Art@Government Buildings project shares art with the community (with photos)
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     Tailor-made public artworks are being put on display from today (March 11) till March 31, 2015, at four government buildings, namely the General Post Office, the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Hung Hom Community Hall and Sha Tin Town Hall, which are located on Hong Kong Island, in Kowloon and in the New Territories.

     Entitled Art@Government Buildings, this large-scale public art project aims to create a fresh artistic environment for the buildings and offer visitors and users a new experience. Since its launch in 2010, this project has already introduced works of art to nine government buildings in the past two years.

     Speaking at the project's opening ceremony at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium today, the Director of Leisure and Cultural Services, Mrs Betty Fung, said different media have been used in the project including sculpture, installation, painting, comics, video and multimedia.

     Noting that the artworks in the previous projects were mainly displayed at government offices, Mrs Fung said this year's project adopted a new approach by showcasing artworks at four government buildings which provide different services. The participating artists created works for the General Post Office, the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, Hung Hom Community Hall and Sha Tin Town Hall with reference to the uniqueness of the buildings and the character of the districts and community in which they are located.

     Other officiating guests included the Acting Assistant Postmaster General (Corporate Development) of Hongkong Post, Mr Wan Siu-yin; the Chairman of the Kowloon City District Council, Mr Lau Wai-wing; the Chairman of the Culture, Leisure & Social Affairs Committee of the Central and Western District Council, Mr Chan Chit-kwai; the Chairman of the Culture, Sports and Community Development Committee of the Sha Tin District Council, Mr Cheng Cho-kwong; Co-opted Member of the Cultural and Leisure Services Committee of the Wan Chai District Council Ms Ha Thuc-van; Adjudication Panel Members of Art@Government Buildings 2013-14 Professor Desmond Hui and Ms Man Fung-yi; and the Head of the Art Promotion Office, Dr Lesley Lau.

     This year's project is presented by the Home Affairs Bureau and organised by the Art Promotion Office of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. It is supported by the Home Affairs Department and Hongkong Post with the Community Art Network as the programme co-ordinator. Through an open call for proposals, four local artists, namely Sze Wing-yee, Sim Chan, Wong Wai-yin and Wu Wai-chung, were selected to create public artworks for the project.

     In the creation of "The Letters" for the General Post Office, Sze Wing-yee collected handwritten letters kept by Hong Kong people and turned sentences into a bronze installation and translucent stickers on the windows of the first floor of the post office. In the sunshine, the coloured shadows of letters are cast on the floor, encouraging people to recall the joy, warmth and excitement they feel when opening a handwritten letter.

     "Let the Kites Back into the Sky", which Sim Chan created for the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, uses kites as symbolic carriers of different "city skies". The works reveal natural scenery with flying kites and floating clouds that take up the pressure, frustrations, tensions and worries of urban life and release them into the natural sky.
 
     "Our Little Corner of the World" features paintings that Wong Wai-yin created for Hung Hom Community Hall. The works depict scenes of Wong's walk with her child in Hung Hom and Kowloon City, showing Hung Hom as a silent and peaceful place.

     The artwork created by Wu Wai-chung for Sha Tin Town Hall is named "Double Happiness Point". The title of this work sounds the same in Cantonese as "starting point" and metaphorically implies that marriage is another starting point in life. "Double happiness" is a common Chinese character used in traditional Chinese marriage ceremonies to suggest that good things come in pairs. By using the magic of perspective, Wu deconstructs and scatters two "double happiness" characters along the corridor leading to the entrance to the Sha Tin Marriage Registry in the town hall. Looking for the complete "double happiness" reflects the search for a life partner.

     Members of the public are welcome to visit the artworks of Art@Government Buildings with free admission. For details of the project, please visit its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/AGB2013-14, or call the Community Art Network at 6717 8723.

Ends/Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Issued at HKT 19:01

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