Project｜The Bards of Time and Space — Ho Kan, Soonik Kwon
Place｜ALIEN ART CENTRE
Period｜2025.11.23 (SUN) – 2026.11.01 (SUN)
Curator｜Yaman Shao, Felix Kwok
Curatorial Team｜ALIEN Art Centre
Curatorial Partner｜ALIEN Art, ALIEN MODE, Whitestone Gallery, CHINI Gallery
Space Coordination｜Bon Maison
Visual Design｜Yu-Tzu Huang
Sensory Design｜Shah Pâtisserie, ALIEN ALL DAY LOUNGE
Cultural Partner｜THE AMNIS, Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts
Special Thanks to｜DBS Bank , YUIMOM Group

Everything begins from a single point.
 Each point is an imagined universe.
 

Space is still; once it moves, time begins to flow. At ALIEN Art Centre, Chinese geometric abstraction pioneer Ho Kan and Korean contemporary abstract artist Soonik Kwon together compose an abstract landscape of time and space. In Ho Kan’s paintings, mysterious imagery emerges from the rhythmic logic of geometry; on Soonik Kwon’s canvases, sensuous flows of qi (vital energy) shimmer and diffuse like breath. Guided by “form” and “qi” as two interwoven paths of viewing, their mirrored dialogue of abstraction invites visitors to use “looking” as a portal into memory and the inner self, lingering between form and colour, material and time, thought and perception, and appreciating the spiritual core of East Asian abstraction — “Abstraction is not a departure from reality, but an entry into the reality of existence.”

Running from 23 November 2025 to 1 November 2026, The Bards of Time and Space — Ho Kan, Soonik Kwon is ALIEN Art Centre’s landmark annual exhibition, spanning seventy years of artistic practice (1955–2024) and presenting 72 works, including paintings, object-based installations, and rare early manuscripts. Ho Kan is a postwar Chinese master whose career stretches over seven decades and across the globe, while Soonik Kwon, at the height of his powers, is a leading contemporary artist rooted in Korea and acclaimed internationally. Though the two had never previously met, they share a common East Asian cultural lineage and have lived through the same historical upheavals in different regions. Their extraordinary sensitivity to “space” and “time” responds to ALIEN Art Centre’s founding mission since its opening in 2018: “Through thematic exhibitions, we hope to sharpen visitors’ sensory awareness as they explore art, and help them draw from elements that can bring positive change into everyday life.” ALIEN ART CENTRE Director and Chief Curator Yaman Shao notes: “I encourage everyone to truly feel the gradations of colour, the tactile presence of the surface, and the spatial images shaped by geometric forms. When I look at early Western geometric abstraction, I often sense more design than art. But when I encounter the abstract works of these two artists, it’s like reading the Classic of Mountains and Seas — the paintings are filled with imaginative creatures and mythic worlds, and each viewing brings a different experience. There is a certain ancient East Asian romanticism at work here. As one wanders in this exhibition, you may feel yourself shrink into an increasingly small point — so small that you almost dissolve and merge with the boundless universe. This feeling cannot be experienced through a phone screen; the device constrains the scale of looking. Only by standing before the paintings themselves can we knock on that door to an eternal spiritual realm.”

The curatorial inspiration for The Bards of Time and Space comes from Liu Yichang’s novel Intersections, in which two narratives can each stand on their own yet also converge and resonate as one. The exhibition title, The Bards of Time and Space, alludes to the ceaseless currents of time and space — without beginning and without end. The venue itself, ALIEN Art Centre, is a building that preserves nearly sixty years of historical traces from the mid-twentieth century onward. Having journeyed from a military hotel to the headquarters of the Railway Engineering Command and finally to a contemporary art museum, it has become a vessel of spatial and temporal memory, carrying the recollections of several generations and both witnessing and extending the continuous flow of time and space evoked in the exhibition. Independent curator Felix Kwok notes: “The Bards of Time and Space is an exhibition about time, space, and people. Its point of departure lies in a shared past; it unfolds in a serendipitous present; and its goal is a future we create together. ALIEN Art Centre, Ho Kan, and Soonik Kwon each had their own independent story, yet all have long navigated the same vast currents of time and space. In 2025, the three converge as one. Here and now, the history that gives rise to art, the philosophy contained within art, and the poetry that philosophy sings are fused in a single crucible — this exhibition.”

“Form” and “Qi” as the Curatorial Spine: Five Chapters Composing a Rhythm of Looking

【The Order of Form · The Flow of Qi】 From a narrow corridor reminiscent of an air-raid shelter, visitors move toward the point where avant-garde artistic thought first began to germinate, encountering the two artists’ working methods and their dialogue with Eastern spirituality. Ho Kan works through a “subtractive” process that strips away the superfluous and returns to essence, exploring the spatial poetics of form and using edges and colour blocks to compress and twist space. By contrast, Soonik Kwon practices a “daily addition” akin to copying sutras or engaging in calligraphic exercise, allowing moving points of light to release a flowing qi; through layered brushstrokes and material textures, he condenses the energy of time. Here, “abstraction” becomes a way of seeing that allows one to feel one’s own existence — no longer an outward gaze, but an inward practice of cultivation.

【Revisiting East Asian Abstraction】 This chapter presents two spatial installations — “Ho Kan — The Spatial Form of Chinese Characters” and “Soonik Kwon — Seeing Light in the Dark, Illuminating Self and World” — each independently highlighting the artist’s distinctive visual language. Ho Kan’s compositions extend the philosophical beauty of Chinese character structures into painting, while furniture carefully placed in the space creates a comfortable setting for stillness and quiet contemplation. Using graphite tiles that he has coated and rubbed day after day over nearly a decade, Soonik Kwon constructs a monumental stele that rises from floor to ceiling. Under the light, the graphite surface becomes bright like a “mirror of the mind”; as natural light falls across it, this heart-mirror shifts from inky black to luminous, guiding viewers through the shimmering play of ink-like reflections into the inner landscapes of the artist’s mind.

【From Stillness to Movement: Circles, Squares, Triangles】 This space unfolds like a playground of colour. Soonik Kwon uses layered and polished brushstrokes, reducing all forms to circles, squares, triangles, and crosses that symbolize heaven, earth, human beings, and directions. The result is a folded, origami-like spatiality, evoking multi-dimensional space as seen from above or below. Ho Kan, meanwhile, uses circles, squares, triangles, and short lines as points of departure to fuse yin-yang balance and cosmic void into mysterious imagery. Soonik Kwon’s canvases pull the viewer in with magnetic force, while Ho Kan’s compositions feel as if one were floating in outer space. Visitors “walk” within the tension and equilibrium between “gravity” and “levitation,” sensing the relationships among heaven, earth, humankind, and multiple spatial dimensions.

【Between Form and Qi: An Entrance to Eternity】 Entering through a narrow pink passage, visitors encounter a space where Ho Kan’s paintings resemble surreal landscapes — minimalist yet tending toward infinity, radiating a deep-sea quietude and mystery. Soonik Kwon’s works feel as refreshing as a breeze moving through fields of rice; from their warm, gentle gradations of colour, small “intervals” of light shine forth, evoking lived memories of colour. Though the works may appear calm on the surface, they are like stones cast into a still lake, sending ripples through the heart. Here, abstraction is no longer an escape from reality, but an entry into a deeper reality — a manifestation of an invisible yet very real spiritual world.

【Painting as the Bridge Between Us】 This final space unfolds like walking onto a moon bridge in a classical Chinese garden. The two artists’ works face one another across the four walls, borrowing each other’s frames as views and forming a poetic dialogue with the mountain scenery framed by the museum’s windows. The trajectories of Ho Kan, Soonik Kwon, and ALIEN Art Centre overlap in time. Although the two artists, representing different generations in Asian art history, are nearly thirty years apart in age, their conversation in this exhibition reveals a timeless quality that transcends temporal and spatial dimensions.

The two artists not only engage in a thought-provoking dialogue in terms of artistic language and philosophy; they also deeply resonate on an inner, spiritual level. Ho Kan perceives in Soonik Kwon’s works a “spiritual and minimalist sense of space,” while Soonik Kwon is struck in Ho Kan’s paintings by “the thickness of time and existence.” The spiritual depth that flows through both bodies of work guides viewers to reflect on the very nature of existence beyond time and space.

Embodied Ways of Looking

In The Bards of Time and Space, designer furniture is thoughtfully arranged at varying heights to create multiple vantage points, offering visitors a curated embodied experience of viewing. In collaboration with Poyue International, the museum introduces a selection of classic chairs by Danish design brand Fritz Hansen. Playful contrasts of scale are created throughout the galleries, and at set times during the exhibition period, visitors will be invited — under staff guidance — to move the furniture freely, strolling through an “artscape” of endless, open-ended possibilities.

From Vision to Taste

During the exhibition, ALIEN ALL DAY LOUNGE at the museum’s Jinma Café collaborates with Shah Pâtisserie to launch two exhibition-exclusive desserts: “Ho Kan’s Misty—Mountain Bubble Tea” and “Soonik Kwon’s Stone—Milled Mille CRÊPES.” Both derive from the artists’ signature elements — Ho Kan’s “dots” and Soonik Kwon’s “graphite.” For Ho Kan, the dot activates spatial composition and ignites the imagination of the picture plane; for Soonik Kwon, the depth of graphite black prompts viewers to gaze and search inward. Through the interweaving of tactile, visual, and gustatory sensations, visitors are invited to ascend into the realms of abstract art — both its ideas and its atmospheres.

The Bards of Time and Space aspires to offer visitors an experience of contemporary art that can be integrated into everyday life while also attuning them to current artistic currents. Throughout the exhibition period, ALIEN Art Centre will continue to promote international exchange, emerging art projects, and art education for children through a wide range of public programmes.