Cities are made up of jigsaws of little stories of their communities. Every street sign, building or shop witnesses the transformation of this city. Sino Group, Olympian City and “Art in Hong Kong” jointly present large-scale exhibition “Stories of our Neighbourhood”. Based on Tai Kok Tsui’s old shops and old district culture, Cheers Design, a creative team of four females, created a series of artworks comprising scene sets of old shops with illustrations, fotomos (three-dimensional photographic models), photography and videos.
All-female Creative Team Recreates Tai Kok Tsui’s People and Shops
Cheers Design is one of the participants of Hong Kong Science & Technology Parks’ Design Incubation Programme. Before moving to InnoCentre, the team first set up their office in Tai Kok Tsui. The four designers were at first merely “foreigners” working in Tai Kok Tsui. There they gradually savoured the “old Hong Kong” flavour — the interaction among the residents, an old-school photographic studio full of family portraits and graduation pictures, a small printing company still using traditional letter punches, a hole-in-the-wall grocery, a traditional local café that makes recurring appearances in Johnnie To’s movies…… In the face of the wheel of time, the designers are determined to capture these old sentiments in a creative way by turning community stories into artworks. Their works were first launched at Detour 2010, with the mini-fotomo boxes of old shops attracting particular attention.
Giant Fotomo and Ten Scenes
“Stories of our Neighbourhood” is the debut large-scale exhibition by Cheers Design. Their creativity is not limited to their fotomo boxes. In this exhibition, they have made use of the entire space in the shopping mall by creating a fotomo several hundred times larger than its original size — a 14m wide X 3.6m high fotomo stage of Tai Kok Tsui. The exhibition also included ten sections of scenes which vividly depict old shops and stores. Some of the real objects displayed have been borrowed from the shop owners. On entering the exhibition area, visitors are greeted by the illustrated portraits of the shop owners. The experience is akin to visiting the original shops. One of them is old-school photographic studio Cheung Hung Studio. Apart from the distinctive décor re-created by the team, two local photographers, Woody Luk and Ming Tong, will turn the area into a time tunnel with their photography themed on Tai Kok Tsui. The days at the 43-year-old Tsat Kee Cafe House, which bid farewell to residents in Tai Kok Tsui half a year ago, can now be re-experienced. Thanks to the effort made by the café owner and Life Workshop to preserve the objects of the traditional café, visitors can enjoy a laid-back moment on the two-seat booth seat at the exhibition.
Let Tai Kok Tsui Residents Be Your Tour Guides
The Organisers previously invited 30 children from the Yau Tsim Mong district to take part in fotomo workshops. Accompanied by the Cheers Design team, the little artists captured the district with their cameras and chatted with shop owners. They later created their own fotomos to depict Tai Kok Tsui under Cheers Design’s guidance. Their artworks will also be shown in the exhibition.
Apart from giving research advice, Life Workshop generously lent furniture from Tsat Kee Cafe House for display, organised community tours during the exhibition period and arranged workshops led by residents who will share their indigenous knowledge and craft, including the use of steelyard and traditional hair nourishing oil-making. They will also sell old shop products (e.g. Chu Yi Shing’s accessories and Yan Shing Kee’s coconut candy) at the exhibition site on Sundays during the exhibition.
A series of educational activities, such as exhibition guided tours, hand-made lantern workshops during the Mid-autumn festival and ‘Fotomo My Street’ magnet-making workshops will also be held to complement the exhibition. For details, please visit www.artinhk.com and www.facebook.com/artinhk.
“Stories of our Neighbourhood” Exhibition
Date : 2 / 9 – 2 / 10 / 2011
Time : 10 am to 10 pm
Venue : Central Atrium, G/F, Olympian City 2— 18 Hoi Ting Road, West Kowloon
(MTR Olympian Station Exit A & D / Mongkok Station Exit C)
Organisers : Sino Group, Olympian City, Sino Group’s “Art in Hong Kong“
Exhibition Supporting Organisation: Life Workshop
Supported by : Yau Tsim Mong District Office
