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C&G Artpartment

Ends Jul 9

Running until early next month, this debut exhibition by C&G Artpartment  marks the 10th anniversary of  the handover. But it's  not typical of the hundreds of other celebratory events.

'We're bored by those empty celebrations, and wonder why there's only one way to commemorate the anniversary,' say Clara Cheung  and Gum Cheng Yee-man,  gallery owners and curators of the show. 'They give the impression that Hong Kong has only 10  years' history and that things before 1997 don't count.'

As its title suggests, Back to the Basic aims to dig  beneath the surface of celebrations and focus on the theme of the Basic Law.

'The Basic Law has been ruling every aspect  of society since the handover, and  it won't be any exception  in the future,' says Cheung.

The exhibition showcases five works. The curators' piece explores the topic on a canvas;  Enoch Cheung Hong-sang uses the Kangxi Dictionary and a piece of golden cloth  to make fun of the authority embedded in the Basic Law; Anthony Leung Po-shan burned  pages of the Law on the opening day  in reference to the city's amnesia; and Pan Xinglei writes on  a wall in red oil and inserts into the book Deng Xiaoping on the Question of Hong Kong  obscene images to create a set of 'teaching materials of the Basic Law'.

Despite the serious topic, Kwan Sheung-chi's installation  is humorous and sarcastic. His piece contains a two-minute video with the national anthem as  background music, in which his parents are drying the flags of China, Britain  and Hong Kong.

The  Hong Kong flag (above)  was painted by Kwan's artist friend Lee Kit and sewn by his girlfriend. Something formal and solemn is suddenly causal and fun, and our preconceptions of  flags  are challenged  as they're  hoisted horizontally in an everyday setting.

The video starts with the lowering of the Union Jack and the rise of the Chinese and Hong Kong flags - not a surprising  symbol of the handover. But the sequence becomes messy and  disorderly later in the video. 'Not everything is solved, even if the Chinese flag  has been raised in the city  since 1997,' says Kwan. 'We still look back and feel confused about our identity, don't we?'

Thu-Mon, 2pm-8pm, 3/F, 222 Sai Yeung Choi St South, Prince Edward. Inquiries: 2390 9332



Back to the Basic