Anchoring the presentation is Lili, a monumental 4.5-metre-high sculpture by Tim Yip (b. 1961, Hong Kong). Originally conceived as a bronze status labelled Desire, which wept tears of real water, Lili evolved into a humanlike, mannequin-like presence, styled with dark glasses and costumes to resemble a young eastern woman. She is a projection of Yip’s memories and imagination, positioned as a mirror for human experience in a dystopian future shaped by artificial environments. Though physically static, Lili occupies a psychological space where viewers can project their own memories, acting as a cipher between past and future. Following the solo exhibition MIRROR OF THE META: Incredible Reality at the Asprey Studio gallery in London (26 February-30 March), which offers a more intimate presentation of Tim Yip’s sculptures and photographs, Yip’s works presented in Art Basel Hong Kong include Natural Lili — a smaller-scale bronze counterpart that introduces intimacy and vulnerability — and two AI films exploring identity and layered realities.

All Seeing Seneca (b. 1994, New York) approaches identity as something continuously constructed rather than inherited whole. After Jade, her new sculptural series in cast glass and jade, explores the tension between tradition, ancestry, and self-authorship. Ancient, precious, yet fragile materials are set against the possibility of reinvention, accompanied by digital paintings that create surreal yet grounded worlds, further encapsulating these tangible objects within narrative space. The sculptural series includes an elegant crown combining Eastern and Western influences, as well as motifs drawn from the artist’s personal narratives, alongside character-driven works that reflect her ever-growing, whimsical lexicon of creatures and symbols. Growing up in Shanghai and New York, through this new body of work, Seneca reimagines traditional Chinese ritual objects to propose a speculative space between cultural inheritance and personal myth-making.