Designs for two sculptures commissioned for the new airport and unveiled yesterday were immediately criticised as 'dull' and 'unimaginative'.
Oscar Ho Hing-kay, exhibitions director of the Hong Kong Arts Centre, said designing art for public places, particularly large pieces, was difficult, but he believed poor choices had been made.
The Airport Authority chose Australian sculptor Michel Santry and Hong Kong architect Dr Tao Ho to create works for large halls at Chek Lap Kok.
It described Santry's work, which will be suspended in the 230-metre-long, 25-metre-high entrance to the main terminal building, as 'a series of highly colourful flowing images, with as its centrepiece a group of floating shapes inspired by the flying figures painted in the world-famous Duong Huang caves on the Silk Road more than 1,000 years ago'.
Dr Ho, who designed the bauhinia emblem of the SAR and oversaw renovations of Government House in 1993, will create his largest sculpture yet with rainbow-coloured tubes joined by stainless steel wire appearing to float in space.
He chose 18 icosohedrons as the geometric shape, with the largest volume for the minimum surface to symbolise the vibrancy of Hong Kong in the 10-metre-long, nine-metre-high and eight-metre-wide piece.
The exhibitions director said he was not impressed by Santry's piece with its 'cliched images of angels and flowers'.
