YOU CANNOT help but suspect that Kwok Mang-ho's mind is a little like his studio: jam-packed with the most bizarre collection of things. Among the stacks of books and furniture, hand-painted bras hang from decapitated mannequins and fish tanks and frog puppets fight for space. Kwok sits in the midst of this chaos wearing an equally wacky outfit of layered vests, two pairs of shades, a curly brown wig and an upturned sun visor. He is explaining how he earned the nickname 'Frog King' when, inexplicably, he grabs a stack of white paper, tears it into strips and throws it into the air.'Ahhh, that felt good,' says Kwok.
I soon realise that this is typical behaviour of the Frog King. He was at the cutting edge of Hong Kong's contemporary art scene in the early 1970s and when he moved to New York in 1985, he became even more avant-garde. He teamed up with musicians and artists to produce some seriously off-beat performances and when he returned to Hong Kong in 1990 to look after his sick mum, he had created his own Frog King style: a combination of multi-media installation and performance which draws the audience into his aesthetic world.
'I like everybody to perform together - playing is the main idea,' says Kwok.
And this is what he will be doing next week in Seoul, South Korea. Kwok is one of six local artists taking part in a dual exhibition between the Hong Kong Fringe Club and the Seoul Fringe Network as part of the 6HK ARTists (arrow) Seoul. The exhibition opens in Hong Kong on Saturday and in Seoul at the Ssamzie Space on August 18.
The artists have been chosen not only for their creative talent but for their ability and willingness to share their art. Kwok has no problem with sharing his art - he wants everyone to be a part of it.
Throughout the interview he snaps a couple of pictures of me: one with a toilet roll on my head and the other of me grinning inanely into the rainbow reflected in a laser disc. I have become one of the more than 10,000 people he has collected in what he calls his 'one-second performances'. The moment that the camera flash goes off, is the moment of your performance.
