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In conversation: Michele Chu and Nicholas Wong talk artistic mediums and pressures

STORYGloria Tso
Multidisciplinary artists Michele Chu and Nicholas Wong at Hong Kong’s PHD Group gallery. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Multidisciplinary artists Michele Chu and Nicholas Wong at Hong Kong’s PHD Group gallery. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Art

The Hong Kong artists fuse poetry, performance and design to explore grief, intimacy and identity – and reveal raw creative truths

Multidisciplinary artists Michele Chu and Nicholas Wong are shaking up the Hong Kong creative scene with works that transcend time and space. Renowned for his poetry exploring themes including queer identity, Wong has been featured in projects by Hong Kong’s M+ and New York’s Guggenheim, and he has since expanded into painting and other mediums. Chu, a designer by training, has carved a niche for herself as an interdisciplinary artist, with works like inti-gym, previously on display at Hong Kong’s Tai Kwun, exploring themes around human connection. The two recently met at the PHD Group gallery to share the motivations and meanings behind their work, as well as discuss the state of art and culture in Hong Kong.

Body language

Nicholas Wong has contributed poetry to projects at Hong Kong’s M+ and New York’s Guggenheim. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
Nicholas Wong has contributed poetry to projects at Hong Kong’s M+ and New York’s Guggenheim. Photo: Jocelyn Tam
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Michele Chu: We were always in spaces near each other [in Hart Haus’ studio], so sometimes we’d comment on each other’s stuff.

Nicholas Wong: The real conversations usually happen when people eat, drink or smoke. More genuine connection.

MC: The stuff that you were doing at that time looked very different from [your work] now.

NW: I had no idea what I was doing, and I still have no idea. But I’ve been trying different things, to find the right medium to talk about myself physically. Early on, you put [on] a performance where you soaked yourself in [black] paint and put up a canvas on the wall.

MC: I was in a straitjacket.

NW: And then kept the canvas on the wall for quite some time, so you have a black silhouette of Michele against a white canvas.

MC: That was the very first performance I ever did in fine arts.

NW: Really? OK, and you decided to make yourself dirty [laughs].

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