Paul Chan
Para/Site Art Space
Reviewed: July 7
Paul Chan, a rising thirtysomething US-based artist who recently featured on the cover of Art Forum, is back in Hong Kong where he spent his early years.
The show that brings him here is iconoclastic, understated and carefully referential. The exhibition consists of abstract chalk drawings and two video projections of animations. The front room is completely monochrome, and a colour animation, Untitled [for St Caravaggio], plays in the back. With multi-layered references to religion and art history, Chan weaves a confounding and playful tapestry.
The monochrome look belies Chan's generally diverse approach to art and politics, shown through his political activism and his work across drawing, animation, text and video (as seen in his documentary Baghdad in No Particular Order). He rarely uses heavy-handed strategies, despite strong political beliefs, opting instead for humour, complex references and a persuasive (lo-tech) technique.