To create, to complement, and to fuse: Fusion 2
《融合貳》 at Asia Society Hong Kong Center
Part II of our Fusion 2 《融合貳》 e-Tour
To bring you up-to-speed with the premise of the exhibition: 30 sculptures, 10 artists, 5 pairs, 2 years, and 2 materials – Carrara marble and wood. Five of the ten artists are from Hong Kong, and the other five artists have a special connection to Italy. All artists were unacquainted with one another prior to the project, and each artist from a pair had the opportunity to initiate the cooperative pieces. Once an artist would create the half-the piece with the material of their specialty, it was brought to their partner who would build upon the piece with their own craftsmanship.
As mentioned in my interview with Joyce Ng, Head of Gallery at Asia Society HK, the exhibition began in 2021, with only a conceptual plan: to create a fusion between two unmet artists of very different practices and medium, under the idea of a cultural exchange. The first ten sculptural outputs of the craftsmanship-swap produced ten elegant entanglements of marble and wood, each showcased on its own pedestal in the warmly lit chambers of the Chantal Miller Gallery space.
Perhaps it was by knowing that the first round of the paired collaboration was essentially each artists’ first encounter with one another’s creative language, there was an air of consideration that surrounded each of the pieces. Drift (2021) by Violet Shum and Flavia Robalo is one great example of a harmony born from such respect; the direction of inertia in Shum’s wooden piece is reciprocated in the gust of wind that Robalo’s figure is embracing in, or the other way around, to create a concordant carving of a scene, as if prediscussed.
Twenty additional smaller-scaled pieces were commissioned for Fusion 2《融合貳》, and for this iteration of the project, artists were able to meet in-person for the first time. Each pair of the same artists produced four works in total, which are on display along the walls of a narrow hallway in the gallery space.
Once again, there is the radiance of harmony in each of the final pieces, and this time–as natural as it may be–one can notice an elevated unity between the mutual respect that each artist has developed for their partners throughout the conjoined production. In the synergy between Francesca Bernardini and Danny Lee, the artists, quite literally, take turns to platform each other; once in marble and once in wood.
In the works between Yaman Chau and Lorenzo Vignoli, the sculptures come to move together, and presents an amusing tale of the materialistic contrast between the coolness of the marble that dances to the tunes of the warm wood. They are both, by the way, hard and non-malleable materials.
Fusion 2 《融合貳》 has been extended until July 9, 2023, and proudly, the exhibition features the collaborative work between five Hong Kong artists, and five artists with artistic ties to Italy. The form of the exhibition has been represented by the materiality of Carrara marble and wood, which has, respectively, been yielded by artists who have truly manifested the idea behind the sculptural exchange; by way of leading, complementing, and harmonising with their chosen partner.
In essence, it is a presentation from a result of a fusion–emanating an aesthetic point of convergence between the geographically-distant-yet-creatively-intimate practices of artists from Seravezza and Hong Kong.
A special thank you to Hain Yoon, the Curatorial Assistant, for organising the conversation and the e-tour, and to Amanda Lee, the Assistant Curator for the kind explanation of the exhibited works!
Learn more about the exhibition in our interview with Joyce Ng, Head of Gallery at Asia Society HK, here.
Dyana Kim