Nine Chinese artists reunite in Hong Kong, 32 years after their Exchange Square exhibition turned heads
Fifteen sculptors displayed works at Exchange Square’s Rotunda to celebrate the Central property’s completion in 1985. Ju Ming and Rosanna Li are among nine taking part in a new exhibition there
In 1985, property developer Hongkong Land invited a group of top Chinese sculptors to display their works at the Exchange Square Rotunda to celebrate the completion of the office development in Hong Kong’s Central business district. Now, 32 years later, an exhibition, aptly named “Reunion”, has brought nine of the 15 artists – including Taiwanese master Ju Ming – together to show their work.
While much has changed over the past three decades – Exchange Square is now dwarfed by the nearby International Finance Centre (IFC) Tower 2 – most of these sculptors have stayed true to their artistic practice and philosophy.
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Cheung Yee, who was chairman of the Fine Arts Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong at the time, is now 81 and lives in retirement in Los Angeles. He has used crabs – an animal he sees as aggressive and dynamic – as a source of inspiration since the 1980s.
While he has chosen the relatively small Crab #4 for this exhibition, you can probably recognise his other, larger, artworks, also in the form of crabs, which are scattered around the city, most notably at the Hong Kong Space Museum and in Kowloon Park.
Cheung insists he wants people to not just admire his works from a distance, but also to touch them and feel them. And he uses an interesting analogy to get his point across.
“When you see a girl you like, you wouldn’t want to just take a photo and leave, you would want to hold her hand,” says Cheung.