It’s not political, it’s art, he says: Hong Kong artist Frog King opens exhibition filled with protest references
- Friends say, ‘Frog King, you betrayed us, you don’t come with us to demonstrate on the streets.’ The artist’s reply? ‘I am not a political demonstrator’
- For all his protestations, though, Kwok Mang-ho’s recent work, currently on show, includes rivulets of tear gas and umbrellas – symbol of Hong Kong protest
On a narrow pathway that connects Arbuthnot Road to Old Bailey Street in Central in Hong Kong, the air is thick with smoke. Is it tear gas? Or the airborne remnants of a Molotov cocktail?
No – it’s art.
This is an event to launch the artist known as Frog King’s latest exhibition at 10 Chancery Lane, “Frog King: The Living Legend”, and outside the gallery, the legend himself has set up something of an art installation.
There are incense sticks and candles – and ergo, smoke, copious amounts of it, that wafts into the enclosed space – but there are also toilet paper rolls, dish scrubbers, turnips and bitter melons that form a support structure for the burning materials.
At lunch, the artist – whose real name is Kwok Mang-ho, and who is known for his outlandish outfits, even more outlandish performances, defiantly optimistic outlook and incredibly prolific output – insists that he is not political, and that his art is not political.