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KIGOJA Standard Time (KST) at OCAT Institute, Beijing

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KIGOJA Standard Time is shown on the home page of OCAT Institute’s website (bottom right, the time difference is 45 minutes between KIGOJA Standard Time and Korean Standard Time)

In 2016, “KIGOJA Standard Time” and the eponymous exhibition was shown at KIGOJA, an art space in Seoul, Korea. “KIGOJA Standard Time” is a fictional time zone conceived and created in the context of the exhibition. KIGOJA Standard Time is UTC +9.75 (Japan and South Korea follow the standard time offset of UTC+09, while China follows UTC +8; and in 2015, North Korea decided to remove themselves from their colonial history by setting up their new Pyongyang time zone at UTC +8.5). Audiences were allocated their timeslots to visit the exhibition from an online booking system. Through the actions of booking and visiting, they implicitly agreed and accepted the existence of such fictional time zone. The artist broadcasted the KIGOJA Standard Time on site via the website of the art space. This work/intervention can be seen as a critique by the artist on the manipulation of time, as well as interweaved situation of reality and fiction. In the current exhibition, KIGOJA Standard Time will be presented again on the home page of OCAT Institute’s website. Archival materials from the 2016 exhibition will also be exhibited as well.

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Exhibition view at OCAT Institute

Quartz coverage on Morgan Wong’s Harbour Arts Sculpture Park project

https://qz.com/1232002/time-needle-a-sense-of-futility-and-fear-of-the-future-keep-recurring-in-hong-kong-artist-morgan-wongs-work/

 

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A sense of futility and fear of the future keep recurring in one Hong Kong artist’s work
by Vivienne Chow

 

Tucked behind the bushes in an inconspicuous garden by Hong Kong’s harbor front is a white marble plaque resembling a tombstone. On closer inspection, the words “A Time Capsule of Some Day” are engraved on it.

“A time capsule is something very personal. Different people have different ideas of what to put in a time capsule as a reminder of the past,” says Morgan Wong, the Hong Kong artist behind the plaque.

Buried beneath the plaque is Wong’s time capsule, a glass tube filled with steel powder. Inspired by the Chinese idiom “to grind an iron bar down to a small needle,” which means persevering with a difficult task, he continues to grind down a massive steel bar everyday, and collects the powder to put into needle-shaped tubes like the one he buried.

'Time Needle' is the proof of hard work. (Photo: Morgan Wong)
“Time Needle” is the proof of hard work. (Morgan Wong)

Since 2016, Wong has made more than 200 variations of Time Needle, each containing powder collected from the steel bar. The project, he says, is a symbol of the struggles of Hong Kong people in the face of a multitude of challenges. The months-long Umbrella Movement protests of 2014, in which people occupied the streets calling for greater democracy, is one such struggle that comes to mind.

Time Needle (A Time Capsule of Some Day) is the 34-year-old artist’s latest work, and is being displayed in the Harbour Arts Sculpture Park, an expansive exhibition of 21 public sculptures by a mix of international and Hong Kong artists on show until April 11. Other pieces being exhibited include a signature pumpkin installation by Yayoi Kusama, Antony Gormley‘s DAZE VI (2016), and Tracey Emin’s A Moment Without You (2017), a sculpture of birds perched on thin poles said to be the artist’s tribute to her late friend, Hong Kong tycoon and cultural icon David Tang. Wong’s work is also being displayed at a solo exhibition at this week’s Art Basel art fair in Hong Kong.

Contrary to the blockbuster pieces on show at the sculpture display, Wong’s piece is subtle, and far removed from the main exhibition ground.

Born in Hong Kong in 1984, Wong grew up in Tuen Mun, a satellite town that lies over an hour away from the city centre. For Wong, who was educated at an art school in London, time is an essential concept. He is inspired by the nature of time and the way that the past cannot be recovered, and his works are often produced through intensive, time-consuming manual labor. The time and effort he puts in, however, don’t always result in the most crowd-pleasing art pieces, and they certainly have yet to make Wong a superstar in the art world. In that sense, his art reflects a reality as futile as the one for Hong Kong people waging their long battles for democracy and freedom—it feels just as unattainable as grinding down a steel bar into a fine needle.

"Demolishing Rumour" (2010)
“Demolishing Rumour” (2010)(Morgan Wong)

That feeling of despondency among Hong Kong people can also be illustrated by one of Wong’s earlier works, a video installation called Demolishing Rumour (2010). Inspired by a rumor of the demolition of Beijing’s arts district Caochangdi, a small screen showing a video of the artist smashing bricks is wrapped inside a structure made of bricks and concrete. No matter how hard Wong tries to break the bricks in the video, he is still trapped.

A more recent 2014 work, The Remnant of My Volition (Force Majeure), exhibited at the Art Basel art fair in Hong Kong just months before the Umbrella Movement protests broke out, appeared to be a response to China’s desire to see Hong Kongers express more patriotism to the mainland. The bed-like installation was made up of white cushions embroidered like calendars, with the first date on them July 1, 1997, the day Hong Kong returned to Chinese rule, and the last one June 30, 2047, when Beijing’s promise that Hong Kong will remain unchanged for 50 years expires. The headboard had been covered by 50,000 Chinese national flag stickers that were peeled off to each reveal the indentation of a white flag—the symbol for surrender—underneath.

Does Wong believe Hong Kong’s future is entirely hopeless? Wong shrugs. He says he wants to use Time Needle as a metaphor for the collective efforts of the people who made Hong Kong great, and that they should be remembered and honored.

“What’s in the time capsule is not something necessarily dead, but it’s definitely something that’s already gone.”

Having said that, Wong carries on grinding down the steel bar.

Art Basel Hong Kong 2018 Discoveries

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Morgan Wong
Booth 1C34
An Inch of Time; An Inch of Gold
3.29-3.31, 2018
Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre
Morgan Wong’s latest work, “An Inch of Time; An Inch of Gold”, continues the artist’s investigations into time as a predicament. The installation includes two major elements: LED texts and absurdly proportioned, cheaply-made gold-plated wristwatches. The phrase ‘an inch of time for an inch of gold’ comes from a Chinese proverb addressing the immaterial nature of time, surpassing materiality. Wong’s endeavor to stop time by pouring concrete in watch-faces is obviously a wasted effort. The larger-than-life watches speak, nevertheless, to the materiality of time. A piece of real gold is buried in one of the watches, but this too remains as mysterious and irrepressible as the concept of time. The preciousness and the transcendence of the time, the cheapness of the watches, time’s immaterial nature and its materiality, therefore form various sets of paradoxical binaries, unfolding a multi-dimensional definition about time to the viewers.

 

From ABHK18 Press Release

Discoveries, focused on solo shows by emerging artists, this year will feature 25 galleries. Highlights include Timur Si-Qin (b. 1984), whose virtual reality installation ‘Depolarization,’ presented by Société, beckons viewers into a simulated natural environment to pursue a spiritual relationship to matters such as truth, epistemology and climate change. At mor charpentier, Colombian artist Carlos Motta‘s (b. 1978) sculptures and photographs confront our preconceived notions of the natural and the unnatural. Hong Kong artist Morgan Wong (b. 1984) will transform A+ Contemporary’s booth with a semantic-filled installation comprising of blinking neon text and absurdly proportioned cheaply-made gold-plated wristwatches, continuing his exploration into the irrepressibility of time. At ROH Projects, Indonesian artist Faisal Habibi‘s (b. 1984) work will question the distinctions between sculpture, paintings and of art itself. At Various Small Fires, American artist Jessie Homer French (b. 1940) will present paintings of Western flora and fauna embedded within an allegorical and agricultural context, which were inspired by the artist’s rural life. Ali Kazim (b. 1979) will present an immersive installation inspired by his hometown of Lahore, resonating with the current political situation in Pakistan, presented by Jhaveri Contemporary. Artist duo ‘Pors & Rao’ will present a digital interactive booth at GALLERYSKE, continuing their survey on the autonomous side of human behavior. The BMW Art Journey will once more be awarded to an artist from this year’s Discoveries sector. For the full gallery list, please visit artbasel.com/hongkong/discoveries.

Harbour Arts Sculpture Park, commission new public sculpture by Morgan Wong

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Hong Kong’s first international sculpture park, Harbour Arts Sculpture Park transforms Hong Kong’s iconic harbourfront with artworks by established and emerging local and international contemporary artists. An unprecedented display of public art in Hong Kong, this free sculpture park of museum-quality works is curated by Tim Marlow (Artistic Director at the Royal Academy of Arts) and Fumio Nanjo (Director of Mori Art Museum and Director of International Programme at Hong Kong Art School), and offers a unique opportunity to experience world-class art against the backdrop of the Hong Kong skyline. Cementing the city’s position as a global arts player, Harbour Arts Sculpture Park is accompanied by a diverse and extensive programme of workshops and educational activities, demonstrating that art is for all ages and interests.

Artists:

ANTONY GORMLEY

BOSCO SODI

CONRAD SHAWCROSS

GIMHONGSOK

HANK WILLIS THOMAS

HO KWUN TING

JENNY HOLZER

KACEY WONG

MARK WALLINGER

MATTHEW TSANG MAN FU

MICHAEL CRAIG-MARTIN

MORGAN WONG

RASHEED ARAEEN

TONY OURSLER

TRACEY EMIN

WONG CHI-YUNG

YAYOI KUSAMA

ZHAN WANG

ZHENG GUOGU