Kiang Malingue is pleased to present “Not retrospective”, showcasing less than 40 previous and recent sculptures, photographs and videos by Kwan Sheung Chi. Playing for the third time—after Kwan’s debut exhibition “A Retrospective of Kwan Sheung Chi” in 2002 and “100 things, a little retrospective” in 2012—with the idea of mounting a retrospective, a form of exhibition that emphasises comprehensiveness, totalised coherency, reinterpretation, canonisation and belatedness, the presentation includes important early works such as five videos from the “ONE MILLION” series, a number of curious everyday objects from the project of “Well, you can have what’s left of mine.”, “I am Artist” books made twenty years ago, and a suite of videos and installations made in 2023.

For Kwan, conceiving “Not retrospective” does not entail the need to revisit old works, but accommodates the desire to “get rid of them.” Previous works take up physical and conceptual space, and have effectively become a burden. In relation to the common practice of cataloguing one’s work and belongings before leaving Hong Kong for good in recent years, Kwan is also interested in discovering whether old works can generate new market value, constructing the first part of “Not retrospective” as a store in pure white. Sculptural works and curious objects such as an iron horse in the literal sense that was made in the absence of an original (Iron Horse –– After Antonio Mak, 2008/2020); a whetstone that was disguised as a strangely shaped cigarette pack (Marlboro, 2015); and the artist’s sweat elegantly bottled (L’art s’évapore (formerly known as ‘Eau dévoilé’), 2023/2012)—all cheerfully foreground the commodity status of the individual pieces, readily stocked along with a banner piece that made use of dust jackets of Marx’s three volumes of Capital (Karl Marx’s Capital, 2015), and the “ONE MILLION” series of money-counting videos.

Gallery address: 13/F, Blue Box Factory Building, 25 Hing Wo Street, Aberdeen