Hong Kong Foot: New Works by Artists Huang Yongping and Shen Yuan

Description

This exhibition will present three new works by Huang Yongping — Les Consoles de Jeu Souveraines, H.K/La Peau de Chagrin, and Wax Seal — as well as Shen Yuan’s Yellow Umbrella/Parasol, alongside older works.

Born in Xiamen, but based in Paris since 1989, Yongping was one of the leading figures of the Xiamen Dada movement  – one of China’s most radical artists’ collectives. He continues to confront established definitions of history and aesthetics.

His partner Shen Yuan was a member of the art scene during the ‘85 New Wave’, and participated in the 1989 exhibition “China/Avant-Garde” at the National Art Museum of China.

She moved to Paris with Yongping in 1989, and began to draw inspiration from her experiences of cultural fracturing as an immigrant.

This exhibit is in part inspired by Hong Kong’s regional politics. Hong Kong Foot is the Chinese colloquial name for a fungal infection of the foot, historically associated with Hong Kong since the early days of Western missionaries reporting that many Hongkongers suffered this condition.

When Hong Kong was ceded to the British, many British soldiers contracted the ailment, later on, so too did many Shanghainese people fleeing their hometown during the Japanese invasion.

Huang Yongping has said: “What we most associate with Hong Kong is the infection Hong Kong foot. Hong Kong’s greatest weapon is imbuing the events or things it infects with Hong Kong’s characteristics.”