
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Tai Kwun Contemporary is pleased to announce the opening of its new exhibition Hu Xiaoyuan: Veering, the acclaimed artist’s first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. Opening 24 January, 2025, the show features twelve new works across seven thematic collections, all commissioned by Tai Kwun. Hu Xiaoyuan (b. 1977 in Harbin, China) was catapulted onto the international stage in 2007 as the first female Chinese artist to participate in the prestigious documenta exhibition in Germany. Over the past two decades, she has established herself as one of the most distinctive and compelling voices in contemporary Chinese art and now brings her singular vision to Hong Kong audiences, re-examining her life experiences as a woman through installation, sound, painting, video, and literary creations. In her unique visual narratives, in which natural knowledge, historical records, and literary metaphor are interlaced, the artist mobilises biological remnants and architectural ruins, combining them with metal, stone, and other mediums typically used in traditional plastic arts.
Running from 24 January to 13 April 2025, the exhibition takes place on the first floor of JC Contemporary. As part of Tai Kwun’s Breakthrough series, Veering is presented alongside the solo exhibitions Alicja Kwade: Pretopia and Maeve Brennan: Records, this trio of shows by female artists explores materials and storytelling through diverse, thoughtful approaches. Altogether, these exhibitions reflect Tai Kwun’s commitment to celebrating the current art scene and deepening the public’s understanding of contemporary art.
Veering employs a poetic visual style to probe the relationship between the individual and the group, attempting to show how individuals exist and make choices in a broken and dysfunctional contemporary society. Continuing her signature use of long-overlooked objects, Hu Xiaoyuan focuses on the waste from social and biological systems, such as old steel from urban demolition, used implements from daily life, the dry wings of insects and the remains of marine life. For Hu Xiaoyuan, everything, whether organic or inorganic, from large-scale urban architecture to small-scale everyday ephemera, from herself to everything else on the planet, has a life trajectory. She reconfigures, juxtaposes, and combines these seemingly unrelated materials that no longer function, then investigates their meaning via literature, history, and philosophy. Tai Kwun’s revival, from historical monument to cultural hub, parallels the artist’s process of reviving alternative narratives embedded within overlooked things. Resonating with Tai Kwun’s place in the flow of history, her work prompts us to consider how the past continues to shape the present, and how new possibilities can emerge from what has been cast aside.