The Works：Turner prize winner Assemble in HK, Lighscape 2050, Maya Lin @Pace, in the studio: harmoni

Has it been cold enough for you? Last week, a winter blizzard hit the East Coast of the United States, bringing with it record-setting snowfall. Extreme cold weather has also hit China nationwide, with many cities blanketed in snow. Here in Hong Kong on Sunday, the temperature plunged to the coldest in almost 60 years. Much of the world has been facing new extremes of climate, and those extremes and the possible role of climate change in creating them have been much on the minds of many artists, including the American artist and architect, Maya Lin. In part two, we’ll be looking at her first solo exhibition in Hong Kong. And the answer, my friend, will be blowing in the hopefully not-so-chilly wind as the four members of local harmonica quartet Veloz, who’ve known each other since secondary school, will be in our studio with their harmonicas, and talking to us about their music.
But first, Britain’s Turner Prize, named after the painter J. M. W. Turner, is usually awarded to a British visual artist under the age of 50 for an outstanding exhibition or presentation of their work in the preceding twelve months. 2015’s prize went not to an individual artist but to a collective called “Assemble”. The 18-member group, made up of architects from East London, are the first “non-artists” to win the award. Assemble works on in-situ community projects with residents of specific communities. As one of their members has said: “Art is inherently political, and so are we.” Live in a city and you almost certainly live with pollution. But the pollution isn’t only in our air, water, or food. Even light can be unwanted. At Artistree until the end of this month, a a group of architects and designers is trying to encourage us to take a more natural approach to light, even in the cities that never sleep.
Architect and artist Maya Lin is best known for her 1982 design of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. She grew up in rural Ohio, and says she’s been inspired by nature and the environment since she was young. Her work includes large-scale environmental installations, intimate studio artworks, and architectural projects. On show at Pace Gallery till the middle of March is Lin’s first Hong Kong solo exhibition. On show are “Disappearing Bodies of Water”, “Fractured Landscape” and “Pin River” series, and two new wall pieces.
The members of the harmonica quartet Veloz, who have known each other since secondary school, founded the group five years ago. Its repertoire ranges from folk to pop. They’re here with Ben Pelletier.