Housewarming (中文)
17.1.2003 – 19.2.2003 (closed on Mon, Tue & public holidays)
Gallery hours: 12 – 7 pm (Wed to Sun)
Opening Reception: 6 – 8 pm, Friday, January 17, 2003
Para/Site Art Space, 2 Po Yan Street (near 224 Hollywood Road), Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

The first show for Para/Site in the new year will feature Kacey Wong, Emil Goh, Joyce Hsu and Jeon Seong Ho, four Asian artists hailing from various parts of the Asian diaspora under the theme of “Housewarming.” Using the past identity of Para/Site, a shophouse before its incarnation as an alternative arts space, “Housewarming” reinvents the Para/Site space into a “domestic home”, in which the works of each artist reflect various aspects of spaces found in conventional homes, such as a bedroom, a kitchen or hallway. ‘Housewarming’ is also a continuous cultural investigation of the domestic space following on from the ‘Ghost Encounter’ (1997), ‘Home: A Mixed Media Art Exhibition Exploring the Concept of Home and City’(1999), and ‘Kem Zeg Fen Seg: An Exhibition of the Visual Thinking on Material Life ’ (1999) at Para/Site Art Space.

Hong Kong native Kacey Wong’s house-like structures take on the role of the foyer and its emphasis on putting up the proverbial “good front” to the outside world, while Sydney video artist Emil Goh will present an artwork depicting deeply recessed spaces that act as a metaphor for the hallway. In turn, this ‘hallway’ finds its conclusion in San Francisco-based Joyce Hsu’s explosion of fantasy creatures from her Naabee series. Recalling creatures from Japanese animation, these motorized installations are intended to fly about the gallery space. Finally, Seoul-based Jeon Seong Ho’s surreal featherscapes will fill the entire second floor, thus alluding to the nature of the “bedroom” as a site for dreaming and resting.

Housewarming will be accompanied by an exhibition catalog, containing an essay by the curator and four interviews with the artists conducted by Berin Golonu, editor-in-chief of the California art journal Artweek, Sophie O’Brien, a curator and writer working for the 2004 Sydney Biennale and David Ho Yeung Chan, an independent curator based in Vancouver and New York. This exhibition is curated by Joan Kee, Visiting Scholar at the Centre for the Study of Globalization and Culture at the University of Hong Kong, and a frequent contributor to Art Asia Pacific, Tema Celeste, Afterimage, Art Journal and Third Text.

For more information, please contact the Para/Site Art Space: Man Wai-Kwang or Jeff Leung
T: (852) 2517-4620 / e-mail: parasite@netvigator.com.