A Design Exhibition
A week-long design exhibition, titled “Co-creating Hong Kong: a design+ exhibition” was successfully held in San Francisco from September 15 to 21. Fourteen unique projects by Hong Kong’s leading and emerging design talent were on display at Chandran Gallery. The public as well as the local design community welcomed the opportunity to see the projects. Each project brought new perspectives on technology, sustainability, and community.
The first exhibit welcomed the visitors with an interactive interface display of a Chinese character that moved along with the audience’s movement. This piece was a Henry Chu project, whose studio, Pill and Pillow, has won over 100 local and international design awards. His piece, “Shadow Harp” was another interactive interface which generated music and dancing graphics based on a mapped reaction of audience.
In addition to Chu’s work, there were other interactive technology-oriented projects. Renowned artist and director, Victor Wong, whose digital and special effects work are best known in the movie industry, showcased his newly adapted 3D projection film which illustrated the digital and immaterial dimensions of space, inspired by Hong Kong’s urban landscape.
Featured artist Mui Kinoshita brought innovation to air purification. Kinoshita created an air purifying lamp, Airluna, to replace indoor air purifiers that use activated carbon and need filter replacement every three to six months. Airluna’s patented technology converts pollutants like ozone and TVOC to harmless substances like water and carbon dioxide, thereby extending a filter’s life up to 10 years.
Designers Mazing and Connie Lee have a passion for wellness and have devoted their startup journey into developing a holistic, East meets West wellness-tech platform. Lify, one of the world’s first wellness beverage device, can help one reach their wellness goals by recommending beverages based on their physical and overall body condition.
Other highlights included Arical, an intelligent platform created by Clement Tien and San Wong that enables property developers to instantly and automatically generate market data-driven design combinations to optimize development potentials, saleable area, rental income and return on investments; SOSOC that helps organizations, NGOs and institutions connect with their members and work, as well as Happy Coloring, a project by the Enable Foundation. The Foundation started this project with conversations with Hong Kong dementia patients. Their stories were then creatively transformed into coloring patterns. Visitors enjoyed coloring the drawings and added their own touch to the exhibit.
The exhibition demonstrated how the designer force is generating new co-creative mechanisms through Hong Kong’s vibrant connections with the world. It has also featured architectural design projects that incorporated Hong Kong’s local craft traditions and digital technologies as well as works that illustrated how design can bring new perspectives on sustainability and community.
“The exhibition gave us the opportunity to showcase the design talent from Hong Kong in San Francisco and gave them a deeper insight of their projects to the local communities. We are delighted to see that the exhibition was so well received, not only by the number of visitors, but also by the conversations that have started. We hope the dialogues and co-creative relationships will continue and open up future collaborative opportunities between Hong Kong and San Francisco,” said Ivanhoe Chang, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, San Francisco.
On September 16, local art and design community members had an exchange with seven of the participating designers: Henry Chu, Victor Wong, Karr Yip, Mui Kinoshita, Mazing Lee, Clement Tien and Fiona Lau. The discussion touched on the designers’ work, inspiration, and the challenges the design community is facing. Together, they looked at how to continue Co-creating globally while making a positive impact on the world.
“The exhibition aims to strengthen the position of Hong Kong as Asia’s creative hub and highlights how Hong Kong designers, capitalizing on the city’s long-established design practices are actively expanding the scope and influence of design in both local and global communities, “ said Professor Eric Yim, Chairman of Hong Kong Design Centre.
Co-creating Hong Kong: a design+ exhibition was presented by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office and Hong Kong Design Centre, with the support of AIGA San Francisco – the professional association for design.
ON VIEW: HONG KONG
ON VIEW: HONG KONG, an installation exhibition commissioned and produced by West Kowloon Cultural District was staged at a dinner hosted by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, San Francisco on September 18. It wowed some 200 guests who saw it first-hand.
ON VIEW: HONG KONG was conceived in 2015 during New Works Forum: Screendance. The following year, inspired by Australian choreographer and filmmaker Sue Healy’s award-winning work ON VIEW: Live Portraits, West Kowloon engaged Healey to collaborate with Hong Kong dance film cinematographer Maurice Lai and ten prominent Hong Kong dance artists for the production of ON VIEW: HONG KONG. It redefines the context and cultural interpretation of the concepts ‘Portrait’, ‘Identity’ and ‘The Moving Body’. It also provokes creators and audience with fresh perspectives of ‘dance’ and ‘moving image’, and offers the audience a unique opportunity to discover Hong Kong dancers of different ages, backgrounds and expertise.
ON VIEW series continues to grow and develop. Work is underway for the ON VIEW: Panorama version which is a co-production with artists from Hong Kong, Japan and Australia. The premiere will be in Yokohama and Aichi, Japan in Feb 2020, then in Hong Kong at recently opened Freespace in April 2020, and then in Sydney, Australia in Oct 2020.
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Co-creating Hong Kong: a design+ exhibition in San Francisco |
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Let your mind wander – Designer Victor Wong displays his piece Mind Wandering at Co-Creating Hong Kong. With 3D glasses on, visitors enter his immersive experience and form new impressions of Hong Kong. Through an abstract 3D ink presentation of Hong Kong cityscape, visitors explore intersecting views of the mountains, the harbor, skyscrapers, bamboo scaffolding and flowers. |
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Designer Fiona Lau with her textile and clothing installation – a statement heralding greater sustainability by re-weaving fabric scraps or advertising billboards, while providing a new expression of colors, materials and techniques.
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Interact and make music – Artist Henry Chu’s Shadow Harp is an interactive audience interface that creates music from movement.
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Mazing Lee and her smart herbal brewer, Lify
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Dementia stories – Happy Coloring
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The Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, San Francisco, Mr Ivanhoe Chang speaks at the press preview of the Co-creating Hong Kong: a design+ exhibition.
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Technology as an Engine in Evolving Culture and Creativity in Sustainable Design and Art - moderated by San Francisco artist, designer and writer, J D Beltran (left), the panel included Hong Kong designers: (from left) Fiona Lau, Mazing Lee, Clement Tien, Henry Chu, Victor Wong, Karr Yip and Mui Kinoshita.
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ON VIEW: HONG KONG – an installation exhibition commissioned and produced by West Kowloon Cultural District was staged in San Francisco for the first time. |
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