Art Basel Hong Kong: Ceramics Artist Creating Fictional Relics

Hong Kong ceramics artist Benny To is showcasing his new exhibition “Dimensional Civilization Archeology Project 2.0” at Art Basel Hong Kong. "I like the whole process of ceramics because it starts from a soft material and after fire, it will become hard and maybe it can stay for thousands years," says To. "My inspiration comes from pop culture, animation or the sci-fi movie and also some video games. I spent a lot of time in my childhood, every day, I played video games overnight." He wants the viewer to reimagine the relationship between history, religion, and popular culture. How? By turning characters and elements from sci-fi animations and pop culture into fictional cultural relics. For Art Basel, To is going beyond tangible works of art. He created an 8-bit video game where the audience can excavate digital forms of his ceramics. "Actually, it’s combining physical objects and also digital world. And when you play the video game inside, the artefacts you can find in the booth, that is the physical object," says the artist. "The reason I want to expand in the video game or digital world, because I think that you can reach more people and sharing more ideas, different countries or cultures." Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://bit.ly/2TwO8Gm Subscribe to our newest channel Quicktake Explained: https://bit.ly/3iERrup Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world. To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/qt/live, or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app. Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake: https://cor.us/surveys/27AF30 Connect with us on… YouTube:    / bloomberg   Breaking News on YouTube:    / bloombergquicktakenews   Twitter:   / quicktake   Facebook:   / quicktake   Instagram:   / quicktake