June 30, 2021
Featuring emerging Hong Kong artists in time of crisis.
Initiated by Hong Kong artist Lee Kai Chung and researcher Shen Jun, stepbackforward.art is a bottom-up online archive reacting to Hong Kong art ecology under severe impact of social changes and global pandemics. The project attempts to redistribute the obtained public resources to emerging art contemporaries, while carrying out timely dialogues and archive in transitional times.
In the first phase of the project, SBF invited emerging artists and interdisciplinary cultural practitioners who regard Hong Kong as “home,” generating artist archives and methodologies through questionnaires, dialogues and interviews. We are delighted to announce the launch of both the project website and our first independent publication entitled Things will Work out Tomorrow, in which 59 artists and collectives have joined us as of now. The second phase of the project will continue on a long-term basis, emerging art practitioners from different regions and backgrounds are welcomed.
Rather than categorizing artists by works and subject matters, SBF cares more about how emerging artists develop relatively sustainable practice in an imperfect social situation and art mechanism, embracing the perceptions and reflections of the moment and transforming them into visual, audio and text-based records. The web archive is designed as an interface that randomly retrieves keywords and archival fragments of all participating artists in real time. Once entering the website, the users are greeted by a cloud of archives and multimedia fragments that are collectively contributed, as if you are navigating a world of ideas that will not be silenced. If regarding the SBF website as an ever-expanding archive, the publication is more like a time capsule recording the participants’ creative methods and daily reflections in recent years, weaving together a collective state of mind. Looking back at Hong Kong over the past two years, art is not the only case of struggle, nor pandemic the only thing that causes suffering. In that sense, SBF explores an approach that emphasizes connectivity as a survival strategy from the perspective of an artistic archive. While facing transition, it could possibly be a way out through building a sense of togetherness, exploring the public-facing aspects of individuals through mutual aid. Facing history (that will soon to be partially erased) and an uncertain future, might a bottom-up art archive be a response to the changing world?
Participating artists and collectives: Chan Chui Man / Chan Ting / Chang Yue Lam / Cheng Hung, Dony / Cheng Xinhao / Cheng Tsz Fung, Jeff / Dorothy Cheung / Janice Cheung / Cheung Yee Kwan, Sonia / Cheung Yick Kan / Chu Wing Lam, Kelly / Fung Ching Laam / Thomas Fung / Fung Yee Lick, Eric / Echo Hui / Weera It Ittiteerarak / Kwong Wing Kwan / Lai Wing Hung / Landescape1823 / Florence Lam / Lam Esther Yuen Ching / Lau Ching Wa, Jess / Lau Ching Yee, Cathleen / Lee Kai Chung / Lee Pui Ying, Hiya / Leung Mong Sum, Joseph / Li Xiaoqiao / Liao Jiaming / Liu Chang / Lo Wan Ki / Ng Wing Sze / Peng Jing / Poon Mei Yee / Project Nocode / Qiang Tiankai / Iris Sham / Shen Jun / Shum Kwan Hon, Stanley / Tam Cheuk Lam, Jessie / Tam Man Ching, Michelle / Tang Cheuk Man, Penelope / Tang Kwong San & Yuen Nga Chi / Tsang Shuk Fan, Tracy / Wang Ziyue / Wat Kin Ching / Wong Kei Suet, Ice / Iris Wong / Wong Pak Hang, Samson / Wong Sze Wai / Wong Yuk Shan / Winsome Wong / Xu Ran / Yang Sijia / Manny Yip / Yu Shuk Pui, Bobby / Yu Wing Kei, RiK / Zhang Wenzhi / Zheng Tianyi / Zhu Jianlin / Zhu Xiang
Please contact stepbackforward [at] gmail.com to request for the e-copy of publication or further information.
*The first phase of the project is supported by Hong Kong Arts Development Council “Arts Go Digital Platform Scheme”.
