Common Love,
Aesthetics of Becoming
April 27–June 11, 2011
Will Kwan
Endless Prosperity, Eternal Accumulation, 2009
80 framed LightJet prints
17 1/2 x 12 1/2 in. each
Installation view
Courtesy the artist
In Endless Prosperity, Eternal Accumulation, Kwan presents photographs of hongbao, envelopes used to gift money at social events in Chinese culture. While traditional hongbao are characterized by their red color, Kwan’s are also marked by corporate logos—an advertising strategy widely used by prominent banks and financial institutions. Rather than signify an established cultural tradition, money is marked as private and privatized and the act of gift-giving is compromised. In this sense, Kwan highlights these marked envelopes' social impact: a gift, intended as an intimate transference from one person to another, is now mediated by capitalist forces. This complicated interaction between tradition, wealth, and social relations is Kwan’s most prominent resource for this work.