Art At A Time Like This Presents MMXX

Art at a Time Like This, an arts organization dedicated to providing a platform for artists caught in crisis, will present MMXX, an exhibition of nine artists based in Hong Kong organized by Jing Chong, senior curatorial officer of the Hong Kong Art Center and independent curator Andre Chan.

Featuring artists Bouie Choi, Lee Kit, South HO, Vvn HO, Billy H.C. Kwok, Vvzela Kook, June WONG Sui Ling, Winnie YAN Wai Yin and the collective ACAB (All Cats Are Beautiful), all address Beijing's oppressive infringement on their rights and their brave responses to an impossible political situation.

"MMXX" is the Roman numerals of 2020. Any hope that the tide had changed since 2019 has been largely squandered. The structure of one of the most forward-looking cities in the world is dismantled piece by piece by its own government right in front of our very eyes," say the curators. "Most of the works in MMXX are created before the watershed moment of 2020, reflecting the moments leading up to the so-called beginning of the end. MMXX is a snapshot of art production at this crossroad of hope and desperation."

The background to this show is the recent events in Hong Kong's political situation, from the peaceful protests of 2019, attracting crowds of 2 million residents, to the passage of the Extradition Law Amendment in 2021. In recent weeks, Apple Daily, the pro-democracy newspaper has been shut down and more than 300 protestors have been arrested. It is clear that China will not wait until 2027 (20 years since the handover) to exercise its power over Hong Kong, including interference with elections and replacing popular candidates with hand-picked pro-Communist Party supporters. Artists have responded bravely to these circumstances, even knowing that certain works could lead to arrests and the once-free society of Hong Kong will soon be a thing of the past.

About the curators:

André Chan worked in a number of international galleries and produced various exhibitions around the world. He is the co-founder of Arts Collective in Hong Kong and his curatorial work is now focusing on artists' practices and contemporary city issues. He curated exhibitions and performances in various cities including Shanghai, Seoul, Gwangju, Chicago, Vancouver and Hong Kong. Recent exhibitions include Kotodama (Para Site, Hong Kong, 2018), It Was the Best of Times, It was the Worst of Times (Mana Contemporary, Chicago, 2017), I Like Blue When There is More White (KIGOJA, Seoul, 2017), Snark: A 4-Act Performance (Hong Kong, 2016), Form Simultaneity (100ft Park, Hong Kong, 2016), What Potions Have I Drunk of Siren Tears (A+ Contemporary, Shanghai, 2016), Songs without Words(100ft Park, Hong Kong, 2016) and These Shores (Rossi & Rossi Hong Kong, 2013).

Jing C.Y. Chong is the senior curatorial officer at the Hong Kong Arts Centre; she has been working in several art institutions and galleries including the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei, a.m. space Hong Kong and other projects. Chong and Chan joint curated many exhibitions, most recently A Tree Fell in the Forest, and No One's There at Shanghai's Power Station of Art in 2018.

About the artists:

ACAB (All Cats Are Beautiful) initiated Global Uprising Footprint (G.U.F.), a platform for shared experiences and solidarity, a step towards building a network of alliances among those who face social and political struggles, including internal conflicts within their organizations. Her zine series Siu2La3Ba1 documents the history of Hong Kong's Anti-ELAB (Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill) movement through archiving protest songs, chanted slogans, and video games that emerged during the movement.

Bouie CHOI graduated with a master's degree from Chelsea School of Design in London. Her early works mostly focused on the exploration of her body by performances. Since then she has moved back into making paintings that depicts the urban landscape. She has shown at Karin Weber Gallery, Rossi & Rossi and Grotto Fine Art, all in Hong Kong.

South HO Siu Nam received his diploma in social work in 2016 and began exhibiting his photography work the following year. His current project, Work naming has not succeeded, includes subtle photographs of the evolving cityscape as censors erase protest graffiti. He founded the artists run space, 100ft Park, in 2013 and established CHT Art Project in Tainan. His works have been included in many museum exhibitions around the world.

Vvn HO grew up in Hong Kong and graduated from Wesleyan University in 2012. She has had several solo shows in Hong Kong with Artify Gallery and A2Z Art Gallery. Working both as an artist and designer, her illustrations are full of dark humor, especially the recent Red is the Greatest Color, 2021, depicting HO ominously painting the Hong Kong skyline red.

Billy H.C. KWOK was born in Hong Kong and bears witness to the changes in the city over the years. He started his career as a reporter in a local newspaper and slowly gravitated to photography. He is now a photojournalist for various international news agencies in the Pan China region, travelling between Hong Kong, Taipei and China. He has been selected as W. Eugene Smith Grant Finalist in 2020, Magnum Foundation fellows in 2018 and Magnum Foundation Fund Grantee in 2019 for his long-term project investigates into Taiwan's political taboos, hidden histories and memories. His series Ground Cover offers a bird's eye view of HK's streets, covered in political graffiti.

LEE Kit is a world-renowned artist, born in Hong Kong. His recent practice combines projection, drawing, text and light to create slow painterly tableaus of intimate scenery. His work is gentle and contemplative, yet there is always an undercurrent of urgency in response to the socio-political instability in Hong Kong in the recent years. He has been shown around the world, including ArtSonje Center, Seoul, KR; AIKE, Shanghai, CN; Arrow Factory, Beijing, CN; Crane Gallery, Kaohsiung, CN; Casa Masaccio, Tuscany, IT ; Cattle Depot, Hong Kong, CN; The Cube, Taipei, CN; Enjoy Public Art Gallery, Wellington, NZ; Hara Museum, Tokyo, JP; Hong Kong Pavilion, The 55th Venice Biennale; Hong-gah Museum, Taipei, CN; Hospitality, Cologne, DE; Jane Lombard Gallery, Chelsea, NY; Lyon Biennial, FR; Massimo de Carlo, London, UK; MiArt, Milan, IT; Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai, CN; Mother's Tankstation, Dublin, IE; Observation Society, Guangzhou, CN; OCAT, Shenzhen, CH; Osage Soho, Hong Kong, CN; Osage Gallery, Art Basel 42, CH; SH Contemporary Hot Sport, Shanghai, CN; ShugoArts, Tokyo, JP; TKG+, Taipei, CN; S.M.A.K. Ghent, BE; Western Front, Vancouver, CA and the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN. He represented Hong Kong to participate in the 55th Venice Biennale 2013.

Vvzela Kook is a Vietnamese artist working in Hong Kong, often expanding notions of audio-visual works including performance, computer animations and drawings. Her practice focuses on different aspects of the urban landscapes and the connotations of power within it. She combines world building tools from sci-fi writing and observations from the physical world in the formation of her artistic narratives. Her important shows include Vvzela Kook - Any Dimension You Like at Edmond Gallery in Berlin in 2017; Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB); and 1a space in Hong Kong.

After training as a nurse, June WONG Siu Ling received her Bachelor's degree from Hong Kong Arts School in 2018, majoring in painting. Her sparsely colored paintings with pastels and pencils capture the cityscape and the mundaneness of contemporary lives. Her hand-drawn animations combine the artist's drawings and found audio to accentuates the timing of the work. Return, 2019, is a haunting poetic homage to the protest movement, told from the simple perspective of a woman walking home alone at night.

YAN Wai Yin Winnie graduated from School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong in 2016. She has been a member of Floating Projects Collective since 2015. Yan excels at the juxtaposition and insertion of literary texts in narratives. Through shifting personal observations and the temporal, emotional distance in different texts, Yan inscribes quotidian fragments of memories lingering in space and objects. Her film "Localized Blindness" was awarded the Best Experimental Award in the 20th South Taiwan Film Festival. Recent exhibitions and screenings include: European Media Art Festival (DE), Timestamped: Selected Films from Yan Wai Yin, de Art Center, Beijing (CN), no-body's room - The Room Projects (FR) & LUX London (UK) and ANIMA - the 7th Taiwan International Video Art Exhibition in 2020 (TW).