Printmaking Legacy of Ha Bik Chuen Showcased at Para Site

Description

Reframing Strangeness: Ha Bik Chuen’s Motherboards and Collagraphs focuses on the printmaking of Ha Bik-chuen, featuring his handcrafted collagraph plates called “motherboards.” These unique analogue works, made from wood and found materials, produced thousands of prints that blend surreal imagery with ancient Chinese oracle bone scripts, modern Chinese characters, and letters from the Roman alphabet.

Set against the backdrop of Hong Kong’s mid-20th-century economic and societal transformation, the exhibition places Ha’s motherboards alongside their “offspring” collagraphs and “parallel” gouache drawings. This arrangement invites a re-reading of Ha’s interconnected art practice and encourages viewers to consider the motherboards as aesthetic objects in their own right. The surfaces of these motherboards became a space for Ha to explore a modernist visual vocabulary while nurturing his passion for obsessive record-keeping.

Curated by Michelle Wun Ting Wong and developed from her doctoral research, the exhibition features contributions from international practitioners such as the Jogjakarta-based research group Hyphen—, London-based publisher Afterall, and Hong Kong artist Kensa Hung. Public programmes on Sunday, 1 June 2025—including a Cantonese guided tour by the curator, a Cantonese hands-on motherboard and collagraph workshop led by Kensa Hung, and an English artist sharing session by Wong Winsome Dumalagan—will engage audiences in intergenerational conversations on remembrance, conservation, and the reproduction and manipulation of materials. These events extend the discourse around Ha’s practice beyond Hong Kong.

On view at Para Site from 10 May to 24 August, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to engage with the artistic legacy of Ha Bik-chuen and his innovative approach to printmaking.