Art in Use: Sculptural Objects Hong Kong Arts Centre
This exhibition of works by 18 artists from Hong Kong, the mainland, Brazil, Britain, South Korea and Japan sets out to reinterpret everyday objects as sources of intrigue and beauty. Its stated aim is to 'defamiliarise' our surroundings.
The show is a playground for the imagination, by turns humorous, puzzling and surreal.
Zhang Xiaogang, for instance, presents us with a metre-long bronze fountain pen, bent and buckled in ways that defy the rigid materials from which it would ordinarily be made. His Lamp No 2 is an outsized, caved-in light bulb that also challenges our conceptions of scale and matter.
A wicker-covered bicycle (below) by Jarbas Lopes looks as comfortable and pleasing as a chair on a tropical beach, blending fun with function.
There are other interpretations of furniture in the show that also confound our expectations.