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M+, Hong Kong, © Estate of Antonio Mak
Book on the back 背上書本
1989
Book on the back is part of a body of two-dimensional works Antonio Mak began in the 1960s, which is comprised of ink and graphite drawings, mixed-media collages, and etchings. These are distinct from his better-known sculptural practice. Featuring motifs of horses, trees, books, ladders, steps, and chairs, these works are often inspired by the art and theories of Marcel Duchamp and by M. C. Escher’s fantastical perspectives and tessellations. Deceptively simple and sometimes nonsensical, Mak’s arrangements of figures, objects, and animals use visual puns and unusual juxtapositions to probe existential questions. Book on the back depicts an oversized book lying open and face down on a horse’s back. Like many of Mak’s drawings, it was later realised as a small-scale bronze sculpture. The sculpture’s title, Bible from Happy Valley (1991), references Hong Kong’s Happy Valley Racecourse, a centre of organised gambling. Considered in this context, Book on the back is a play on words; the word for ‘book’ in Cantonese is a homophone of ‘losing’.
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