Seeing Art in Luxurious Bedrooms and Bathrooms (Asia Contemporary Art Show 2018 Review)

05 Oct 2018 | Ashley

Have you ever lived in a luxurious hotel? If not, have you ever imagined living in a luxurious hotel? If not, have you ever walked through a luxurious hotel looking at expensive art that you cannot afford but still feeling privileged because well, at least you could afford the ticket to do so? In fact, it does not matter if you have not done any of those things. You could at least imagine being able to do the last bit by reading my post.

From 28 Sept to 1 Oct, almost the same time as Fine Art Asia and Ink Asia 2018 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, the Asia Contemporary Art Show was held at one of our most luxurious hotels, Conrad Hong Kong. I never thought that I would be able to step foot on one of their rooms, but as I am an art lover, and because I accidentally had a ticket, I could freely roam about on the four floors which they assigned for the show.

I find the idea of this experience an immersive one, but it did not turn out to be very so. Why I thought it would be immersive, was because interestingly, a gallery from a country would set up their own "gallery" in each hotel room. Thus, each floor would, in other words, be turned into a street of art galleries from all around the world. This idea is very exciting. In fact, it was a very exciting experience, seeing artworks, mostly paintings and sculptures of different styles by different artists of different origins in each room. However, the experience as "immersive" was reduced by the crowdedness of these "streets". Indeed, this is an extremely popular show, and I saw that people dressed nicely for it. But, if this was an experience for art appreciation, which I believe, was one for most people, dressing nicely could not help one emancipate from the frustration of being on a crowded street.

Anyhow, it was an eye-opening experience. I really liked the displays of a gallery called Nido Asia from Hong Kong. I was first met by a beautiful fantastical painting called Golden Apple, where a girl with a basket of apples, hooded in red took centre stage of the canvas. A witch sniggering underneath her cloak and two wolves lingering at the back behind some very tall trees. I could not see deeper meaning into this, except for the good use of colors and shade, but the artist was very nice to show us into the Nido Asia room.

What I liked the most was the bathroom. This might be a weird thing to say, but yes, even the bathrooms were filled with art. When I first got in, I thought I was in some sort of sacred worship place (turned hip). The lights were pink. The paintings were very red with lots of white curls making out these almost ritualistic animal icons. A pair of very white shoes was also lying randomly somewhere on an orangey drawing with white curls on it. It was definitely refreshing to see such a setting. I think what could be beneficial in holding an art show in a hotel is the experimentation of new alternative manners of showcase and display of artworks.

Even though I could not afford any of the artworks, and would love to take all of them home if possible, it was an unconventional way of displaying art and I think this is what makes the event so popular. Will I go again if I could? Yes. If I had the money one day, would I buy all the artworks home and display them in MY manner in MY personal designer bathroom? Of course!

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