The artworks by PAK Sui Chi, LIT Wing Hung and WONG Ka Yi Edith call to mind Russian theorist Viktor SHKLOVSKY’s 1917 essay “Art as Device”: in his argument against the theory ‘Art is thinking in images’, SHKLOVSKY puts forward the idea of ‘making strange’ in art. He believes that people have in their daily life got used to things and stopped to experience them, and art is a means to liberate the people from this automaticization and makes things real again.

The ‘making strange’ that SHKLOVSKY proposes asks art to restore the actual sensation of ‘seeing’, and not merely ‘recognizing’ things. In order to achieve estrangement, artists often use methods of poetic expressions rather than direct descriptions. We can find examples in this exhibition: PAK Sui Chi uses blue-and-white porcelain to remake and hence spreading out the wrapping papers of canned food, LIT Wing Hung’s still-lifes are creations from soft reflective materials that imitate stainless steel objects, and through moulding and combinations, WONG Ka Yi Edith transforms her collection of urban wastes into sculptural collages.

Participating Artists : LIT Wing Hung | PAK Sui Chi | WONG Ka Yi Edith
Curated by : Jaffa LAM | Edwin K. LAI

Venue address: G/F – 4/F, Hong Kong Arts Centre (2 Harbour Road, Wanchai