Specializing in Thai & Asian Contemporary Art

A SPATIAL EXPERIMENT

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H Project Space is very pleased to announce a special project by the artist and performer Henry Tan. Engaging with recent trends and critical debate in participatory art or social practice, Henry has invited a variety of designers, writers, musicians and other practitioners to create works in the elegant but demanding environment of H Project Space.

A Spatial Experiment faces questions of the universal significance of artistic practices. Henry is interested in the erosion of individual beliefs and understandings in regard to contemporary technologies of communication more generally. How can or do individuals make sense of artistic practices in an era of endlessly circulated memes and ever-shifting boundaries and cultural contexts? 

Every generation of artists provokes new ways of thinking about the most popular question asked of art: what’s this got to do with my life? The question is important because it points to a function for art beyond the mere contemplation of aesthetics. However, some of the more intelligent artists among us understand that 'aesthetics' and 'life' are not separate domains of experience. Asking where an audience's interest ends and an artist's vision begins, this immersive, multi-faceted installation demands that we decide significance all by ourselves.

Simultaneously a director and facilitator, Henry highlights tensions between claims for the directed or controlled and the general or dissipated. A Spatial Experiment most notably explores such tensions in a physical rather than virtual environment.

Bangkok-based Henry Tan possesses a long history of provocative contributions to local and regional art scenes, alternately subtle and flagrant. His performances for KAOS! night at the now defunct Raindogs Bar & Gallery in Bangkok are legendary, and he has created critical interventions at the Hong Kong International Art Fair and Art Stage Singapore. Henry’s exhibitions include the Chongqing Youth Biennale 2011 in China and RADIATION at Dagc Gallery in Manila, 2012.

 

A Project by Henry Tan
May 30 - June 30 2013
Curated by Brian Curtin