Exhibition period: 24 November – 4 December 2016
Opening hours: Thursday – Sunday, 1-8pm
Opening reception: Thursday, 24 November 2016, 7-11pm
Venue: 1/F, 98 Apliu Street, Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, Hong Kong
We are pleased to present an experiment by Tang Kwok Hin at Things that can happen from 24 November to 4 December.

In response to the political situation in Hong Kong and as a continuation of his exploration in the recent years, Tang Kwok Hin recounts found objects and fragments of everyday life, and in the process questions established symbols and gestures, and their often arbitrary meanings. Reflecting on the rapidly declining state of political affairs in our city, in a playful and offhanded gesture he collects and lays bare remains from both our material culture and the residue memories and emotions associated with them.

“To count every object of a journey; to count what remains of values and magnanimity during the decline of an era.

Here is a badge that belongs to the individual and this place. It hides chaotic meanings underneath a veneer of brilliant colours. In the end, perhaps what it symbolizes is the endless struggle between good and evil. Yet trees cannot bear fruit in concrete; street poles are covered with layers of consumerist totems; indifferently, vehicles speed across roads we have once lain on. Before all these I often feel tired, like being infected with an incurable disease.

Do we allow information excess to erase the sadness concealed by these objects? Offhandedly, I take some things from home, and some off the streets. By collecting I hope to remember all these unspeakable and untraceable gestures of tradition, civilization and rule.”

Tang Kwok Hin is an artist from Hong Kong. His work focuses on theories of occasion, space, time and hidden rules that prevail in daily life, through exploration of the relationships between art and society by means of collage.

We sincerely thank Yana and Stephen Peel for generously supporting this project at Things that can happen.