Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror

EVENT DESCRIPTION

Tai Kwun Contemporary is delighted to announce a new live art exhibition by the trailblazing artist and choreographer Maria Hassabi (b. Cyprus; lives in New York and Athens). Her first solo exhibition in Asia, Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror will be presenting live installations that explore the sculptural body, image-making, and the deceleration of time. Comprising elements of performance, sound, photography and painting, the exhibition includes works newly commissioned for Tai Kwun’s architectural environment; the exhibition will run from 13 October to 26 November 2023.

Maria Hassabi: I’ll Be Your Mirror gravitates around the production and transmission of image through the usage of mirrors dressed in gold. Playing with the myriad meanings and representations of gold in ancient and contemporary myths—as a colour in divination, as a symbolic representation of capitalism, or even a kitsch sample from pop culture—the permanence of gold historically connected the substance to eternity and the divine, yet this desire to possess gold has also turned into a symbol of capital and accelerated consumerism. The paradox between the immutability of gold and the shifting perceptions of its representation echoes the tensions in Hassabi’s practice—between subjects and objects, dance and sculpture, the live body and still images, the spectacular and the everyday.

The exhibition is constructed by durational performances which run daily from 11am to 7pm Tuesdays to Sundays, performed by dancers from Hong Kong and around the world. The artist will also be present in the exhibition for the first half of the exhibition period. A conversation with the artist will take place in October, while Tai Kwun Contemporary will also be hosting a series of public programmes during the course of the exhibition, so please stay tuned for further details.

Tuesday – Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm

ABOUT THE ARTIST / ORGANISER

Since the early 2000s, Maria Hassabi (b. Cyprus) has carved a unique artistic practice based on the relationship between the live body, the still image, and the sculptural object. Her works reflect on concepts of time and the human figure, while employing a variety of media to emphasise the complexity of formal organisation. In most of Hassabi's works the performing body is the main subject, often embedded within imposing installations. Through meticulously crafting her material—every action, even the gaze, is subject to counts and cues—a constant negotiation between the body's relation to gravity, time and space reveals the physical side effects of labour, anchoring both dancers' and viewers' awareness to the present moment. Her works are always in dialogue with a site's unique architecture, while conventions and hierarchies common to museums, theatres, and public spaces are taken into consideration.

Maria Hassabi has had numerous solo exhibitions and presentations in art institutions and performance spaces around the world, including LUMA Arles; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Her works have also been featured in group exhibitions and festivals such as at FRONT Triennial, Cleveland; Performa, New York; documenta14, Kassel; and the 55th Venice Biennale.