Architecture art reflexion
I’ve been lucky to visit the Hong Kong museum of contemporary art. It contains works of artists from all around the world, but of course a great part of exhibits are from China and Hong Kong artists. And I was surprised what a considerable influence the local architecture and urban environment exert on art here. It is partly determined unique and tough circumstances which local people face in China and in Hong Kong.
The city is extremely busy and very expensive. The density of housing unbelievable, though the living space is still in short supplies. The price gets to $200 000 for 1 sq meter in some areas, and mostly people have very tiny space and live repaying mortgage.
This incredible lack of living space can’t be ignored by local artists. I have found a lot reflections of city environment in exhibits.
Such as Max Chan Wang
Unfolded
Wong Kwok-pui
Dark Horse
TSANG KA-WAI
Rooftop
The most striking to my mind is the "Paddling home" project by Kacey Wong. He created a floating dweller 4 feet x 4 feet. (1,2 m)This is a cube built up as a real house with true cover materials like tile or parquet, with stainless steel gate, it has everything in it even an air conditioner and mini-golf on the rooftop packed into 1,2 cubic meters.
This is the real situation in Hong Kong exaggerated to the extreme with a great portion of humor and self-irony. How much space does a human being need to live? What is enough? Kacey Wong took a journey in Victoria harbour against the most expensive skyscrapers of Hong Kong.
"The local real estate commercial often boast their property have 180 degree view of the harbour and now my property finally beats them all since my apartment have 360 degree sea view, - says Kacey. - I was able to do some fishing and golfing on my private roof garden that day, a daring operation and very exciting indeed, enjoy»
I find it very smart critique addressed not only to Hong Kong city but to all other big cities inclining to Hong Kong style of site development.
Olga Lyatifova
I really enjoy this post about contemporary art of Hong Kong. The idea of Kacey Wong is really unusual, but at the same time it works. With his project "Paddling Home" shows a real problem of area reclamation with huge skyscrapers not only in this city, but in whole world. Maybe this work will help people to find an answer for this question, which was already written - "How much space does a human being need to live?"
ReplyDeleteNice post and currently important theme for discussion.As far as big financial centers and world capitals attract enormous amount of people because of their cultural and even more economical values, the problem of overcrowding becomes more and more serious. And so, may be in the near future humanity will have to use alternative surfaces for living.
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