Tai Kwun (Hong Kong) presents Patricia Piccinini’s large-scale solo exhibition, HOPE — A surreal, hyper-realistic exhibition that evokes anxiety, empathy, and hope

HONG KONG, June 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Tai Kwun — Centre for Heritage and Arts, Hong Kong, presents a large-scale contemporary art exhibition HOPE by the renowned Australian artist Patricia Piccinini, which explores our collective hopes and fears about the impact of science on humanity. Showcasing more than 50 surreal yet hyper-realistic sculptures, paintings and moving image works, the exhibition runs from 24 May to 3 September 2023.

Best known for her fascinatingly detailed sculptures—often combining human, animal, and machine forms—the artist Patricia Piccinini thinks through the unexpected consequences of tampering with nature. Her works, peculiar and sometimes disturbing, offer visitors an engrossing, perplexing and deeply touching view into her fantastical vision, one with which we identify naturally and instinctively.

Piccinini’s artworks in HOPE encompass all art gallery spaces at Tai Kwun. Among the largest works on show is Celestial Fields — a vast immersive installation comprising 4,500 individual flower stems sprouting both from the floor and the ceiling, drawing the visitor into its embrace where it poses questions about the nature of progress with a complex aesthetic experience that alludes to the wonders and sorrows of technology. Elsewhere, Piccinini responds to Tai Kwun’s spiral staircase with a moving installation of multi-coloured wigs suspending 20 metres down from the ceiling. In sum, HOPE raises important questions about the nature of history, progress, and technology, and ponders our collective ability to create warm and caring relationships and to live lovingly with each other.