What makes an art exhibition different from a theatre production? What is a performance without human performers? As spectators, how are we supposed to take in a mixed-media bundle of loosely related works presented as a whole?
These are questions raised in a new exhibition at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun arts centre called “Make & Believe”, which blurs the line between reality and imagination.
The exhibition integrates art from multiple disciplines, including text, painting, music, soundscape, lighting, scenography, and mechanical installations to create active viewing possibilities that are never the same for two viewers.
“The artworks are of different disciplines and each element stands alone, yet they collaborate [to produce] a harmonious experience,” says Orlean Lai Wan-yin, the exhibition’s curator and producer.
The exhibition is unique to each viewer because its parts are constantly moving and changing to obscure or reveal certain aspects; the viewer cannot survey all corners of the theatrical stage at once, she adds.
“Make & Believe” brings together six artists:
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Tung Wing-hong, whose new media and kinetic installation works combine art and technology;
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Ng Tsz-kwan, who delves into new media technology in the arts and its influence on human perception;
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Human Wu, an architectural designer in charge of the exhibition’s scenography;
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Lam Lai, a composer and soundscape artist;
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Lau Ming-hang, a paper artist, pop-up book creator and theatre lighting designer; and
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Ho Sin-tung, whose art revolves around painting, installation, video and writing.
The Invisible, written by Ho, is the thread which weaves the exhibition together.
The story has four parallel scenarios about an invisible man who went to a blind masseur so that his existence could be recognised.
“Is it real or fictional? If you can’t see the invisible man, how do you fathom his presence?” Lai asks.
Voices from speakers installed next to benches can be heard reading out different stories that visitors can try to piece together.
There is a mechanical installation of moving arms and automatic sliding curtains that references the massage parlour, Lai points out.
“The concept of ‘Make & Believe’ is to rethink the distinctions between reality and fiction, and presence and absence,” Lai says.
Aside from the story, the exhibition also features a video compiled by Ho of fictional deaths from old films, as well as a group of “tunnel books” – three-dimensional, illustrated pop-up books that she made in 2017 based on characters from literature whose deaths affected her deeply.
“In the real world, death is something we have to commemorate and process; in the fictional world, it’s fake, but it can still have a massive effect on the reader’s reality. How do fictional events alter the way we think about life?” she asks.
While the project is part of the Arts Tech Exhibition 2.0 series presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, the works on show are all relatively low-tech.
Lai says the genesis of the exhibition was a theatre production called We Are For Real in October 2023 at the HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity, in Hong Kong’s Kowloon Tsai neighbourhood.
The project includes live performances,cheduled over the next fortnight, such as a music programme designed by Lam Lai and featuring musicians playing an accordion, a French horn and a bassoon.
“The performers will alternate between three positions, making at least one of them hidden from the viewer’s eye,” Lai says.
In another set of live events, four actors will perform semi-improvised shows. Lai says that they will sit among the audience and recite dialogue for one part of the performance.
Are they performing, or do they form part of the exhibit? How does that change our spectatorship? “The theatre is a place where audience members go and prepare to abandon their knowledge of the real world; everything is ‘make believe’. from the story and characters to the props,” Lai says.
And with “Make & Believe”, the audience are the makers, too.
“Make & Believe” presented by the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, F Hall Studio, Tai Kwun, 10 Hollywood Road, Central. January 13 to 28, 11am to 7:30pm. Closed on Mondays. Visit www.taikwun.hk for timetable and registration details for performances.