Envisioning and (de)constructing a home: the domestic space in visual arts in China and Hong Kong

Since the 1980s, visual artists worldwide have been exploring the subject of the domestic. However, the discussion on a non-Western setting of house/home in visual arts is scarce. Aiming to fill this gap, and bringing more media of art into the discussion, this chapter selects three types of Chinese and Hong Kong artworks to unpack the subject in an East Asian context. The first section examines the practices of a group of Chinese artists in the early 1990s. By producing and exhibiting their works in apartments, these artists, illustrated by Song Dong and Xu Tan, conceptualize daily existence and critique the commercialization in urbanity in response to the then political and economic transitions in China. The second section analyses the art projects of two Hong Kong artists, Pak Sheung-chuen and Tang Ying-chi, exploring how Pak and Tang critique the encroachment of dwelling spaces by global capitalism in Hong Kong via different media and methodologies. The last section, through interpreting Pixy Liao’s and Feng Lin’s photography, unpacks the power dynamics in heterosexual relationships in East Asia revealed in the performance of women in domesticity. By employing visual analysis and contextual analysis, this chapter scrutinizes how political, capital and social forces shape the envisioning and (de)constructing of a home in East Asia.