With auction houses Sotheby's and Christie's getting record prices for selling art here, and with the Art Fair growing from strength to strength, Hong Kong's arts market is booming. But it's a paradox. As artists get popular, their work gets expensive, and thus loses its opportunity to communicate their ideas to those who can't afford it. Local artist Amy Cheung asks is price equals artistic value, and at this year's Art Fair she presented her "Chance Machine", a lottery that gives users the chance to win a piece by one of 15participating artists.

Can You Put a Price Tag on Value?

Win an invaluable artwork by top-selling Beijing artist Yue Minjun at Chance Machine

“In today’s consumer society, art risks losing its fundamental value and has increasingly been reduced to a simple commodity with a price that can only be paid by the affluent.” said Hong Kong artist Amy Cheung at a press conference held today at Asian Cultural Council office.

Through her site specific installation Chance Machine at Art HK 11: Hong Kong International Art Fair, Cheung questions what we can do to separate the financial value and fundamental value in art. She opens a discussion that encourages the public to rediscover the idealistic, humble and care free origin of art. She also provides an opportunity for people from all walks of life to try their luck in winning the “jackpot”, an art work donated by internationally renowned Beijing artist Yue Minjun entitled Tu Nian Ji Xiang (Good Luck in the Year of the Rabbit) which he created especially for this project. Chances can be purchased for HK$20 at ACC booth at Art HK 11 from 26-29 May 2011. 

Yue Minjun, one of the top-selling contemporary artists in the art market, whose signature images of laughing men, have sold for as much as USD 6.9 million has said in the past “Laughter is a moment when our mind refuses to reason. When we are puzzled by certain things, our mind simply doesn’t want to struggle, or perhaps we don’t know how to think, therefore we just want to forget it. Artists are the kind of people who always like to reveal to the simple, innocent and humble souls the never-ending illusion of our lives.”

http://www.asianculturalcouncil.org.hk/media/videos_gallery_detail04

http://www.asianculturalcouncil.org.hk/media/press_and_news_detail/6

The purpose of Cheung's educational game is to encourage the public to reflect on the difference between value and price. “I wanted to align a financially valuable superstar, to testify art has an idealistic, humble and care free origin that is affordable for all." said Amy Cheung. "Yue Minjun was very gracious to agree to participate. Why can't we just step back and laugh at the speculative art market. I think there are other valuable things in art that the market cannot force a price upon."

Apart from the jackpot, participants may also win smaller art pieces created by Cheung in collaboration with other artists in Hong Kong and mainland China who have received fellowships from Asian Cultural Council for educational programs in the U.S. -  lightboxes with a photograph of an object commemorating the ''value''  of these programs.