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Portrait of Tsang Kin-Wah. Courtesy the artist.
Following his solo presentation at the 2015 Venice Biennale, where he represented Hong Kong with his work The Infinite Nothing (2015), Tsang Kin-Wah brings a responsive site-specific exhibition to the city’s newly opened M+ Pavilion, the eponymous museum’s first permanent exhibition space. Co-curated by Doryun Chong and Stella Fong, “Nothing” further expands Tsang’s text work and immersive installations, developing his Venice piece with fresh realizations that draw from philosophical concepts of Friedrich Nietzsche, as well as references derived from William Shakespeare’s Macbeth and the American rock band Nirvana. ArtAsiaPacific sat down with Tsang to discuss his artistic trajectory, his current exhibition in Hong Kong and what the future holds for him.
Your early work was primarily site-specific text installations, which later shifted to moving images. What triggered this transition?
In the past I focused on patterned text installations and did quite a lot of similar works for several years. But I felt like there was something missing in my work. The space seemed frozen, which is why I added different types of elements in the works that followed, such as projections, sound and music. But somehow the space still felt frozen. At a certain point I thought it was a good idea to try to make the text move. In 2009, I shifted my focus and direction to video art and installations. I feel like it’s more immersive and also more impressive, and at the same time it can express my emotion in a more precise way.
TSANG KIN-WAH, Nothing, 2016, video projections, sound, wood, stainless steel, soil, and text installation, dimensions variable. Copyright the artist. Courtesy West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and M+, Hong Kong.
In 2015, you represented Hong Kong at the Venice Biennale with the work “The Infinite Nothing.” Is the reception for your international exhibitions different compared to the ones you hold locally?
They are more or less the same, because the [opinions] that I’ve heard are mainly from the art circle. When I have exhibitions overseas, more of the general public visit. I think they are keen to know about the concept behind the exhibition, and they very much like to ask about the show, which is something that I find more common in Europe than in Hong Kong.
The situation in Hong Kong is also a little bit different. The general audience prefers modern art exhibitions as I think contemporary art is a little bit more difficult for them to get into and understand what we are trying to do.
In your current exhibition “Nothing,” there seems to be conceptual changes from your work in Venice. Were there any specific aesthetic alterations made to readapt it to Hong Kong?
The thing that changed is the site. I found that it’s impossible to bring that Venice work back to Hong Kong, because the sites are totally different. We couldn’t adapt that into this space [at M+ Pavilion]. There are visual links to the Venice work, but it is also a work that is totally different.
TSANG KIN-WAH, Nothing, 2016, video projections, sound, wood, stainless steel, soil, and text installation, dimensions variable. Copyright the artist. Courtesy West Kowloon Cultural District Authority and M+, Hong Kong.
In “Nothing,” you respond to inspirations like Macbeth and humanity’s inability to escape fate, as well as Friedrich Nietzsche’s “eternal recurrence”—the concept that energy is finite, therefore events in the universe will continue to repeat an infinite number of times. For me, “Nothing” seems like a departure from your previous reflections on Nietzsche’s other philosophy that “God is dead”—in the sense that we no longer look solely to religion for values or as a moral compass, which leaves us with the responsibility to become better people and create new values for society. There’s a philosophical shift from the idea that man has control to become an idealized being, to the notion where one no longer has the freedom to alter his reality. Can you elaborate on the concept of fate versus free will?
I think that for my Venice works, I do agree with Nietzsche that we can choose to be better people. This was an idea that I was quite positive about at that time. But after the exhibition, I realized that actually I’m not that positive about life, leading me to draw upon other philosophers like [Arthur] Schopenhauer. For the exhibition “Nothing,” I explore the idea of life as meaningless and life as nothing. We all have to face the threat of death right from the beginning, when we are born into this world. Of course no one can escape that kind of fate, so for me this is the reason why I feel very pessimistic toward life. At the same time, since no one can know when their death will arrive, it also gives me the freedom to do what I really want to do, because it could be like your last day on the planet. You don’t have to feel constrained. That’s how I feel about fate and free will.
Is it possible to accept fate as a way to place yourself on the path to becoming an “Overman?” One of the steps to become this idealized being is seen as accepting our condition and reality.
For me I feel like “Overman” is an illusion. I realized that in the end everyone is very selfish and self-centered. Because of that human nature, I don’t really think that people can actually become a better man or “Overman.” So maybe that could be the fate for me, that I have to accept that I couldn’t be that better man, which is why I feel like life is full of suffering and agony.
Was there a particular experience that made you come to this realization?
I don’t know . . .
Or was it humanity in general?
There have been a lot of things happening in the past years, like it’s not just something that has happened in Hong Kong, but in different places around the world. Through my observation I do feel that we are just too selfish in a certain way. It’s not just something particularly related to politics or social issues, but it is the general observation that I’ve made.
From this perspective, then, is your message of hope or despair? I feel like your general attitude toward humanity is not very hopeful.
Nope, sorry.
Can you tell me a little more about the references to Kurt Cobain in this current exhibition? For example, there is the video footage and guitar music used in the installation.
Kurt Cobain was my teenage idol. I liked his music a lot. I feel like he’s a little bit of a tragedy because in the end he killed himself, and because of this my exhibition is somewhat related to suicide, even though it’s not in a very obvious way. I think that Cobain’s music and his life still has a very strong impact on the present and how I view the world. This is the reason why in particular areas of the exhibition space I included the guitar noise and footage of his performance, in order to address repressed anger and emotions.
You have been commissioned by the Guggenheim museum’s Robert HN Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative to create a work as part of “Tales of Our Time,” opening November 4 in New York. What can we expect to see at this upcoming Guggenheim show?
For the Guggenheim show, the topic is about history. I am going to present an installation and also text work.
Was relating to history for your new work at the Guggenheim a major departure from “Nothing?”
The idea is something different, and is not something that I would have made if I didn’t have to exhibit it for the show. It’s a good experiment.
How do you think your works contribute to society?
For me, my works are a materialization of issues that I believe, or things that I am thinking at a particular time, which I try to communicate to the audience. It is interesting to hear the viewers’ interpretations. For example, the quotes that I have here in the exhibition are very negative to me. But some people think they are very positive. So, for me, I try to start a conversation. I present my views on life and death and then let the audience interpret them in their own way.
Katherine Volk is assistant editor at ArtAsiaPacific.