BIBLIOTEA

“BiblioTea” is an interactive and playfully acerbic work by emerging Bandung artist Syagini Ratna Wulan. Made specially for Art HK 2011, “BiblioTea” invites viewers into an imaginary bookshop-cum-tea house where various (fictitious) art books and flavoured teas are on display. The concept here is that the content of the instructive art books have been infused into the teas; thus, one can immediately gain this knowledge by consuming the various teas – an idea that draws on Asian scholarly traditions where tea (and its appreciation) is intimately associated with philosophical and aesthetic contemplation, while simultaneously commenting on contemporary consumerist culture where people expect instant gratification and enlightenment with minimal effort. (written by Siu Li Tan, the curator of Singapore Art Museum)