Master’s students curate exhibition ‘Who Cares?’, with diverse perspectives of a new generation of curators

Lingnan University’s annual student exhibition “Who Cares?” opened to the public from 11 to 17 August. The exhibition offered a new-generation curatorial perspective where viewers are invited to re-examine the meaning of “care” from different viewpoints. Organised by 32 students from the Master of Arts in Curating and Art History programme under the Department of Digital Arts and Creative Industries, the exhibition was divided into six curatorial units and featured over 40 multimedia works, including paintings, sculptures, installations, new media, and video art by more than 30 artists from the Hong Kong SAR, the Chinese Mainland, and beyond.

Several key works reflect the high-pressure emotional dilemmas prevalent in contemporary society. Renowned Chinese contemporary artist Mr Yang Zhenzhong’s I Will Die, which he started in 2000, has people of different ages and backgrounds facing the camera and sharing their fears of mortality. Hong Kong artist Ms Chloë Cheuk’s I am fine, I am good, I am happy uses a printer to print continuously positive statements until the machine gradually wears out, showing the absurd predicament of how people experiencing anxiety, exhaustion, and sorrow are forced to put on a brave face. The endless jumping in visual artist Mr Tung Wing-hong’s Hundred Jumps suggests the inescapable pressures of life, while the scorched text in Ms Xiao Jing’s Scorched Longing conveys the helplessness and silence of sudden loss.