REVIEW: "Market Forces – Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction" @ City University of Hong Kong
This year’s “Market Forces,” an annual group exhibition co-presented by the Osage Art Foundation and City University of Hong Kong, was themed “Erasure: From Conceptualism to Abstraction” and was presented in two venues. Though the exhibition held at Osage Hong Kong ended in June, the show continued at the City University campus in Kowloon Tong until mid-July. Following the series’ focus on “value,” the exhibit—which included works created by 11 artists from across Asia—questioned the market value of art and the materials used to make them, as well as how the latter can alter the audience’s interpretations of the works.
At the university venue, Purification (2013), a large-scale installation by Jakarta-based artist FX Harsono, greeted the viewers near the entrance. The work is inspired by the various religions that exist in Indonesian culture, as well as artifacts imported from the Indonesian city of Cirebon. Pots, clothes and paintings, mostly bought from a market in Cirebon, are arranged like products displayed inside a shop. The installation is a commentary on the mass production of local culture under industrialization and capitalism.
