Reviews & Articles

Captions:
1. Rental United, Performance C, performance outside a Sheung Wan gallery, Hong Kong ArtWalk, 2012. (Photo : Rental United)
2. Post-performance and audience during ArtWalk 2012. (Photo : Rental United)
3. Rental United studio cleaning performance at Fotanian Open Studios, 2012. (Photo : John Batten)


( 中文翻譯請往下看 Please scroll down to read the Chinese translation.)


Rental United is the name of the shared studio in Fotan of artists Stephanie Sin, Damon Tong and Timothy Zau. Each has recently graduated from art school and they are predominantly painters, who have not – yet – received any glossy magazine attention. For the past three years when opening their studio to the public during the yearly Fotanian Open Studios, they have presented a series of performances rather than setting up a studio painting exhibition. In 2011, attired in formal suits and standing statue-like on plinths, the artists silently stood stock-still in daily five-hour long performances over two weekends. It was only later that they realized, to their embarrassment, that British artists Gilbert & George had done similar in their famous (but obviously not known to Rental United) Underneath the Arches living and singing sculptural performances of the early 1970s.

Earlier this year, again dressed in suits but identifying themselves as “hygiene technicians”, Rental United performed a ritualized cleaning of their white studio space in front of an intrigued audience over four days during the 2012 Fotanian open days accompanied by the music of a free-form playing solo guitarist. A few months later, a similar but critically stronger performance, entitled Performance C, was undertaken around Central’s streets during Hong Kong ArtWalk 2012. Unannounced, Rental United appeared outside Central, SOHO and Sheung Wan galleries and thoroughly and obsessively cleaned a gallery’s front windows, leaving an adhered note of job completion (with the sly hope, largely unrealized, of receiving payment for services rendered). This performance elicited different responses from individual galleries: some with surprise and anger – outraged that they had not been asked if their windows could be cleaned, but most appreciated their windows having a good clean; done free and professionally. A lingering reaction for all galleries as Rental United walked to the next gallery location was the decidedly human: “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Their participation in these two large public events, allowed Rental United’s performances to be seen by thousands of people, an audience wider and decidedly larger than the tight arts crowd who would have seen their paintings if exhibited in a gallery.

Rental United’s performance debut was initially largely unplanned, but this aspect of their artwork has matured over the last two years and allows them to interact and receive immediate comment from an audience. It is the sort of psychological boost needed when you are generally ignored in an art market that highlights the consciously careful and trite paintings seen in auctions of mainland contemporary art and the varied offerings along the shopping mall-like aisles of another “international” art fair.

A version of this article was originally published in Perspective architectural magazine, May 2012.

Rental United

清出我天地

「夾租團」是藝術家冼朗兒、唐偉傑及鄒旲在火炭合租的工作室的名字，三人以前都是畫家，剛從藝術學校畢業不久，暫時還未得到任何雜誌的青睞。

過去三年，夾租團每次隨「伙炭藝術工作室開放計劃」對外開放工作室時，都並非只是簡單舉行工作室畫展，而是為大眾帶來一系列的表演。2011年，他們在兩個週末舉行的開放日中，穿上正式的西裝禮服，如雕塑般站在底座上，每日靜止站立五小時表演。直至表演過後，他們才尷尬發現早在70年代初，英國藝術家吉伯特與喬治在其著名現場音樂雕塑表演《在拱門下》(不過顯然夾租團並未聽說過)，便已曾經做過類似的演出。

今年較早時間，夾租團三人再度穿上西裝禮服，自稱「衞生技工」，於伙炭藝術工作室四天的開放日期間，在一群好奇不已的觀眾面前，伴隨獨奏吉他手自由演奏的樂聲，如進行儀式般清潔他們的白色工作室。

數個月後，他們在Hong Kong ArtWalk 2012當晚，在中環的街道上演出，形式同樣，卻更為強烈。 事前並未知會任何畫廊，夾租團便在中上環和蘇豪區一帶的畫廊外現身，徹底而投入地清潔每一間畫廊的櫥窗，完畢後更留下一張「工作完成」的便條，道出惡作劇般、沒可能成真的期望，希望自己的清潔服務能收到工資。

夾租團參與這兩個大型公眾活動，讓他們能有機會在數以千計的人們面前表演，相比起在某些畫廊中展出畫作所接觸到的狹隘藝術族群，觀眾層要來得更廣更多。

夾租團的初次表演本無任何計劃，但他們的這種藝術形式在過去兩年漸趨成熟，讓他們能與觀眾互動，即時取得觀眾的意見。現今的藝術市場，傾向拍賣內地當代藝術那些矯揉造作又平庸陳腐的畫作，以及在「國際」藝術展上，將各式作品陳列於如像商場通道上，作為一群受到忽視的藝術家，正正需要這種精神上的衝擊。

原文刊於《Perspective》2012年5月

夾租團