Spontaneous construction

This city's almost seamless building sites offer an exciting medium for a special artist. He tells P.Ramakrishnan why jackhammers are music to his ears.

Even if you've walked past 102 Austin Road, Kowloon, you've probably missed the large canvas of Stanley Wong Ping-pui's latest art work. You're not to be blamed.

At a glance, a myopic eye will not recognise what it is-the large "canvas" of red, blue and white stripes made of the same woven material used primarily in construction sites to prevent debris from falling to the pavement actually sits on a building that is under construction. Why would anyone look at Building HK04 Tsim Sha Tsui for a second longer?

Another example of his work was inconspicuously displayed last year in the lobby of G.O.D., the furniture warehouse in Causeway Bay. The "installation art" looked as if the lobby had been left incomplete for days on end. But the scene - a mess of wires and dust - was actually painfully created. Entitled Building HK01 Causeway Bay, the only thing left from the project are photographs in Wong's office.

Deceptively straightforward, Wong's theme, Building Hong Kong, derives from a city in constant motion and growth. While most people will moan at the sight of yet another pneumatic drill, Wong delights in further opportunity to create his distinctive art.

"Hong Kong is about constant growth. Why don't we celebrate that?" he asks. "For a few years, I lived and worked in Singapore and I came back to Hong Kong just in time for the handover and realised how much I missed this placee."


Looking at his prospective plans on a digital disc, Wong, who is also an award-winning graphic designer and ad-film maker, says he wants to bring his art to all parts of Hong Kong. If all his visions come true, his work will be displayed in parks, commercial centres, temples and mosques. All the works will bear his favourite colour motif of red, white and blue, which carries a sense of unity, or does it?

"No politics, please. My work is not confrontational," he says, while an image superimposed on an government building appears on the digital-display screen. "It reflects my version of utopia and peace. Peace and politics don't seem to mingle much these days. When a French guy sees the work, he thinks it's somehow related to France. Same with an American. Foreigners relate to the work with their own homeland in mind. To anyone from Hong Kong, these colours are an instant portrait of Hong Kong."

He is right. Red, white and blue are also the colours of the ubiquitous, and often derided, rectangular zip-up canvas bags favoured by Hong Kongers as holdalls. To Wong, it's really a "made-in-Hong Kong" symbol, and a good one.

"There is nothing stronger, nothing will last longer, it's efficcient and inexpensive. To any person anywhere in Hong Kong, it's symbolic of where we come from," Wong says. "I am working on a book and trying to trace the history and origin of this material - why these elementary colours were chosen? To me, it's a local icon."

It has not been easy to put his works on public display. He laughs when a reference is made about the similarities between him aand the "King of Kowloon'" graffiti artist Tsang Tsou-choi, whose "canvasses" are walls on public sites. "The idea's the same - but my work would be legal of course!" Wong says with a chuckle. His company staff try to get permission from owners and management companies around town.

"The museum and gallery audience are a secondary target, they don't concern me as much as regular people do. How maany people are willing to go all the way to Sha Tin to look at the art on display other than a few well-intended art lovers and tourists," Wong says. "It's not the gallery cult I seek. Anyone should have the opportunity to see my work, not just the people who pay to see it in a controlled environment. At bus stops, in malls, in office buildings - where the real people are, that's where my work should be."

Gazing out towards Victoria Park from his office near Tin Hau temple, he says "I don't even like the word 'art', as I am a communications major," Wong says. "Paintings, sculptures aren't art to me. Every piece is an individual and personal communicaation."

He won the gold award at the Provisional Regional Council Asian-Pacific Poster Exhibition in 1997 for his two-set posters "1 Country 2 Systems" and "50 Years Remain Unchanged". Since then, his work has travelled to Berlin, Shanghai and Taipei to glowing reviews and a slew of awards.

The goal of his latest project is to give people a positive outlook about the land they inhabit. "We've got to have faith in our country, our society, our work, our lives, ourselves as individuals. The country is a reflection of us - the big picture telescopes to us, not the other way around."