EVENT DESCRIPTION
T REE O GO D EVIL features the artist’s new bodies of work, which encompass videos and site-specific text installations. Tsang Kin-Wah draws upon philosophy, religion, politics, allegorical tale and non-fictional materials to create an immersive experience that probes at the fragile core of morality and examines humanity’s brutality, especially as manifested during chaotic and wartime periods.
The title of the exhibition, “T REE O GO D EVIL,” invokes the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The central column in the gallery space, as well as the ceiling, is fully covered in text—a thematic adaptation of the story of Adam and Eve, the root of sin, a pivotal moment of moral awakening. Echoing Schopenhauer’s philosophy of will and desire—the will fills human with an infinite striving and an endless desiring, to which there is no end.
“T REE” could also be evolved into “THREE”, which points to the three doorways in the gallery space that hold symbolic significance. The two accessible doorways can be seen as representing the two criminals or sinners crucified alongside Jesus at Golgotha, while the third, inaccessible doorway cloaked in a slightly blurred mirror reflects the unreachable and the illusory “world or idea”—symbolizing the god, the supernatural, or the unattainable. On another level, these three doorways also represent the subject (I, the viewer, entrance), the object (the Others), and the god or higher power.
