This exhibition incorporates a diverse range of creative media, showing the works of eight individual artists. Some of these works are site specific. A parking lot acts as the main body and the artworks are parasites on it – through this temporal relationship the exhibition investigates the notion of power and conditions for co-existence.
‘If You Park Here’ uses a parking lot as the exhibition space. The traditional white slots have been, over the past few years, replaced by non-profit organisations, artist studios, shopping malls and outdoor spaces. The car park, although it only participates in a one-off exhibition, is selected as an alternative space for its public stance, its state of mobility, its characteristics of transparency and the experience that it brings to globalisation. This exhibition may create another kind of attention for local art, which has always been perceived or debated upon as being ‘non-mainstream’ or ‘personal’
Contemporary art has been inscribed with a cross – the centre point holds the horizontal and vertical lines and creates a forward motion. The horizontal line depicts the exhibiting plane, it starts with artists or curators and ends with the audience. The term ‘audience’ of course embraces very broad definitions – it represents any person to art professionals. The vertical line is about professionalism, which includes viewpoints on historical and social contents, and therefore relates to the question of quality and standards. The centre point is one’s expectations and imaginations on art which affects the route of development that art takes on.
Contemporary art in Hong Kong presumes to become international. The other side of the coin of becoming global is to locate local significance. However, amid the collision of globalisation, individualism has become difficult to grasp and has always been taken over by what is typical and the conformed. Power, overtaking expectations, has affected the development of art. There has always been a barrier between Hong Kong artists and the local government or the public. The government has lacked the kind of positive perception towards art and society does not yet have a deeply approving stance about local art. These together with the non-conforming attitude of artists, are not helping to bring art forward to a more visible level or a more internationally acclaimed platform, but rather the opposite.
To study the reasons behind this problem, the cross that we have examined before may have to be reviewed. Art is initiated from different points and these points scatter amongst various places. After they have interchanged and combined, these points form various kinds of patterns. Car parks are similar to these scattered and settled places and people who cluster at this temporal resting space where, through interactions, patterns are formed. Car parks are microcosms of urban life where one might be found wandering, migrating, disintegrating, segregating and simply passing by. They also represent the co-existence of developments in arts and the society.
When parasites enter, the car park becomes the main body where nutrients are supplied. Hence, one may like to view the works in this exhibition in two parts: The first being ‘parasitic parking’ and the second obviously being ‘non-parasitic parking’. The ‘parasitic parking’ works have their own forms and can also integrate into the surroundings to expand. Violet Shum’s stainless steel roses have the potential to invade the space; Tang Ying-mui’s work is already dependent on the environment but still wishes to reach out; Chan Kam-shing, Chris’s crystals begin with the form of a car and slowly crawl outward; Gretchen So has retained as images things that seem to have been left behind in society. The ‘non-parasitic parking’ part is a series of transferring works that originally belonged to other environments. Wong Wo-bik transfers the passing of a life into this temporal gathering place; Margaret Chu installs a compact version of how mice survive onto the direction-signed floor of the parking lot; Tse Kam-wing, Kenneth has enlarged rear mirrors from cars or car parks and then removes their relationships with the space so that these mirrors merely become some tools to reflect on oneself; Ko Tin-yan, Celia opens up the intimate care between generations in her family for discussions in this public space. How should one position the relationships between parasitic/non-parasitic and the main body, or space and humanity, or art and city? Do they destroy each other or do they co-exist? The parasitic stream of works has an invasive potential but this all stems out from the experience of touching and connecting. The non-parasitic stream ends up forming other short term communications by being expelled into spaces that they do not belong to. What grows out of the system ultimately depends on the interaction between human and the environment.
In this exhibition, some works transfer images from videos, while some others emphasise the concept of DIY, making use of easily-found materials. We have not precluded works that are hand-made or which adopt the traditional concepts of painting and drawing. The ideas, process and development of these works are clearly rooted in daily lives. They have also echoed contemporary society’s desire for conformity and a fluid kind of living.
‘If You Park Here ‘invites everyone to pause for a while and to think about what is considered to be truly important in one’s own mind.
Dr. Tang Ying Chi
Curator
(Translated by Livia Garcia)
策展陳述
如果你停泊在這裡
這是一個綜合多種創作媒介的藝術展覽，展出八位有獨立藝術元素的藝術家作品，其中會涉及與現場溝通(場域特定)的創作。以停車場為主體及作品為寄生物的短暫關係，試圖找出權力的動態和共生的條件。
展覽借用了停車場作為展示空間。近年來展覽場地的替代空間，已經由非牟利的藝術空間，延伸至藝術家工作室、商場和一些戶外空間等。是次選用停車場作為替代空間，雖然可能只是一次性的展出場所，但觀其公共性，流動狀態、透視的特質、及全球化的共同經驗；對比本土藝術通常被描繪成「邊緣」和「個人」的論述，這個展覽也許能為本土藝術找出另類的關注點。
當代藝術被劃了個十字圖形，由圖形中心點緊扣橫直兩線，並帶動前行。橫線為展示層面，由藝術家或策展人發起，至觀眾為終點。觀眾為廣泛的名詞，代表由一般人到藝術專業人士。直線為專門層面，包括歷史和社會等內容的論點，因此是關係於素質和標準的問題。中心點則是有關對藝術的期望和想像，影響藝術所走的路線。
當代香港藝術也存在一些對藝術國際化的前設想像。國際化的另一面就是尋找本土特徵，然而在全球化的衝擊下，相信未必能輕易找到個別特色，反而鼓吹典型而模式化的藝術，使期望變成權力所在，影響藝術的發展。香港藝術家與政府以至社會大眾一直存在隔膜：政府缺乏有理念的藝術看法、社會對本土藝術的發展未有深切的認同、藝術家大多隨性而行，追求更個人的藝術、致令很多藝術創作都不容易被看到；或被喻為無法放在國際藝術語境中理解。
究其原因，十字圖像的藝術思維，可能要稍為重新思考。藝術源自不同的點，點散落在不同地方，經交匯處而組合，形成各式各樣的圖像。停車場就像讓散落在不同地方的人物，匯聚在這暫時棲息的場所，經交通而構成各式各樣的圖像。停車場正好是城市中的流放、遷移、聚散、混雜和短暫時刻的普遍生活形態的縮影，也代表藝術創作與社會的發展的共同經驗。
當寄生物進入，停車場會是一個主體，是養份所在。所以作品不妨分兩部份去看：第一部份為「寄生停泊」狀況；第二部份為「非寄生停泊」狀況。「寄生停泊」的作品既有自己的形態，也可依附在環境中，順勢發展。岑嘉慧以不鏽鋼做的玫瑰花有侵佔空間的勢頭；鄧凝梅的作品既然已依附環境中，卻又仍然不斷要作出掙扎；陳錦成的結晶體，就乾脆由車的形態開始漫延；蘇秀儀從社會上把好像被遺下的事情，留為影像，再寄生在停車場內。「非寄生停泊」為移植的作品，它本來只屬於某特定的環境。王禾璧將人生稍縱即逝的情景，轉移到這一個怱怱短暫的聚集處；朱卓慧把老鼠的求生存的縮小版，放在停車場劃有指示線的地上；謝錦榮找了屬於車或停車場的倒後鏡放大，後來使之又不屬這裡，只作為思索自我者的道具；高天恩的隔代關懷更公然在公共場所討論。寄生或非寄生物與主體、或是空間與人文、又或藝術與城市，兩者的關係應當如何，是毀滅還是共生呢？寄生作品雖有企圖侵佔的結論，但一切都因從接觸開始；非寄生的作品，從開始被流放在不屬自己空間內，結果造就另類短暫的溝通，一切的因果，都視乎人文與環境的互動力量。
作品中有些是攝影影像的物料轉移、有些是DIY （你自己做）強調手工的製作、生活上可以接觸到的物料、當然還有經由工人製造的作品、及採用傳統的繪畫和素描概念發展而成的混合媒介作品。這些作品的創作意念、技術發展和製作方法明顯地從日常生活體驗而來的，也對應了當代社會那種追求普遍性及移植無根生活狀態。
「如果你停泊在這裡」邀請所有人暫時停留一會，彼此思索各人認為重要的問題。
鄧凝姿博士
策展人