tsang kin-wah : 'white cube'

by designboom

the winner of the first prize of the sovereign art prize is a young artist from hong kong. ironically, winning this prize fits perfectly into the themes of his ‘white cube' exhibition at john batten gallery. it is an exhibition about the art market -or, more accurately: THE ART MARKET! it is a considered exploration of those who control the marketing and sale of art. the term refers to the usual commercial gallery layout (a rectangle/box/cube shape) and the painted colour of the walls (white).

tsang completely wallpapered all the surfaces of the gallery (thus covering the ‘white cube') and the gallery's front window. the wallpaper, in shades of white and show subtle (actually, on close inspection, not-so-subtle) patterns, twirls and flourishes adapted from the 19th century designer and theorist william morris. these patterns, however, are english words and chinese characters, profanities that even abuse the good will of the gallery owner john batten (e.g. ‘FUCKINGWHITEMANJOHNBATTEN'). on show also a series of paintings that were offered – of course, for such a show – for sale.

tsang kin-wah's own words ‘combining the foul language (text) with the floral pattern (image) and arranging the text in the form of flowers and plants, which are swirling and running throughout the space, helps to link up their organic force that underneath both nature and human on one hand, and, on the other, creates different layers of interpretation in which image is the embellishment, the surface while text (foul language) and the emotions attached are the latent and the fundamental. these shouts present in the space but they only appear and exist in one's mind after being discovered and realized.'

(in this article we also feature three works of 2004).

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