Lin Ke, "Avatars and the Self”, 2010-2018
The panoramic exhibition Stay Connected: Art and China Since 2008 presents twenty-first century art that addresses changes in social realities in China and their impacts on the world. Framed through the dual lenses of digital technology and the manufacturing supply chain, the two chapters, titled Stay Connected: Navigating the Cloud (26 Sep 2025 to 4 Jan 2026) and the forthcoming Stay Connected: Supplying the Globe (27 Feb to 31 May 2026), trace a constellation of innovative and alternative artistic practices as well as cultural transformations during this period.
Navigating the Cloud presents more than 50 artworks by over 35 artists and groups who examine the transformations in contemporary art practices and in society brought on by the spread of the internet and digital technologies. The exhibition showcases artists whose practices reflect the integration of the internet, social media platforms, and digital technologies into all aspects of daily life.
The artworks in Navigating the Cloud are presented in eight thematic sections that highlight subjects including information bubbles, artificial intelligence, communities formed through the internet, and the changing nature of human labour with the use of digital technologies. These sections guide the audience to reflect on how we can overcome boundaries and divisions in order to “stay connected” in a world where the digital and physical realms are already inseparable.
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Lin Ke
“Screens and Interfaces”, “Software and Webpages”, “Avatars and the Self”
2010–2018
Computer screen recording
Duration variable (set of 15)
Courtesy of the artist and BANK/MABSOCIETY
These video works are uninterrupted recordings of Lin Ke’s aimless “wanderings” on his computer and the internet beginning on 11 January 2010. For this exhibition, the works are presented through three thematic categories, each arranged in chronological order. This sequence demonstrates the artist’s exploration of screen recording, from the earliest days of imagining the universe by navigating between computer folders, to manipulating web pages to test the boundaries between the virtual and the real, and, in recent years, of identifying oneself through an avatar. These videos reflect the artist’s relation with the internet and computer as a primary tool and space for experimental art-making.
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Zhang Yibei
Limpid, Golden, Calling
2025
Marble, bronze, ready-made material
Dimensions variable
Commissioned by Tai Kwun Contemporary
The mushrooms and flowers sprouting from air-conditioning vents offer an imaginative vision of human connection in contemporary society. Though people appear to become increasingly isolated as they move into highrise buildings, they remain intimately connected by air ducts, electrical wiring, internet cables, and sewage systems. By bringing these invisible infrastructures to the forefront, Zhang Yibei reveals the quiet, often overlooked ties that bind us as metaphors for human connection in modern life.
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Lu Yang
Built with video-game engines and graphics software, Lu Yang’s virtual realm draws from manga, the video game Final Fantasy, and Buddhist iconography to question how contemporary technologies reshape our understanding of concepts such as “existence” and “annihilation”. Viewers, now players, join the avatars to navigate various levels and confront the challenges of a virtual realm, encountering the anxiety of their own emotions and desires.
The Great Adventure of Material World—Game Film
2020
Single-channel video
26 min 22 sec
Courtesy of CC Foundation and the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto
The Great Adventure of Material World
2020
Game console, video game with nine levels
Dimensions variable
Courtesy of CC Foundation and the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto
Material World Knight
2018
Three-channel video
22 min 15 sec
Courtesy of CC Foundation and the Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto
The Material World Knight Space Battle
2022/2025
Online game
Commissioned by Tai Kwun Contemporary
