The Works：Artists run art space: Negative Space, Ho Sin Tung@Hanart & in our studio: Kathy Mak's cor

As we reported last week, in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, the Hong Kong Art Festival, Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central have all decide to cancel events over the coming month. Last Friday, the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society also announced that it’s postponing the Hong Kong International Film Festival and the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum to the summer. A lack of trust in the motives or the abilities of the government to deal with the outbreak has led to panic buying of goods such as rice, toilet rolls and tissue paper. The short supply of masks and sanitising products has left many feeling frustrated and helpless. Later in the show, theatre performer Kathy Mak is here to reflect on the situation. one other thing that’s always in short supply in Hong Kong is space. That can be a problem for artists who need room to work. Some get around it by joining forces to create group working and exhibition spaces.

Ho Sin-tung’s new body of work focuses on the idea of the swamp. She says that for humanity the swamp seems to be a desolate and turgid wilderness that stands in sharp contrast to the aspiration for structure, order and control. But however hard we try to defeat it, it always returns. Much of Ho’s work consists of meticulous pencil drawings. Her new exhibition “Swampland”, on show at Hanart up to the end of the month, also adds three dimensional objects and installations into the mix.