Nadim Abbas: Process as Form

By Ingrid Pui Yee Chu

I keep meaning to ask Nadim Abbas if he owns a telescope. It seems like it would be handy for a multidisciplinary Hong Kong-based artist who frequently explores what cannot be gleaned at first sight.

Take his current participation in Household Gods at HART Hall (30 September–21 November 2020), a storefront space on the ground floor of H Queen's, a high-rise hub hosting several international galleries in Hong Kong's Central district. Curated by Ying Kwok, the show considers connections between household, natural, and supernatural phenomena to rethink the creative and empowering potential of art.

Besides Abbas, the exhibition includes works by fellow Hong Kong-based artists Shane Aspegren, Tap Chan, and Wu Jiaru—all former or current participants of 'Social Studio' at HART Haus in Kennedy Town, an open concept workspace that is run as a larger cultural enterprise by a non-profit subsidiary of a property developer.

Nadim Abbas, Human Rhinovirus 14 (2016). Mixed media installation (centrifugal blowers, beach balls, still projections, sandbags, galvanised steel). Dimensions variable. Exhibition view: Chimera, Antenna Space, Shanghai (9 November 2016–10 January 2017). Courtesy the artist and Antenna Space.

In fact, many of Abbas' projects ground the infinite with a granular sensitivity through cosmic filters. The Distance of the Moon (2012) is a detailed set of images recreating the lunar surface featuring (and accompanied by) a recipe for 'moon-milk', while the floor-based installation Afternoon in Utopia (2012) uses moulded sand structures to mimic the 'hostile architecture' of a highway underpass designed to deter loitering, bathed in red light to draw a direct correlation to the Utopia Planitia ('Nowhere Plain') of Mars...READ MORE