We Honestly Don’t Know

2024

We Honestly Don’t Know is an invitation to expand our knowledge through the act of asking questions. 

We live within situational framings, where the idea of truth seems unreasonably subjective. Can we ever establish a factual reality, or are we merely interpreting it? How do we develop a conscious ignorance? To realize the difference between information and knowledge – an embodiment of our awareness and understanding. And create platforms of interaction beyond realms and disciplines.

The process of asking engages participants from varied fields of knowledge and experience to build nuanced repositories of our times. The artists are curious and critical nodes who seek ideas and perspectives through personal exchange. Queries across art, society, economy, environment, governance, humanistic themes and other areas of concern and interest enable a cumulative transfer of contextualized understanding. 

The work embodies a process of research and learning, forging common listening grounds to seed further discovery. A first public iteration will be conducted in collaboration with WMA at Art Basel Hong Kong 2024, exploring and expanding the connective scene.

This is the second chapter to Chow and Lin’s The Conversation, an ongoing 40-year work that evolves and grows as an organism of recorded ideas. The first chapter takes the form of a dualistic arrangement where the artists capture themselves speaking to each other over a 12-hour period in a full production studio. This performative action was initiated in 2021. It repeats every decade, as a verbalized exchange of current personal and societal reflections. The chapters construct a dynamic introspective platform to consider the world we perceive.

Installation View: We Honestly Don’t Know

2024 | WMA Booth, Art Basel Hong Kong

Photo Credit: WMA, Chow and Lin