First Edition First Edition

“I go to all exhibitions, so you don’t have to.” gestures Yulia Yarkova, an art enthusiast and the founder of the art blog Galleries Gal. The blog’s quirky and insightful commentaries culminated from Yulia’s personal visits to galleries and art fair viewings since relocating to Hong Kong about a decade ago.

Galleries Gal is one the most popular and accessible English gallery guides in Hong Kong. Its Instagram page and website offers detailed art event calendars and personal reviews of every exhibition she visits. Since May 2021, Yulia started publishing her gallery reviews on the COBO Social’s monthly column “Galleries Girl Picks''. Very recently, she began journaling her art studio visits in the local area.

Yulia’s reflective and digestible notes have in turn garnered a strong following base on Instagram. She is easily spotted at all kinds of art functions, including public, private and press viewings, with a glass of champagne in one hand.

Now, tune in to find out more!

For our final episode this year, First Edition is stoked to meet Hong Kong native and internationally acclaimed multidisciplinary artist, Samson Young, and understand more about his original sound compositions and accumulated studies of sound in the context of Contemporary art, and its direct impact on our visual and auditory experience.

Samson graduated with a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Princeton University in 2013. In 2017, he represented Hong Kong at the 57th Venice Biennale. Samon’s works have been presented in major institutions, such as the Guggenheim Museum, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Mori Art Museum Tokyo and Sydney Opera House. In 2017, Samson represented Hong Kong at the 57th Venice Biennale. He is also a recipient of multiple awards for his progressive works, including the M Plus Sigg Prize in 2020, BMW Art Journey Award in 2015 and Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award in 2007.

From virtual instruments, muted performances, video and sound-based projects showcased in international fairs and exhibitions, this interview records the refreshing thoughts and processes Samson adopted in his mixed media compositions. Join us this episode to “earwitness” Samson’s musical sensibilities and training, artistic observations, as well as his ‘quirky’ and experimental approach to art.

From establishing Fringe Club in the early eighties, organising art festivals, live theatre and music, curating exhibitions, sharing his passion for food, art and literature over tea tastings, writing a book and everything in between, the ever-so busy Fringe Club Director, Benny Chia, has had a wealth of experience in interdisciplinary collaborations with local and international artists. In this episode, First Edition finally caught up with Benny on his recent writing ventures and other personal hobbies.

Since 1983, the Fringe Club has become one of the most historically significant and vibrant contemporary arts spaces in Hong Kong, where artists create and present their work, and those who enjoy the arts come to meet and see shows. The 1890s British colonial building, which used to be The Old Dairy Farm Depot, was revitalised to provide an open platform for emerging and professional artists to showcase their work without having to go through a selection process.

As we slowly begin to reach the end of 2021, we hope you are staying motivated in whatever you do while hearing out what Benny has gathered over his four decades-long arts career in Hong Kong and Asia.

This month, First Edition connected with RNH Space founder and curator, Yang Jiang, and artist, Cucurrucucu, to discuss the themes and works presented in her first solo exhibition in Hong Kong - Waste Not. Ongoing till 23 October 2021 at RNH Space, an intimate independent art space located in Tai Kok Tsui, Waste Not is the first chapter of the three image-based satellite exhibition series Reality Overdose.

Designed for encapsulating free and multi-faceted manifestations of emotions and philosophies, RNH Space regularly hosts cross-media art exhibitions and related programmes since 2020. It aims to explore the diverse trajectories of vulnerability as a discourse upon the interweaving nature between meticulous observations and intricate perceptions through close collaborations with artists of all kinds.

Composed by cut outs from vintage magazines published in the last century, Cuccurucucu’s collages create novel images based on personal memories and fantasies. As we learned more about the artist’s habit of collecting magazines in batches from second-hand stores during her years abroad in San Francisco, we began to realize how much this intricate process has shaped her creative vision. Her playful method of decontextualizing images and repurposing them to create alternate realities evoke both empathy and humour from the viewer.

Apart from covering significant topics in Waste Not, we also had the opportunity to hear Yang and Currucucu share about their unique cultural experiences in mainland, Hong Kong and the US, such as sourcing retro frames in local neighborhood thrift stores. Tune in for more content that inspires you to creatively and unapologetically express yourselves!

Founder and Director of F11 Foto Museum and f22 Foto Space, Douglas So Cheung-tak, is arguably the most esteemed Leica camera and magnum photography collector in Hong Kong. First Edition had the pleasure to truly get to know and “geek out” on a vast range of topics with Douglas, namely history, archaeology, photography, the art of collecting cameras and the many challenges encountered when managing a private museum in Hong Kong.

Throughout the discussion, we discovered Douglas’ inspiration to launch F11 Foto Museum in 2014, Hong Kong’s first ever private photography-specific museum inside a 1930’s art-deco style building in Happy Valley, was driven by his passion for magnum photography, heritage conservation and relentless pursuit to acquire rare vintage cameras around the world. Douglas’ awareness to promote photography to a wider community is also reflected in the subsequent launch of f22 foto space in Wanchai and Tsim Sha Tsui, galleries specialising in photo art and creative design.

For more than two decades, Douglas has worked as a solicitor at Baker McKenzie and The Hong Kong Jockey Club. With a keen interest to serve the community, he has been recognised for contributing, in many ways, to Hong Kong’s arts and cultural sector. He is currently chairman of the Antiquities Advisory Board and is an active member of the Advisory Committee on Built Heritage Conservation and the Museum Advisory Committee. Tune in and don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn more about Douglas’ exciting career, fascinating encounters with world-class photographers, vintage camera collection, the future development of private museums and heritage conservation in Hong Kong!

Our guest this month, Leung Chi Wo, Warren, is a visual artist who needs no formal introduction as most of us in Hong Kong are acquainted with his conceptual and inquisitive approach to his multi-media works, which have been featured in major international exhibitions and publications since the 1990s. Warren is widely known as the co-founder of Para Site, a leading non-profit contemporary art organisation in Hong Kong and one of the oldest independent art institutions in Asia. He is also an Associate Professor at the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

First Edition had the opportunity to interview Warren about his interest in exploring the intrinsic connections between site, history and memory in his interdisciplinary works, and recent exhibitions, such as ‘Home and Non-home’ at the Eaton Hotel in 2020, that explore community relationships. In addition, it was a delightful experience to learn about Warren’s memorable private encounters with artists and early education background firsthand. During our conversation, it came as a pleasant surprise when he vividly recalled his early training days to become a professional swimmer before pursuing art seriously. He explained that studying art stemmed from practical circumstances, which unexpectedly turned into a lifelong pursuit after his formative exchange years in Europe and his editorial role in Joint Publishing.

Make sure to tune in to this episode to learn more about Warren’s career in retrospect, current state of mind about practicing art under covid withstraints or the “new normal”, and for some invaluable insights into what it takes to be an artist in Hong Kong.