Maeve Brennan /
Records /
Mar 21 – Jun 8, 2025 /
JC Contemporary, Tai Kwun /
10 Hollywood Road /
Central, Hong Kong /
Tue – Sun, 11am – 7pm
For her inaugural solo exhibition in Asia, Maeve Brennan (b. 1990) creates three newly commissioned works including a film shot in Puglia, Italy, and two sculptures. Brennan is a cinematic storyteller and filmmaker whose practice investigates material histories, underground economics, and ecological issues. Adopting a unique approach that blends forensic investigation with poetic tales drawn from real-life stories, Brennan has quickly established herself as one of the most compelling voices in contemporary documentary filmmaking. Through deep research and long-term collaboration, the exhibition uncovers the hidden world of stolen antiques, exposing the networks that shape our cultural past and present. Running from 21 March to 8 June 2025 at the JC Contemporary, Records features ongoing projects from the artist, spanning moving image, sculpture, works on paper, and printed matter.
The exhibition title Records speaks to the documentation, and preservation, of often-overlooked narratives surrounding places and objects. Resembling documentaries in their style, Brennan’s films draw the audience in with sweeping imagery and captivating characters. In her material practice, which the artist has described as “artefacts of her research enquiry,” she reconfigures elements of her research for different modes of storytelling. Brennan’s most recent film, Siticulosa (2025), co-commissioned by Tai Kwun, delves into the origins of the looted antiquities featured in her earlier film An Excavation (2022), tracing them back to the Puglia region of Southern Italy. Taking audiences on a one-of-a-kind journey, what begins as an examination of the impact of illicit archaeological excavations on Puglia’s landscape and communities becomes a rich and nuanced study of the area, extending beyond archaeology, and ultimately offering a breadth of local knowledge and intimate understanding of the land.
In the piece Box 29_01 (2022), the artist reproduces a Polaroid discovered alongside artefacts looted by Italian tomb raiders. This interconnectedness with spaces where marginalised histories appear resonates powerfully with Tai Kwun’s complex heritage, which – in its capacity as a cultural hub – is constantly under examination and reinterpretation. On a larger scale, Hong Kong’s longstanding role as a global centre of trade and exchange also provides a fitting context for Brennan’s exploration of cultural ownership and contested historical accounts, prompting audiences to consider the social and political implications embedded within objects and their surroundings.
In The Goods (2018 –), a multi-disciplinary project examining the international trade in looted antiquities, the artist continues her long-term collaborations with forensic archaeologist Dr Christos Tsirogiannis. Taking Brennan’s investigation from Lebanon to London and across Europe, The Goods gives a sense of the largely invisible economy of the illegal antiquities market, which is one of the most profitable, after weapons and drug trafficking. Through Brennan’s observations, the series uncovers the entangled backstories of recovered ancient objects. These narratives unravel the complex histories of artifacts violently stripped from their contexts by looters, while silently alluding to the irretrievable stories lost in the process. By doing so, The Goods sparks urgent conversations about ownership, restitution, and the ethics of preservation, challenging viewers to reconsider the moral implications of cultural heritage and its displacement.