YOU MAY HAVE seen art in shopping malls. But how about a shopping mall inside a museum? A new exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Museum examines the issue of consumerism in art by playing on one of Hongkongers' favourite pastimes.
MEGartSTORE, which opens on Sunday, showcases art in the context of a simulated mall. Curator Judy Chan Lee Suk-yee says the idea is to let viewers experience art in a familiar environment. 'We're trying to place art in the public's daily life,' Chan says.
A team of architects and designers was recruited to help transform a 7,500sqft museum gallery into a mini-mall, in which will be displayed more than 300 pieces from the museum's collection of contemporary works, including sculptures, paintings, photographs and installations.
The show is part of the museum's continuing efforts to balance its role in displaying antiquities as well as contemporary art. 'This is the third, large-scale contemporary art exhibition we've had in the past four years,' says Chan. 'Heritage is about contemporary as well as traditional. We have a good collection of both.'
Walls and partitions divide the gallery into five shopping-related areas - Food & Beverage, Health & Beauty, Home & Garden, Leisure & Entertainment and a Rest Area - each of which has been designed accordingly and displays grouped thematically. The museum also picked five local artists to create installations for each area: Lam Wai-hung, Stella Tang Ying-chi, Annie Wan Lai-kuen, Amy Cheung Wai-man and Tsang Kin-wah.
Chan says the main curatorial goal of the project was to create a highly visual experience that would challenge the way people approach and appreciate art. In some cases, the presentation is unorthodox, with pieces dangling from clothes' lines, hanging from supermarket shelves and installed in a make-up counter.