It took me quite a while to find a visual element representing the uniqueness of what I started to call the ‘fabric’ of Hong Kong’s visual identity, and relating to the recent political events at the same time, without making me have to use cheap symbolisms such as yellow umbrellas or banners. The hand-painted, mainly bilingual road marking around on public highways throughout the city offered me such an element to serve as a basis of a more comprehensive work. This typeface uniquely symbolizes the streets of Hong Kong, and the characters the protesters walked and camped upon during the Umbrella Movement in the autumn of 2014. At first, I designed a very limited font in order to meet precisely the needs of this project. However, due to acclaim by Hong Kong friends and public, I am now developing a full Pan-CJK font from this basis.

This series of 18 posters expresses a very personal reflection on the cynical and doubtful conception many young Hong Kongers have of their city and her future. Will she be able to retain some of her unique cultural features or end up a cityscape reduced to what Beijing desires her to stand for? I also wanted to find out whether my personal, European viewpoint and humor would actually have any effect on the audience, or whether it would be able to stir up any debate at all.
Although some of the content is difficult to be briefly explained outside of Hong Kong’s urban context, it still communicates a general atmosphere of uncertainty. The posters were hand-cut into A0-sized, colored cardboard.

Along the posters, I developed this series of artist’s books related to the general theme. The two-part “Romantic Series” reflects two places in absolute transition (Macao and Kowloon City), while “Elements” represents my attempts to achieve an audio-visual deconstruction of the ‘fabric’ of Hong Kong’s urban cultural identity, which is closely linked to the musical work. These hand-bound books were produced as an integral part of the exhibition.

The exbibition was opened on February 26, 2015 at the HKBU AVA Choi Hung Gallery, a former RAF officers’ mess. The “Arbritary Messages from the Street” turned the room into a typographic space, used by a curious audience to exchange on the state of affairs in post-occupy Hong Kong. I held a live sound performance of the music I wrote during the time. Later on, an artist talk was organized for the Hong Kong Arts Council, which brought a group of college students.

During my time as artist in residence, I had to take countless buses, trams, MTRs, and I walked around a lot. It was on these transits that I developed the question whether sound might play an active role in the visual perception of a city. After collecting sound recordings from a variety of places (public transport, housing estates, roadsides, university campuses, shopping malls etc.), I then set off to bring them together on the basis of music I composed around (and by help of) these sounds. The result reflects my search for what I call ‘audio icons’ of Hong Kong.

On June 21, 2015, the TedX Kowloon Design Salon was held under the theme “本土 Local – 全球 Global”, which was inspired by my “Arbritary Messages from the Street”, as well as the key visual using the Hong Kong Street Face. An interesting animated sequence opens the videos communicating event-related details, also my music appears in them. Thanks for Javin Mo of Milkxake (Hong Kong) for his creative usage of these resources!