Making It Matters
M+ Museum, Hong Kong
Opens 2 November 2024
Photo: Dan Leung. Image courtesy of M+, Hong Kong
M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, presents the new exhibition Making It Matters. Drawn from the M+ Collections, this exhibition examines making as a process of creative expression and its long-lasting impact on individual lives, global communities, and fragile ecosystems.
Making It Matters mostly draws upon the diverse works of the M+ Collections. The artists, designers, and architects featured include John Cage, Harold Cohen, Julie & Jesse, John Maeda, Raffaella della Olga, Anna Ridler, Ki Saigon, Fujimori Terunobu, Jay Sae Jung Oh, Stanley Wong, and Võ Trọng Nghĩa Architects. It follows the process of making from concept and research to design and fabrication, as well as the social networks that link each step. By delving into the inspirations, techniques, and impacts behind the selected works, the exhibition helps us understand our own roles in processes of making and their relation to our daily lives.
The exhibition also looks at responsible design, material innovation, and creative reuse strategies adopted by innovative makers exploring alternative modes of thinking. These ideas are situated within wider historical and sociopolitical contexts across four thematic sections:
Ceramics: A Story of Shifting Values explores the complex and layered history of ceramics and focuses on how one material can shift greatly in value and perception over time. The section begins with the kilns of Jingdezhen in China and follows the development of blue-and-white ceramics over centuries. The section serves as a prelude to the three facets of making that the exhibition explores—material experimentation, the evolution of tools, and consumerism’s impacts on our environment. Highlights include a Qing dynasty vase with tubular handles and lotus design in underglaze blue on loan from the Hong Kong Museum of Art; an armorial ware dish with coat of arms and overglaze famille rose enamels on loan from the Chinese University of Hong Kong; and a contemporary re-imagining of blue-and-white ceramics by Ni Haifeng from the M+ Sigg Collection, titled Of the Departure and the Arrival (2005).
Material Potential highlights how makers experiment with a variety of materials, including neon, resin, and bamboo, discovering new processes, methods, and forms along the way. This section explores how makers develop skills and techniques that turn material challenges into opportunities for innovation. A restored Hong Kong neon sign for Very Good Tailor (1963) is on display in the museum for the first time alongside rarely seen original sketches of neon designs. Võ Trọng Nghĩa Architects’ study model of Wind and Water Café (wNw Café) (2006) showcases the versatility of bamboo as a fast-growing, sustainable material, whilst Barbara Sansoni’s sketches and colourful weavings depicting landscapes in Sri Lanka show the versatility of community handweaving practices.
The Hand and the Machine examines how the development of computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning revolutionised the making process. By offering new, hybrid working methods, these innovations prompt questions about what craft might look like in this context. Since the 1960s, a new generation of artists have transformed concepts into algorithms and have increasingly produced non-linear, interactive, or randomised compositions. Highlights include Machine Painting Series TCM#14 (1995) by Harold Cohen, the pioneer of early AI computer art; Reactive Books (Tap, Type, Write) (1998) by technologist, artist, and educator John Maeda; and the archives of the speculative NFT project Bloemenveiling (2019) by Anna Ridler and David Pfau.
Actions and Consequences traces how consumerism came to shape contemporary society by demanding mass production, synthetic materials and low-paid labour. This section features a series of posters employing poignant imagery, sleek designs and memorable slogans that alert us to this moral and ecological crisis. Facing this global challenge, some makers focus instead on community engagement and speculative projects that address socio-political issues. Some examples on display include models from the Home-for-All project, a community-led design initiative for temporary shelters and gathering spaces after the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, and a poignant message to later generations in the form of Ki Saigon’s Letters to the Future (2021), which reflects on single-use plastic waste and its long aftermath.
New display in East Galleries—a restored capsule from Kurokawa Kisho’s Nakagin Capsule Tower
Coinciding with the opening of the exhibition, a restored capsule from Kurokawa Kisho’s iconic Nakagin Capsule Tower (1970–1972) is on display in the East Galleries. The tower once housed 140 self-contained units of small apartments intended for people who worked in Tokyo’s urban centre while living in the suburbs. It was one of the few buildings realised as part of the 1960s Japanese architectural movement Metabolism, one of the most significant architectural movements to have emerged from Asia. The tower fell into disrepair in the early 2000s, and despite numerous preservation attempts and global media attention, it was demolished in 2022. Only twenty-three capsules were saved and restored, and M+ is among the few museums to acquire a capsule. The display includes newly produced videos about the birth of Metabolism, Kurokawa’s vision, the tower’s structural ingenuity, and the fate of the building, eloquently explained by the architect and historian Fujimori Terunobu, produced by M+ with the support of NHK Enterprises. Together with Kikutake Kiyonori’s Panel from Expo Tower (1968–1970), Osaka, currently on display in the exhibition Things, Spaces, Interactions, the acquisition of the Nakagin capsule makes M+ the only museum to hold two architectural fragments from the very few realised Metabolism projects.
Suhanya Raffel, Museum Director, M+, says, "Making It Matters offers a compelling story through the intricate world of creation, showcasing the exceptional breadth and depth of the M+ Collections. This exhibition illuminates the profound connections between contemporary visual culture and our daily lives and highlights the diverse stories that show us why the act of making continues to matter in society. I am particularly pleased that a capsule of Kurokawa Kisho’s Nakagin Capsule Tower, now in the M+ Collections, is on view next to Kuramata Shiro's Kiyotomo Sushi Bar (1988), creating a unique dialogue between Japanese design and architectural craftsmanship at different times in the modern world."Ikko Yokoyama, Lead Curator, Design and Architecture, M+, says, "Making It Matters focuses on aspects of making processes and their impacts through key works, highlighting the motivations, methods, and influences behind the objects in our lives. It extends the presentation of the current Design and Architecture exhibition Things, Spaces, Interactions and goes beyond disciplines to focus on the journey from concept to creation. This innovative display not only celebrates the ingenuity of makers, artists, designers, and architects, but also demonstrates how deeply intertwined the process of making is with our shared human experience and the evolving landscape of contemporary visual culture. The carefully restored capsule from Nakagin Capsule Tower is an internationally recognised architectural icon that embodies the highly refined lifestyle and culture of modern workers in Japan. It is a manifestation of creative expression, functionality, optimism, and societal change."
M+ MUSEUM
West Kowloon Cultural District, 38 Museum Drive, Kowloon, Hong Kong
