Join us on the evening of September 27, 2014 for the opening of Islands off the Shore of Asia, a joint exhibition presented by Spring Workshop and Para Site, based on the ideological, historical, mystical, and fictional interpretations of the remote and largely uninhabited islands claimed by different nations across East Asia. In recent years, these small islets have become the focus of growing nationalism in the region and vehicles through which countries are choosing to project national pride and power.

The show features artists including Julieta Aranda (Mexico), Rosa Barba (Italy), Alvaro Barrios (Colombia), James T. Hong (Taiwan), Katsushika Hokusai (Japan), Kim Ki-Young (Korea), Takiji Kobayashi (Japan), Charles Lim (Singapore), MAP Office (Hong Kong), Pak Sheung Chuen (Hong Kong), Howie Tsui (Hong Kong/Canada), Ming Wong (Singapore), and Zheng Guogu (China).

Islands off the Shore of Asia represents the second phase of the widely acclaimed exhibition, A Journal of the Plague Year: Fear, Ghosts, Rebels, SARS, Leslie, and the Hong Kong Story, which last year launched at Para Site and is now showing in an expanded version at the Arko Art Centre in Seoul, where it opened 30 August and will run through 16 November 2014.

For this exhibition, Spring and Para Site teamed up to use sci fi and fiction to explore the current ideological turn towards nationalism and confrontation in the region. While the previous show focused on Hong Kong’s identity in the context of the SARS epidemic and the city’s near shut down in 2003, the current exhibit explores the region’s small, largely uninhabited islands, which are effectively invisible on maps but are now the object of territorial claims by every single nation in East Asia.

Curators for the show are Cosmin Costinas, Executive Director/Curator of Para Site and Inti Guerrero, Associate Artistic Director-Curator of TEOR/ética, Costa Rica.

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Opening reception: September 27 (Saturday)
5-8pm Artists present will include James T. Hong, Charles Lim, MAP Office, Pak Sheung Chuen, Howie Tsui, Ming Wong and Zheng Guogu with curators Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero

6-7pm Artist talk 

To coincide with South Island Art Day, the show is open for viewing from 12pm to 8pm on September 27.

Other programs:
Boat exploration through Hong Kong’s remote islands guided by artist Charles Lim (Singaporean representative at the 2015 Venice Biennale)
28 September 2014

Boat exploration through Hong Kong’s remote islands guided by artist James T Hong
October 2014 (exact date to be confirmed)

Curators’ tour
7 December 2014 (time TBA)

EXHIBITION HOURS:
September 27 – December 7
12pm to 6pm (Tuesday to Sunday, 0pen on Public Holidays)

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Para Site Art Space is financially supported by the Springboard Grant under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.
The content of this programme does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.