In December 2023, the MA Asian Art Histories cohort embarked on the first study trip outside of Southeast Asia since the beginning of the pandemic, travelling to Hong Kong to take advantage of the multitude of exhibitions that were being held at several major institutions. These exhibitions featured art from Asia as well as from the West.

Photo caption: The MA Asian Art Histories Cohort and Programme Leader Jeffrey Say (left) at the Hong Kong Palace Museum (Photo credits: Sheryl Tan)

On our second day in Hong Kong, we visited M+, Asia’s first global museum of contemporary visual culture. The vast purpose-built space houses the M+ Collection, which is an interdisciplinary collection of visual culture, and the M+ Sigg Collection, which is one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of contemporary Chinese art in the world. It was great seeing artworks that we had previously mainly seen through online images or presented in our lectures and being able to appreciate the scale and impact of these works.

Photo caption: Posing with Wang Guangyi’s Great Criticism: Chanel (2001) (Photo credit: Sheryl Tan)

The highlight of the day was a visit to the M+ Research Centre, where we were able to speak to the team and gained first-hand insights into its archives. Even though our visit was unplanned, the team was extremely welcoming and brought out a collection of archival materials related to artist Lui Shou-Kwan, who was one of the most prominent ink painters of the 20th century and a founder of the Hong Kong New Ink Movement. We had the opportunity to read a collection of letters as well as flip through photo albums and artist sketchbooks under the supervision of the Research Centre team.

Photo caption: Looking at Lui Shou-Kwan’s letters and sketchbooks at the M+ Research Centre (Photo credits: Pat Ong)

The third day was spent exploring the Hong Kong Palace Museum, which presented over 900 pieces from the collection of the museum itself. Besides the collection from the Palace Museum, we were also drawn to the special exhibition held in collaboration with the National Gallery, London, titled Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London. Among the iconic works from this exhibition were Botticelli’s Three Miracles of Saint Zenichius and Monet’s Irises. Accompanying this exhibition was a section where we could explore the historical pigments that were used in the creation of these masterpieces. This section greatly enhanced the experience of the exhibition as, besides being able to see works that have since become part of the Western canon in person, we were also able to appreciate the effort that went into creating the pigments that were used in these paints as well as their chemical makeup.

Photo caption: Claude Monet. Irises. c. 1914-1917. Oil on canvas. Collection of the National Gallery, London. (Photo credits: Sheryl Tan)

Photo caption: Materials used to make pigments used in paints on display at the Hong Kong Palace Museum. (Photo credits: Sheryl Tan)

We took a detour from art and palace treasures into archaeology with the other special exhibition held at the Palace Museum, Gazing at Sanxingdui, which explored new archaeological discoveries at the Sanxingdui site in Sichuan. The Sanxingdui site is from the Shu civilization, and the exhibition presented the art, urban life, belief systems and origins and continuation of the Sanxingdui some 2,500 to 4,500 years ago. In our conversation while perusing the museum gift shop, we were in unanimous agreement that this was the exhibition we enjoyed the most at the Palace Museum for its curation and the way in which the artefacts and wall text were presented.

Photo caption: Giant standing figure (replica). c. 1300-1100 BCE. Bronze, 262 cm height. Pit 2 of Sanxingdui site, excavated in 1986. Collection of Sanxingdui Museum. (Photo credits: Sheryl Tan)

The fourth day of our trip saw us on a long-awaited trip to the Asia Art Archive (AAA), an independent non-profit organization that documents the multiple recent histories of art in Asia. Many of us were eager to get our hands on the collection of materials at the AAA that were only available onsite, and we spent precious time perusing the books that the AAA team made available to us.

Besides being able to get a head start on some of our thesis research, we were also treated to an exhibition at the AAA featuring Indian artist Mrinalini Mukherjee’s work, titled Mould the Wing to Match the Photograph, which looked at Mukherjee’s hemp fibre sculpture work and her archival materials with detailed installation instructions and photographic documentation of Pari, the sculptural work that was on display. The AAA took the approach of displaying Mukherjee’s detailed instructions in a position where both the work and instructions were visible, complicating the seemingly organic nature of the structure when it is observed. This approach brought with it a new way of looking at the work and the intent of the artist behind its display.

Photo caption: Exhibition view of mould the wing to match the photograph, 2023. Featuring Mrinalini Mukherjee’s Pari (1986) and installation instructions. (Photo credits: by Sheryl Tan)

After lunch and a detour to a small independent bookstore, we visited Tai Kwun, which was the former Central Police Station Compound. At Tai Kwun, we were brought on a curator tour of Kongkee: Warring States Cyberpunk, which explored artist Kongkee’s work and his exploration of time and space. The key work in this exhibition was the Dragon’s Delusion series of animations, where Kongkee made legendary Chinese poet Qu Yuan his protagonist. Besides this series of animations, which is also in the process of being produced as a feature film, Kongkee’s studio was recreated as an installation that featured his original manuscripts, sketches and books from his personal collection, giving insight to his inspiration and work processes.

Photo caption: Kongkee. Time Pause Become Mountain, Time Move Become Water. 2023. Neon, site-specific installation, dimensions variable. (Photo credits: Sheryl Tan)

Of course, besides visiting exhibitions and getting our hands on research material, we could not pass up the chance to have a dim sum breakfast. Our final morning in Hong Kong started early, at a traditional dim sum restaurant right next to our hotel. We feasted on a variety of authentic dim sum, some of which are difficult to obtain in Singapore.

Photo caption: A breakfast dim sum feast in Hong Kong. (Photo credits: Sheryl Tan)

After this breakfast feast, we made our way to the Hong Kong Museum of Art, where we immediately made our way to the special exhibition, Titian and the Venetian Renaissance from the Uffizi, when we once again had the opportunity to see iconic works from the Western canon. Another interesting exhibition we had the chance to visit was A Tale of Three Cities, which looked at the trade of silk in Guangzhou, Macao and Hong Kong, drawing links between these places as well as other Asian trading ports. This exhibition was reminiscent of the trade gallery at the Asian Civilisations Museum (ACM) in Singapore, which looks at trade links between Southeast Asia and East Asia. In addition to this, ACM was at the time also hosting Manila Galleon: From Asia to the Americas. This focus on inter-regional trade enhanced the experience that we had when visiting A Tale of Three Cities in Hong Kong.

Another interesting exhibition at the Hong Kong Museum of art is Art Personalised: Masterpieces from the HKMoA, which took the curatorial approach of creating personality-driven journeys through the exhibition. At the beginning of the exhibition, visitors are encouraged to take a personality test before embarking on their journey through four exhibition zones matched to their personality traits.

With this, we concluded our trip to Hong Kong, happily sated with our experiences of a wide variety of exhibitions and curatorial approaches, and had a valuable head start on the research that we would go on to undertake in our final semester.