Beginning in the 17th century during Japan’s Edo period, the “floating world” of brothels and theatres frequented by the rising merchant class was captured in paintings and woodblock prints, often combining realism with the fantastical.

But then, in the 19th century, less than 40 years after Hokusai made the iconic ukiyo-e print The Great Wave (1831), war began, Edo became Tokyo, and the country was thrown into turmoil.

“The idea of a floating world suggests our world is very fragile,” Chan says.

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He points out that the artists in the show – Vivian Ho, Cheng Ting-ting, Li Ning, Yan Wai-yin and Nicole Wong – all work in different media. But the common thread that ties them together is how they invite viewers to contemplate the instability and ambiguity of the world we live in.

Ho’s acrylic paintings present a world vision that is disturbing and yet strangely beautiful: An Eye For An Eye shows someone playing pool with eyeballs, in a room crowded with giant, tropical leaves; while Good Vibes Only shows a hand holding a lit cigarette that is sticking out from under a bathtub full of flowers, as white doves fly around the small bathroom.

Ho’s world is “warped in a way that we don’t truly understand”, Chan says.

Cheng, a painter who has chosen to experiment with lithography for the show, has created a series of 20 images inspired by her time studying in Norway and the uncertainty of settling down in a new place.

Made within a span of two months, the black-and-white prints are loose, impressionistic records of where she was staying and her mood at the time.

Li Ning’s “Stone Faces” comprises a series of four “portraits” of a small, abstract ceramic sculpture he made. His detailed visual analysis of the ambiguous shape invites viewers to look at the piece more closely.

Curled up in an old leather suitcase in the corner of the gallery is a taxidermy of a fox: Nicole Wong’s On How to Say Goodbye.

The conceptual installation is a homage to the animals we have loved and, more generally, the process of mourning and letting go. It is placed in front of a large sheet resembling the grey and white grid that masks the background in Photoshop. The effect is an “absolutely empty space” that encourages visitors to focus only on the fox, undistracted by its surroundings, Chan says.

Yan’s videos add yet another medium to the exhibition. Muted Bridges and Ferris Fog are made to resemble old-fashioned film projections and transport viewers to a dream world that is both a tribute to the natural environment and a reflection of the artist’s past relationships.

Chan, an independent curator and writer based in Hong Kong, says he hopes that visitors will find “The Floating World” relevant to their lives.

“We are all living in a very precarious time, and it’s easy to lose track of where anything is or where anyone stands,” Chan says.

“The works in the gallery show the different ways to articulate this uneasiness, and [I] hope that they will help the audience make sense of the world around them.”

“The Floating World”, Ben Brown Fine Arts, 201 The Factory, 1 Yip Fat Street, Wong Chuk Hang, Tue-Sat, 11am-7pm. Until September 9.