Raise the Dimness: Kong Chun Hei solo exhibition

Dates

9 JUNE - 18 JULY 2020

Reception

13 JUNE,  4:30 p.m.

TKG+ Projects  2F, No.15, Ln. 548, Ruiguang Rd., Neihu Dist., Taipei 114, Taiwan

Let the inherent tendency remain inherent. Extract the dimness from a particular object.

— Kong Chun Hei

A dartboard and darts, flooding and measurement, blackness and transparency, removal and vacancy. In a contemporary society dominated by symbols and texts, most confrontations seem futile. The obscure state of art reinforces the symbol itself through its absorption into a structure, and the act of art making must be more dynamic and strategic in order to transcend these fixed associations. How can one extract elements from a fixed system, create disruption to loosen symbols from their rigid structures, and allow indistinct confrontations to be identified, examined, and judged? Kong Chun Hei ushers the viewer into a state of doubtful speculation by highlighting nuanced details in monotonous things and repeatedly posing equivocal questions. Only by constantly revisiting this state of speculation can one rise above the fateful constraints of symbols.

Raise the dimness, Kong Chun Hei’s first solo exhibition with TKG⁺, includes nine works by the artist. Following the cues provided in the artist’s statement[1], the viewer is immersed in a state of speculation. Seemingly familiar objects are thrown into an ambiguous realm of perception, allowing the viewer to recognize the contradiction between observation and futility. Within the relationship between a dart and a dartboard, the moment of impact produces a new connection between the two entities, altering both their inherent and relative material states. This phenomenon is closely linked to the process of perception, wherein meaning is not latent within the observed, but is produced in the cognition of the observer. On the water level gauge, the measurement markings have been reversed, redefining the conditions of the fear of drowning, thus calling into question whether disaster is a product of external circumstances or an internal perception. When written repeatedly in an overlapping manner, a signature transcends its correlations with name and identification and takes on a new, contradictory form which sparks doubts in an unknown state. Standing in confrontation with floor-to-ceiling sliding glass windows, one is reminded of the vacancies ever-present in the process of movement, derived not only from the interaction between spaces, but also from the absence (or occurrence) of a looming disaster evoked by an X notch on the glass.

Let an object’s inherent structure remain familiar in its appearance, then disturb the stability of the thing itself to allow the chaotic process of reconfiguration to take over the dominant position. In Raise the dimness, existing symbols and order are dissected, elements are extracted, and the creative action itself is given power again. This is how Kong Chun Hei perceives the world, and it is a dialectical path he carefully elaborates in his work. Engulfed in the artist’s repeated questioning and subtle confrontation, the viewer emerges from the dim state and rises leisurely into immersive observation.

TKG⁺ is honored to announce that artist Kong Chun Hei is represented by TKG⁺ beginning in 2020. It is the hope of TKG⁺ that Kong’s creative energy and TKG⁺’s aesthetics philosophy will interlink to further map the strange and familiar terrains of contemporary art in Taiwan and Hong Kong under the current social and geological conditions. Born in 1987, Kong Chun Hei graduated from the fine arts department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2009. He currently lives and works in Hong Kong. Sketches predominantly shape Kong’s artistic vocabulary, whilehis practice stretches intuitively across video, animation, and installation. Kong investigates the structures and operations of seemingly ordinary phenomena, and considers the possible interferences that could be made from/within them.

Notable solo exhibitions include Raise the dimness, TKG⁺, Taipei, Taiwan (2020);Turn down the pulse, Crane Gallery, Kaohsiung, Taiwan (2018); Side Step, Last Tango, Zurich (2018); group exhibitions include Borrowed Scenery, Cattle Deport Artist Village, Hong Kong (2019); Folded Veil, Edouard Malingue Gallery, Hong Kong, (2019); Against the Light: Sampling in Two Cities, You Space, Shenzhen, China (2017); From Ocean to Horizon, Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art, Manchester, U.K. (2017); after/image, Studio 52, Pure Art Foundation, Hong Kong (2015); and The Second CAFAM Future, Beijing, China (2015).