Back to All Events

SHUM Kwan-yi: The Unbearable Lightness at Grotto SKW


  • Hong Kong Hong Kong (map)

Time and time again, we witness life’s distortion and deformation under immense pressure.  Distress and burden have crushed us to the point of collapse.  The mightiness of authority and our insignificance contrast sharply.  We have no choice but to conform.   Any confrontation is futile.  Life appears to suspend in midair as we can hardly find our places and meanings in today’s world.  I am also unassured and incapable of changing the status quo.  Such a bleak future leaves me floating weightlessly in uncertainty; at the same time the weightiness of oppression drags me back to the ground with suffocating pressure. 

The title of the present exhibition, "The Unbearable Lightness", captures my complex emotions of weightlessness and heaviness towards today’s society.  Using contemporary landscape as narrator, the collection is set in three chapters: “The Floating Life”, “The Secret Texts” and “The Inhabitant Islets”.  They chronicle my experiences, dilemma and inner struggle in bearing this invisible weight of lightness. 

Opening Reception: May 14, 2022 (Sat), 2-6pm

RSVP: info@grottofineart.com

Gallery address: 2/F, East 17, No.17 Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan