Wei-Ling Gallery is pleased to announce its participation in Art Basel Hong Kong (ABHK) the leading platform for art in Asia, in May 2014.

Art Basel is renowned as both the largest and most highly acclaimed display of contemporary art in the world, often dubbed the Olympics of the art world. Typically holding events in both Europe and America, the Art Basel conglomerate opened its first portal within Asia in 2013, accentuating artists from Asia and the Pacific. Attended by over 60,000 people, the fair’s inaugural edition attracted directors, curators, both established and emerging art collectors, and art enthusiasts from the world over, where heavy sales were reported across all four days of the fair. On display will be the highest quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, videos, and editioned works from the 20th and 21st centuries, by more than 2,000 artists from Asia and around the globe. The show will also offer extensive opportunities for intellectual discovery, through discussions and presentations, creating a dynamic cross-cultural exchange and international meeting place for artists, gallerists, collectors, and visitors.

Wei-Ling Gallery presents Malaysian artist Choy Chun Wei at ABHK 14 under the “Insights” section, a unique section for curated projects developed specifically for the Hong Kong show.

Wei-Ling Gallery will be the only Malaysian representative on this international platform.

The Human Landscape by Choy Chun Wei for ABHK 14
For this project,the artist has used the large number of visitors to ABHK as his source of inspiration. Hoping to embark on an art-making process which involves collecting visitor’s personal information and representing it as art.

The Human Landscape will consist of one gargantuan painting on canvas, which will be in the midst of being made but requires human interaction in order for it to be completed. The challenge is in encouraging audience participation.

With the advent of the world we live in today – gadgets, computers, brands, smartphones – the presence and essence of each indivudal human being is often overlooked, replaced instead by material goods (cars, clothes, shoes, bags, computers) which often define who we are.

The artist would like to breakdown these barriers,to get through to the basic essence of what constitutes each person he encounters.He is aiming to do this through creating ‘bridges’ betweeen himself and the people he meets at the fair by generating conversations which will enable him to convince them to participate in his project and leave a bit of themselves behind for him.Whatever they give him will contribute towards the artwork that he will finish during the course of the fair.

The information that he requires through audience participation will include personal information which varies from shoe and neck sizes to birthdates and bra cups.Personal numbers which ‘form’ that particular individual.Through collecting data from individuals who visit the fair and the booth, he hopes to establish a real human to human connection and to represent tangibly in an artwork the uniqueness of human existence and identity. The artist will reciprocate by giving each participant who has helped him to complete his artwork, a personal artwork that he has made. The interactive aspect of the work will from an integral part of this artwork, as it involves human interaction and strips everything down to the bare basics of who we are regardless of colour,creed,financial or social standing.Through interaction with visitors to the booth,the artist hopes to extend his personal artistic boundaries and create an inclusive rather than an exclusive art environment.

The final outcome is the least important aspect of the work. The process of creating a “changing landscape” at ABHK14 where the artwork is organic and morphs with each day of the fair, growing in tandem with the number of visitors, is the ultimate goal.

The texture and layers which will form the final layer of this painting will serve as the ‘markings’ of the many conversations and interactions the artist has indulged in over the course of the fair.

Artist Bio
Choy Chun Wei was born in Sungai Petani, West Malaysia in 1973. He is trained in graphic design, and graduated with honours (second upper) under a full scholarship at Central St. Martin’s College in London in 1998. Since graduating he has been practicing art and has lectured at various art colleges and universities in Malaysia. Along with his wife Yau Bee Ling, Chun Wei has been involved in providing art workshops for children with special needs through the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur. He has also participated in various workshops and conferences in the field of art and design.

In 2003 he received an Honorable Mention at the Malaysian Phillip Morris Art Awards, and in 2004 he received the Juror’s Prize at the Malaysian Young Contemporary Art Exhibition. In 2005 he was awarded the Rimbun Dahan Artist-in Residence placement, where he spent the year developing a new series of paintings on cartography and mental maps. In 2007 Chun Wei had his first solo exhibition at Wei-Ling Gallery in Kuala Lumpur and in 2008, he was awarded the 2007/2008 Asian Artist Fellowship by the Freeman Foundation for residency at the Vermont Studio Center in the United States. At the end of 2008, two of his unconventional and challenging mixed media and collage paintings were collected by National Art Gallery as part of their permanent collection.

Art Basel Hong Kong 2014 will be held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre from the 15th to 18th May 2014.
Wei-Ling Gallery will be showing at Booth 1C25.
For more details about Choy Chun Wei’s ‘Human Landscape’ at Art Basel Hong Kong, please contact weiling.shaz@gmail.com or visit www.weiling-gallery.com
For more details about the fair please visit:
https://www.artbasel.com/en/hong-kong