Tai Kok Tsui Awakening -The Big Corner of Urban Art

As a species, we humans like beautiful things. We are attracted to things that intrigue us, things that are new and fresh, bright colours and shiny lights. We wear new clothes that make us attractive, apply make-up to accentuate our features, and decorate our homes to infuse comfort and tranquillity. 

Our neighbourhood is no different. Over the past few years Tai Kok Tsui has been undergoing a beautification transformation of illustrious illustration. Walls are not just walls anymore and doors are not just doors. Our neighbourhood has become a serendipitous canvas to the young artists of Hong Kong. 

Take a walk along Ka Shin St, Beech St or Anchor St, and you will be greeted by a wave of Hong Kong’s finest urban art. And it’s not just the shopfront gates curating this streetside exhibition, a slew of establishments have also brought the art indoors. 

Of course, these pieces are not just random slaps of paint on the walls around town, all pieces have been commissioned by the businesses occupying the shops, looking to introduce a little of the culture behind their business and display it to their customers. 

Most of the artists were contacted by the shop owners directly, after seeing their work in other places. Noble, who specialises in historical subject matter, was contacted by Weave Studios to portray the history of TKT on the facade of their building on Anchor St, while Uncle was approached by the organisation Current Projects, an arts organisation who specialises in large-scale cutting-edge artworks, on behalf of Square Mile to complete his piece on Ka Shin St.  

For the artists, creation and concept can be a big issue. Apple says it can be a mix, sometimes you can create an entire piece based on your own concepts, but it also depends on the requests of the shop owner. Weave wanted a piece that would tell the story and history of TKT. With this, Noble was able to freely create the piece himself based on his own research. Though this is a far contrast from the Chinese restaurant on Tai Tsun St, where they insisted on having a segment of the famous Zhang Zeduan painting Along the River During the Qingming Festival.

Uncle says that it’s very important to create your piece so that it will fit in with its surroundings. The location, the people, and the culture of the area are very important aspects to consider when creating artworks that are to become a part of the environment.  

Creating urban art is not all fairies and stardust though, as one might think, the job comes with its own unique challenges and troubles. Different pieces demand different resources, working hours can be erratic, and deadlines stringent, making some of the most prominent complications time and manpower. 

For the mural inside the new seafood restaurant, Heidi estimated around 28 hours from conception to completion, whereas Apple reports her piece took around 10 hours just painting. On Anchor St, Noble had a team of four artists working full time for 3 weeks, while Uncle worked alone for four nights to complete his work on Ka Shin St. On top of that, he could only start working when the shop closed for the day, meaning his workday would start at midnight and continue all the way through to sunrise. 

Apple suffered similar circumstances, and worse, when upstairs residents started to complain about the odours from the spray cans. One night at about 1am a resident called the police to complain, after much discussion with little clear understanding, she was forced to cease work for the night, meaning she had to return early the same morning to continue the work so as to not miss the deadline. Working through the daytime, though, is not much better. Over the three weeks of Noble’s creation at Weave, he and his team endured long working hours under horrendous conditions. Working long days in the extreme heat, in an effort to make up for lost time because of rain. All so that they could complete the piece on schedule. 

Murals such as these are becoming increasingly popular in Hong Kong, and businesses are using them as a device to attract more customers and increase their status. But while there are always people who want to make things beautiful, there will always be others who want to destroy that beauty. Vandalism, they say, is a thing, but in Hong Kong it’s not as great a problem as you may see in other countries. There is a kind of mutual respect amongst the mural artists and graffiti vandals who tag their name on random walls around town. 

In one instance, Apple recounts how a vandal tagged his name over her work, “kinda by accident,” and that the person later apologised to her. Repairing the works after they have been vandalised is often a matter of discussion between the artist and the client who commissioned the piece. If the client is not concerned, then they will just leave it. The artists however are extremely non-confrontational and, in some cases, make friends with those vandals and restore the works silently. According to Uncle, it’s not such a big deal to occasionally repair those pieces.

So next time you are out and about on the streets, take some time to stop, look around, and enjoy the artwork. Take in the nuances of the subject matter and how it relates to the shop it is painted on, or the wall in the restaurant that is coming alive, and how it complements the food you are eating and the locality of the cuisine. 

Remember, the creators of these pieces are not some upstart kids defacing public property, they are commissioned, planned, and beautifully created pieces of art. Urban art. Art that you don’t have to go all the way to the museum to see. Art that is right here in your own backyard. Art that is reflecting the history and culture of our neighbourhood. Art that is Tai Kok Tsui.