10 October 2015, 2:30–5:30pm (HKT)
Hong Kong Space Museum
Lecture Hall
10 Salisbury Road
Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong
Language: Cantonese with simultaneous English translation
Free registration
In October 2014, Asia Art Archive (AAA) and Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMA) began Phase II of the collaborative Hong Kong Art History Research Project as part of an endeavour to develop a public platform for research on recent art in Hong Kong. Building on previous and current research efforts—including the first phase of the Project in 2013, which produced interviews of nine active figures in 1960–70s Hong Kong: Jacques Bouhet (then-director of Société Générale in Hong Kong, corporate patron), Gaylord Chan (artist, Founding Chairman and member of the Visual Arts Society, 1974–present), Cheung Yee (artist, member of Modern Literature and Art Association, 1958–64), Kong Kai-ming (artist and art educator), Kwok Chiu-leung (art educator), Robert O’Brien (artist and art educator), Shaw Tze (publisher), Brian Tilbrook (artist and art educator), and Wong Kum (artist and advertiser)—the Project continues to develop a rich picture of Hong Kong’s art ecology. The Project encourages research through collaboration by a process that does not only produce and deepen knowledge, but also circulates material that can generate more complex narratives and interpretations.
The Project’s lines of inquiry include exhibitions, pedagogy, art writing, and modes of exchange. In Phase II, attention has been directed at how political affiliations shaped individual practices, affecting visibility and access to resources. Focused around a new series of documented interviews that cover multiple voices and perspectives, the Project has digitised a selection of materials from the archives of Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong Museum of Art, and the personal collections of leading arts professionals.
A second strand of research developed from the 2013 Pilot Project panel discussion “Approaches to Researching Art in Hong Kong“, which mapped exhibition timelines and bibliographies of research practitioners who participated in the panel, led to a 7 May 2015 workshop that examined how existing materials—along with those generated by this Project—can be used. In response, Yeewan Koon (Department of Fine Arts, University of Hong Kong) and Frank Vigneron (Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong) developed their “dream syllabus” for teaching Hong Kong Art History. It will be made available via AAA and HKMA websites.
10 October panel discussions
The first panel on Building Communities and Validating Practices, moderated by Simon Chiu Kam-shing (Programme Director, Art Farm), considers how art pedagogy, art writing, political affiliation, and exhibitions affected artistic practices, circulation, and visibility in 1960s–70s Hong Kong. The panel speakers include Choi Yan-chi (artist and Founder, 1a Space), Eliza Lai Mei-lin (Department of Fine Arts, Chinese University of Hong Kong), Eddie Lui Fung-ngar (artist and Chairman, Visual Art Society, 1978–82), and Ma Kwai-shun (Director, Art Horizon Workshop).
The second panel on Oral History as Research Tool, moderated by art historian Pedith Chan Pui (Department of Chinese and History, City University of Hong Kong), brings speakers from various disciplines—from history to exhibition making—to explore what role oral history can play in the research, writing, and teaching of art history. Speakers include Victor Lai Ming-hoi (Academy of Visual Arts, Hong Kong Baptist University), Tina Pang Yee-wan (Curator, Hong Kong Visual Culture, M+), and Wong Wai-ling (Research Officer, Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Hong Kong).
Click here for more information on the speakers.
Respondents
Writer Tang Siu-wah and independent researcher Phoebe Wong Siu-yin have been invited to respond to the Project. Their texts will be published via AAA and HKMA websites in both Chinese and English.
Click here for more information on the respondents.
About AAA
Asia Art Archive is an independent non-profit organisation initiated in 2000 in response to the urgent need to document and make accessible the multiple recent histories of art in the region. With an international Board of Directors, an Advisory Board made up of noted scholars and curators, and an in-house research team, AAA has collated one of the most valuable collections of material on contemporary art in the region—open to the public free of charge and increasingly accessible from its website. More than a static repository waiting to be discovered, AAA instigates critical thinking and dialogue for a wide range of audiences via public, research, residential and educational programmes.
About HKMA
The mission of the Hong Kong Museum of Art is to promote art with a local focus, and to preserve the cultural heritage of China. Besides works by Hong Kong artists, its collections include Chinese painting and calligraphy, Chinese antiquities, and historical pictures. The Museum also has an integral international dimension, which it maintains by presenting a wide variety of thematic exhibitions drawn from local and overseas sources.
