Asia Art Archive has opened the second and final chapter of At 25: Artists’ Early Worlds, an exhibition built around a deceptively simple question: what was an artist doing at the age of 25?
The Hong Kong presentation, which opened on July 24 and runs through October 31, brings together rare archival material, early works and two new commissions. It forms part of the archive’s 25th-anniversary programme, Archive for All: Growing with Communities.
Four early worlds
Part II focuses on artist and educator Salima Hashmi, photographer Holly Lee, artist Bahc Yiso and Raqs Media Collective. Their careers cross Pakistan, Hong Kong, South Korea and India, giving the exhibition a deliberately varied view of how artists begin work within different political, educational and cultural environments.
The display reconstructs formative periods through materials gathered from the artists, their families and institutions. The archive says the approach is meant to place personal memory alongside broader social history, showing how artistic practice can extend into teaching, writing and advocacy.
Two newly commissioned works add a contemporary layer to that archival structure. Hashmi reflects on the fragility of memory, while Raqs Media Collective returns to an unrealised project, using the distance between an early idea and the present as part of the work itself.
An archive as exhibition space
The project also puts Asia Art Archive’s own methods on view. Founded in 2000, the independent non-profit has built a publicly accessible collection focused on the recent histories of art in Asia. Its library in Sheung Wan serves researchers, artists, educators and the public.
Jeebesh Bagchi of Raqs Media Collective is scheduled to lead a guided tour, film-footage presentation and conversation at 2 p.m. on July 25. The programme is free with registration. The exhibition remains open at the archive’s library through October 31.
Source: Asia Art Archive exhibition information as reported by BusinessMirror. Image: Asia Art Archive library, Hikarumori/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
