Murals at Hong Kong Central station. One of my favorite pastimes in a city is losing myself by walking streets and alleys, gardens and parks, and through public spaces such as urban plazas. This is true for most cities I visit, but Hong Kong’s urban streetscape has always offered something even more tantalizing: from glimpses of contradictory views and lush green pockets with century old trees to fabulous bakeries and shops selling traditional medicinal products, not to mention the shopping mall meccas that bring shame to even the most luxurious American mall.
If these experiences happen above ground, my other predilection is to be an underground flâneur roaming the 170 subway stations that serve Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and the New Territories.
Hong Kong has one of the most straightforward and efficient Mass Transit Railway (MTR) systems in the world, allowing seamless urban mobility that connects the underground network with above ground taxis, buses, trams, ferry, and, most recently the high-speed rail to mainland China. Below ground, Hong Kong’s extensive subway system carries over a million passengers daily between Hong Kong island, across Victoria Harbor to the New Territories, ending up in the city of Shenzhen at the edge of mainland China (Image 1).
Hong Kong MTR
I love to roam in the maze of this clean and beautifully modern subway system. While the MTR quickly brings me to my destination, I often slow down and peruse stations, taking time to visit a cornucopia of stores, bakeries (Maxim’s Cakes is my favorite) and the iconic 7-Elevens that populate any concourse level before the actual subway area.
Subway art
Walking among the maze of commuters, I have recently discovered that the MTR has a robust art program that presents artists’ works at many of the major subway stations. Because I fell in love with a series of bas-relief murals by Hong Kong artist Louise Soloway Chan, whose work I featured in a past blog (Image 2), I researched the MTR’s art program, and learned how public art is supported at specific subway stations (Image 2).
Another of my favorite murals—among a growing list of installations that I look forward to visiting during an upcoming trip to HK, is located at Central Station on the Island Line lower platform direction Kennedy Town. While the artwork is subtle in its colors and HK landscape motif, one cannot miss it, as it is impressive in size (2.8m in height x 17m in length) and takes the entire left side of the platform.
Lucia N.Y. Cheung
Created by Macao native Lucia Nga Yin (N.Y.) Cheung—Hong Kong based since early childhood—the artwork is made from glass tile mosaics and is best appreciated from two vantage points, so that the macro and micro narratives of scale can be appreciated. The first view embraces the panoramic depiction of Cheung’s hometown of Hong Kong from Victoria Bay to the eastern part of the island. When the observer comes close to the mural the more intimate viewpoint emphasizes the marvel of each little glass stone that contributes to the overall theme of the artwork.
For ease of my descriptions—because the scale and size is impressive (roughly nine feet tall by fifty-six feet long) —I have subdivided the work into five panels that in no way suggest a new narrative beyond managing the scale of the mosaic (Image 3).
Image 1
Looking at the mural from left to right, the waterway features two iconic wooden junk boats that used to operate in Victoria Bay for fishing, trade, and transportation purposes while also serving as a home. The boat on the far-right (1) is presented in full-frontal view, and, given its scale, suggests being further into the bay, perhaps returning home from a distant trading post. The second boat (2) is seen in silhouette and is sailing towards the harbor, showing its magnificent two-masted sails with a typical forward mast smaller than the rear one.
These two traditional Chinese vessels are delicate in design and iconic in their form. In this panel, which forms the beginning of the mosaic, they take center stage in the bay. Perhaps this is what the artist wanted to stress: how vital Chinese junks were as both “serv[ed] as an important role in the commercial, diplomatic and military development of ancient China,” and in a more modern way, to move Hong Kong from a small fishing village to an international metropolis.
Featured in the background, is a modern cityscape that is almost unnoticeable, suggestive in its ephemeral quality. Yet at closer look, the low curved building to the immediate right of the second vessel suggests a modern Hong Kong with its crab shell Convention and Exhibition Center (3). Thus, one may assume that the buildings in the background depict the tall skyscraper cluster around Central Plaza (5) and the China Underwriters Centre in Wan Chai (6). At this moment I cannot identify the building to their left (4). Buildings are like signs, abstract calligraphy giving a minimum of definition to recognize the artifact.
Looking closely, the construction of the mosaic is intricate, and the detailing tells a story of its own making: how the artist chooses, cuts, sands, adjusts, and moves each stone to find and fit with its neighbor, while never forgetting the overall surface and its necessary narrative.
What is so beautiful throughout the length of this panel, and in fact the entire mural, is the artist’s depiction of a rising dream-like metropolis, and how Cheung establishes it in direct opposition to an almost barren sloped landscape. The landscape is punctuated with pairs of native Hong Kong evergreens that will take more prominence as clusters of nature as one move to the right of the mural. The faint cityscape suggests the western neighborhood of Wan Chai with a foreground to be yet fully conquered.
What makes this first panel so appealing to me is the balance between an emerging and historical Hong Kong of key iconic landmarks of a recent past, all set amidst an untouched landscape that is in expectation of becoming domesticated and urbanized.
In the above close-up and detail of the two-masted boat (Image 4), one can fully admire the dexterity of the artist’s use of intricate and irregular geometrical forms (tesserae in Latin: a “ticket, tally, voucher, or means of identification”. The latter, key to understanding how each individual piece suggests meaning at the micro and macro scales).
For example, in the composition of the sail of the larger boat, one can see the sail’s oblique construction with inserts of structural tension made from bamboo. They are placed at regular intervals joining the elliptical fan-shaped sails, which give the tensile property to sail quickly and steadily. Note that the vertical mast is located off-center and not affixed to the side or top as with other boats (Image 6).
Image 2
The second panel—directly adjacent to the right of the previous one—has at the forefront the neoclassical Court of Final Appeal completed in 1912 (1), catty corner to Chater Garden. As in the previous view, the landscape seems inhabited and in expectation of a nascent Hong Kong.
As one’s eyes adjust beyond the historic building and the undeveloped mountains rendered in the traditional style in the background, a number of familiar modern silhouettes appear. To the far right is the flattened cylinder of the Conrad hotel (2); the Bank of China Tower (3); the trapezoidal-like shape of Citibank (4); and the square Cheung Kong Centre (5).
Directly behind the Court of Final Appeal, fronting Queen’s Road Central and Des Voeux Road Central are the original Bank of China headquarter building completed in 1934 (6); the HSBC building with its suspension truss structure completed in 1985 (7); and the tall slender Standard Chartered Bank Building (8). I have not mentioned the building directly in front of the Court partially obliterating its right side as I cannot identify it. If someone knows its name please let me know in the blog’s comments section.
Nature has gained prominence with a native palm tree to the left of the Court building and further to its right, a group of trees in full bloom with exaggerated scale and exuberant blue foliage.
The emergence of a city in the background, one which we know exists today but is depicted as faint and ephemeral, reminds me of the Gothic city in the work of 15th century Italian painter Pisanello. The protagonists take center stage, but the emerging city in the background is what has always impressed me. Ever present in its enchantment of colors and tectonics, the tower city created by Pisanello remains imaginary despite being reminiscent of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence (Image 8).
In the far right corner of Pisanello’s fresco lies a medieval urban settlement in the form of a castle with the military fortification high up on a hill. Here, history is relegated to the back with the emerging city in the middle ground. For Cheung and her panorama of Hong Kong, history is brought to the forefront and suggests carrying a permanent lesson as its presence should inform us of our future, as it emerges proudly in the form of abstracted skyscrapers. Perhaps a metaphor of Hong Kong’s continued emergence of a city between East and West.
Image 3
In this third panel (again to the right), nature takes over and progresses horizontally as it occupies all of the foreground, while the middle ground has quasi disappeared. Trees in full bloom morph into early spring where leaves are just emerging. Two birds are nesting on the ground, surrounded by insects and the dance of butterflies. Even fainter than the previous image, are other contemporary Hong Kong skyscrapers (Image 9).
Image 4
An exuberance of grasses, small trees and hills to the left contrast with what seem the financial district of Hong Kong. A repetitive and dense urban front spans almost the entire panel. Bamboo is prominent and suggests a strong allegiance to traditional Chinese painting. The overall composition underscores two important horizontal themes. In foreground is nature, almost a wilderness populated by a bird and surrounded by plants, flowers and butterflies. The coastline reappears and is relegated to the corner, suggesting the majestic hilly landscapes of Hong Kong and its many surrounding islands (Image 10).
While any detail in the mosaic is worth a close look, I would like to illustrate Cheung’s dexterity in how she masters each little glass stone. They are magnificent, and the juxtaposition of color, and the varied shapes and sizes, form in this instance a voluptuous bird resting on a twig. The lozenge shaped stones suggest the delicacy of the bird’s feathers, and the way they are placed describe both light and depth, volume and contour.
Of course, the choice of the colors underscores the three-dimension rhythmic form of the bird’s body and its position on the twig (Image 11). The movement and vibrancy of the feathers reminds me very much of Van Gogh’s boisterous brushstrokes in many of his later works in Provence.
Image 5
The final panel brings us full circle to the origins of Hong Kong’s physical landscape: undeveloped mountains, ridges, valleys, and hills that flow into the coastline at Victoria Bay. Key to this panel is the emblem of Hong Kong that is featured in a stylized manner on the city’s flag. Here in white and pink, the five-petaled orchid tree Bauhinia flower petal represents the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (Image 12 and 13).
At the far right, terminating the mosaic, is a Chinese stamp signature which I cannot decipher but which I presumed related to the murals title “Home with a View.” I asked a native Chinese about the stamp signature and here is what he said:
“Based on that, my guess for the whole sentence is
Mountains rise high, waters run far.
Yet my(our) feelings(resolves) remains unchanged
Basically, it suggests that no matter how high the mountain or how far-reaching the water (Challenge), one’s inner strength only deepens.”
Conclusion
I applaud the MTR in Hong Kong to have initiated such a robust art program for many of its subway stations. While having conducted an uncomplete on-site survey, I can say hands down that the mural by Lucia Nga Yin Cheung is one of the most poetic works or art that I have seen. It reflects the umbilical tie between nature and culture, between natural landscape and man-made cityscape (Image 14).
In a city that has evolved since my first visit in 1995, I perceive a profound sadness when looking at this art. Perhaps it is because of what no longer exists, like many black and white photos of far gone times: when the natural coastline was just populated, the buildings low and indigenous, or the street life of the 1960s captured so beautifully by famed photographer Fan Ho.
“The faintest ink is better than the best memory”
Chinese proverb
Epilogue
A sketch by the artist prior to the development of the final design.
Additional blogs pertaining to Hong Kong
Hong Kong Shopping Mall
Hong Kong: Bauhaus style Central Market
Hong Kong: a lesson in stairs (Central Market)
Hong Kong: the history of Central Market
Bathroom at the Novotel in Hong Kong
Hong Kong: a lesson in stairs (Billie Tsien and Tod Williams)