A large pink lobster is looming on Hong Kong’s horizon. This is not a fishy mirage but an actual crustacean created by the king of lobster art, Philip Colbert, whose humongous piece The Lobster Painter graces the promenade at K11 Musea in West Kowloon. This 7.5m-high lurid shellfish is stopping walkers, joggers and other sporty Hongkongers in their tracks.
But Colbert wants to bring his lobster brand to the masses. In partnership with Co-Museum in Singapore, Colbert has launched a limited-edition, special asset-backed collectible edition of The Lobster Painter as a 38cm collectible figure. “I want to democratise the ownership and patronage of a large public sculpture by fractionalising the ownership of the big sculpture, via blockchain, into a small, accessible-priced vinyl edition of 300,” Colbert tells us. “All the collectors will have their names inscribed on the small edition and also have the option of having their name on the permanent plinth for the final installation of the big work,” he adds. The names will be inscribed later when the über-large lobster relocates to an unnamed museum in China.
In the driving seat
Arman’s stack of Ferraris is turning heads at Galleria d’Arte Maggiore Gareth Harris
There are some super-stylish art cars dotted around Art Basel Hong Kong this year, including a special display of miniature BMW Art Cars marking 50 years of the arty motor collection, which includes contributions from star participants such as Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg.
Fans can view the exquisite mini motors plus the latest (real-size) BMW car designed by Julie Mehretu on the top floor of the fair. Car-crazy collectors can also salivate over a sculptural ensemble of Ferrari F40 models on sale at Galleria d’Arte Maggiore. This stack of shiny red cars by the artist Arman has a compelling back story. Franco Calarota, the gallery chairman, suggested to Ferrari in 1999 that Arman build a public monument, which was installed at the entrance of the Enzo and Dino Ferrari racetrack in Imola, Bologna.
The gallery and Arman then had the canny idea of making a limited-edition mini sculpture from the Imola public art piece (La Grande Rampante, 1999), one of which is revving people up at the fair. “My father was photographed at the time with [F1 magnate] Bernie Ecclestone, Piero Ferrari, [racing executive] Jean Todt and Arman,” says Alessia Calarota, highlighting how this car saga is a real family affair.
Knitted together
Epic knitting fail? Movana Chen and Francisco Borges in Dreconstructing Gareth Harris
The artist Movana Chen’s Dreconstructing piece in the Encounters section of Art Basel Hong Kong is full of weird and wonderful works including 24 wearable garments knitted from shredded magazines. But a particular aspect is drawing crowds, namely a performance called Questioning the Line, which features Chen herself and the dancer Francisco Borges. Encased in a single body stocking made of knitted, shredded travel documents, the pair move and interact in front of bemused fairgoers.
But what is it like inside the interconnected knitted attire? “We can see through the holes, but it is intense,” Borges says. “I sometimes close my eyes to go into an inner darkness experience. You hear some strange comments, though—some people even ask if we are robots. To demonstrate I’m human, I move [unexpectedly] in response.” The wearable work can be purchased (without the performers).
M+ party people get in a spin
Art revolution: guests at the M+ party got snap-happy on the revolving stand Gareth Harris
The must-attend party on everyone’s list during art week in Hong Kong took place at M+, which kicked off celebrations in the city on Monday evening. Guests joined an enormous queue to enter, filing into the main atrium of the waterside venue where they quaffed prosecco and orange juice (canapés were noticeably absent, prompting grumbles from peckish partygoers).
Queues also formed for special photography booths—snaps were taken of happy revellers on a special revolving stand—and a disco platform, which provided plenty of laughs as youthful and more mature guests jumped on, stepping in time (hopefully) to the music and instructions on the digital screen.
Outside on the terrace, prominent collectors and curators grooved along to disco beats and raps delivered by Yau Hei and Hiro Kone. High-profile party people seen lapping up the atmosphere included the collector Patrick Sun, the director of London’s Design Museum Tim Marlow and Tate supremos Maria Balshaw and Gregor Muir. (Neither were spotted getting down on the disco deck.)
Monster makes her mark at Pacific Place
Up front about it: Monster Chetwynd has created a sequinned “trompe l’oeil cleavage” bodysuit Gareth Harris
The UK artist Monster Chetwynd is causing a stir with her off-site Art Basel Encounters installation, which transforms the high-end shopping mall, Pacific Place, into a magical lily pond dotted with three large, glittery lanternflies. “When I saw pictures of Pacific Place, a shopping mall with a kind of big central basin, the architecture made me think of a fun, lily-pad pool,” Monster says.
The fantastical installation is partly inspired by the 1951 British film The Tales of Hoffmann, a riotous Technicolor fantasy that starts with a dragonfly ballet and tells the story of the poet Hoffmann’s (Robert Rounseville) three lost loves. “This film is very unusual. There is the ‘no sex please, we’re British’ stereotype but this is completely exuberant,” Monster adds.
Her outfit—an eye-popping bodysuit bedecked with an impressive bust crowned with sequins—is just as exuberant. “This is my trompe l’oeil cleavage,” says the artist proudly, pointing to her false chest. “My next show at the Kunsthaus Zürich later this year will also be called The trompe l’oeil Cleavage,” she beams.
Keeping a grip on power (sort of)
Wheels of power keep turning: Old People’s Home at M+ imagines politicians, generals, bishops and dictators in their dotage Gareth Harris
One of the most popular works at the M+ museum is Old People’s Home (2007) by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu, a macabre and comical installation consisting of 13 hyper-real sculptures resembling familiar politicians, generals, bishops and dictators, which amble around an enclosed pen, drooling like babies. These dried-up despots zoom around the floor in electric wheelchairs, bumping into each other like a senior-citizen version of bumper cars.
At the M+ party earlier this week, museum warders occasionally jumped into the pen to help some of the faltering wheelchairs on their way. Interestingly, M+’s conservation department is collaborating with the Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Robotics and Machine Intelligence Laboratory to fully upgrade the robotic navigation system of the interactive installation, ensuring that the wheelchairs can still race along without stalling.
“The ongoing upgrade integrates advanced sensors, mobile robot navigation, real-time monitoring and autonomous control capabilities, significantly enhancing reliability and safeguarding the installation for future display,” an M+ statement says. Here’s hoping those dictators keep drooling.
