Dear friends,
As the sun climbs higher into the skies, time seems to soften. The city takes on a sleepier, dreamier personality; the hours become elastic and malleable. We are reminded of Italo Calvino: “With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear.”
Summer lifts the veil on the relentless propulsion of Chronos time, leaving us with our drifting thoughts, our dreams, our fleeting melancholia.
We are currently operating special summer hours of 4pm to 10pm, Wednesday to Saturday. As always, appointments can be made via this link or by messaging/calling our hotline: +852 5943 7541. Stop by for a cool drink, an ice cream, and to check out Chan Ting’s solo exhibition.
Warmly,
Willem and Ysabelle
NEWS
On July 27, PHD Group will host an Object Swap, in which each guest arrives with an object from their home, and leaves with someone else’s. The participatory event feeds into multiple themes present in Chan Ting’s show: an appreciation for vintage items and stories that are exchanged between strangers when passing along once-cherished items. RSVP at info@phdgroup.art; spots are limited.
Chan Ting will also unveil a new artist book for a showcase at WMA Space, Hong Kong, opening on July 25, and at BOOKED: Hong Kong Art Book Fair (August 30 - September 1). The book features stories and texts written by the artist, and a handmade cover of collaged newspaper and magazine fragments from decades past. Her solo show at PHD Group, “Dreamskin,” is also featured in the summer issue of Artomity magazine.
Several paintings by Lee Eunsae are currently being shown at DOOSAN Art Center in Seoul in a group exhibition curated by Seunga You, Sangyeop Rhii, and Jieon Lee. The show runs through August 10, 2024.
Sasaoka Yuriko was recently interviewed at her studio in Shiga by the National Center for Art Research Japan, in light of her presentation at the 14th Shanghai Biennale. In the interview, she discusses past projects and her video work “Gyro,” which was shown in Shanghai.
Zheng Mahler is currently participating in the group exhibition “Really? Art and Knowledge in Time of Crisis” at Framer Framed, Amsterdam, showing their long-term research-based project Bubalus Bubalis 14-40,000hz. The exhibition is curated by Mi You and David Garcia and will be on view through September 29. The artist duo’s video work What is it like to be a (virtual) bat? Phase III is also currently screening at Seoul Museum of Art’s bunker space as part of the Seoul Mediacity pre-Biennale program.
UPCOMING PROJECTS
Christopher K. Ho’s work Black Hole will be in the group exhibition “Space City: Art in the Age of Artemis” at Asia Society Texas, curated by Owen Duffy, opening October 15.
Sasaoka Yuriko will reveal a new outdoor sculpture installation in August at Omotesando Park in Tokyo, titled LOVERS. She is also in preparation for a solo exhibition in October at Muzeum Manggha, Kraków. The exhibition presents a new work Animale, which explores the labor of animals through a non-human-centric perspective.
Zheng Mahler will be showing their work Bubalus Bubalis 14-40,000hz in the group exhibition “Breath(e): Toward Climate and Social Justice.” The exhibition opens on September 14 and is organized by the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles as a part of Getty’s “PST Art: Art & Science Collide” initiative; it will feature over 100 works curated by Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake with PST Fellow Jennifer Buonocore-Nedrelow.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Our next exhibition will be for Christopher K. Ho, opening in September. His recommendations are below:
Fundamental to Ho’s latest project are John Hejduk’s series of drawings, known as “The Nine-Square Problem,” developed by the architect in the 1950s as a pedagogical tool to introduce students to the realm of architectural composition. The drawings were subsequently exhibited in 1971 at MoMA New York alongside a showcase of works by Cooper Union student architects.
As an introduction to the drawings, Hejduk writes: “The Nine-Square problem is used as a pedagogical tool in the introduction of architecture to new students. Working within this problem the student begins to discover and understand the elements of architecture. Grid, frame, post, beam, panel, center, periphery, field, edge, line, plane, volume, extension, compression, tension, shear, etc. The student begins to probe the meaning of plan, elevation, section, and details. He learns to draw. He begins to comprehend the relationships between two dimensional drawings, axonometric projections, and three-dimensional (model) form. The student studies and draws his scheme in plan and in axonometric, and searches out the three-dimensional implications in the model. An understanding of the elements is revealed—an idea of fabrication emerges.”
The Mathematics of the Ideal Villa and Other Essays by Colin Rowe
The Writing Life by Annie Dillard
And we recommend “Swing Slow,” an electro-pop jazz dream of an album by Harry Hosono Jr. (of Yellow Magic Orchestra) and Miharu Koshi:
Take care,
Willem and Ysabelle