No looking back

Curiouser and curiouser

Art Central has a long-term program dedicated to showcasing large-scale installations; its current edition features six such exhibits. These have been grouped under the Art Central category Yi Tai - a Chinese term the fair's curatorial adviser, Qu Chang explains as "something out of the ordinary, unusual or surprising".

On the face of it, the works could not be more dissimilar. Hong Kong artist Afa Annfa (JPS Gallery) has conjured up a laundromat setting using cardboard facades of washing machines. Their circular doors are like portals displaying painted images of doe-eyed little girls reminiscent of children's storybook illustrations. The characters are shown longing to return home - a nod to Hong Kong people stuck in other countries on account of COVID-19-related flight bans. Batten and Kamp (Jeeum Gallery), meanwhile, have created a fictional landscape in which shapes made of granite, aluminum, glass, cement and plastic take on biomorphic characteristics.