How extradition law protest art took over a Chinese curator’s Hong Kong exhibition

Shanghai curator hadn’t intended her show at Para Site in Hong Kong to cover politics, but wanted to see what city artists were doing. Protesting, it turned out

Protest placards, T-shirts and art students’ sketches of the action against extradition bill feature in show exploring plight of workers in the digital age

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Placards, T-shirts and sketches from the protests in Hong Kong against extradition law protests, made by members of the Hong Kong Artist Union, feature in The Bicycle Thieves exhibition at Para Site. Photo: Hong Kong Artist Union

Published: 5:30pm, 5 Jul 2019Updated: 1:15am, 6 Jul 2019

When an arts writer in Shanghai submitted an exhibition proposal to Hong Kong’s Para Site for its emerging curators programme at the contemporary art space this summer, her intention wasn’t to delve into local politics. After all, Zhang Hanlu has never lived in Hong Kong and knew little about the place and its people.

The original idea for an exhibition called “The Bicycle Thieves” came from the 1948 Italian film of the same name that followed a father and son as they searched desperately for their stolen bicycle – the father’s sole means of making a living.

In choosing the works of 16 local and international artists and groups, the aim of 30-year-old Zhang is to explore whether the precarious existence of the proletariat, deprived of control over traditional means of production, has improved with the digital age, sharing economy and globalisation.

Some of the exhibits have to do with how artists are experimenting with their own roles – as “service providers” and as activists, for example – and that’s why there is a large section in the exhibition about the protests in Hong Kong against proposed changes to extradition law, put together by members of the Hong Kong Artist Union.

Protest badges made by Hong Kong Artist Union, part of The Bicycle Thieves exhibition at Para Site in Quarry Bay. Photo: Para Site

“The Hong Kong perspective is very important to this exhibition and I wanted to find out what local artists are doing as part of my investigation into the changing nature of labour. When I talked to the union members about the exhibition, they said what they were doing right now was being on the streets, protesting against the government’s extradition bill,” Zhang says.