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23/4/2009

Surasi Kusolwong

Para Site Art Space, Hong Kong

Para/Site Art Space is honored to present Surasi Kusolwong’s first solo show in Hong Kong. Golden Fortune (Good News Is Coming) is the title of the installation designed by the artist. For this occasion, the art space will be transformed into a playground for a peculiar “treasure hunt”. The gallery will be filled with 5 tons of thread waste, into which a gold necklace with the Chinese word for “Fortune” will be hidden every week and be made available to lucky members of the audience who find it.

Kusolwong comments on everyday experiences, and current and historical political affairs. The current world economic crisis is the underlying motive for the artist to develop this installation. Golden Fortune (Good News Is Coming) leads us into art at a time when cultural production is achieving low attention from the mass media. Kusolwong connects the traditional value of gold and Chinese culture with the notion of a large installation, shifting the focus of the media from economic affairs to art. Cultural critic Charles Esche explains that Kusolwong’s works “combine and transgress the borders of utility and aesthetics, design and concept, art and living…There is a slippage or confusion between analysis and experience…It demands to be looked at in terms of East and West, capitalism and critique, image making and audience participation, theory and happiness.” The artist is also well known for his One Euro or One Dollar Markets (or in other currencies) through which the artist, inspired by Asian floating markets, reflects on consumer society and expands the functions and meanings of art spaces.

The exhibition is accompanied by a specially conceived art edition under the series title Good News Is Coming (With Warhol’s Flowers), 2009 — an edition of 4 motifs based on Andy Warhol’s Flowers. The proceedings from this art edition will fund Para/Site Art Space’s activities. Para/Site Art Space will also host the Invisible Academy, a touring and ever-changing project Academy Without Walls initiated by Kusolwong in 1997. Invisible Academy is a learning/sharing platform with unfixed addresses. It is open to artists, curators, journalists, cultural practitioners and art lovers in general.

Surasi Kusolwong has exhibited internationally with solo shows in Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna, Austria), Palais de Tokyo (Paris, France), Baltic (Gateshead, England), Tate Modern (London, England) and ArtPace (San Antonio, USA). He has also participated in 8th Lyon Biennial (France), Gwangju Biennial (Korea), 50th Venice Biennale (Italy), 2nd Guangzhou Triennial (China), Berlin Biennale (Germany), Taipei Biennial (Taiwan) and 11th Biennale of Sydney (Australia), among others. Surasi Kusolwong was born 1965 in Ayutthaya. He lives and works in Bangkok, Thailand.

Opening: Friday 24 April, 2009; 7pm

Para/Site Art Space
4 Po Yan Street (224 Hollywood Road), Sheung Wan - Hong Kong
Free admission

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