Editor’s Note:

Hong Kong has a history of contemporary art that long precedes its “handover” to mainland China, yet the extensive attention given to the latter over the past twenty years has created a sense of uncertainty within the Hong Kong cultural community. In the past few years, however, that uncertainty appears to be shifting, and Yishu 57 opens with three texts that explore various aspects of the Hong Kong art scene today—from its growing profile internationally and its socially engaged art practices to the growing issue of its migrant workers.

In 1982, Andy Warhol made a visit to Hong Kong and mainland China, but it is not widely known how and why he went there. Zheng Shengtian, in his ongoing research on the influence of foreign visitors on contemporary Chinese art, speaks with Hong Kong businessman Alfred Siu about Siu’s invitation that year to one of the world’s most famous artists and, ironically, how little attention was paid to Warhol during his visit to Beijing.

Clara Galeazzi speaks with Hou Hanru and Ou Ning about their Hotan Project. This ambitious, collaborative multi- disciplinary artistic/ethnographic endeavour engaged with a part of mainland China— southwestern Xinjiang—that is located at a strategic historical and cultural crossroad between China and Central Asia, but it previously received little attention from the art world. Lisa Claypool talks with Feng Mengbo about his ongoing development of ideas around art, the body, and new technologies, an area in which he has been a pioneer in China. Wrapping up Yishu 57 are three substantive reviews of exhibitions from London, Shanghai, and New York that examine the work of artists Zhao Yao, Duan Jianyu, Hu Xiaoyuan, and Song Dong.

Keith Wallace

image (top): Liu Xiaodong, West, 2012, oil on canvas, 300 x 250 cm. Courtesy of the artist.