Shock and awe: first impressions of Art Basel Hong Kong 2017

There’s stunning and enticing art aplenty at this year’s fair, and from some big names too. Shen Shaomin’s installation Summit and Shi Guorui’s stark camera obscura images of Hong Kong are among works that caught our eye

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Detail from Shen Shaomin’s installation Summit (2009), showing the corpse of Kim Il-sung in a crystal coffin, at Art Basel Hong Kong. Photo: May Tse

Published: 6:00pm, 21 Mar 2017Updated: 10:51am, 22 Mar 2017

We are in a very different world today than we were a year ago, but that may not be immediately apparent at Art Basel Hong Kong 2017. There’s still plenty of visually stunning and enticing art on show (though less bling bling than, say, a couple of years ago); the big installations, big sculptures and big names (Takeshi Murakami, Tracey Emin, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, and Cai Guoqiang to name the few) are all back. But you have to look hard to find art that makes any kind of political, social or economic statement. Art Basel Hong Kong is a commercial art fair, after all.

The big names are back : works by Anish Kapoor (above, left) and Julian Opie on show at Art Basel Hong Kong 2017. Photo: May Tse

That’s not to say this year’s offerings are muted. If contemporary art is out to shock and evoke emotional responses, then Shen Shaomin’s Summit (2009), presented by Osage Gallery, does that with plenty of voltage.

Conceived as a response to the global financial crisis of 2008, the large installation is an “imaginary meeting” of former communist leaders – Ho Chi Minh, Kim II-sung, Mao Zedong, Vladimir Lenin and Fidel Castro – all, but one, placed inside crystal coffins. At the time Castro was still alive, in a hospital bed.

Fidel Castro in a hospital bed, part of Summit (2009) by artist Shen Shaomin. Photo: May Tse

I have never felt physically ill looking at an artwork before, which makes this piece extraordinarily good: these waxwork-like figures are quite grotesque to look at.

Equally provocative is Indonesian artist Eko Nugroho’s installation series, presented by Arario Gallery, that features a group of what looks like migrant workers protesting – about what, we are not quite sure.