Independent艺博会
Independent Art Fair
Booth 513
何麦克
Michael Ho
假作真时真亦假
A Semblance of Truth
VIP预览 VIP Preview:
2024.05.09 11:00–20:00
公众日 Public Opening:
2024.05.10–11 11:00–19:00
2024.05.12 11:00–18:00
地点 Location：
Spring Studios
50 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013
关于展位
About the Project
何麦克
落英何处觅梦回，2024
布面油画、丙烯
一组四件，由左至右：35 x 55 公分；90 x 50 公分；220 x 415 公分；190 x 100 公分
（13 3/4 x 9 7/8 英寸；35 3/8 x 19 3/4 英寸；86 5/8 x 163 3/8 英寸；74 3/4 x 39 3/8 英寸）
Michael Ho
Where Wounded Dreams Are Made to Blossom, 2024
Oil and acrylic on canvas
A set of four, left to right: 35 x 55 cm; 90 x 50 cm; 220 x 415 cm; 190 x 100 cm
(13 3/4 x 9 7/8 in; 35 3/8 x 19 3/4 in; 86 5/8 x 163 3/8 in; 74 3/4 x 39 3/8 in)
何麦克
心之全蚀，2024
布面油画、丙烯
180 x 220 公分（70 7/8 x 86 5/8 英寸）
Michael Ho
Total Eclipse, 2024
Oil and acrylic on canvas
180 x 220 cm (70 7/8 x 86 5/8 in)
何麦克
吹烟袅袅，2024
布面油画、丙烯
165 x 180 公分（65 x 70 7/8 英寸）
Michael Ho
Re-Enchantment, 2024
Oil and acrylic on canvas
165 x 180 cm (65 x 70 7/8 in)
何麦克
东风西渐，2024
布面油画、丙烯
220 x 125 公分（86 5/8 x 49 1/4 英寸）
Michael Ho
Migration Towards West, 2024
Oil and acrylic on canvas
220 x 125 cm (86 5/8 x 49 1/4 in)
Gallery Vacancy is pleased to present Michael Ho’s solo project A Semblance of Truth at Independent Art Fair, New York 2024. Through a series of paintings, the presentation explores the complexity of identity performance, specifically within the historical phenomenon of yellow face. A Semblance of Truth engages with the enigmatic Chinese figure Chung Ling Soo from the early 20th century, a stage persona appropriated from the Chinese magician Ching Ling Foo by a white magician William Ellsworth Robinson from the US. Dressed and behaved like a stereotypical Chinese, Robinson garnered international fame by manipulating the exotic enchantment of Orientalism. By unfolding and demystifying the character of Chung and his trickery, Ho interweaves historical elements, personal experiences, and magical symbolism to open the discussion around the perception of East-Asian representation in the West, whilst revealing the unceasing fluctuation of one’s identity between belonging and otherness.
A Semblance of Truth begins with a set of paintings, Where Wounded Dreams Are Made to Blossom (2024), to reiterate the most dramatic moment which both exposed Chung’s deceptive disguise and ended Robinson’s life on stage. During his famous performance “Condemned to Death by the Boxers—Defying Their Bullets,” in which he was supposed to catch a bullet with a ceramic plate, Chung was shot due to a prop malfunction. In his final moment, Robinson cried for help in his native English, revealing his true identity as a fraudulent white man on stage. In Ho’s interpretation, this theatrical moment is situated in a mythical landscape, with a pond of overshadowing water dominating the composition, where magic and race instantaneously failed. The water obscures the identity and the action of the figures, containing a state of ambivalence where truth and illusion collide. The multi-panel configuration references Edouard Manet’s damaged painting Execution of Emperor Maximilian (1867-8), whose subject matter and anti-colonial historical backstory bear a prophetic resemblance to the accident. The marching soldiers, acting or executing, being both real and fictional, nevertheless dissolve into the rippling water that encompasses the contradictory plausibility of transcendent truth. In Total Eclipse (2024), the work guides viewers through a state of magic by portraying a figure performing a fire trick and simultaneously reveals Ho’s recent experiment in which the central figure is composed from the backside of the canvas. As the bare hands tame the flame, the background texture gradually erodes the foreground coloration of the figure, undermining yet underlining the effect of illusionistic wonder.
Further, the artist delves into the ornaments and accessories employed by Robinson to legitimize his Chinese identity, elucidating the material objects’ symbolic significance in identity performance. During Robinson’s international tours, artifacts such as ceramic plates and costumes were constantly put on display, reinforcing the spectacle effect of his showmanship through authentic objects. In Re-Enchantment (2024), the artist accentuates the visual connection between the magician and the chinoiserie object, both covertly revealed under a curtain of sumptuous foliage. The veil of smoke which superimposes on the screening plants forges a duality: the vaguely defined Chinese aesthetics is solidifying the magician’s exotic identity while evolving into a perceived authenticity. This delicate transition is further captured in Migration Towards West (2024) through the allegorical image of the queue wig. In this work, the amorphous queue slithers through a pile of shattered porcelain plates, embodying the fluxus in identity performance and cultural assimilation. The carefully constructed and performed identities of the conjuror, both being Robinson and Chung, become inseparable and gradually enter into a state of in-betweenness that resonates with Ho’s diasporic experience. Through Ho’s painterly rendering, the historic and cultural context of the objects are stripped and reinterpreted, alluding to the fundamental mechanism of identity projection onto specific material objects. As a result, the deep-rooted otherness, mimicry, and appropriation are accentuated within the poetic retelling of the story.
A Semblance of Truth serves as an extension of Ho’s investigation into the mysterious characters and personas throughout Western popular culture, addressing the inherent problematics of racial impersonation. In this presentation, the decontextualized images are suspended in a fictional space of liminality, re-examining the mythical prospects of history which is inundated with ambiguity and ambivalence.
Independent艺博会线上展厅
Independent Art Fair Online Viewing Room
Independent艺博会线上展厅于2024年4月25日（周四）至5月19日（周日）向公众开放。
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何麦克，1991年出生于荷兰阿纳姆，现生活、工作于伦敦。他在2019年毕业于英国建筑联盟学院。作为来自中国的第二代移民，何麦克通过绘画来探究海外华裔群体的经历、文化差异及文化再发现等概念。他运用一种特殊的方式作画：由画布的背面向正面进行颜料的浸润，将稀释的背景色域与正面的清晰笔触并置，创造出一重东方传统与西方美学相融的潜在张力。他对于东方主义式的图像和形象的批判性解读饱含丰富的面相，从玩味性到政治性，从身体到空间。2020年至2022年，何麦克与他的搭档何智仁（1993-2022）以艺术家双人组的形式进行创作。何麦克与何智仁的个展包括：“Kūnlún”，V.O Curations，伦敦，2021。何麦克的个展包括：“假作真时真亦假”，Gallery Vacancy于Independent艺博会，纽约，2024；“As Feelings Burn Their Way”，High Art，巴黎，2023；“洞天”，Gallery Vacancy，上海，2023；“密恋”，Gallery Vacancy于伦敦弗里兹艺术博览会，伦敦，2022。他曾群展于GRIMM，纽约；白立方，香港；博伦坡画廊，东京；Nottingham Contemporary，诺丁汉；ICA，伦敦；刺点画廊，香港；Guts Gallery，伦敦；Gallery Vacancy，上海；Intersticio，马德里；Soft Opening，伦敦；和Delphian Gallery，伦敦。他的影像作品曾在伦敦皮卡迪利广场，伦敦ICA和Nottingham Contemporary放映。何麦克的作品被收藏于：ASOM Collection，日内瓦；Asymmetry Art Foundation，伦敦；Domus Collection，纽约；K11 Foundation，香港；Labora Collection，达拉斯；李琳收藏，杭州；Longlati Foundation，香港；M Art Foundation，香港；Tanoto Family Collection，新加坡；X美术馆，北京。
Michael Ho, born in Arnhem, Netherlands in 1991, now lives and works in London. Ho graduated from the Architectural Association in 2019. As a second-generation immigrant from China, Ho’s works investigate the notions of the Chinese diaspora, cultural mismatch, and subsequently cultural rediscovery through his painting practice. He employs a specific technique of painting from back to front, superimposing diluted images with resolved brush strokes, clashing Eastern traditions with Western aesthetics. Ho’s critical engagement with the orientalist images and tropes is multifold: from the playful to the political and from the erotic to the domestic. From 2020 to 2022, Ho worked with Chiyan Ho (1993-2022) as an artist duo. The duo’s solo exhibition includes: Kūnlún, V.O Curations, London, 2021. Ho’s solo exhibition includes: A Semblance of Truth, Gallery Vacancy at Independent Art Fair, New York, 2024; As Feelings Burn Their Way, High Art, Paris, 2023; Grotto Heavens, Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai, 2023; Tryst, Gallery Vacancy at Frieze London, London, 2022. His works have been featured in group exhibitions at GRIMM, New York; White Cube, Hong Kong; Blum & Poe, Tokyo; Nottingham Contemporary, Nottingham; ICA, London; Blindspot Gallery, Hong Kong; Guts Gallery, London; Gallery Vacancy, Shanghai; Intersticio, Madrid; Soft Opening, London; and Delphian Gallery, London. His film projects have been screened at Piccadilly Circus, London, ICA, London and Nottingham Contemporary. Ho’s works are in the collections of: ASOM Collection, Geneva; Asymmetry Art Foundation, London; Domus Collection, New York; K11 Foundation, Hong Kong; Labora Collection, Dallas; Li Lin’s Collection, Hangzhou; Longlati Foundation, Hong Kong; M Art Foundation, Hong Kong; Tanoto Family Collection, Singapore; X Museum, Beijing.
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