works from the artist between 2005 to 2015
Dimension variable
[solo exhibition at Gallery EXIT in 2015, curated by Ying KWOK]
[photo courtesy of Gallery EXIT and the artist]
Video Teaser:
[1] Present "Reminiscences of the Eastern Capital"
Wan Chai District: https://vimeo.com/148800834
[2] Duplicate Victoria:
teaser one: https://vimeo.com/151366876
teaser two: https://vimeo.com/148799602
Gallery EXIT is pleased to present Needs – solo exhibition by local mixed-media artist TANG Kwok Hin, curated by Ying KWOK. The exhibition continues Tang’s usual practice in reflecting the social values embedded in the daily commodity. Tang utilizes and puts various ready-made items and pictures together so as to create the collage artworks. By doing so, Tang provides new meanings to the seemingly meaningless, mundane and trivial commodities, and prompts visitors to re-interpret commodity from an alternative angle.
Consumerism thoroughly permeates in our daily life. Every single item is perceived as a commodity and incessantly dominated by its exchange value. As such, beginning from the most rudimentary point, artist explores the basic essence of life. From a selection of Tang’s previous artworks together with his new artworks in this exhibition, we can realize artist’s continual obsession in the ready-made. Through appropriating these rather insignificant prosaic fragments, Tang expresses his sensuous response and inspiration according to his personal encounters and daily vision. Not only evoke individual life experiences, Tang’s art pieces also aspire to trigger spectators’ curiosity and foster their imagination regardless of the overwhelming consumer culture.
Tang constantly employs collage as his artistic style. During the process, artist combines numerous distinctive pre-existing images and objects to create work, which gives the impression of déjà vu and draw visitors to contemplate. Besides retaining the original social contexts, the combination of diverse related and unrelated symbols can generate a new way of interpretation and understanding. Accordingly, the collage of the ready-made can reveal and re-present the originally hidden and neglected social messages, as well as establish the new narratives.
The English title is not a literal translation from the Chinese title, department store (百貨 ). The dissimilitude between ‘Needs’ and ‘Department Store’ questions human desire and encourage viewers to create their own perspectives so as to enrich the layers of the exhibition.
安全口畫廊呈獻與本地混合媒介藝術家鄧國騫個展《百貨》，由郭瑛策展。是次展覽承繼鄧氏對日常物品所承載之社會意義的反思，由資本角度出發，透過挪用拼貼不同物品及圖像，使看似毫無意義的微小商品重新獲得新的意義，並帶領觀賞者以不同角度理解我們週圍的事物。
消費文化充分滲透著生活的每一個角落，我們的生活建構在各式各樣商品上，鄧氏由基本出發，從日常物探討生活的本質。是次將展出一系列鄧氏的舊作與新作以構成一個較完整的脈絡，我們可看到藝術家一貫對日常物的沉思與執迷。鄧氏利用這些毫不起眼的生活碎片，抒發他對個人際遇及生活想像的一些感悟及啟發， 使其作品不但喚起個人的生活經驗，亦希望觸發觀賞者的好奇及想像。
拼貼是鄧國騫一貫的創作方式，在拼貼的過程中，藝術家組合各式各樣的符號，拼湊出看似熟悉，但亦令人卻步深思的作品。在利用名種相關與不相關的符號進行拼貼時，符號原有的社會意義雖然得而保留，但與此同時新的解讀方式及意義亦會產生。故此，拼貼現成物既能重新展現某些原本隱藏或忽略了的社會訊息，同時也能創作出新的敘述故事。
值得一提的是展覽的中文題目《百貨》及其英文題目Needs的差異。琳琅滿目的商品究竟為滿足各人的需要，還是使人忘卻真正實際需要？沒有直接翻譯，卻藉此希望觀賞者能透過展覽創造一個屬於自身的理解去探討、豐富這個主題。
