Harlow’s Monkey at Square Street Gallery

The title refers to a good old psychology classic: Harry Harlow’s experiment — or rather his series of experiments — on the newborn rhesus monkeys. It successfully demonstrated the not-mainstream-then theory of emotional attachment. Monkeys preferred artificial “cloth mothers” that provided softness and warmth, to “wire mothers” that provided only food. (Other experiments on deprivation and isolation are even worse). It’s difficult to justify this unnecessary and unethical torture but in the 60s the main theory of attachment spanned around physical care only.
So come and see what E8MKBOY, Kary Kwok, Maari Sugawara, and Amy Tong chose to say on love and belonging, mothering and care, intimacy and tenderness. But also on loss and grief, loneliness and isolation — and luckily no monkeys were harmed in the process of making this exhibition.

Exhibition period: 6.06–6.07
Gallery address: 21 Square Street, Sheung Wan