An acute manner
27.11.2021 - 15.1.2022
Edouard Malingue Gallery Tin Wan studio, Hong Kong
更尖銳的方式
27.11.2021 - 15.1.2022
馬凌畫廊田灣工作室, 香港
27.11.2021 - 15.1.2022
Edouard Malingue Gallery Tin Wan studio, Hong Kong
更尖銳的方式
27.11.2021 - 15.1.2022
馬凌畫廊田灣工作室, 香港
Edouard Malingue Gallery is pleased to present “An Acute Manner”, Ko Sin Tung’s third solo exhibition with the gallery, showcasing two new site-sensitive installations created specifically for the gallery’s Tin Wan studio. Over the years, Ko has been known for exploring in depth the political dimension of social spaces and everyday experience, acutely capturing transitional moments in life. From a singular perspective that is critically detached and restrained, she represents in various forms — installation, sculpture, painting, photography and video — the procedures and means through which contemporary society disciplines human and non-human bodies.
“An Acute Manner” includes two new site-sensitive installations: the eponymous An Acute Manner, and Experimental Field. For the former, which assumes the form of a curtain, Ko employs as slats straightened barbed wires that are generally used to brutally separate public and private spaces. Hung from the ceiling of the gallery space, this electrically powered installation attempts to complicate the relationship between the spatial and the visual by constantly shifting sideways, realigning passive, defensive manoeuvres with active, aggressive threats. Experimental Field, on the other hand, is a group of low, encompassing barriers; attached to the metallic structures and rods of which are dissected plastic bottles. Incorporating in an eerie fashion everyday wares and vessels anthropomorphised to different extents, Experimental Field is the latest iteration of Ko’s moderately constructed matrix of interference-feedback, danger-safety, and destruction-creation.
The two works specifically conceived for the exhibition summons strange, non-theatrical performativity, further expanding the complex spatial narrative that the artist has developed since 2015. “An Acute Manner” corresponds directly to the permeating, conspiring nature shown in recent works such as Guardian (2019) and Temporary Storage (2019), elucidating further themes from Ko’s two solo presentations in 2019: “Adaptation”, and “Dust and trivial matters”. Departing from recent projects, the latest exhibition of “An Acute Manner” weakens the physical structures of barriers and interference, no longer regulates the spectators’ bodies and movements in ways that are overwhelming and total. Instead, it emphasises the sharp, spiky nature of metallic materials, addressing with clarity the coldness and danger of the space, hinting negatively at the notion of segregation-as-protection that the artist has vehemently questioned in her previous projects. The exhibition aims at expounding the false notion of cleanliness of the world, and representing its ever-tightening control over society. In “An Acute Manner”, Ko also further nurtures a rare yet significant element: human or non-human bodies. Be it the appearances of gloved hands from her series of videos, or the building that serves as a metaphor for skin or organs in Hard Pieces (2020) — these fragmented, concealed and sketchy bodies are crystallised into the dissected plastic bottles painted with povidone-iodine, radicalising the violent nature of caring and healing practices, in a present world that particularly emphasises contaminations, disabilities and diseases.
馬凌畫廊榮譽呈現高倩彤在畫廊的第三次個展「更尖銳的方式」，展出藝術家為畫廊田灣工作室空間創作的場域特定裝置作品。 高倩彤在藝術實踐中長期關注社會空間及日常經驗的政治意義，積極捕捉轉變性時刻，基於冷峻且克制的審美角度以裝置、雕塑、繪畫、攝影、影像等不同形式的作品再現當代社會規訓人類及非人身體的過程及手段。
「更尖銳的方式」呈現高倩彤新近創作的兩組場域特定裝置作品：與展覽同名的《更尖銳的方式》，以及《實驗場》。在窗簾機械裝置《更尖銳的方式》中，高倩彤運用了一般用來粗暴分隔空間的材料——鐵絲圈，將捲曲、帶刺的鐵絲圈製作成垂直懸掛的「窗簾葉片」。此件懸掛於房頂橫樑的窗簾機械裝置反覆橫向移動，試圖分隔空間關係及觀察視角，將被動的防禦變為主動的威脅。藝術家在展覽空間四處佈置的《實驗場》則是多組低矮的金屬圍欄，附有各式被切割處理了的瓶狀容器。圍欄構成的矩陣和其中帶有身體意味的容器以藝術家的標誌性風格成為弱結構障礙—回報、危險—安全、毀壞—創造實踐的「實驗場」。
在「更尖銳的方式」中，兩件場域特定作品構成的關係呈現了一種無戲劇性的奇異劇場形式，進一步拓展了高倩彤自 2015 年以來進行的複雜空間敘事實踐。兩件新作直接呼應了藝術家近年創作的《守護者》（2019）、《臨時儲存》（2019）等作品吊詭的彌散、勾連特質，也與 2019 年的「適當反應」及「塵埃與瑣事」兩次個人展覽保有緊密且堅韌的聯繫。在前作的基礎上，此次展覽弱化了空間阻隔形式的實體結構，不再以高聳、全面的阻隔形式規限觀眾的身體及運動；同時強調了金屬「尖銳」的特性，明確點出空間冷漠而危險的緣由，反面提示著藝術家在過去實踐中批判的「阻隔即是保護」邏輯，並指向當下世界的虛妄清潔感以及更嚴苛的規條。在「更尖銳的方式」中，高倩彤也進一步發展了其藝術實踐罕見卻重要的元素：人類或非人類身體的存在。無論是在藝術家過去多個影像作品中出現的戴白手套的手，還是近期《硬塊》（2020）作品將建築表面視作皮膚或鮮活器官的隱喻——這些影影綽綽的身體局部在「更尖銳的方式」中轉換成了被切割的、塗有聚維酮碘的瓶狀容器，在強調了傳染性、殘破性及病變潛能的當代語境中激化了關懷、療癒的暴力特質。
“An Acute Manner” includes two new site-sensitive installations: the eponymous An Acute Manner, and Experimental Field. For the former, which assumes the form of a curtain, Ko employs as slats straightened barbed wires that are generally used to brutally separate public and private spaces. Hung from the ceiling of the gallery space, this electrically powered installation attempts to complicate the relationship between the spatial and the visual by constantly shifting sideways, realigning passive, defensive manoeuvres with active, aggressive threats. Experimental Field, on the other hand, is a group of low, encompassing barriers; attached to the metallic structures and rods of which are dissected plastic bottles. Incorporating in an eerie fashion everyday wares and vessels anthropomorphised to different extents, Experimental Field is the latest iteration of Ko’s moderately constructed matrix of interference-feedback, danger-safety, and destruction-creation.
The two works specifically conceived for the exhibition summons strange, non-theatrical performativity, further expanding the complex spatial narrative that the artist has developed since 2015. “An Acute Manner” corresponds directly to the permeating, conspiring nature shown in recent works such as Guardian (2019) and Temporary Storage (2019), elucidating further themes from Ko’s two solo presentations in 2019: “Adaptation”, and “Dust and trivial matters”. Departing from recent projects, the latest exhibition of “An Acute Manner” weakens the physical structures of barriers and interference, no longer regulates the spectators’ bodies and movements in ways that are overwhelming and total. Instead, it emphasises the sharp, spiky nature of metallic materials, addressing with clarity the coldness and danger of the space, hinting negatively at the notion of segregation-as-protection that the artist has vehemently questioned in her previous projects. The exhibition aims at expounding the false notion of cleanliness of the world, and representing its ever-tightening control over society. In “An Acute Manner”, Ko also further nurtures a rare yet significant element: human or non-human bodies. Be it the appearances of gloved hands from her series of videos, or the building that serves as a metaphor for skin or organs in Hard Pieces (2020) — these fragmented, concealed and sketchy bodies are crystallised into the dissected plastic bottles painted with povidone-iodine, radicalising the violent nature of caring and healing practices, in a present world that particularly emphasises contaminations, disabilities and diseases.
馬凌畫廊榮譽呈現高倩彤在畫廊的第三次個展「更尖銳的方式」，展出藝術家為畫廊田灣工作室空間創作的場域特定裝置作品。 高倩彤在藝術實踐中長期關注社會空間及日常經驗的政治意義，積極捕捉轉變性時刻，基於冷峻且克制的審美角度以裝置、雕塑、繪畫、攝影、影像等不同形式的作品再現當代社會規訓人類及非人身體的過程及手段。
「更尖銳的方式」呈現高倩彤新近創作的兩組場域特定裝置作品：與展覽同名的《更尖銳的方式》，以及《實驗場》。在窗簾機械裝置《更尖銳的方式》中，高倩彤運用了一般用來粗暴分隔空間的材料——鐵絲圈，將捲曲、帶刺的鐵絲圈製作成垂直懸掛的「窗簾葉片」。此件懸掛於房頂橫樑的窗簾機械裝置反覆橫向移動，試圖分隔空間關係及觀察視角，將被動的防禦變為主動的威脅。藝術家在展覽空間四處佈置的《實驗場》則是多組低矮的金屬圍欄，附有各式被切割處理了的瓶狀容器。圍欄構成的矩陣和其中帶有身體意味的容器以藝術家的標誌性風格成為弱結構障礙—回報、危險—安全、毀壞—創造實踐的「實驗場」。
在「更尖銳的方式」中，兩件場域特定作品構成的關係呈現了一種無戲劇性的奇異劇場形式，進一步拓展了高倩彤自 2015 年以來進行的複雜空間敘事實踐。兩件新作直接呼應了藝術家近年創作的《守護者》（2019）、《臨時儲存》（2019）等作品吊詭的彌散、勾連特質，也與 2019 年的「適當反應」及「塵埃與瑣事」兩次個人展覽保有緊密且堅韌的聯繫。在前作的基礎上，此次展覽弱化了空間阻隔形式的實體結構，不再以高聳、全面的阻隔形式規限觀眾的身體及運動；同時強調了金屬「尖銳」的特性，明確點出空間冷漠而危險的緣由，反面提示著藝術家在過去實踐中批判的「阻隔即是保護」邏輯，並指向當下世界的虛妄清潔感以及更嚴苛的規條。在「更尖銳的方式」中，高倩彤也進一步發展了其藝術實踐罕見卻重要的元素：人類或非人類身體的存在。無論是在藝術家過去多個影像作品中出現的戴白手套的手，還是近期《硬塊》（2020）作品將建築表面視作皮膚或鮮活器官的隱喻——這些影影綽綽的身體局部在「更尖銳的方式」中轉換成了被切割的、塗有聚維酮碘的瓶狀容器，在強調了傳染性、殘破性及病變潛能的當代語境中激化了關懷、療癒的暴力特質。