，並持續更新新聞資訊。新報人奉行編輯自主，自我管理的原則，實踐新聞自由理念。