Co-organizer: Hao Min Cultural Action Association, Taichung
Event & livestream page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1510622039667076
Second Session: The Suppression of and Resistance by Artistic Free Will
Exiled Hong Kong artist Kacey Wong spoke about his own life, his practice as an artist, and the state of the creative environment in Hong Kong today along with the silencing of speech about June 4th, in conversation with Taiwanese artist SHAOwei about their respective experiences. Across two generations and two places, they compared how democracy has diverged in Taiwan and Hong Kong 35 years after June 4th, discussed the history and present reality of authoritarian interference in artistic work, and considered the China problem confronting countries across Asia and how a democratic Taiwan should position itself and defend its freedoms.
Speakers
- Kacey Wong: Born in 1970, his work explores the relationship between people and the spaces of social and political life across sculpture, installation, photography and performance art. He received the Hong Kong Arts Development Council’s Artist of the Year award in 2010, and Hong Kong’s Rising Artist and Outstanding Arts Education awards in 2003. Over the past decade he has worked to connect art with social movements, in earlier years taking large props onto the street to join demonstrations across Hong Kong, and later — as political control tightened — turning increasingly to bodily disguise and role play. In 2021, in pursuit of complete freedom of artistic expression, he left Hong Kong for self-imposed exile in Taiwan and set up a studio in Taichung.
- SHAOwei: An illustrator and designer whose work appears widely in fashion and arts publishing, spanning key visuals for stage productions and art exhibitions, board game art, cultural and creative products, picture books, 2D costume design and graphic applications. Her recent Requiem series moves through the memory of successive periods in Taiwan’s past, contemplating the inner world of those who tell that history and weaving the will of earlier generations into images that read like poems.
- Fu Chih-heng (傅智恒) (moderator): Describing himself as an urban design practitioner working on local revitalization in Houfeng, he is Deputy Executive Director of the Hao Min Cultural Action Association.