Out of time: artists return to darkroom, make coin collages to remind Hong Kong of what has gone
- Anita Mui, Queen’s Pier, and former Legco building among icons of Hong Kong artist Giraffe Leung depicts using specially treated 20-cent coins
- Multiple exposures of city streets in China, Singapore, Japan and South Korea, printed in a darkroom without digital manipulation, make up Simon Wan’s show
Coins and darkroom photography may be falling out of use, but they have been given new life in an exhibition that explores and evokes Hongkongers’ collective memory.
Showing at La Galerie Paris 1839, Hollywood Road, Central, “Coins – Memories of Hong Kong” by Giraffe Leung Lok-hei and “City Glow” by Simon Wan Chi-chung look at how rapid urbanisation has changed the city.
“As e-payments and virtual money have replaced traditional money globally, I want to use money to remind us of the role … people and things play in our lives [and their value],” explains Leung, whose show re-examines unremarkable objects that became or are becoming obsolete.
The artist uses 20-cent coins to create images of well-known Hong Kong scenes and people, mainly because of their shape. The small, wavy-edged coins were designed and first issued during the British colonial era in 1975 and, like other coins minted before the territory’s return to Chinese sovereignty, represent part of the city’s identity and culture.
On the opening night, 26-year old Leung, who quit his job as an interior designer to be a full-time artist four years ago, showed how he creates artworks with coins. He wet his gloves with two chemical solutions (one blue and one transparent) before rubbing the surface of a collage of coins, making them appear rusted. Within minutes, they are formed into Hong Kong’s century-old former Legislative Council building.