> simonbirch: Drank

NOTICE: This blog is now updated at simon-birch.com/blog

Wednesday 12 March 2014

Drank

I've not written for a while, been so busy and I like posting images on Instagram, much less, fluffy.

I've been over in NYC working on a big installation project, The 14th Factory, This project was supposed to happen in HK last year but we ran into endless problems with space and permission so I gave up and took a break in NYC. there people were very welcoming and encouraged me to bring the project there. So that's what I'm doing. It will happen in the next year there.


I'm also busy in the studio working on a big painting show for London later in the year at my gallery there, Ben Brown Fine Arts.

With a little luck I will also do something in HK at my own space. A collector donated an entire building to me. The deal is we get the space for ten years rent free on the premise that we turn it into the cool, edgy art museum that HK needs so desperately.
So we have 10,000sq ft in Central over 4 floors. Not bad at all! We have raised most of the money too but the one hurdle is, of course, the government. Even though our plan is a non-profit space, the government treats us the same as if we were a shop and to make the space legal (it's currently industrial space) is almost impossible.
So we have the space and the money but the thing that may stall the project is narrow minded government bureaucracy. No surprises there. They fucked me completely when I produced Hope and Glory (cutting the grant from two to one million after the show was closed and complete, breaking all records for an art exhibition in HK)!
Every large scale art project I've done here has been such a struggle, I guess this one will be no different.

Anyway, an NYC show, a London show, to look forward to. And a heck of a lot of work.

After a long and difficult 2013, things are looking up for this year.





1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing your journey and struggles. I do hope an exhibition will happen in the near future at the donated space. HK needs a museum that's alive.

    ReplyDelete