A Blow to the Everyday
(last)intervention
10.10.2009–29.11.2009
Press Preview: 09.10.2009, 4:00pm–6:00pm
Opening Reception: 09.10.2009, 6:00pm–8:00pm

Osage Art Foundation is pleased to present A Blow to the Everyday and (last)intervention as part of the annual October Contemporary. The former is a group exhibition of works by young contemporary Japanese artists, many of which are site-specific while the latter will showcase new works by Kingsley Ng and Samson Young, two of Hong Kong’s most promising local young artists. The two exhibitions thereby brings together young artists from two cities in Asia and through this, creates a platform for interaction and exchange, as well as an opportunity for audiences to experience works from different parts of Asia.

Curated by Yuko Hasegawa, Chief Curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo, A Blow to the Everyday signifies a call to transform and awaken everyday awareness by embroiling people in collective fantasies and horrors and other provocative documents. It also implies questioning, through the practice of contemporary Japanese artists, the kind of involvement the individual activities of artists can have with communities and society at large, and the kind of communication and imagination they can stimulate in late-finance capitalist Japan. It is as well the story of the survival of the artists concerned, with an attempt to recall the reality of a different life through involvement with situations and people in the city.

Many of the works in the exhibition are participatory in nature and responds to the immediate space of the gallery and the environment of Hong Kong. Yukihiro Taguchi explores the city and creates temporary installation using objects he found throughout his expedition, and in the process, often invites the participation of passersby. These acts are documented and shown as part of an installation in the gallery. In the week following the opening, Taguchi’s ‘performative installation’ will undergo constant changes, ‘re-spacing’ and re-defining the traditional notion of a ‘fixed’ space/place and its relationship to the objects they house. Kenichi Hagihara’s work takes on the form of pseudo-scientific experiments which invites the participation of the public. The artist collective Chim↑Pom creates a utopian world within the gallery, at the same time, takes a dig at the fantasies of contemporary society. Meanwhile, Meiro Koizumi captures the forlorn psychological state of the modern man—absurd, amusing yet harrowing. In addition, the exhibition will showcase a video installation of established artist Shiro Takatani, documentation of public art projects by Wah, a young artist collective, as well as a large scale site-specific wall painting by Ayako Okubo.

(last)intervention presents new works by Kingsley Ng and Samson Young, two of Hong Kong’s emerging generation of tech-savvy multi-disciplinarians. Kingsley Ng is known for his intensely subtle poeticism, while Samson Young’s work is typified by schizophrenic juxtaposition of rich darkness and child-like imageries; yet, both share a concern for the deployment of sound in immersive multi-media experiences. Focusing on the rapidly-disappearing Kwun Tong as a site of social intervention and creative meditation, the pair will create contrasting pieces that seek to re-define ‘intervention’ as an act of remembering, an act of inscribing time, a way of participating in Being, and a way of negotiating competing claims for justice and acts of witnessing.

A special programme conceived and led by Samson Young, Urban Palimpsest: a twilight sound-walk, will take participants on an intimate tour to discover little-known spots in Kwun Tong, while listening to modified environment sounds and electronic compositions streaming from portable listening devices. It is a meditative inquiry into the connection between urban spaces and our collective sonic imagination, an exercise in distrusting the ears, and a momentary disruption of sonic judgement.

The exhibitions, A Blow to the Everyday and (last)intervention, form the first part of a larger cultural exchange programme organised by Osage Art Foundation. It includes a programme of exhibitions, performances, workshops, presentations, as well as a symposium. The second part of the exchange will be held in Tokyo, Japan in Spring 2010. The programme is an attempt to provide a platform for exchange by introducing works of Japanese artists and art collectives to audiences in Hong Kong, while also creating an opportunity for artists and art professionals from Hong Kong to travel to Japan. It is hoped that the event will act as a catalyst for future cultural exchanges, providing audiences in Hong Kong with a wider world view in art as well as promoting Hong Kong artists abroad.

The Press preview for the above exhibitions will be held on Friday, 9 October 2009 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm. The artists will be present at this event for interviews.

The press preview will be followed by the Opening Reception at 6:00pm to 8:00pm.