Ben Brown Fine Arts is delighted to announce its forthcoming exhibition Ze/Ro at the Hong Kong gallery, from July through August 2021. The exhibition is organised by Hong Kong-based curator Shirky Chan as part of the Hong Kong Art Gallery Association’s (HKAGA) Summer Programme. Fostering the local arts community with a focus on young talent, the HKAGA’s Summer Programme actively builds a bridge between its member galleries, emerging artists, curators and writers within this vibrant city.

Chan has curated a contemplative and topical group show featuring the work of five artists: Au Hoi Lam, Chan Ka Kiu, Christy Chow, Jaffa Lam and Jess Lau. All of these artists are living and working in Hong Kong and each addresses notions of identity, gender, society and self, framed by social constructs and desired dissolutions of gender. Chan explains:

“Gender is a social construct. Culture and tradition are often used to shape the contents of gender stereotypes to prescribe regulatory social regimes. In this sense, the representation of female and male is still crucial in terms of how they are being projected by self and others in society. To enact gender neutrality and de-gendering in society, Oxford English Dictionary has officially adopted the new gender pronoun “Ze” instead of “He” and “She” to represent non-binary gender identities. As such, the powerful and divine word “Hero” is no longer the privilege of “He” in the world of linguistics and reality. Perhaps we can start calling it “Ze/Ro” from now on.

In this exhibition five artists, Au Hoi Lam, Chan Ka Kiu, Christy Chow, Jaffa Lam and Jess Lau, explore the nature of the female world where women empower themselves by embracing their creativity in the realms of body and mind. Cross-generational women in distinct identity roles transcend acts of self-awareness into rewarding outcomes, from which a sense of autonomy is recognised through one’s individuality and multifaceted characteristics. Their works adapt the female’s multisensory experience from body to mind: a life-giving bearer that embodies changes and endures beyond our imagination; whilst being the matrix for one to envision fantasies, emotional associations or even a learning process in life.

Body is the intimate site for one to reclaim memories and emotions through movements and sensations. The artists in this exhibition also disclose their autonomy, fear, romance and tension in different stages, all of which are traces in life, or put simply, a lifelong contemplation. Evaluated against the cultural orientation of gender, they acknowledge and exercise the power of “Ze”.