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This publication is produced as a catalogue of the group exhibition of the same title held at Para Site from Jul 2 to Sep 10, 2017.
'In Search of Miss Ruthless' draws from the depths of diasporic souls, while taking pageantry as a method. A public persona from the future, Miss Ruthless is a figure of popular support that can represent “our beautiful Hong Kong up on the world stage,” as the lyric from Hong Kong Our Home indicates. The Hong Kong Orchid, adopted as the official state symbol in 1997, is a cross between the bauhinia variegata and bauhinia purpurea, an illusory hybrid of two species made strange to each other. The flower is infertile. Like the infrastructure supporting the civic life of the city itself, it faces a crisis of social reproduction, constantly wending away from the dream of what could be.
The commissioned and previously unexhibited work by 23 artists interpret pageantry as a promise of mobility that both regulates class and engenders ethnicity. Inspired by the media infrastructure that frames a pageant queen, 'In Search of Miss Ruthless' also includes archival documents, an experimental audio guide, two web projects focussed on the visual identity of Miss Ruthless, and the tenure of an experimental Director of Communications.
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