MAK YING TUNG 2
b.1989 in Hong Kong
Mak2 (aka Mak Ying Tung 2)
Mak2 (aka Mak Ying Tung 2, b. 1989, Hong Kong) is a conceptual artist. Her work contemplates 21st century issues through the study of philosophy, art history, culture, shifting socio-political environments, the internet, and new technology. The aesthetic experience she crafts is bound by the dualism of humour and intense inquisitiveness. She creates, installations, paintings, drawings, video work, YouTube videos, stand-up comedy routines, and Instagram filters.
Originally named Mak Ying Tung, the artist added the ‘2’ to her name in 2018 after visiting a Fengshui master in the hopes of gaining fame and fortune by perfecting the number of strokes in her Chinese name. To streamline the Fengshui master’s prediction from three years ago, Mak Ying Tung 2 shortens her name to Mak2 in 2021.
Her iconic Home Sweet Home (2019-) series are triptychs on canvas that make use of the popular American life simulation video game “The Sims” and are each painted by three separate painters on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. She uses "the Sims" as a virtual construction tool for her ideas of both utopia and dystopia in the context of Hong Kong.
In the game she builds bizarre environments such as bedrooms filled with CCTV cameras, lonely millennial hangout spots, and pools on roofs filled with flowers. She takes screen-captures of these digital fantasies and divides the resultant images into thirds. Each third is subsequently painted by a separate painter via the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao. The painters are given as little instruction as possible, including only the medium they are to use and the size of their respective panel. Through fracturing the process of production and allowing external factors to intervene in the actualisation of her artwork, Mak 2’s "Home Sweet Home" series not only elucidates the inevitable disparity between fantasy and reality, its also crafts a comment on authorship, “copy-cat” culture, and narratives of home.
Mak 2 is also well known for her conceptual installations. Her work You Better Watch Out (2017), was included in an exhibition presented by MoMA PS1 and K11 Art Foundation titled ".com/.cn". Through the use of a giant snow globe, colorful balls, QR codes, and a CCTV camera, the artwork explores the troubling duality between contemporary modes of entertainment and the growth of surveillance states across the globe.
Mak 2's artwork has been exhibited internationally in: Urban Whispers, Woaw Gallery, Hong Kong, China (2021); Mirage or Reality, Shanghai K11 Art Mall, Shanghai, China (2021); The Principle of Hope, Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2021); House of Fortune, DE SARTHE, Hong Kong, China (2021)；How Do We Begin?, X Museum, Beijing, China (2020); Home Sweet Home, DE SARTH, Hong Kong, China (2019); We Didn't Mean To Break It (But It's Ok, We Can Fix It), Pedro Cera, Lisbon, Portugal (2019); Whatever Works, Whatever It Takes, Goethe-Institut China, Beijing (2019); The Anything Machine, de Sarthe, Beijing, China (2018); Invisible Cities, Crow Collection of Asian Art, Dallas, USA (2017-18); com/.cn - Co-presented by KAF and MoMA PS1, K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai, China (2017-18); Reversal Ritual, DE SARTH, Hong Kong, China (2017); COMEINSIDE: EAT ME, PingPong 129, Hong Kong, China (2017); COMEINSIDE: BABY SHOWER, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong, China (2017); Artists' Film International, Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2016); The Second "CAFAM-Future" Exhibition, CAFA Art Museum, Beijing, China (2015); Artistic or Autistic - The Seventh Annual Exhibition, Inside Out Art Museum, Beijing, China (2014); Almost Empty, Gallery Exit, Hong Kong, China (2014); and SOFT OFF: But I love it when your mouth is a little shut, ltd Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA (2013).
Mak 2 lives and works in Hong Kong.
麥影彤二
麥影彤二（1989年出生於香港）是一位概念藝術家。她的作品通過對哲學、藝術史、文化、多變的社會政治環境、互聯網和新科技等的研究來反思二十一世紀所面臨的問題。她所創造的觀感體驗，以幽默和強烈好奇心的二元論所連接。她的創作包括裝置、繪畫、錄像作品、YouTube視頻、棟篤笑和Instagram濾鏡等。
原名麥影彤的藝術家曾在2018年拜訪一位風水師後，在自己的名字後加上「二」，希望透過完善自己中文名的筆畫數來獲得名氣與好運。這種對她新身份的認同標誌著一個自我應驗預言（self-fulfilling prophecy）的開始。藝術家為佐證該現象，試圖最大限度地提高其展覽「闔家富貴」的成功，亦從神學以及科學權威中尋求肯定。麥影彤二為了順應風水師三年前的預測，於2021年將自己的名字縮寫為Mak2。
她的標誌性作品《美好家園》（2019-）系列，是運用了流行美國電子遊戲《模擬人生》來創作的布本三聯畫，而每一屏是由三位來自中國電子購物平台淘寶上的畫家分別完成。她用《模擬人生》作為虛擬的構造工具，以香港為背景建構她想像中的烏托邦與反烏托邦。在遊戲中，她營造了怪誕的環境，包括安裝著閉路電視鏡頭的臥室、擠滿複製人的育嬰室、屋頂上佈滿鮮花的泳池等等。然後，她用螢幕截圖保存這些數碼幻想，並把成圖分成三份。每一部分隨即由不同的「淘寶畫家」繪畫出來。畫家們得到的指導則盡可能地少，只包括所使用的媒介和作品尺寸。麥影彤二的《美好家園》系列通過分拆作品的製作過程和讓外來因素介入其作品，不僅闡明了現實與幻想之間那無可避免的巨大落差，更是對著作權、山寨文化和家的敘述作出評論。
她的作品曾於世界各地展覽， 展覽包括：《Urban Whispers》，Woaw Gallery，香港，中國（2021）；《真實幻境》，K11購物藝術中心，上海，中國（2021）；《希望的原理》，中間美術館，北京，中國（2021）；《闔家富貴》，德薩畫廊，香港，中國（2021）；《終端 – 第一屆X美術館三年展》，X美術館，北京，中國 (2020)；《美好家園》，德薩畫廊，香港（2019）;《We Didn't Mean To Break It (But It's Ok, We Can Fix It)》，Galleria Pedro Cera ，葡萄牙，里斯本（2019）；《Whatever Works, Whatever It Takes 》，歌德學院， 中國，北京（2019）；《任意機器》，德薩畫廊，中國，北京（2018）; 《Invisible Cities》，Crow Collection of Asian Art，美國，達拉斯（2017-18）；《.com/. cn 》－由KAF和MoMA PS1聯合主辦，K11 藝術基金會，中國，上海（2017-18）；《儀式逆轉》，德薩畫廊，香港（2017）; 《COMEINSIDE: EATME》，PingPong 129，香港（2017）；《COMEINSIDE: BABY SHOWER》，安全口，香港（2017）；《Artists'Film International》，白教堂畫廊，英國，倫敦（2016）;《The Second “CAFAM-Future” Exhibition》，中央美術學院美術館，中國，北京（2016）;《Artistic or Autistic - T he Seventh Annual Exhibition》, 中間美術館，中國，北京（2014）；《 Almost Empty》，安全口，香港（2014）；《SOFT OFF: But I love it when your mouth is a little shut》，ltd Los Angeles， 美國，洛杉磯（2013）。
麥影彤二現於香港居住和工作。