Author: Aaina Bhargava

Roberto Bolle 羅伯特 · 波雷

Published by Aaina Bhargava

Caravaggio /Hong Kong Arts Festival /March 7 – 9 2026 /Grand Cultural Theatre, Hong Kong Cultural Centre / Roberto Bolle shows no signs of slowing down. The widely celebrated Italian ballet maestro has a packed schedule this year, from performing McGregor / Maillot / Naharin at Milan’s La Scala Theatre to showcasing his contemporary ballet fusion Roberto Bolle and Friends at Verona’s iconic Arena, where he just performed as a part of the Winter Olympics closing ceremony. Next up, he’s coming to Hong Kong, where local audiences will see him essaying the titular role of the Baroque Master in Mauro Bigonzetti’s Caravaggio. Growing up in Italy, Bolle was no stranger to Caravaggio’s art. “He’s always been one of my favourite painters and I was always fascinated and moved by his work,” says the dancer. He adds that he was particularly amazed by the three paintings on display in Rome’s Church of St Louis of the French, The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600), The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602) and The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599-1600). …

Thresholds 閥限

Published by Aaina Bhargava

Galuh Anindita, Arahmaiani, Christine Ay Tjoe, Nadiah Bamadhaj, Kei Imazu, Ines Katamso, I Gusti Ayu Kadek, Murniasih, Citra Sasmita, Jennifer Tee / White Cube / Hong Kong / Oct 31, 2025 – Jan 24, 2026 Chequered poleng cloths are ubiquitous in Bali. Often found wrapped around shrines, trees, statues or objects with spiritual and mystical connotations, these black and white textiles have a protective function and symbolise the coexistence of paradoxes: good and evil, order and chaos, light and dark – it’s literally woven into their materiality. For Galuh Sukardi, this coexistence of these polarised forces sparked the conceptual basis for Thresholds, an exhibition rooted in ideas of spiritual, political, physical and mythological means of transformation, largely informed by ancestral knowledge. “Opposites don’t always have to be resolved; sometimes they are simply lived,” says Sukardi, emphasising that to allow for this co-existence, a kind of equilibrium is required. “They’re all held in a delicate balance and, within that balance, I sense a maternal energy, a presence that nurtures and guides.” The exploration of this balance …

Corps Extrêmes 無涯之軀

Published by Aaina Bhargava

May 31 – Jun 2, 2025 /Xi Qu Centre / Ann Rabar never considered herself an outdoorsy person. Growing up in Houston, Texas, she felt more comfortable in urban environments. That changed drastically when, at the age of 26, she joined an all women’s climbing club and went on a camping trip outside Austin. “I wasn’t especially seeking nature, but through climbing I learned how to be a part of it,” she says. Since then, climbing has headlined a list of physical and performative pursuits she developed throughout her life, including gymnastics and theatre. Though she pursued them individually, she never saw a path to merge all those disparate interests, until French choreographer Rachid Ouramdane asked her to participate in Corps Extrêmes – a show that brings together all manner of extreme sports, interpretive dance, acrobatics, high-lining and climbing. “Not since climbing did something feel so for me,” says the climber on the unique venture. “When I saw the diversity of the crew – the acrobats, athletes and dancers working together, and that I was …

Frida – Hong Kong Ballet 香港芭蕾舞團芙烈達

Published by Aaina Bhargava

When Columbian-Belgian choreographer Annabelle Lopez Ochoa was a child, she thought pantings could come to life and that at night, the objects and figures in them would walk out of frame. “I would look at the painting, look away, and then look back and it felt like they moved. I thought they had a soul,” Lopez Ochoa recalls. “The artist made a decision and froze a certain moment in time [in the painting], so I know they have a present and future. My process is to reverse the freezing and ask: but how did we get to that moment and what happened after that moment?” The paintings Lopez Ochoa has been ruminating on are those of Frida Kahlo. The Mexican artist is the subject of her ballet Frida, which is premiering in Asia this April, performed by the Hong Kong Ballet. “What really fascinated and inspired me [about Kahlo] was how this artist was unashamed about expressing her emotions, the pain she felt and the tragedy that she lived,” the choreographer tells Artomity a month …

Danh Võ In Situ: Akari by Noguchi 傅丹創意現場：野口勇的「光」

Published by Aaina Bhargava

There is a common cultural trope that in order to be a great artist one must struggle, undergo hardships and/or suffer from heartbreak. For artist Danh Võ, this is “fucking romanticised bourgeois bullshit. It’s coming from a privileged perspective.” Võ is here to shift established perspectives and ask what it means to make great art – a question that he and his classmates found themselves constantly asking while at art school in Denmark. “I was lumped into a fixed idea of what art could be,” says the Vietnamese-born Danish artist, who is now based in Berlin. “Denmark is so privileged: you get money when you study; you have all the resources. The art academy was great, as were the people you met there. But we were all trying to think differently and figure out: how do we make good art?” After making what he describes as “horrible paintings” as a student, Võ took a break and, in unconsciously trying to erase everything learned about what art could be, he found “a liberty, to work in …

Noteworthy Shows in Hong Kong Autumn / Winter ’23 Edition

Published by Aaina Bhargava

“Hong Kong is back!” seems to be the city’s official PR motto since quarantine for incoming travellers to the city was essentially abolished in October, and restrictions were dropped. If the succession of gala fundraisers and exhibition openings and the general year-end frenzy is anything to go by, the slogan applies to the city’s art scene, which seems to be overcompensating for its dearth of activity over the past two years. There were numerous shows and events last autumn, from Asia Art Archive and Para Site auction fundraisers to blockbuster exhibitions like Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now at M+ to smaller exhibitions such as John Batten’s showcase at Ping Pong to online initiatives such as the launch of David Clarke’s digital archive. Here are eight noteworthy exhibitions. Behind Your Eyelid, Pipilotti Rist at Tai Kwun ContemporaryTai Kwun Contemporary’s blockbuster exhibition surpassed expectations, providing an experience that cultural institutions should aspire to. Serving as a mini survey of Rist’s practice, the show featured a number of highlights from the artist’s career, including I’m not the Girl who …

Siah Armajani & Rasheed Araeen

Published by Aaina Bhargava

Two Manifestos / Rossi & Rossi /Hong Kong /Apr 2 – May 14, 2022 / Displacement finds solid ground at Rossi & Rossi’s new Wong Chuk Hang gallery, with artists Rasheed Araeen and Siah Armajani’s works serving as anchors. The exhibition title Two Manifestos refers to two seminal texts penned by Araeen and Armajani respectively: Art Beyond Art: Ecoaesthetics – A Manifesto for the 21st Century (2008) and Public Sculpture in the Context of American Democracy (1979). While they were written in different times and contexts, both posit that public sculpture and art should be created with an intention to be useful beyond the artist’s vision, in service of humanity. The exhibition broaches, explores and challenges the ideas of belonging and place. Its most memorable and thought-provoking work, Armajani’s conceptual piece Land Deeds (1970) comprises 50 folders containing 50 deeds, each certifying the artist as the owner of one square of inch of land in every American state. As marketed to immigrants, the possibility of owning land is a hallmark of the American dream. Armajani …

cucurrucucu （咕咕）, Starry Kong, Liao Jiaming 廖家明

Published by Aaina Bhargava

Reality Overdose / RNH Space / Hong Kong / Sep 25 – Dec 12, 2021 / Wearing a silicone body suit with a muscular physique featuring six pack abs, and a mask with a bright red lipstick stain, artist Liao Jiaming caused quite a stir with his performance Repetition Maximum (2021), walking down a street in Sham Shui Po surrounded by an entourage. Connecting his two recent exhibitions, Liao guided viewers from Too Good to be True at public space the Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre to the intimate setting of RNH space and the opening of his exhibition Till Love Do Us Apart, as well as the third and final part of RNH Space’s exhibition series Reality Overdose, a collaboration with the Hong Kong International Photo Festival curated by the space’s founder Yang Jiang. All three exhibitions were concerned with photography as a medium, and in particular the way it impacts contemporary culture. From collage to digital manipulation to the value society places on images, all the shows – including the first two iterations of Reality Overdose, cucurrucucu’s Waste …

Fault Lines 斷層線

Published by Aaina Bhargava

Kay Mei Ling Beadman / Andy Li San Kit / South Ho / Arielle Tse / Eunice Tsang / Yuk King Tan / Huey / Chan x Joey Zhu / Batten and Kamp / Glossy tiles in shades of pink appear to be airy pieces of foam, while actual foam is concealed by a deceptive brick facade. From afar, white, interlinked chains look like party decorations, but on closer inspection turn out to be interconnected zip ties. A soft, fluffy cushion is actually hardened white cement. A barely visible, delicate wire fence is like a conjured mirage. Subverting expectations and upending perceptions, nothing is as it seems at experimental art space Present Projects’ latest exhibition, Fault Lines. An equally curious image marks the beginning of the exhibition. A track of colossal footprints vertically scale a limestone slab, seemingly defying gravity and questioning perception. Known as Cal Orcko, and located within Parque Cretacico, just south of the Bolivian town of Sucre, this imposing 90m wall features 70 million-year-old dinosaur tracks. That the wall has survived erosion and fossilisation is a phenomenal feat, its verticality …

Oscar Chan Yik Long 陳翊朗

Published by Aaina Bhargava

Don’t leave the dark alone / Gallery Exit / Hong Kong / Aug 14 – Sep 18, 2021 / Two women and a man with a horned goat’s head sit around a table, bearing frustrated and contemplative expressions, a crucifix affixed on the wall behind looming over them. In this latest ink creation, Not Even God or the Devil Know How to Handle This (2021), artist Oscar Chan Yik-Long puts a reversed anthropomorphic twist on a scene from Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1974 film Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Here, Chan replaces Fassbinder’s head with that of a goat, often used as a demonic symbol, removing the scene from its original context and transforming it into his own phantasmagoric creation. This practice is ubiquitous throughout his most recent exhibition, Don’t leave the dark alone, at Gallery Exit. “’Fear eats the soul’ is exactly what I’ve been feeling and thinking,” says Chan in an interview, reflecting on the harrowing events engulfing the world over the past few years. “The world has gone through so much trauma, from …