Using friendship over a shared meal and unending conversation as his methodology, Tang Kwok Hin’s interest in relational aesthetics centres on shared space and shared food. Hin’s artwork reprises these themes of hospitality, often using interchangeability of the roles of host and guest as part of his exploration of everyday life. Whether discussing the meanings of day-to-day moments or searching for new ways to express everyday experiences, Hin’s suppers constitute a never-ending investigation of our daily formulations.
*On the event day, participants could bring an daily object that is meaningful for them and leave it down for Hin to imagine and respond. Please be aware that the object may be exhibited, which would include a risk of damage.
More about this project in Tang Kwok Hin’s own words:
Once I’ve worked on a curated project about black and white. I replaced all the white lights at the exhibition venue, unintentionally causing the yellow lights used in an adjacent exhibition hall to appear in a warmer tone. I often thought the impression the walls of a white cube may seem too pale. The universe illustrated in the white cube has parted further with life. What’s worse for me is that the patterns found within and the transformation of contemporary art and postmodernism may have reached a bottleneck. This could just have been a romantic and dramatic end, but I have always been observing and experimenting with how I can capture some other meanings in art. At one point, I felt I was able to turn my back on art completely; it seemed to have disappeared, becoming irrelevant more and more. But art eventually returned to me in a brand-new form which appears more concrete with time and can barely be defined with words like “life” and “arts”.
Yet things didn’t change. A shade in my heart keeps telling me that the main challenge we face is that we have no idea how to keep going. We didn't visit places crowded with people in the past; now we look for packed places to go to. Luckily there’s still someone; luckily there’s no one.
We spent too much time creating instead of simply enjoying lives. Many people question why I have meals with strangers. I suggest they’re either thinking too much or too little. Who needs a reason to eat and talk?
Things remain the same when you immerse yourself in the lives and spaces of others. But another voice in my heart tells me it’s only during the small window after you’ve left someone’s habitat and are about to enter a new one that you can unwittingly experience the weights and ease of every life routines you have just encountered.
Tang Kwok Hin, mixed media artist, independent curator and writer, was born in 1983. Raised in Hong Kong, he received his Master of Fine Arts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2008 and Bachelor of Arts (major in Fine Arts) in 2006. Tang embarked on his artistic path driven by persistent queries about his native background. He soon began exploring the origins of existence and intimate aesthetics, both inseparably connected aspects of the course and experiences of his life. He often appropriates and reconstructs daily and personal contexts to narrate hidden stories in life across themes of growth, inheritance, freedom, capitalism, consumerism, nature, politics and norms to communicate his concerns towards people and surroundings. His works are widely exhibited in local and international exhibitions. He was awarded the first prize at the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial 2009; selected by Sovereign Asian Art Prize 2010, 2011 and 2014; awarded a Young Artist Award by Hong Kong Arts Development Awards 2010; granted by Asian Cultural Council in 2013. Collectors of his art include the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Deutsche Bank, Amelia Johnson Contemporary and private collections throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Austria, Taiwan, Hong Kong, etc.
