Tomorrow afternoon an eight-metre high sculpture of human figures is scheduled to arrive by ship at one of Hong Kong's container terminals.
Before this piece of moulded concrete exists for anyone in Hong Kong as more than free photos on the Internet and faxed promises from a man whom, it appears, no one in Hong Kong's political, media or artistic circles has ever met, it has become symbolic of something much bigger than itself.
So when, 10 days later, the 'Pillar of Shame' stands (if it is allowed to stand) with its grotesque faces contorted in molten pain high above Victoria Park for the June 4 vigil how should we, as residents of Hong Kong, look upon it? Is the piece provocative or pacifist? Artistic or activist? Wise or weird? Creative or crap? 'Provocative,' says the Urban Council, turning down an application to erect the piece in Statue Square over the handover period.
'Pacifist,' says Amnesty International, which is always in favour of peaceful ways of promoting human rights issues.
'Artistic,' says the sculptor, Danish artist Jens Galschiot Christopherson. 'Not that good,' say some members of the local artistic community, who feel that what Galschiot is doing is pushing the limits of bureaucratic patience (not necessarily a bad thing) rather than doing anything to the boundaries of artistic enterprise.
Before it even arrives in the territory, the piece - which has been titled Gok Seung in Cantonese, meaning 'the wound of a nation' - has already had a role as an artistic agent provocateur.