Press Release

Tai Kwun Contemporary is pleased to announce the new exhibition My Body Holds Its Shape, with newly commissioned works from five artists: Tap Chan, Thea Djordjadze, Jason Dodge, Eisa Jocson and Pratchaya Phinthong. The exhibition looks at how existing limits and constraints can emerge as artistic materials and clues for associations, with processes that embrace poetics and improvisations. Curated by Xue Tan, the exhibition is on view from 25 May through September 2020.

Set in the historic F Hall — a former printing facility and women’s prison — the exhibition takes the metaphorical shape of a body as it becomes live from the first hour with Eisa Jocson’s work-in-progress performance Zoo. Sculptures, photographs and narratives cohabit the space with songs, moving bodies and an escape route. The exhibition is carefully conceived as an experience akin to a walk through lines of limits, divisions and connections — unveiling ways to tie our worlds together.

Xue Tan, curator of the exhibition, says, ‘This exhibition experiments with concepts of ‘sculpture’; the artworks are ways of exploring our multifaceted facts and ecologies, spanning lived-through stories and realised imaginations. At this very unusual time, we are struck by this sudden shift in our lives, and the global experience of self-isolation and loneliness. I hope this exhibition on limitation and distance would bring some reflection on sustainability, our connection to nature, and empathy for those who are distant and confined.’

Tobias Berger, Head of Art at Tai Kwun, says, ‘From the beginning, we at Tai Kwun Contemporary have produced conceptually oriented exhibitions with some of the most formidable contemporary artists of today. This exhibition, curated by Xue Tan, also takes as its starting point the site and history of Tai Kwun, using the notion of confinement and limits to reflect on the relation between the former space of imprisonment and the contemporary ‘white cube’ as a catalyst for imagination. Producing 9 new works especially for this exhibition, this is another example of how the very best of contemporary art can intelligently and inventively reflect on the rich history of Victoria Prison.”

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Installation Views

Eisa Jocson Explodes the Frame Conversation Eisa Jocson Explodes the Frame Curator Xue Tan speaks with Eisa Jocson about Zoo —a recent iteration of the artist’s ‘Happyland’ series, which looks at migrant labour and fantasy production. Read the story

Artists Exhibiting

Also Exhibiting at Tai Kwun Contemporary

About the Gallery

Tai Kwun Contemporary is the non-profit contemporary art hub within Tai Kwun, the heritage and arts precinct in Central, Hong Kong. Located in the city’s central business district, it anchors the site’s visual arts programme within a wider cultural destination that also includes heritage displays, performance venues, and public spaces across the former Central Police Station compound.

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Address
JC Contemporary, Block 20
Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road
Central
Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Opening Hours
Tuesday – Sunday
11am – 7pm
(1)
Hong Kong JC Contemporary, Block 20, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road
Tai Kwun Contemporary
JC Contemporary, Block 20, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong, Hong Kong
+ 852 3559 2600
http://www.taikwun.hk

Opening hours
Tuesday – Sunday
11am – 7pm
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