All posts tagged: Spectrosynthesis

Various artists 群展

Published by Brady Ng

Spectrosynthesis /Art Sonje Center /Seoul /Mar 20 – Jun 28, 2026 / Perhaps to understand the essence of Spectrosynthesis Seoul required stepping out of the show. The fourth edition of a series organised by the Sunpride Foundation – following stops in Taipei (2017), Bangkok (2019) and Hong Kong (2022) – it was also the first large-scale institutional exhibition of queer art in Korea. The more time you spent in the show, the weightier that milestone felt. Jongno 3-ga, just a 20-minute walk southeast from the show’s venue Art Sonje Center, has long been a gathering place for older gay men in Seoul, with bars, clubs and meeting spots in the alleys of Ikseon-dong and Nakwon-dong. These were spaces that developed organically, with memories held only in the heads of those who lived them, in a country where that history has rarely been documented. Both neighbourhoods are being rapidly gentrified now, and the spaces that served the queer community for decades are being replaced by independent coffee shops and boutique hotels. Itaewon’s role in shaping queer …

The Un/Safe Reading of Spectrosynthesis – Asian LGBTQ Issues and Art Now

Published by Artomity Magazine

By Anthony Leung Po Shan Spectrosynthesis – Asian LGBTQ Issues and Art Now at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei in September proclaimed itself to be Asia’s first “LGBTQ art” exhibition at a state-owned museum. In addition to being the icing on the cake after Taiwan became the first Asian country to legalise same-sex marriage, it also marks the homonormative order finally gaining acceptance in its political, economic, social and cultural aspects. Although successful in its scope and accessibility, the exhibition failed to explore a more creative/destructive gender imagination, and inevitably felt too safe to an audience familiar with gender issues. The exhibition took three years to prepare, with curator Sean C S Hu classifying all artists that belong to the politically marginalised or the non-heterosexual mainstream as “tongzhi”, a collective term that usually encompasses lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender. The inclusive definition of the term was an attempt to efface the question of who does and doesn’t qualify, plus some works of unspecified gender orientation also helped to dilute the stereotypical image of “tongzhi art”. Although the 44 works from 24 …