To promote its restaurants, Festival Walk has invited American artist Jim Victor to the Kowloon Tong mall to carve giant chunks of chocolate, butter and cheese into artworks shaped like a Peking duck, a giant hamburger and other food. The 62-year-old admits it's an odd career sidetrack to shape and mould food items, and the trained artist and teacher explained it all started with a Broadway show.
'An associate asked me to do a food sculpture in the early 1980s for Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, who were in the Broadway hit Sugar Babies,' he recalled. 'It was to be used in a publicity event. That's how I got started. Actually, that day Ann leaned on the table and knocked her sculpture over. We spent five hours fixing it and I was covered head to toe in chocolate.'
His exhibits here will last until April 9 (when the dairy sculpture expires?). On his first visit to Asia, Victor hopes to see more than just the tourist spots. 'Above all, I want to find a temple where the Shaolin monks live and watch them practise kung fu - maybe people doing tai chi.' Well, for the latter we have some suggestions.
