randian | 燃点

Gallery EXIT is pleased to announce “BABY SHOWER”, an exhibition of new works by COME INSIDE, an art collective consisting of MAK Ying Tung and WONG Ka Ying. The exhibition will open on 17 February 2017 and remain on view through 15 March 2017. An opening party will be held on Friday, 17 February from 7 to 10 pm.

Mak and Wong formed COME INSIDE in 2016 as a saucy take on female stereotypes in global pop culture. They have performed as a pseudo girl group at various venues in Hong Kong, Shenzhen and even India, adopting the hyper-girlish dressing style and choreographed cuteisms of idol groups and internet key opinion leaders such as those in Asia.

For this exhibition, COME INSIDE has produced collage-style works that deal with the preference for “cute” and “fragile” women, attributes that are used for babies as well. This preference results in a blurred distinction between young women and infants and is powerfully reinforced through the mechanisms of global merchandising and e-commerce.

Most of the group’s works are based on products purchased through the popular Chinese shopping website Taobao, for example posters of couples and babies. Mak and Wong appropriates the unique aesthetics of these posters for their own purposes, creating mixed-media works that contrast provocative pun such as “Eat My Pussy Baby” with an array of cut-out baby kittens.

Other works consist of the dresses Mak and Wong have worn for their performances as COME INSIDE, sewn together to form a patchwork of pink and baby blue fabrics. As the group reinterates, the dresses have not been washed – a subtle riposte to the fetishising of used girls’ lingerie in Japan and other countries.

Mak and Wong embrace the female stereotypes they are faced with and use irony and role-play to turn them into strengths. The title of their exhibition, “BABY SHOWER”, can be understood in the same way. As the group points out, a newborn only appears to be the most powerless member of a household – in fact, it is exactly the baby’s weakness that allows him or her to take the centre stage and direct the attention of other family members.