Art Basel Hong Kong 2023, March 22

New Bodies, New Natures: Figure and Land as Site and Situation

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Conversations | New Bodies, New Natures: Figure and Land as Site and Situation
How are contemporary artists presenting at Art Basel Hong Kong approaching or subverting the classic tropes of figuration and landscape to engage with complexities of culture, politics, and history? Are representations of the body and landscape ever simply representations, or do they reflect a challenge, assertion, recuperation, and re-writing of bodies and contexts?

Terrence Musekiwa, artist, Catinca Tabacaru Lulu Ngie, artist, Gallery EXIT Joydeb Roaja, artist, Jhaveri Contemporary Pauline Shaw, artist, in lieu
Moderated by Alice Wang, artist, Capsule Shanghai 
Terrence Musekiwa comes from a long line of sculptors, at first helping his father, Kennedy Musekiwa, and later moving away from traditional aesthetics. While each of his work begins with the familiar toil of shaping the stone, they are then fused with a myriad of found and industrial objects. His visual language wrestles with convention to simultaneously challenge and pay homage to Zimbabwean tradition. His conceptual vernacular introduces a dialogue about present-day Zimbabwe, its mechanics, politics, micro and macro trade systems, hardships and a quality of magic that permeates the personal lives of its inhabitants.
The practice of Lulu Ngie follows a tradition in Chinese ink painting, Yi-bi. These visualisations of Chinese philosophy are part of her constant search for meaning. NGIE's work is reflective of her own mental state. She delights in studying the human psyche as expressed through a person's body language.
Joydeb Roaja has an interconnected performance, painting and drawing practice that highlights the challenging social and political landscape of Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts. The area is home to eleven indigenous groups including Roaja’s community, the Tripura. His works are tied to the experiences of indigeneity, often emphasising the deep and symbiotic connection of these groups with their land as well as the fight for recognition and rights in a state that has denied them.
Pauline Shaw is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice examines the intersections between personal experience and broader ethnic and spiritual histories. Selected exhibitions include: Queens Museum, New York, New York (2023); Friends Indeed Gallery, San Francisco, California (2022); The Shed, New York, New York (2021); Spurs, Beijing, China (2021); Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore (2019); Almine Rech, Paris, France (2019); Gagosian, New York, New York (2019); and The Jewish Museum, New York, New York (2018).
Alice Wang makes sculptures, photographs, and experimental films. Over the last ten years, she has been working with the mantra: the Earth is plummeting towards the Sun while just missing it. Wang will be presenting solo exhibitions at the UCCA Dune Art Museum this fall and the Vincent Price Art Museum next Spring. She is an assistant professor at New York University Shanghai. Wang lives and works in Los Angeles and Shanghai.
 
The Art Basel Hong Kong 2023 Conversations program is curated by Stephanie Bailey.