Care and attunement in artistic collaboration: two cases in Hong Kong

Abstract

This paper discusses the collaborative activities in two projects: Hong Kong-based artist Suifong Yim’s Assembly of Disquiet (2019) and Japan-based artist Shitamichi Motoyuki’s ongoing project 14 Years Old and the World and Borders (2013–). They inform and complicate deliberations on whether artistic collaboration should be evaluated on aesthetic or ethical grounds, or both. These projects demonstrate that the quality and process of collaboration and how the artists are affected are as important as their impact on the collaborators. The personal experiences of artists who initiate and frame the projects also demonstrate the importance of the affective in the collaboration. I juxtapose Nel Noddings’s (2003) notion of care and Lisbeth Lipari’s (2014) notion of attunement to demonstrate how the projects are experimental, affective, and discursive sites for sharing the evolving ethical ideals of the artists. In the projects, it is less the artist’s autonomy and authority, but more the quality of caring attention that they bring out of themselves and their collaborators which contributes to the intrinsic value of the collaboration.

Keywords:

• Hong Kong
• artistic collaboration
• care ethics
• listening
• attunement

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Notes on contributors

Yang Yeung

Yang Yeung writes on art and is an independent curator. Her recent publications include works on Francis Alÿs's solo exhibition Wet feet_dry feet, Sumei Tse's practice, Kwok-hin Tang's art, and Mary Lewandowska's film Rehearsing the Museum. She founded the non- profit soundpocket in 2008 and is currently its Artistic Director. Yeung is a member of the international research network Institute for Public Art and focuses on place-making public art projects. She currently teaches ancient and modern classics of various cultural traditions at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.