Abby Chen has been monitoring the creative survival of Hong Kong artists in the face of an extraordinarily expensive housing market, eroding political independence from Beijing, and increasingly hostile incursions by that government into civic life in Hong Kong. In 2014 the pro-democracy Umbrella Movement rallied hundreds of thousands of students to protest against mainland interference in elections and opened an era of political activism and civil disobedience in the territory’s youth. Chen is researching contemporary artists’ practices during this volatile period, working towards a forthcoming exhibition.
Abby Chen
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“The terrific range of project proposals we receive each year speaks to the mobile and porous disciplinary boundaries of contemporary art practice, and to the rich and inventive ways writers approach art today. They are alert to the urgent need to expand the conventions of art history and criticism with ideas from other discourses, such as black studies, transnational and diaspora studies, gender and women’s studies, and LGBT studies. The work of lesser known and overlooked artists and art communities continues to be mined, with writers articulating new ways to counter the striking imbalances of race, class and gender that continue to affect the arts and the culture industry.”