A Good Dose of Art at M+

Great Criticism: Chanel by Wang Guangyi

The Hong Kong contemporary art museum M+ opened just after I left the city two years ago so it was a place I wanted to visit. However, getting there is a hassle as the signage on the MTR station and in the Elements shopping mall are vague. I had a bit of a run around trying to find out the best exit to take until I looked up the directions on the M+ website. 

Vague directions to get to M+ in West Kowloon

From Kowloon Station, go to Exit C1 or Exit D1 and take the escalator to the 1/F and follow the signs to the Artist Square Bridge on 2/F, Metal Zone (as if going to the Ritz-Carlton Hong Kong). However, when you walk through the mall, there isn't enough signage to give you the confidence you are going in the right direction. 

Eventually I found the bridge and from there the giant black building that looks like a massive computer hard drive was in front, and the entrance was signalled with a series of white lamps that echo the shape of those red plastic lamps found hanging in wet markets.

I had bought a ticket in advance, but could have gotten it at the front desk, though the website makes it sound like purchasing it ahead of time was a requirement. When you buy a ticket be sure you get the access to the special exhibitions you want to see otherwise you are not allowed in as the staff scan the QR codes to these rooms. 

Liberty Guiding the People by Yue Minjun

Speaking of staff, the place was crawling with them wearing M+ jackets everywhere. They hung around chatting with each other, or it seemed like they needed an army of people to repair something, or stand around and supervise the repair. They were all trying to look busy, but they didn't seem interested in welcoming visitors to the place and kept to themselves.

In any event, the first place I checked out was the Uli Sigg, a Swiss businessman, diplomat and art collector, who donated a big collection of Chinese contemporary art to M+. The pieces run the gamut from paintings to sculptures, and videos. 

Many of the art works either hark back to proletarian China, where idealistic Chinese communists fight for the motherland, inspiring patriotism, or at the opposite end of the spectrum and showing how capitalist the country has become, with propaganda-like paintings with brand names like Chanel on them, like Wang Guangyi's Great Criticism: Chanel.

Old People's Home by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu

Yue Minjun, known for his laughing self portraits, makes his own version of Eugene Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People, with him in a white T-shirt and gray shorts, complete with brown open-toe sandals and gray buildings in the cloudy and dusty background.

An eerie multimedia piece is Old People's Home by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu features 13 life-like sculptures who resemble politicians, admirals, generals, bishops, and dictators, but they look old and frail, dozing off in their wheelchairs. All the wheelchairs are supposed to move, but because this piece is pretty fragile, only one was moving.

Controversial works by Ai Weiwei were not shown, in particular the photographs of him giving the middle finger to places like the Gate of Heavenly Peace or Tiananmen Square, or even the photograph series of him dropping a vase. Instead there is a giant brown cube called Ton of Tea, made of pu'er tea leaves and wood. 

Kacey Wong on his floating apartment

Nevertheless, local artist Kacey Wong, who has gone into exile in Taiwan, has his work here. It's a video called Paddling Home, where he is dressed in a white captain's suit and a life jacket and gets into his tiny floating apartment, a satirical critique on Hong Kong's lack of affordable housing. 

Fashion designer Vivienne Tam's black and white Mao Suit from 1995 is also displayed here. She really made her mark with her Mao prints, and I still have my T-shirt of Mao with a bee on his nose that she designed.

Not only did I appreciate the works on the walls, but the building itself, designed by Herzog & de Meuron. The large expansive spaces allows a lot of room for the works of art to be exhibited without cramming them, while the views looking out are also panoramic, unlike the Hong Kong Museum of Art that only has one area facing the harbour.

Nice views of the harbour and city from M+

On the third floor is the Korean Michelin-starred restaurant Mosu, and there is also an outdoor garden for visitors to have a 180-degree view of Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. I found out about this place thanks to a friendly staff member who encouraged me to go take a look.