Over 30 contemporary artists and collectives that speculate on alternate ecological paradigms have been brought together by Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong, to participate in the group exhibition Green Snake: women-centred ecologies. The exhibition continues through April 1, and takes its name from an ancient Chinese folktale about two demon sisters – White Snake and Green Snake. Over the centuries and through the many iterations of the tale, the duo have come to symbolise the natural world’s ability to “shed its skin”, to heal and grow anew. The artists shown in Green Snake draw from mythologies and folklore, along with their personal worldviews to present an eclectic body of contemporary art work that spans several mediums, including installation art, painting, video art and more. The exhibition is co-curated by Kathryn Weir, Artistic Director, Madre Museum of Contemporary Art Donnaregina (Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina), Naples and Xue Tan, Senior Curator, Tai Kwun Contemporary. The curators join STIR to discuss the show’s relationship with its namesake folktale, and to address a certain elephant in the room: the staging of an ecofeminist exhibition in light of the criticism that is currently being levied at the art world for its contribution to environmental degradation.

As Weir tells STIR, the story of the shape-shifting White Snake and Green Snake is an eighth century Chinese folktale that continues to hold great cultural significance. While there are many interpretations of the tale, Xiaoqing or Green Snake’s loyalty to her friend Bai Suzhen (White Snake) over the course of her perilous journey to save her husband, has made Xiaoqing an icon of women’s agency and sisterhood. Weir and Tan discussed this, along with other mythological stories centring female protagonists explored by the artists presented in Green Snake.

American artist Candice Lin’s work, Bacium sub cauda (kiss under the tail), responded to the film adaptation Green Snake (1993) directed by Tsui Hark. In the film, Green Snake questions human heteronormative love, even rejecting her bipedal form, and chooses instead to live as a demon. Beyond Lin, her fellow participants delved deep into other interpretations of the story, as well as feminist readings of other folktales that intersected female protagonists and themes referencing nature. In Weir’s words, “Conversations with the artists as they prepared for the exhibition revealed many starting points for thinking about ecology and women-centred knowledge...” Curiously, a common thread across cultures that emerged was that snake figures often embody transformation and fluidity. Nepalese artist Karan Shrestha’s kinetic sculpture cloud babies (2023) played with these themes, alluding to the Nepalese Newar people’s belief that snakes are guardians of water. 

Tan explains that the exhibition is intended to point at the root of our ongoing ecological crisis, which she and Weir believe to be “extractive economies” that view nature as little more than a reservoir for resources. She tells STIR, “We are aware of the impact of shipping; not only of the carbon emissions, but also the roaring costs post-pandemic, that are not sustainable for institutions. For this exhibition, we produced mostly locally to minimise shipping...”

For this exhibition, we produced mostly locally to minimise shipping... – Xue Tan, Senior Curator, Tai Kwun Contemporary

In order to be conscientious about environmental deterioration, the curators also paid keen attention to the amount of construction material needed for the exhibition, and worked with the Hong Kong architects BEAU, who prioritise sustainable design. Finally, the team also decided against producing any printed materials in order to reduce carbon, making Green Snake the first art exhibition in Tai Kwun Contemporary to embrace a fully digitally guided experience.

Tan ends the interview with STIR by expressing that there is a learning curve for institutions to optimise their efforts at sustainability and that organisations should keep taking steps in the right direction, sharing information with each other as they go. While it is difficult to pin down exactly what perfect sustainability might look like, let alone accomplish it, Tai Kwun Contemporary’s efforts with Green Snake are laudable, and set a positive precedent for the gallery’s future exhibitions.

Green Snake: women-centred ecologies is running from December 20 2023 - April 1 2024 at Tai Kwun Contemporary.