Spring Workshop and Para Site present groundbreaking joint exhibition, Islands off the Shores of Asia, based on the ideological, historical, mystical, and fictional interpretations of the remote and largely uninhabited islands claimed by different nations across East Asia. In recent years, these small islets have become the focus of growing nationalism in the region and vehicles through which countries are choosing to project national pride and power.

The show features artists including Julieta Aranda (Mexico/Germany), Rosa Barba (Italy), Alvaro Barrios (Colombia), James T. Hong (Taiwan), Katsushika Hokusai (Japan), Kim Ki-Young (Korea), Takiji Kobayashi (Japan), Charles Lim (Singapore), MAP Office (Hong Kong), Pak Sheung Chuen (Hong Kong), Howie Tsui (Hong Kong/Canada), Ming Wong (Singapore) in collaboration with Thomas Tsang/Dehow Projects (USA) , and Zheng Guogu (China).

Islands off the Shores of Asia represents the second phase of the widely acclaimed exhibition, A Journal of the Plague Year: Fear, Ghosts, Rebels, SARS, Leslie, and the Hong Kong Story, which last year launched at Para Site and is now showing in an expanded version at the Arko Art Center in Seoul, where it opened 30 August and will run through 16 November 2014.

For this exhibition, Spring and Para Site teamed up to use sci fi and fiction to explore the current ideological turn towards nationalism and confrontation in the region. While the previous show focused on Hong Kong’s identity in the context of the SARS epidemic and the city’s near shut down in 2003, the current exhibit explores the region’s small, largely uninhabited islands, which are effectively invisible on maps but are now the object of territorial claims by every single nation in East Asia.

Curators for the show are Cosmin Costinas, Executive Director/Curator of Para Site and Inti Guerrero, Associate Artistic Director-Curator of TEOR/ética, Costa Rica.

The exhibition is open to the public free of charge from September 27 to December 7, 2014.

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EXHIBITION HOURS:
September 27 – December 7
12pm to 6pm (Tuesday to Sunday, Open on Public Holidays)

**Opening reception: September 27 (Saturday) 5-8pm, Spring Workshop: Artists present will include James T. Hong, Charles Lim, MAP Office, Pak Sheung Chuen, Howie Tsui, Ming Wong and Zheng Guogu

Artist talk
September 27, 6-7pm, Spring

To coincide with South Island Art Day, the show is open for viewing from 12pm to 8pm on September 27.

Boat exploration through Hong Kong’s remote islands guided by artist James T Hong
28 September 2014

Stop-motion animation workshop for children
16 November 2014, 1st session: 930am-1230pm, 2nd session: 2:30-5:30pm
Students will be divided in groups to create a stop-motion animation within this 3 hour workshop. Artist/art educator Clara Cheung will introduce different narrative techniques drawing on visual elements from the exhibition. She will also show them easy but fun prop-making as well as sound and video editing techniques.

Curators’ tour
7 December, 4pm, Spring
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Para Site Art Space is financially supported by the Springboard Grant under the Arts Capacity Development Funding Scheme of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

The content of this program does not reflect the views of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.