Passing fancies | South China Morning Post
'Shopping malls are usually just about buying and selling, so seeing this piece of philosophical public art successfully installed in such a space is very refreshing.'
Gitton's piece is just one of hundreds of pieces of public art in Hong Kong - a fact often overlooked as the debate rages over the money being spent on, and the actual purpose of, the West Kowloon Cultural District and the government's desire to establish an 'art culture' in the city.
Swire Properties, for example, has more than 150 pieces of public art placed at various locations around town, from the Zen Fountain to The First Enlightenment, a pop-art-style installation in the forecourt of the Taikoo Primary School - a piece that is designed to engage children in art.
'It has been Swire Properties' practice to display art pieces that interact harmoniously with their architectural setting since the 1970s, when we commissioned metal sculptures from local artists for our Taikoo Shing development,' says Dominic Purvis, general manager for marketing and communications at Swire Properties.
'We believe that art is something to be enjoyed and should not be confined to museums, galleries and churches. We hope when people walk past the art at our properties, they will stop and draw inspiration from them.'
Similar sentiments have, apparently, driven Hongkong Land, which for decades has placed pieces both on its own properties, such as the Henry Moore sculptures outside Jardine House and One & Two Exchange Square, and on public spaces such as Wu Man-wai's She in the City Hall Memorial Garden. More recently, the city has seen the K11 'art mall'' development in Tsim Sha Tsui promote its exhibitions as much as its boutique, while the MTR Corp continually places art where the daily masses move.
Hongkong Land chief executive Pang Yiu-kai says the company believes hosting art exhibitions can enhance people's interaction with the city where they work and live. 'Office executives, tourists and shoppers alike can stroll through our buildings at any time and enjoy great works of art,' Pang says.
The Leisure and Cultural Services Department, meanwhile, has 23 pieces of public art spread throughout town and the next major government-sponsored public art project will be unveiled at the Tamar site when it opens next year.
Ten pieces will be selected for permanent display at Tamar and a public exhibition of the proposals will be displayed until November 24 at the Hong Kong Museum of Art.
Hong Kong-based Howard Bilton, whose Sovereign Art Foundation's Sovereign Asian Arts Prize is the largest of its kind in the region, says these projects show that the city is moving in the right direction - but he believes more should be done.
'To tell you the truth, I can't think of many pieces of public art but maybe I have been walking around with my eyes shut,' he says. 'Ju Ming's Taichi - Single Whip Dip in Exchange Square is one that stands out.
'While it is good to have artists from the region featured, it would be better still if we could be featuring more Hong Kong artists in Hong Kong. Maybe there were not enough of them before, but that is not true now.'
Local gallery owner and art critic John Batten is also happy to see the art that's out there - he points to the Hong Kong Housing Authority-commissioned murals in public estates. However, he says the settings - or the selections - sometimes are not 'spatially appropriate', meaning they do not complement or fit in with the physical surroundings. Grass and trees, in his opinion, would far better complement the sculptures around Exchange Square.
Batten also thinks Hongkongers often forget that this bustling city is a living, breathing work of art itself. 'The best public art is often what I call 'nonchalant art' - art done without any considerations that is part of the fabric of a city, but gives a city its particular ambience and special feel,' he says.
'An example I saw a few weeks ago was in Sham Shui Po and was the tangle and casual placement of objects in a street market.'
Five you can't miss ...
What: Zen Fountain (above)
Who: Bernard Gitton
Where: Swire Island East, 5/F City Plaza
Why: a meditation on movement, this installation piece can take you away from the hustle and bustle
What: Taichi - Single Whip Dip (above)
Who: Ju Ming
Where: Exchange Square
Why: Ju's sculpture helps provide a moment of stillness in the middle of the city
What: Home with a View (left)
Who: Lucia Cheung
Where: Central MTR Station
Why: an engaging glass-mosaic mural reflection on the world around us, and all the little pieces that go together to make it up
What: Double Oval (above)
Who: Henry Moore
Where: Jardine House
Why: big and bold, Moore's sculpture seems to claim this little piece of Hong Kong for itself
What: Diptych, Lumina, Anchor, Loops
Who: John Young
Where: North Point MTR Station
Why: flashes of colour in these wall panels and floor tiles breathe life into an experience - the daily commute - that could otherwise be lost in life's grind
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