Current Exhibition

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Vitalis Violentia

_{28 September - 23 November 2024}

Image Source: DENNIS SCHOLL. Anfang und Öffnung (twilight version), 2024, oil on canvas, 95 x 75 cm.
©️ Dennis Scholl (2024). Courtesy of the artist and PODIUM, Hong Kong

PODIUM is delighted to present ‘Vitalis Violentia’, a group exhibition that responds to the question of violence from an aesthetic point of view, investigating how one may transform violence into a creative principle. The works by five participating artists, including Dew Kim, Dennis Scholl, Tseng Chien-Ying, Wang Pei, and Hannah Woo, offer the audience valuable yet often ignored insights into crucial aspects of 'real' violence that cannot be revealed via mere observation of the social and political scenes, mobilising ideas and affects that are suppressed, relegated as insignificant, or marginalised by mainstream discourse.

The exhibition opens on 28 September 2024 (Sat) from 2 to 7 PM and is on view till 23 November 2024 (Sat). Artist Dew Kim will be present at the opening, while at 4 PM there will be an artist talk conducted in English.

Artists
Dew Kim
Dennis Scholl
Tseng Chien-Ying
Wang Pei
Hannah Woo

With artistic manifestations symbolising and representing manifold shifting paradigms of contemporary culture, it is no surprise that they have always been a crucial device for probing the complex discourses revolving around the notion of violence. Particularly, specific modes of aesthetic production can further challenge the viewers to confront the visceral impact of violence, both in its representation and its reality, prompting a deeper reflection on the moral and ethical implications of aggression and brutality. In 'Vitalis Violentia', the participating artists manipulate violence to shock, provoke, but more importantly, to employ it as a tool to disrupt the complacency of the audience, drawing attention to pressing social debates, and revealing the pervasive influence of violence in shaping our collective consciousness.

In his new freestanding and wall sculptural installations, Dew Kim psycho-analyses his recent painful heartbreak and sheds light on how intimacy and romance are a microcosm of societal violence, visualising the emotional masochism he experienced through his signature, sharp-witted, BDSM-inspired aesthetics. Meanwhile, the three lush and intricate paintings by Berlin-based painter Dennis Scholl form a hauntingly beautiful worldview that oscillates between brutality and beauty, violence and tenderness, capturing the psychological turmoils arising from the everchanging tensions between sacrifice, vulnerability, and sanctuary. Staging and juxtaposing pictorial scenes subtly adorned with elements of cruelty, absurdity, and void, the three new paintings by Tseng Chien-Ying unveil the obscure violence in the subconscious of human existence through morbid humour and uncanny storytelling. Through filmic depictions of the body, Wang Pei's newest canvas work portrays unfiltered, primordial violence that reveals our deep, historical fascination with the 'devouring of subjectivity' conjuring moments of narrative suspense, exploring innate human reflexes and desires. Lastly, Hannah Woo, the inaugural winner of the Frieze Seoul Artist Award supported by Bulgari, manipulates the fluidity and malleability of textiles to create soft sculptures that visualise the indiscernible yet often violent forces inflicted on the body, presenting a potential alternative of womanhood that is incomprehensible within Western normative feminist discourse.

Press Release

Preview

Installation View

Installation view of ‘Vitalis Violentia’ at PODIUM, Hong Kong. Photo: Lok Hang Wu. Courtesy of PODIUM, Hong Kong.

Artists

Dew Kim
Dennis Scholl
Tseng Chien-Ying

Wang Pei
Hannah Woo

PODIUM

Unit 9D, E Tat Factory Building,
4 Heung Yip Road,
Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

Tuesday – Saturday
11:00 AM – 7:00 PM 
Closed on public holidays