My verdict on Hong Kong Art Week: security laws much discussed. So is tacky public art

Visitors from mainland China called out Hong Kong for trying to look like any other Chinese city, and for pandering to selfie-takers. They have every right to
As for art fairs, buyers appear to have been cautious, as were some artists when it came to new security laws, but these didn’t stop vibrant art being shown

Enid Tsui

Published: 7:45am, 4 Apr 2024

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There were certainly different opinions among visitors who came for Art Week, the annual round of Hong Kong fairs and openings just before Easter.

Some claimed they had witnessed the city’s resurrection, others left with a more sombre impression.

Here is my take on the main conversation topics.

1 Was Art Basel Hong Kong a flop or a hit?

Art fairs may have public days, but don’t be fooled. Transactions are still secretive and fewer than a quarter of the 242 galleries taking part in Art Basel Hong Kong volunteered sales reports this year.

Those reports included multimillion-dollar deals (for example, a Willem de Kooning sold for US$9 million at Hauser & Wirth’s booth and three Yayoi Kusamas at Victoria Miro for a combined US$11 million) but most were below the US$100,000 mark.

Members of the public admire artworks at Art Basel Hong Kong, where the serious business was done away from the public eye. Despite some big-ticket sales, buyers appear to have shown more caution this year. Photo: Eugene Lee

Gallery owners found buyers to be more cautious, perhaps less hasty than during the boom years. But some, such as first-time exhibitor YveYang Gallery – which also showed at Supper Club, the new art fair – were pleasantly surprised.

As always, conclusions are based on limited data and lack of independent confirmation.

2 The impact of domestic and national security laws

Many visitors were keen to find out for themselves just how the new laws meant to safeguard national security will affect Hong Kong’s art scene.

“Certainly it is a hot topic of discussion,” Aaron Cezar, the director of London’s Delfina Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to facilitating artistic exchange, told me. He had yet to notice any change, he said.

When it comes to the new laws, some organisations are enthusiastically toeing the line, but plenty of artists, independent art spaces and non-government venues such as the M+ museum of visual culture in West Kowloon and the Tai Kwun heritage arts centre in Central are making sure the contemporary art scene remains vibrant and relevant.

Lee Kai-chung (far right) at his Art Basel Hong Kong solo booth presented by Tabula Rasa Gallery. Photo: Enid Tsui

Articles claiming that nobody dared show anything “political” during Art Week were somewhat exaggerated. Just look at Lee Kai-chung’s Tree of Malevolence (2024), a speculative tale set during the Cold War years in Hong Kong, at Tabula Rasa Gallery’s Art Basel booth, or Fast Forward, a one-hour potted history of the city from a decade or so before the handover to 2019, at Parallel Space, in Sham Shui Po.

I think Yang Fudong’s Sparrow on the Sea, the high-profile commission for the M+ Facade, is full of political messages, although Yang denies it.

The lack of clear “red lines” left some visitors confused. One overseas exhibitor in an art fair was detained and questioned by immigration on arrival.

A scene from old Hong Kong television news footage used in Fast Forward, a potted history of Hong Kong from the 1980s to 2019 shown at Parallel Space in Sham Shui Po during Art Week 2024. Photo: Enid Tsui

It had nothing to do with the art that the gallery was showing but, since the person had never encountered any problems entering Hong Kong before, she naturally wondered if Hong Kong had become less open to the world since the new laws were introduced.

One European artist decided to withdraw his China-related works from Art Basel “out of respect for the new laws” (even though the works were not at all critical).

3 More public art is not better

There has been a lot of public art popping up around the city recently, from the white LED flowers in East Kowloon that had to be changed after a public outcry, to teamLab’s Continuous (giant “eggs” dotting Victoria Harbour) and the earlier “Chubby Hearts” campaign. But more is not better.

A black kite flies over teamLab’s giant egg installation on Victoria Harbour on a foggy afternoon. Photo: Eugene Lee

I agree with two critics I encountered last week. The first, a taxi driver who spent much of the journey ranting about the quality of public art in the city. Last week, he had passengers from Beijing and Shanghai complaining about the “mainlandisation of aesthetics” around Hong Kong.

“They meant the tacky cartoon figures that are popping up everywhere!” he exclaimed.

Separately, Lisa Movius, an arts journalist visiting from Shanghai, questioned the “quality control” for the city’s public art commissions.

Graffiti on Sai Street in Sheung Wan. Photo: Jonathan Wong

“Just pandering to selfie-takers may hit KPIs but makes a city seem culturally unsophisticated. Also, the schlock often edges out quality art in funding and in our attention economy,” she told me.

“Garish graffiti sexy Asian fetish ladies in Sheung Wan have not the cultural draws of, say, small bookshops.”

Music to my ears!

4 Art Week vs Art Month

I am not crazy about either of the two titles but as a shorthand, I use “Art Week” instead of “Art Month” because it was just one week when we had the art fairs and the International Cultural Summit, the events that led to the influx of international and mainland Chinese artists, curators, dealers and museum directors.

There is plenty of art to see all year round in Hong Kong. But the congregation of really interesting people and the sheer amount of art in the fairs is what makes Art Week special.

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