Kacey Wong knows exactly where to go when he feels the need for a little inspiration. And it's often not, as one might expect, to a museum or gallery.
Instead, the Hong Kong-based artist heads to the bustle of the CityPlaza mall in Tai Koo Shing to gaze at Bernard Gitton's Zen Fountain as it bubbles away while shoppers rush here and there.
'It is a fantastic piece of public art,' says Wong. 'And it's well worth the wait to see the cup topple and the sound generated, even if you don't get the meaning behind it. I think a good piece of public art can work on more than one level.
'Shopping malls are usually just about buying and selling, so seeing this piece of philosophical public art successfully installed in such a space is very refreshing.'
Gitton's piece is just one of hundreds of pieces of public art in Hong Kong - a fact often overlooked as the debate rages over the money being spent on, and the actual purpose of, the West Kowloon Cultural District and the government's desire to establish an 'art culture' in the city.
Swire Properties, for example, has more than 150 pieces of public art placed at various locations around town, from the Zen Fountain to The First Enlightenment, a pop-art-style installation in the forecourt of the Taikoo Primary School - a piece that is designed to engage children in art.
'It has been Swire Properties' practice to display art pieces that interact harmoniously with their architectural setting since the 1970s, when we commissioned metal sculptures from local artists for our Taikoo Shing development,' says Dominic Purvis, general manager for marketing and communications at Swire Properties.
