Artists make their art sustainable, and their art about sustainability as they catch up to ‘ecological crisis’
- A growing number of Hong Kong artists are addressing sustainability issues not just in the theme of their works, but in the practise of their art making
- Each brings their own inimitable style, from the materials they use to the wide-ranging concepts they cover
But a growing number of Hong Kong artists are addressing a wider category of issues affecting all humankind: sustainability, environmental protection and coexistence with other species. Often, their strategies are just as radical, if not more so, than the political protesters.
Artists all over the world are trying new ways to halt our lemming-like procession towards irreversible climate change. In doing so, they are challenging pre-existing ideas of what art means, as well as the way art is produced and presented.
In Hong Kong, there is a long tradition of art with a message of harmony between humans and nature – it is an essential spirit of classical Chinese painting – and some artists are now committing their entire practice to ecological issues, each in their own inimitable ways.
Take Zheng Bo for example. The artist from Lantau Island, who teaches at City University of Hong Kong’s School of Creative Media, believes so much in pushing the boundaries of cross-species coexistence that he carries his Yorkshire terrier in a bag wherever he goes. (It takes an especially sedate dog for this to work in Hong Kong, and I have seen his sit through a five-course dinner with better table manners than most people.)