What does it mean to read mindfully? In an effort to revive the modest activity of reading, a group of Hong Kong artists attempt to turn books and text into a rich multi-sensory experience. The core of the exhibition revolves around five books specially written for the exhibition. Artists respond to the books' theme of "family" in five consecutive segments visual and interdisciplinary art works.
Books do not naturally stay closed once opened. Covering topics about on daily life and basketball, to fictional funerals, the artists explore give visual expression to ideas about roots, bloodlines, and mobility through artworks and special performances.
"Sparkle! Room for a Book" is a chance for readers of all ages to be critical viewers and participants by examining the traditional medium of the bound book, and its potential to be re-imagined as visual arts and performance.
Exhibition dates: 6 October 2017 – 2 January 2018
Project Curator: Tang Siu-wa
Authors: Hon Lai-chu, Dorothy Tse, Cally Yu, Him Lo and Ho Sin-tung
Special Programmes
Homecoming — Reading and Sharing with Hon Lai-chu (In Cantonese)
Hon Lai-chu will be reading selected excerpts from Homecoming with live music by Kim Tak Building’s Wai Yan. Join us in reshaping a home that we are yet to inhabit through the display and interplay of sounds and texts.
Host : Tang Siu-wa
Reader : Hon Lai-chu
Music : Wai Yan
Date : 15.10.2017 (Sun)
Time : 3-5 pm
The Shadows and Echoes of Fairy Tales — Reading and Sharing with Dorothy Tse (In Cantonese)
Dorothy Tse tries to project her obsession, imagination and feelings on two classic fairy tales Snow White and Bluebeard, and rewrites them into two different fairy tales. You are welcome to join her reading and sharing, to listen the other side of the fairy tales that Dorothy reveals and creates with her words.
Host: Tang Siu-wa
Reader: Dorothy Tse
Date: 28.10.2017 (Sat)
Time: 3 – 5pm
The Walk of the Rose — The Writing and Improvisatory Dance of Cally Yu (In Cantonese)
Cally Yu tries to explore, revisit and savour the steps and pauses of the quotidian life — real and constructed by texts — with two dancers and their shared bodily movements, to share their feelings, their thoughts, their movements, in and out of the bodies and homes.
Performers: Cally Yu, Mimi Lo, Cliff Wong
Date: 18.11.2017 (Sat)
Time: 3 – 7pm
(3 – 4pm – Improvisatory dance
4:30 – 5:30pm – Cally Yu’s sharing on her writing
6 – 7pm – Improvisatory dance)
A One-Two Conversation — Him Lo, Luke Ching and art in the community (In Cantonese)
Basketball is one of the common key elements in the works of local artists Him Lo and Luke Ching. With placing a basketball in the community, they both try to open up spaces of pleasures and tensions among neighbourhoods. In this programme, they are going to exchange their thoughts, as they pass the ball back and forth.
Speakers : Him Lo, Luke Ching
Date : 7.12.2017 (Thu)
Time : 6:30 – 8pm
“Flowers are messages of farewell.” — Ho Sin-tung’s Meeting in Black (In Cantonese)
Ho Sin-tung is going to give a funeral for her seven favourite characters who had died in different fictions. She will also share her story and thoughts behind the rituals. You are welcome to join the silence by dressing in black, and with a flower in your hand.
Speakers : Ho Sin-tung, Lee Chi-leung
Date : 23.12.2017 (Sat)
Time : 5 – 7pm
* The special programmes will take place in Gallery 1, Oi!
* Registration is required, limited seats; first-come, first-served. Free admission. To register, please call us at 2512 3009 / 2512 3008 at least 3 days before the date of the selected programme.
* Programmes are subject to change without prior notice.
Free guided tours are available for groups and school parties. Please book your tour by phone at 2512 3000 at least 5 working days before the planned date of your visit. The time of the tour will be arranged by Oi!.