MYTH MAKERS—SPECTROSYNTHESIS III

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Tai Kwun Contemporary is proud to announce Myth Makers—Spectrosynthesis III, an upcoming exhibition on view from 24 December 2022 to 10 April 2023. As one of the first major exhibitions on LGBTQ+ perspectives in Hong Kong, Myth Makers circles around the core notion of “queer mythologies”. At the same time, the exhibition explores contemporary mythologies and practices of the body by gathering a diverse range of artistic idioms related to LGBTQ+ perspectives from over 50 artists from Asia and its diasporas.

Curated by Inti Guerrero and Chantal Wong, and co-presented with Sunpride Foundation, Myth Makers includes over 100 artworks in all Tai Kwun Contemporary galleries, with one third of the works loaned from Sunpride’s collection; the exhibition furthermore includes a publication collaboration with Queer Reads Library. Myth Makers— Spectrosynthesis III also expands on the “Spectrosynthesis” series from Taipei, Bangkok, and now Hong Kong.

Myth Makers draws inspiration from artists addressing “queer mythologies”, who highlight either same-sex love and desire or gender fluidity as found in ancient belief systems and traditions in Asia. The exhibition also foregrounds the “new traditions” of our times, of spectacle and celebrity, playful and/or transgressive, along with non-normative bodily practices and histories in artworks by contemporary artists. The exhibition unfolds through three distinctive chapters and encompasses more than 100 works, which include new productions, historical works from the 1950s to the 1990s, and artworks on loan from the collection of the Sunpride Foundation. In bringing together such a plethora of artistic perspectives and vocabularies, Myth Makers endeavours to present a multiplicity of conversations, representations, and anti-representations of stories, individuals and communities. While the bulk of the exhibition focuses on living artists, some visionary and transformative figures of the past will also be underscored, including artists who lived in times when present-day LGBTQ+ identifications were not possible.

In parallel with Myth Makers, Tai Kwun will present the new heritage exhibition Gender & Space, a thematically related exhibition that explores gender from an alternative perspective and reveal hidden traces of women (5 November 2022 to 15 January 2023; Duplex Studio, Block 01).

Exhibiting artists include
Bunny Cadag, Oscar Chan Yik Long, Shu Lea Cheang, Christopher Cheung, Isaac Chong Wai, Club Ate (Justin Shoulder & Bhenji Ra), Roy Dib, Jes Fan, Chitra Ganesh, Sadao Hasegawa, Fan Chon Hoo, Hou Chun-Ming, Yuen Hsieh, Andrew Thomas Huang, Bones Tan Jones, Siren Eun Young Jung, Jiaming Liao, Amy Lien & Enzo Camacho, Zihan Loo, Ly Tran Quynh Giang, Josef Ng, Patrick Ng Kah Onn, Alfonso Ossorio, Beatrix Pang, Ellen Pau, Sornchai Phongsa, Khairullah Rahim, Ren Hang, Anne Samat, Josh Serafin, Tejal Shah, Shang Liang, Raqib Shaw, Sin Wai Kin, Sputniko, Ho Tam, Hiram To, Kwong Chi Tseng, Virtue Village, Danh Vō, Wang Shui, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ka Ying Wong, Martin Wong, Wu Jiaru, Xiyadie, Maru Yacco, Trevor Yeung, Alex Yiu & Kei Ying Wong, Kohei Yoshiyuki, Samson Young, Zheng Bo, Bruno Zhu
About the curator

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Sunpride Foundation was launched in 2014 with the mission to embrace and promote the rich, creative history of the LGBTQ community. The Foundation aims to foster a stronger, healthier, and more equitable world for LGBTQ people and their allies and to encourage and inspire a generation of young artists to take action and create positive changes to the LGBTQ+ experience by exhibiting and preserving art that speaks to society at large. In 2017, Sunpride Foundation and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei co-hosted Spectrosynthesis — Asian LGBTQ Issues and Art Now, the first LGBTQ-themed exhibition staged in an art museum in Asia. Two years later, the Foundation and Bangkok Art and Culture Centre presented Spectrosynthesis II — Exposure of Tolerance: LGBTQ in Southeast Asia, the largest-ever survey of regional contemporary art exploring lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and queer creative history in Southeast Asia and beyond.