Biography
Shawn Pakhin Tang (b.1994) is a media artist working across sculpture, installation, video, assembling found objects, industrial materials, and analog technologies. His practice explores the intersections between technological systems and lived experience, with a particular focus on developing an anti-digital methodology—a critical response to the efficiencies and abstractions embedded in contemporary digital production. Through analogue processes, Tang examines themes of malfunction, containment, and geopolitical tension, often constructing systems that foreground instability, tactility, and material resistance.
His recent research shifts toward “sound as analogue” as both sculptural material and conceptual framework. He investigates how sonic forms can articulate climate anxiety, ecological memory, and the political dynamics of water. Within this context, his work engages with the notion of the hydrocommons, using sound and analogue systems to explore entangled relations between bodies, environments, and infrastructures.
In 2024, Tang was awarded the H.A. Bockmeyer Reisestipendium (Bremen, Germany) for his project “Diving into the Future through Analogue Sculpture and Coral Reef Restoration”, which takes place in Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. The project brings together marine restoration techniques and artistic research to reimagine submerged futures and alternative modes of sensing underwater ecologies.
Tang holds a BA in Interior Design from Birmingham City University (2016) and a BA in Visual Arts from Hong Kong Baptist University (2020). He is currently completing his MA in Digital Media at the University of the Arts Bremen. He lives and works between Hong Kong and Bremen, Germany.
Group Exhibitions (Selected)
2025 Asterisks, Mooroom, Hong Kong, China
Tossing Stones, Process as Practice: Artistic Production Across Field, Residency and Studio, Nature Art Centre, Shenzhen, China
I hope this finds you well, Halle 1, Hochschule für Künste Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Cabinet of Curiosities for the 21st Century, Hanart Forum, Hong Kong, China
High Tide Low Current, Dauerwelle, Bremen, Germany
Points of View—Hochschultage 2025, Specicher XI, Bremen, Germany
2024 Sparkles, Art Museum of Sichuan Fine Arts Institute, Chongqing, China
Your Strangers, NGO Dei, Den Haag, Netherlands
Hong Kong Qi, MANGROVEGALLERY Shenzhen, China
2023Priming Reflex, Cattle Depot Artist Village, Hong Kong
SPILL, Water Light Festival, Neustift Abbey, Brixen, Italy
Diachronic Echoes, Hong Kong Institute of Contemporary Culture Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity Gallery, Hong Kong
2022Your Warmth is the Cut of My Flesh, Hidden Space, Hong Kong
Sojourners of the World, AVA Gallery, Kai Tai Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
2021Landescape Project Hong Kong 0.3, Tai She Wan Tsuen, Hong Kong (presented by Landescape 1823)
BED THROW, Wure Area, Hong Kong
CITYA Youth Current, Room 208, Kai Tak Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong Residual Heat, Axel Vervoordt, Hong Kong
A Temporal Test for All Possible Clouds, Tempé Art Space, Hong Kong
Letting Go. Carry On: A Capacity Building Initiative, Koo Ming Kown Exhibition Gallery, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong (co-presented by the Academy of Visual Arts and 1a space)
2020Tabula Rasa, AVA BA Graduation Show 2020, Kai Tak Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Young Voices, Taichung City Dadun Cultural Center, Taichung, Taiwan
Pathfinder, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
2019“On Duration,” AVA Gallery, Kai Tai Campus, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Residencies
2025 Rippling, MANGROVEGALLERY Artist-in-Residence Programme, Wanxia Village, Shenzhen, China
2024 NGODEI, Den Haag, Netherland
Gili Eco Trust, Gili Trawangan, Indonesia
Award
2024H.A. Bockmeyer Reisestipendium
Event
2020PS Paid Studio Visits, Para Site, Hong Kong
Collection
AVA Keeper of Studies Collection, Hong Kong

