A Hong Kong exhibition titled "RE: Urgent" is shining a satirical light on the city's work culture.
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00:00This could be the desk of any boss in Hong Kong's corporate world, but the man
00:05sitting behind it isn't taking meetings. He's one of five artists poking fun at
00:11local office culture. In my time in doing business in China, I went to a lot of
00:17laobans, you know, bangongshe, you know, office of the boss, and I really wanted to
00:26sort of copy a lot of that paraphernalia. You would always have flags on the desk,
00:32ashtrays, sometimes an award or a little monument like this.
00:39Showing in a vacant office space in Hong Kong's financial district, this
00:45exhibition, called Re-Urgent, takes a satirical spin on the very corporate
00:50culture it's surrounded by. From examining systemic inequalities to
00:56social stigmas, viewers are invited to interact with the artwork. I just thought
01:02it would be a really great idea to subvert the office space that we're
01:05working in every day, because this is sort of like a very rigid space that
01:10people won't really see it being like able to contain creative ideas. In one
01:18piece, office workers queue up, not for coffee, but for coffins. I saw this as a
01:25ridiculous idea that was quite playful. A lot of people who work nine-to-five in
01:32offices are quite miserable. And for those trying to make their way up the
01:39corporate ladder, long hours and cutthroat competition aren't the only
01:43challenges. Rhea Chandiramani's Snakes and Ladders painting aims to highlight
01:48the female narrative, where the ladder represents the corporate ladder and
01:53snakes represent other obstacles. And so in my painting, actually the snakes and
01:58the ladders are both obstacles for women to face. And so the numbers also
02:04represent ages, and so there's also that aspect of women not being allowed to age,
02:10you know, where we are expected to look and be young forever. For one visitor, the
02:16playful critique of the artworks echoes the city's old rebellious and free
02:21spirit. Well, what else is left? The other rebels are all gone. You know, rebels in art is still
02:31probably still allowed, so let's have more of that. And as workers in the city head to
02:36their offices, this one is pushing against the mainstream power structures
02:41that define the rest. Leon Nguyen and Izzy Wells for TAOON+.