Hong Kong exhibition inspired by ukiyo-e art expresses the uneasiness of living in an unstable and ambiguous world
- ‘The Floating World’ at Hong Kong’s Ben Brown Fine Arts gallery showcases five up-and-coming artists specialising in different media
- Curator André Chan hopes that the varied works will help the audience make sense of the uncertainty and uneasiness present in the world we live in
Since 2019, Hong Kong has felt distinctly unmoored for many. First, there were the anti-government protests, then the Covid-19 pandemic began, then the National Security Law was put into force in June 2020.
Curator André Chan has tried to encapsulate this sense of uncertainty in “The Floating World”, an exhibition at Ben Brown Fine Arts in Wong Chuk Hang that features the works of five up-and-coming artistic talents.
The exhibition takes inspiration from the genre of Japanese ukiyo-e art, which translates as “pictures of the floating world”.
Beginning in the 17th century during Japan’s Edo period, the “floating world” of brothels and theatres frequented by the rising merchant class was captured in paintings and woodblock prints, often combining realism with the fantastical.
But then, in the 19th century, less than 40 years after Hokusai made the iconic ukiyo-e print The Great Wave (1831), war began, Edo became Tokyo, and the country was thrown into turmoil.
