The presentation will showcase Mak 2's Home Sweet Home series. This series is comprised of triptychs on canvas that make use of the popular life simulation videogame "The Sims" and are painted by three separate painters on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao.
Lacking in specific objectives, "The Sims" is one of the best selling video games of all time, with over 200 million copies sold worldwide. It allows players to live a simulated life through a customised avatar and design their home however they please. For many it is a form of escapism used to craft an alternate reality.
Through "The Sims" Mak 2 constructs dream-like home environments that speak to life in Hong Kong. She uses bizarre and nonsensical elements, which the game renders perfect and immaculate nonetheless, to explore both idyllic and traumatic aspects of life in the tumultuous city. She takes screen-captures of these environments and then divides the resultant image into thirds. She has each third painted by a different painter on Taobao who is given the least amount of instruction possible. Owing to interpretive inconsistencies, different skill levels, and varied materials, the final appearance of each triptych is unpredictable. Through fracturing the process of production and allowing external factors to intervene in the actualisation of her understanding of home, Mak 2's Home Sweet Home series not only elucidates the inevitable disparity between fantasy and reality, its also crafts a comment on authorship, "copy-cat" culture, and narratives of home.
In light of the cancellation of the March art week, Art Basel Hong Kong, and Art Central, UNSCHEDULED strives to re-energise Hong Kong's art scene. Neither a traditional art fair, nor a museum exhibition, UNSCHEDULED is a platform for selling and networking that will present solo exhibitions from HKAGA gallery members, with a focus on modern and contemporary art that has a connection to Asia. Upholding Hong Kong's unique place as the art centre in Asia, UNSCHEDULED's scope is rooted in a commitment to creativity emerging from the continent.The organising committee is spearheaded by de Sarthe's Hong Kong director Willem Molesworth alongside Fabio Rossi of Rossi & Rossi, both who serve as HKAGA board members.