EVENT DESCRIPTION
M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) are pleased to co-present Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Detachments. The exhibition is an adaptation of Yeung’s solo show representing Hong Kong in a Collateral Event at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The exhibition marked the sixth collaboration between M+ and HKADC at one of the world’s most prestigious platforms for international contemporary art. The adapted exhibition in Hong Kong will open to the public from Saturday, 14 June to Sunday, 12 October 2025 in the Cissy Pui-Lai Pao and Shinichiro Watari Galleries at M+.
As with previous Hong Kong presentations at the Biennale, the 2024 Venice exhibition returns to Hong Kong in an adapted form. Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Attachments, Hong Kong in Venice (20 April – 24 November 2024) saw Yeung explore sentimentality, desire, and power dynamics through the concept of attachment. For the return presentation, titled Trevor Yeung: Courtyard of Detachments, Yeung’s installations continue to examine the relationships between human and aquatic ecosystems, but now through the concept of detachment.
Raised and living in Hong Kong, Yeung draws inspiration from his surroundings, including pet shops, his father’s seafood restaurant, public fountains, feng shui arrangements, and his childhood pet fish. In the exhibition, he carefully constructs landscapes of fishless aquariums as metaphors for the social systems that govern our lives. With water removed from the once-operational tanks, his works evoke a poignant sense of longing, desire, and containment, prompting reflection on absence and attachment.
The first part of the exhibition takes the form of an abandoned pet fish shop. In Cave of Avoidance (Not Really), racks of empty fish tanks, marked by dried algae and water stains, set a sombre tone. Mirrored walls reflect visitors into the installation, casting them as participants in this scene—perhaps as a fish, a customer, or a fish seller. Behind the racks, Little Comfy Tornado (After Typhoon) features a complex filtration system that creates the highly regulated environment fish need to survive. However, this delicate, artificial ecosystem is broken, a warning of the consequences of neglect. Other works in this room use specific materials to embody resistance and defiance. From salts that accumulated on the exhibition walls in Venice (Salty Lover (Hong Kong)) to clusters of fungi (Night Mushrooms), these byproducts of humid climates are often considered harmful. Yet they also suggest survival against the odds, inviting visitors to imagine alternative modes of existence.
The second part of the exhibition resembles a Venetian courtyard, a space for visitors to rest and contemplate, populated with uncanny monuments and intriguing details. The centrepiece, Pond of Never Enough (Under Construction), is a fountain boarded up with wooden panels. Although it was functional in Venice, the fountain is now defunct and stands suspended in time. Gate of Instant Love resembles a hanging display in a pet fish shop, subverting the excitement of bringing home a new pet fish. In this room, Yeung also introduces the motif of the wilting lotus with photographs (Pondering Ponds) and four sculptures (Mx. Tried-My-Best). The lotus can thrive even in the most difficult conditions and is a metaphor for cycles of decay and rebirth.
