FAA 5301 – Contemporary Art

Individual presentation on Reading article

“The Rise of Installation Art” by Prof. David Clarke

Lee Kwun Leung Vincent (Student No.:

1007070165)
MA Fine Arts Year 2
 Prof. David Clarke
• Professor Clarke obtained his PhD from the
Courtauld Institute of Art, University of
London. Until his retirement from HKU in
June 2017, Prof. Clarke taught modern and
contemporary art history and theory, with a
particular emphasis on the art of Europe,
America and Asia. Prof. Clarke’s scholarly
articles have been published in journals
such as Art History, Art Journal, Journal of
American Studies, Oriental Art, Public
Culture, The American Journal of Semiotics,
Art Criticism, Postcolonial Studies, Journal
of Visual Culture, Early Music and Third
Text. Prof. Clarke is the founder and
academic director of the Hong Kong Art
Archive. He is also active as a photographer.
 Rise of Installation Art between the 1970s
and 1989
• Coincided with a trend that the art scene in the
West began to foster a critical mindset towards the
effectiveness of Dadaism or Minimalism
Eagerness in searching for the cultural identity of Hong Kong art
between the 1970s and the transformation period beyond 1989

• Modern ink paintings – Hong Kong art, but with Chineseness

• Installation art – Hong Kong art, but with a sense of
localism, or the corresponding authors being called as
“Artists in Western”
 Prof. David Clarke: historical significance of
HKADC in patroning installation art
• Council for Performing Arts  HKADC since
1995
– Hong Kong Arts Development Awards (Visual Arts
category / Media Art category) and other funding
schemes: mostly benefit the installation artists
 Remarkable awardees of HKADC Art Awards
who are installation artists:
• Chan Wai Lap, Tang Kwok Hin, Lau Hok Shing, Tom Tam Chung-
man, Naddim Abbas
 Prof. David Clarke: historical significance
of HKADC in patroning installation art

• Why needs HKADC?

– City Hall and Cultural Centre: For
Civic Painting Society Camp
– Hong Kong Museum of Art:
Xubaizhai for traditional Chinese-
ink paintings / prior interest in
collecting Wu Guanzhong’s oil
and ink paintings
– HKADC: aims at complementing
the loopholes of current official
institutions, such as the
aforesaid three venues, in
ignoring installation art during
the dilemma of land problems
 ParaSite: a hub of enlightenment for
installation art in Hong Kong
• Began in Sai Wan and was later
prospered along Hollywood Road in
Sheung Wan since 1996
• Now one more branch in Quarry Bay
 Photography as important elements for the
installation art of Hong Kong (Luke Ching’s work
at ParaSite)
 Photography as important elements for the
installation art of Hong Kong
• Prof. David Clarke: “Photography, because of its indexical relationship to
the space and time of the negative’s exposure, was also (as the works by
Wong Wobik and others have shown) a medium that came into its own in
Hong Kong during this period, whereas artists were interested in
referencing the local and evoking a sense of living at the end of time. But
photographs, because of their durability, outlive the moments they are
forever tied to (and indeed because of the time-lag of development and
printing can only be seen after that moment has already passed). They
speak in a present tense, but of something that has passed before the
time of viewing commences, and thus offer expressive possibilities
somewhat different from those of installation art. Certain of the
installation artists to be discussed below seem well aware of
photography’s particular potential as a marker of now-lost time, and
either employ it as a second area of artistic creativity or even make use of
photographs as an element within their installation works.”
 Basic theories about installation art
• Lecan: stressed “discourses” with the
popular mass to gain community-wide
support for your art creation
• Bronislaw Malinowski: Ethnography
– Notes and transcripts
– Data session groups
– Conservation
– Coding and sequential analysis
– Recording
– Experientially intensive
• Jean-Francois Lyotard
– L’ Axiomatique (system of public logics) v.s.
Paralogisme (parallel constructivism)
 Tsang Tak Ping
@ ParaSite:
Coding and
Sequential
Analysis for
Ethnography

• A ParaSite catalogue called “Local Accent – 12 artists from Hong Kong” publishes
Tsang Tak Ping’s creative statement in this manner:
– “Paperwork” is a series of work combing black and white photographs and
paper models. The photographic images are models made by my 9-year-old
daughter Kuk Kuk and my 6-year-old son Toto, including skycrapers,
houses, car-park etc. All the buildings are well furnished. There are daily
neccessities, furniture and clubhouse facilities, like a swimming pool. Every
detail is determined by the way they perceive their daily life.
 Tsang Tak Ping
@ ParaSite:
Coding and
Sequential
Analysis for
Ethnography

• A ParaSite catalogue called “Local Accent – 12 artists from Hong Kong” publishes Tsang Tak
Ping’s creative statement in this manner:
– The paper models are done by me according to the creations of my kids. In the course of
producing the models I tried to trace the thoughts of Kuk Kuk and Toto. Their
considerations influenced my thoughts. Adults always try to formalize the thought of
kids. Nevertheless, the behaviour of the kids reflects the values imposed on them by
adults. How could one draw the line between right and wrong in terms of values?

– Kuk Kuk and Toto are, in fact, mirrors. The reflection of me.
 Prof. David Clarke described Choi Yan Chi by comparing her with
Tsang Tak Ping’s “conservational” approach of ethnographic
creation in this way….
• The fragile upturned boat (created by Tsang Tak Ping) – a wrecked or marooned
vessel, above rather than in the water – recalled Hong Kong’s harbour, which has
seen dramatic changes in the last few years, with reclamation altering its whole
physical appearance. The weathered surfaces shown in the projected images
brought further associations with the past and its loss or erosion, while the
changing appearance of the harbour, the unstable or ungraspable nature of the
present moment, was conveyed by the blurred quality of the photographs that
recorded it. In contrast to all these significations of loss or the ephemeral (which
the temporary nature of installation art itself helps to underline) was the gesture
of preservation implied by placing photographs of the harbour into bottles. This
recalls the traditional method used for preserving beancurd and other food
products, although in this case the water in the bottles gradually peeled off the
emulsion to create a further image of the past’s erasure. Such destructive
embalming had a precedent in Choi Yan-chi’s installation pieces such as “Drowned
II” and “Drowned III” (1993, Asia Pacific Triennial, Queensland Art Gallery,
Brisbane), in which piles of books were submerged in tanks of water or oil.
 Prof. David Clarke described Choi Yan Chi by comparing her with
Tsang Tak Ping’s “conservational” approach of ethnographic
creation in this way….

• “Drowned II”by Choi Yan Chi, in which piles of books were

submerged in tanks of water or oil
 Prof. David Clarke described Leung Mee Ping’s art by comparing
her with Tsang Tak Ping’s “recording” and “experientially
intensive” approach of ethnographic creation in this way….

• Leung Mee Ping, the other artist in “Diving from Memory”, also
used water as an element, and like Warren Leung she carved
into the floor of the improvised gallery space – in her case to
create a temporary pond for a live goldfish. The floor around
the goldfish was covered in curved red roof tiles of a traditional
Chinese kind, and it was necessary to walk across this roof-floor
to see the fish, occasionally cracking tiles in the process. Water
had featured in one of her earlier installation pieces with
similarities to one aspect of Tsang’s “Hello! Hong Kong – Part
3”: in an untitled work of 1994 she included photographs of her
family and of Hong Kong, which were submerged in metal trays
filled with water, where they gradually deteriorated.
 Prof. David Clarke described Leung Mee Ping’s art by comparing
her with Tsang Tak Ping’s “recording” and “experientially
intensive” approach of ethnographic creation in this way….

• Leung Mee Ping: “Diving from Memory” (1996) v.s.

Tsang Tak Ping: “Hello! Hong Kong – Part 3” (1994)
 Kwok Mang Ho @
ParaSite: Lecan’s
emphasis on
“discourses”

• Prof. David Clarke: ‘Kwok Mang-ho’s “Art Life at ParaSite for 72 hours”
(February 1998) was a further engagement with the theme of domesticity.
Literally turning the gallery into a home, albeit for only four days. An
expression of Kwok’s desire to blur the boundaries between art and life, this
performance and installation piece was one of a long series of attempts to
construct temporary utopian community and banish the alienation of modern
urban living. Kwok was also involved in a “Street Happening” organized in the
vicinity of ParaSite on 20 January 2001 as part of the “Landscape” project
(curated by Young Hay at various venues in January 2001 as part of the Fringe
Club’s Star Alliance City Festival).’
Oil Street – an important hub for installation
art
• Former tenants include: 1A Space, the Artist
Commune, Videotage, Almond Chu’s photographic and
design studio
– But they moved out around the end of 1999 and now it is an
exhibition venue under the Art Promotion Office of LCSD
• Installation artists’ counteraction against property
hegemony once dealing with land problems: During
Tung Chee-hwa’s administration era, the Town Planning
Board has ever stood by the side of the installation
artists in 1999 to veto Cheung Kong Properties’ plan of
constructing a cruise ship terminal on the Oil Street.
Bibliography
• Edited by Mrs. KAN Li Lai-chi, “SBA Visual Arts Appreciation: Curriculum and Teaching-Material
Package 2019 – 2020”, Hong Kong: Kau Yan College, 1st Edition in August 2020
• Arthur Kroker and David Cook, “The Postmodern Scene – Excremental Culture and Hyper-Aesthetics”,
New York: St. Martin's Press, 2nd Edition in 1988
• Written by Jean-Francois LYOTARD, Translated by CHE Jinshan & Approved by Lin Zhiming, “La
condition postmoderne: rapport sur le savoir”, Taipei: Wu-Nan Book Incorporation, 1st Edition in May
2012
• Edited by LAU Kin-wah: “Local Accent – 12 artists from Hong Kong”, Hong Kong: Para/Site Art Space
Ltd., 2003