A Cautionary Tale

Written by Spencer Harrington

At the beginning of 2010 I received an invitation from a new art gallery (that shall remain nameless) opening in Hong Kong.  The gallery was “the best place to see International Art Shows and up-and-coming artists” and I was invited to be a part of their debut postcard themed show. Needless to say, I was ‘down like china town’.

Time went by and after working on my postcards, sending them off by the due date, saving up money to treat myself to an overseas art show experience and booking the trip, the date had finally come to get on a plane and do it.

Landing in Hong Kong on Saturday night I took the airport train straight to H.K. Island in the heart of the city. After throwing my luggage in the room, I went exploring the Central - Soho area not far from the hotel. I immediately and surprisingly found it riddled with galleries and art shows. Instead of catching what was left of the nightlife on a Saturday night, I found myself exploring small cobble streets and alleyways packed with minute galleries, art cafes, painting schools, book stores and inner city street art. A very artistic city indeed which fuelled my excitement for the next day’s opening.

When Sunday afternoon finally arrived, I found myself travelling over half an hour outside of the city toward the show in the Tsu Whan district. Fine by me, maybe I was heading out to a cool little artistic suburb.  I exited the station to a very different Hong Kong. This was way out in the hectic ‘burbs, street stalls everywhere selling exotic fruits and raw meat. Tuk Tuks and bicycles overran the streets and store owners were shouting over each other trying to get the attention of potential customers.

(I must note here that the whole time I was in Hong Kong it was raining and I’m talking MONSOON tropical downpour rain!)

This was a crazy place indeed and I liked the vibe compared with the western, almost British feel of central Hong Kong.   But I could no longer see any galleries  or shows or art cafes . Not to worry, I knew I was heading to a collaborative show promising that my artwork will be viewed by “hundreds of art collectors and viewers, and will also be promoted to all subscribers of Artrendnow. Over 100,000 will receive the information".

It took a good hour or more to find the building that housed the show.  It was out  where foot traffic was non-existent and the address system totally confusing!  I found the correct address but the 30 storey warehouse in front of me did not make sense at all. Actually, the whole area in general - where would an art show fit in with these surroundings? I was half expecting to walk around a corner in the building to find a lively, artistic area full of crazy cats and artists but after entering I was even more confused. It could have been mistaken for a meat packing warehouse or newspaper printing facility. Empty, dirty, noisy........scary. I thought there was some mistake but after looking around for a while I caught a glimpse of an A4 printed piece of paper with the word “Gallery” on it – “16th floor, room F”.

Eureka! Maybe my worries would vanish after seeing the gallery itself. But after a slow elevator ride, straight out of a horror movie complete with flickering lights and dodgy mechanical noises, I arrived on the 16th floor to more grey, dirty, industrial corridors. I found another A4 piece of paper directing me down a dark hall to a small white room in the distance - the gallery I had travelled all this way for, the place I had left work and spent a chunk of dosh for, the place I had told all my friends and artistic contemporaries about. 

It was only once I entered the room I realised all my effort might have not been worth it. The room was small, very small, I would say 5 x 2.5m, with a desk at the front occupied by two Chinese women at computers. I peeked inside and saw a small foot table, a stack of paper cups and an unopened bottle of cheap red wine resting on top. The girls looked surprised to see me.  You could have counted with one hand the number of visitors to the gallery on opening night. Oh well, I was here now so I mentioned to the receptionists that I was part of this collaborative show and I was pleased to finally be here. Maybe I expected some sort of friendly reception but instead I was brusquely given a list of artist names and prices and ushered into the gallery space.

I instantly noticed they had far too many postcards on display and these 1000+ works were placed randomly, to fill as much wall space as possible. My postcards were spread out all over the place and it was hard to match the prices with the works. I also noticed that there were over 100 participants but the website submission form had mentioned that there were less than 40 spots available.

It was a damn shame.  Most of these artists had submitted amazing work and a lot of postcards were originals. Unless they had travelled, as I did, to see this show with their own eyes, those international artists will have no idea what sort of half-assed job this ‘gallery’ was doing. It was obvious to me, the organisers were interested in one thing -the money - the artists’ needs and concerns weren’t a priority.

All and all the experience was mad but immensely educational.  I realised, in hindsight, the gallery website had no pictures of the exhibiting space; in fact it lacked any information on the gallery. Hopefully anyone reading this will ask more questions, find out more information and exercise some caution if asked to participate in a collaborative show advertised online.

I know i sure will!