Abstract
Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 Parallel Exhibition: Paperscape:
We are honoured to be once again one of the Cultural Partners of Art Basel Hong Kong this year. Aside from having a HKBU representative booth at Art Basel in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 26 to 30 March 2025, we are excited to present the exhibition "Paperscape". We have brought together the talents of 15 artists—both emerging and established—spanning from Asia to Europe. The exhibition fosters a trans-cultural and trans-historical discourse centered on the materiality of paper throughout Hong Kong Art Month.
Exhibition Description
Could paper become an individual art medium and go beyond its common use as a support material and surface for writing, drawing, painting, printing, wrapping, etc.? Paper, a flexible and affordable medium, has been utilised in our daily life as tissues, money, books, letters, tickets, receipts, and so forth, as well as metaphors in different cultures. In Asia, paper has been often used as offerings at funerals, as clothing, as windows and doors in houses, and as talismans in ritual or religious contexts. In a digital age when the significant functions of paper, especially writing, have gradually diminished or been replaced, could the contemporary art of paper foster our (re)connections with paper and its cultural, intellectual, and spiritual significance in the past?
This exhibition, featuring the artworks of 15 contemporary artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, presents a three-dimensional, multisensory, and affective “paperscape” that resonates and contrasts with the simple and pure form of paper. It evokes our original sensations for paper and our memories about it, along with the stories embedded within. It explores the inherent quality of paper as a medium that naturally stimulates a dialogue between textual and visual languages. It also negotiates the artisanal identity of paper art and its association with folk art.
Nightfield Discription:
"Nightfield" is a multi-sensory media installation with 108 channels of audio that uses the vibrations of sound to turn Korean Hanji papers (한지, 참종이) into an immersive wind field. Small transducers attached to the Hanji transmit different acoustic elements of the soundscape of Korean winter winds. One can bring the paper to the ear to experience a surprising sonic space opening up from the thin layer of the paper.
Hanji paper is the traditional door element in Korean architecture and features strong fibers from mulberry trees. It allows light and air to permeate, letting the exterior sounds such as rain and wind enter the interior, and thus brings the natural order into everyday awareness. This embodies a philosophical and material tradition that situated the human within nature in a harmonious relationship.
During the freezing winters in Korea, Siberian high pressure descends with howling wind, shaking the doors all night. Loose papers on the door frame (문풍지) tremble and vibrate in the wind. They turn into a sound instrument creating the idiosyncratic ‘cry’ of door papers. The piece is dedicated to the winter nights of the artist’s childhood in an island town in Korea’s south coast, and to the iconic soundscape that has been ingrained for hundreds of years in Korean memories, hauntingly poetic and both desolate and soothing.
We are honoured to be once again one of the Cultural Partners of Art Basel Hong Kong this year. Aside from having a HKBU representative booth at Art Basel in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from 26 to 30 March 2025, we are excited to present the exhibition "Paperscape". We have brought together the talents of 15 artists—both emerging and established—spanning from Asia to Europe. The exhibition fosters a trans-cultural and trans-historical discourse centered on the materiality of paper throughout Hong Kong Art Month.
Exhibition Description
Could paper become an individual art medium and go beyond its common use as a support material and surface for writing, drawing, painting, printing, wrapping, etc.? Paper, a flexible and affordable medium, has been utilised in our daily life as tissues, money, books, letters, tickets, receipts, and so forth, as well as metaphors in different cultures. In Asia, paper has been often used as offerings at funerals, as clothing, as windows and doors in houses, and as talismans in ritual or religious contexts. In a digital age when the significant functions of paper, especially writing, have gradually diminished or been replaced, could the contemporary art of paper foster our (re)connections with paper and its cultural, intellectual, and spiritual significance in the past?
This exhibition, featuring the artworks of 15 contemporary artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, presents a three-dimensional, multisensory, and affective “paperscape” that resonates and contrasts with the simple and pure form of paper. It evokes our original sensations for paper and our memories about it, along with the stories embedded within. It explores the inherent quality of paper as a medium that naturally stimulates a dialogue between textual and visual languages. It also negotiates the artisanal identity of paper art and its association with folk art.
Nightfield Discription:
"Nightfield" is a multi-sensory media installation with 108 channels of audio that uses the vibrations of sound to turn Korean Hanji papers (한지, 참종이) into an immersive wind field. Small transducers attached to the Hanji transmit different acoustic elements of the soundscape of Korean winter winds. One can bring the paper to the ear to experience a surprising sonic space opening up from the thin layer of the paper.
Hanji paper is the traditional door element in Korean architecture and features strong fibers from mulberry trees. It allows light and air to permeate, letting the exterior sounds such as rain and wind enter the interior, and thus brings the natural order into everyday awareness. This embodies a philosophical and material tradition that situated the human within nature in a harmonious relationship.
During the freezing winters in Korea, Siberian high pressure descends with howling wind, shaking the doors all night. Loose papers on the door frame (문풍지) tremble and vibrate in the wind. They turn into a sound instrument creating the idiosyncratic ‘cry’ of door papers. The piece is dedicated to the winter nights of the artist’s childhood in an island town in Korea’s south coast, and to the iconic soundscape that has been ingrained for hundreds of years in Korean memories, hauntingly poetic and both desolate and soothing.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Place of Publication | Hong Kong |
| Publisher | Art Basel Hong Kong 2025 Parallel Exhibition "Paperscape" |
| Publication status | Published - 19 Mar 2025 |
