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Nicole Tan

Since 2019, Hong Kong has felt distinctly unmoored for many. First, there were the anti-government protests, then the Covid-19 pandemic began, then the National Security Law was put into force in June 2020.
Curator André Chan has tried to encapsulate this sense of uncertainty in “The Floating World”, an exhibition at Ben Brown Fine Arts in Wong Chuk Hang that features the works of five up-and-coming artistic talents.
The exhibition takes inspiration from the genre of Japanese ukiyo-e art, which translates as “pictures of the floating world”.
Beginning in the 17th century during Japan’s Edo period, the “floating world” of brothels and theatres frequented by the rising merchant class was captured in paintings and woodblock prints, often combining realism with the fantastical.

But then, in the 19th century, less than 40 years after Hokusai made the iconic ukiyo-e print The Great Wave (1831), war began, Edo became Tokyo, and the country was thrown into turmoil.
“The idea of a floating world suggests our world is very fragile,” Chan says.
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He points out that the artists in the show – Vivian Ho, Cheng Ting-ting, Li Ning, Yan Wai-yin and Nicole Wong – all work in different media. But the common thread that ties them together is how they invite viewers to contemplate the instability and ambiguity of the world we live in.
Ho’s acrylic paintings present a world vision that is disturbing and yet strangely beautiful: An Eye For An Eye shows someone playing pool with eyeballs, in a room crowded with giant, tropical leaves; while Good Vibes Only shows a hand holding a lit cigarette that is sticking out from under a bathtub full of flowers, as white doves fly around the small bathroom.
Ho’s world is “warped in a way that we don’t truly understand”, Chan says.

Cheng, a painter who has chosen to experiment with lithography for the show, has created a series of 20 images inspired by her time studying in Norway and the uncertainty of settling down in a new place.
Made within a span of two months, the black-and-white prints are loose, impressionistic records of where she was staying and her mood at the time.
Li Ning’s “Stone Faces” comprises a series of four “portraits” of a small, abstract ceramic sculpture he made. His detailed visual analysis of the ambiguous shape invites viewers to look at the piece more closely.

Curled up in an old leather suitcase in the corner of the gallery is a taxidermy of a fox: Nicole Wong’s On How to Say Goodbye.
The conceptual installation is a homage to the animals we have loved and, more generally, the process of mourning and letting go. It is placed in front of a large sheet resembling the grey and white grid that masks the background in Photoshop. The effect is an “absolutely empty space” that encourages visitors to focus only on the fox, undistracted by its surroundings, Chan says.

Yan’s videos add yet another medium to the exhibition. Muted Bridges and Ferris Fog are made to resemble old-fashioned film projections and transport viewers to a dream world that is both a tribute to the natural environment and a reflection of the artist’s past relationships.
Chan, an independent curator and writer based in Hong Kong, says he hopes that visitors will find “The Floating World” relevant to their lives.
“We are all living in a very precarious time, and it’s easy to lose track of where anything is or where anyone stands,” Chan says.
“The works in the gallery show the different ways to articulate this uneasiness, and [I] hope that they will help the audience make sense of the world around them.”

“The Floating World”, Ben Brown Fine Arts, 201 The Factory, 1 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang, Tue-Sat, 11am-7pm. Until September 9.


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Hong Kong exhibition inspired by ukiyo-e art expresses the uneasiness of living in an unstable and ambiguous world

“On How to Say Goodbye” (2023), by Nicole Wong, part of “The Floating World” exhibition inspired by ukiyo-e art at Hong Kong’s Ben Brown Fine Arts gallery. Photo: Nicole Tan

“An Eye For An Eye” (2023), by Vivian Ho. Photo: Nicole Tan

“Good Vibes Only” (2023), by Vivian Ho. Photo: Nicole Tan

“Stone Face” (2023), by Li Ning. Photo: Nicole Tan

“On How to Say Goodbye” (2023), by Nicole Wong. Photo: Nicole Tan

Curator André Chan unpacks Cheng Ting-ting’s lithographs for “The Floating World” exhibition. Photo: Nicole Tan

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A still from the video piece “Phantom Pain” (2019-22), by Mark Chung, which is featured in his solo exhibition “Splinter” at Rossi & Rossi gallery in Hong Kong. Photo: Mark Chung

Mark Chung at Rossi & Rossi gallery in Hong Kong’s Wong Chuk Hang neighbourhood. The artist, who is studying in Amsterdam, has taken inspiration from the orderly Dutch city in his show exploring architecture’s role in the illusion of social order. Photo: Jonathan Wong

Chung at Rossi & Rossi gallery. A curved wood frame, PVC curtains and pot plants all feature in the artist’s exhibition – comments on the illusions surrounding us and on Dutch colonialism, among other things. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“Dead End 01” (2022) now features at the “Marginal Notes” group exhibition at the Hong Kong Arts Development Council’s new headquarters in Wong Chuk Hang. Photo: Mark Chung

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Arbre in Shenzhen hosts a group exhibition series called “Arbre Estate” ever year. Photo: Arbre 

Chinese curator Shane Liu founded Arbre, an art gallery in Shenzhen, in 2019 after she returned from the UK. Photo: Arbre

The New Who Art Museum, in the New Who Art Village, in Shenzhen, in 2020. Photo: Courtesy of Deng Chunru

A man enjoys an exhibition held in the New Who Art Village in 2018. Photo: Courtesy of Deng Chunru

Deng Chunru and his wife, Wang Ting, often organise art projects in the village that involve community residents. Photo: Courtesy of Deng Chunru

An exhibition at Arbre that formed part of its art residency programme “Roundabout Plan”. Photo: Arbre

Arbre hosts a group exhibition series called “Arbre Estate” every year. Photo: Arbre

Artists at the New Who Art Village celebrate with villagers during the New Who Art Festival in 2018. Photo: Courtesy of Deng Chunru

Lifestyle

Arts

‘The Floating World’ at Hong Kong’s Ben Brown Fine Arts gallery showcases five up-and-coming artists specialising in different media
Curator André Chan hopes that the varied works will help the audience make sense of the uncertainty and uneasiness present in the world we live in


A new exhibition inspired by ukiyo-e art at Hong Kong’s Ben Brown Fine Arts gallery showcases five artists whose works contemplate the instability and ambiguity of the world we live in.


Hong Kong