The custom-made neon sign of “Very Hong Kong Very Hong Kong” at Hong Kong City Hall married nostalgia with contemporary design. All photos by Julee WJ Chung for ArtAsiaPacific.

Aug 23 2017

Say It Twice: Very Hong Kong Very Hong Kong

by Julee WJ Chung

Mounted to mark the 20th anniversary of the establishment of Hong Kong SAR, “Very Hong Kong Very Hong Kong” aimed to re-discover the many facets of Hong Kong’s flourishing creative culture. It delivered a multi-disciplinary exhibition that paid tribute to the city’s art and design sector by showcasing more than 150 entries from 11 art and design categories. Shown in the bustling city’s two major venues—City Hall and Comix Home Base—the two-part exhibition is co-curated by the internationally acclaimed designers and artists Alan Chan and Stanley Wong (also known as Anothermountainman) who have both held solo exhibitions of their creations worldwide.

In City Hall, the exhibition touched upon six elements: fashion, photography, film, music, as well as graphic and product design. There were old favorites such as the films of Wong Kar Wai, the calligraphic works of King of Kowloon and the photography of Fan Ho, Yau Leung and Leo KK Wong. Also shown were the works of Henry Steiner—a key figure among Hong Kong’s first generation of graphic designers—which range from the corporate branding of HSBC to the logo of Hong Kong’s very first western-style private club (The I Club), and the lampshades of the local plastic company Red A that are ubiquitous in the city’s wet-markets. Presentations such as these exemplified how the curators dug deep to pay tribute to the undercurrent graphics and artistic movements that have penetrated the city’s visual landscape.

Displayed in the Photography section were black and white digital photographs of LEO KK WONG that captured the daily lives and rural landscapes of Hong Kong in the 1960s and ’70s.

In the section for Graphic/Publication was the internationally exhibited Redwhiteblue (2000– ) series by STANLEY WONG (also known as Anothermountainman). The inspiration (and sometimes the medium) of Wong’s works was also featured just a few feet away in the Product/Toy section. LEE WAH’s signature tri-color, red-white-blue plastic bag is an iconic form that has stood the test of time, enmeshing itself in the city’s culture.

Created by Hong Kong manufacturer giant STAR INDUSTRIAL CO. LTD, Red A lampshades (also colloquially known as the “Butcher’s Lampshade”) occupied a corner of the Product/Toy section. The curators wrote that the light fixture’s form is emblematic of early Hong Kong industrial design, and that the mass-produced yet well-made product had become a staple in the street markets of Hong Kong since the 1950s.

A collection of HENRY STEINER’s trademark designs are on view in the Graphic/ Publication section. Steiner is known as the “Father of Hong Kong Graphic Design,” and his corporate identity works have graced the Hong Kong cityscape since he founded his company Steiner&Co. in 1964. Some of his most notable works include the city’s HSBC and Standard Chartered banknotes.

KAN TAI-KEUNG’s cultural posters were included in the Graphic/Publication section as one of “Stanley Wong’s choices.” Masterfully incorporating Chinese and Western aesthetics, the artist, designer, calligrapher and educator reminds us that contemporary design should not shy away from reflecting our cultural heritage.

The preservation of uncommissioned public artworks by the recently deceased artist TSANG TSOU CHOI, who is also known as the “King of Kowloon,” is a contentious subject in Hong Kong. The curators point that his free ink handwriting and guerrilla-style calligraphic graffiti has “inspired a new creative ecology that drew on Hong Kong’s collective memory.”

In the section for Music, TV drama theme songs were highlighted as a key element in the development of Cantopop. Music by Ko Shan-Hei, Joseph Koo, Michael Lai Siu Tin, Jimmy Lo, Tang Wai-Hung, James Wong, Yip Shiu-Tak helped foster the public’s fondness toward Cantopop through TV dramas such as Hotel Crocodile Tears, The Little Li Flying Dagger and The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber.

In the Photography section, several City Magazine covers were on display. The curators write that the magazine’s content included interviews and critical essays while catering to Hong Kong’s rising middle class. With its deep-rooted influence on Hong Kong’s contemporary culture, the covers also became a fashion statement under the creative influence of the city’s most notable photographers, stylists and artistic directors.

Comix Home Base in Wanchai district took us through the variegated styles and trends of Hong Kong’s well-loved media, advertising, comic and illustrations of the past two decades, and featured some of the city’s most iconic architecture—such as the unforgettable Bank of China Tower (1990) designed by the award-winning Chinese architect IM Pei—and spaces that make up Hong Kong’s current cityscape.

The Comic/Illustration section was on the first floor of Comix Home Base, where visitors saw Hong Kong’s oldest comic series Old Master Q (circa 1960s) (left) created by ALFONSO WONG KAR-HEI and his son JOSEPH WONG CHAK.

At the turn of the century, Cream (2002) was a new subculture magazine founded by TAKARA MAK, covering art, culture and design. It distinguished itself from the existing commercial ad-heavy magazines, and quickly became known as one of Hong Kong’s avant-garde publications.

Featured on the third floor in the large Architecture section was JAMES KINOSHITA’s Connaught Center (1972), currently known as Jardine House. Located in the city’s Central business district, the 52-storey office tower is iconic for its circular windows, and perfectly exemplifies American modernism’s widespread influence in East Asia.

Also in the Architecture section was Hong Kong’s City Hall, which was rebuilt after the war. The second-generation building was designed with stark geometric forms by the British architects ALAN FITCH and RON PHILIPS. It reflects the Bauhaus influence and International Style that was popular during that period.

Many of the late Pritzker Architecture Prize winner ZAHA HADID’s designs were on display. Although her proposal for The Peak in Hong Kong (1983) was never realized, she left her mark on the cityscape with Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s Jockey Club Innovation Tower (2013).

Half of “Very Hong Kong Very Hong Kong” was on view at Hong Kong City Hall from August 6 to 20, 2017. The other half is on view at Comix Home Base until August 29, 2017.

Julee WJ Chung is ArtAsiaPacific’s assistant editor.

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