Description
Press the Button was born out of Leung’s eponymous solo exhibition at OCAT Shenzhen in 2015. After the exhibition, Leung created hand drawings for each of the works showcased at the exhibition. The book features 54 pen drawings, along with textual descriptions of the exhibited works. Laid out in the standard format of exhibition captions, the textual descriptions of the exhibited artworks are used to clarify the intention, concepts and techniques behind their creation.
Accompanying these descriptions are images and texts the artist drew on A4-sized papers with a black outline pen, which call to mind prefaces and postscripts to ancient Chinese paintings. Originally fashioned by art dealers and collectors in the Yuan Dynasty, the practice of leaving postscripts on paintings gradually evolved into an artistic tactic that is sometimes employed to help illustrate the original work; at other times, these prefaces and postscripts are self-initiated, creative writing or poems by commentators inspired by the artworks – in Press the Button, these inscriptions command a life of their own.
