It was my first trip to Hong Kong, a city I've wanted to visit since falling in love with Faye Wong in Chungking Express. This year, Art Basel popped up on my radar and I used it as an excuse to visit the city.
First the fair:
I've never enjoyed fairs. During my time in New York City, I've had the chance to see numerous Armory shows and the near-by smaller ones like Scope. It had been nearly 6 years since I last attended a larger fair like Art Basel but I was soon reminded how much it resembles a meat market or in Asia's case, a fish market.
Its hard to make your work stand out when its crammed inside booths upon booths and hundreds of galleries are vying for attention. It might make for a decent calling card to get your gallery's name out there and make some sales but for viewer experience, its the worst it can get.
For for about 300HK$, you are able to experience 3 hours of walking through-out the 2 levels of exhibition, seeing similar artists being sold at different galleries.
I was disappointed to see that there wasn't much activity outside the ART BASEL show. Smaller and more independent shows that make the whole festivities more human and experimental was absent, or maybe I wasn't looking hard enough.
The Rest of HONG KONG:
The city itself is awesome. Easy to navigate by public transportation. (The trolley was the easiest way to travel.) The night scene was what you'd imagine it to be. For someone from the states, I was glad I could get around speaking just English. The cost of food seemed reasonable and hailing a cab was easy and cheap. There were many high-end shopping districts but not being much of a shopper, shopping wasn't really on my to-do list.
Hanging out in bars in SOHO and taking the escalators up the hill was probably the highlight of my trip which was way too short but which allows reason for a second trip back.
