Reading art history today, one is inevitably faced with questions such as: How objective is art history? What alternative ways are there to consider art historical documents? And is there one universal story or can we accommodate multiple interpretations?

During the course of 'October Contemporary 2008: Attr/Action', an annual month-long platform inaugurated in 2007 to promote contemporary visual art and artists in Hong Kong, AAA set up a space to consider these questions and invited individuals to take action by interpreting materials on art history using a selection of titles from AAA's collection.

Art historian, Pamela Kember, and artist, Michael Lee Hong Hwee, were invited to work within this space and present a project in an attempt to offer alternative perspectives and possibilities in rethinking documents of recent art history. Pamela Kember studied the oscillating nature of histories and prose through her meditative installation, The Wall and the Books, while Michael Lee, in collaboration with Lee Chun Fung, explored instances when and where books are free from function with their idea of an ‘un-bookshop’. Their installation The Booked, the Unbooked and the Unbookable was composed of five sections: 'Bibliophiles-in-Residence', 'Restroom for the Deranged', 'The Garden of Paratextual Delights', 'Lost Libraries' and 'Twosomes'.

For more information about 'October Contemporary 2008: Attr/Action', please click here.