INK AND ARCHITECTURE

Background This project was invited by Hong Kong Design Trust’s ‘Critically Homemade’. Established in 2020 as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the programme sought to facilitate creative collaboration, inspire critical reflection, and drive positive momentum in Hong Kong and beyond during times of lockdown. Design Trust Critically Homemade aimed to create an organic platform for designers and viewers to think critically and creatively. Contribution INK AND ARCHITECTURE was created in collaboration with artists and researchers from Chinese, British, Japanese and Hong Kong backgrounds. Led by Hugh Davies, this knowledge exchange resulted in a series of six mini sculptures that combine historic and contemporary Chinese aesthetics through architectural miniatures of renowned Hong Kong buildings that serve as decorative handles for traditional seal stamps. Hugh built the architectural structures and co-designed the stamp impressions that appear beneath each of the miniature buildings. The decorative seal stamps reflect the customs of seal stamp designs but is abstracted and ambiguous, provoking multiple interpretations and meanings. Significance Created during a period of restrictive lockdowns, and with awareness of the dramatic change occurring in Hong Kong due to new security laws following a year of protest, this series of works is created in a spirit of collaborative craft and healing. Both playful and irreverent, these works emerge out of collaborative networks forged during difficult lockdown conditions. They stand as evidence of collaborative creative practice achieved during a period of strict social isolation. The resulting sculptures were exhibited at Gold Ball, K11 Musea in Hong Kong and were extensively reviewed online.