In December 1991, Crossover, the leading independent art magazine in Hong Kong at the time, published a statement written and signed by a group of 22 Hong Kong artists and critics to voice their discontent about the lack of support from public art institutions. These creatives and art workers, mostly born in the late 1940s to the early 1960s, were the core members of the small but vigorous avant-garde art community in Hong Kong. Their disappointment stemmed from “Too French,” the inaugural exhibition at the new building of the Hong Kong Museum of Art (HKMoA), held from November 16, 1991, to February 19, 1992, in Tsim Sha Tsui. The show was a collaboration with the Paris-based Cartier Foundation, with little-to-no relation to Hong Kong art.
The statement and subsequent series of discussions organized by Hong Kong artists may have prompted HKMoA—then helmed by director Gerard CC Tsang—to produce “City Vibrance: Recent Works in Western Media by Hong Kong Artists” the following year (1992), as its second exhibition in its newly renovated building. Featuring 49 artists with works of diverse styles and mediums, “City Vibrance” created the first opportunity for many young contemporary artists to exhibit at HKMoA, though the exhibition was criticized for its lack of a well-defined curatorial approach and discursive framework. Critic Nigel Cameron was also skeptical about the emphasis of “Western media” in the exhibition title: “Just what is Western about works in terra cotta that admits them to an exhibition of artists working in ‘Western media’ I fail to comprehend—but perhaps it doesn’t matter.” 1
Along with the statement, in the also published short essays by artist-designer Siu King Chung and critic and curator Oscar Ho (writing under the pseudonym of Gum Gum) on the functions of a museum and the biases in Hong Kong’s cultural policies. These texts exemplify the artists’ strong engagement in shaping the museum practices and cultural policies in Hong Kong during the 1990s.
