Home is where the art is

The club has hosted an annual exhibition by Hong Kong’s top student photographers for several years past. What they came up with in 2023 served as both a reminder of troubled times and a celebration of the 852.

Quite the most conspicuous feature of life in the time of COVID-19 was the facemask, the unfashion accessory that everybody loathed. ese same discom ting, disorienting faux bandages featured in just about every image of the Hong Kong, My Home! exhibition, sometimes slung beneath the chin rather than worn as per o cial regulations, but as omnipresent and jarring as a wart or a scar. Facemasks were a temporary aberration, but some aspects of Hong Kong are ineradicable: the appreciation of space – whether in short supply as in most people’s homes or in relative abundance in the city’s parks – the reverence for tradition, and an all-encompassing appreciation of food. Who better to capture all this than Hong Kong’s up-and-coming photographers, who trained a fresh eye and keenly honed senses on the scenes that were playing out mere steps from their front door or classroom? e result was an at-times humorous expo that was as entertaining as it was engaging, and one that raised questions while at the same time imparting an unarguable feeling of a ection.

Curator Cammy Yiu comments: “ is was the sixth such exhibition at the FCC displaying the work of undergraduate photographers, and their images supplied a distinct viewpoint that embraced news reportage of the wide-ranging e ects of COVID-19 as well as portraits of Hongkongers young and old holding onto their traditions and way of life, all of which were taken at a time when we were forging through a period of tremendous and transformative change.” e Wall Committee would like to thank Pinky Wong of Chinese University, Sunny Chan of City University, Robin Ewing of Baptist University and AJ Libunao of the University of Hong Kong for their assistance in selecting photographs by their students. n

1 Poetry in motion: escalator passengers and cleaner, Central.

2 Interesting times: fortune teller on Temple Street, Kowloon.

3 Happiness is... a corner seat, a smartphone and a drink. Dragon Centre, Sham Shui Po.

4 Two women cross Mei King Street.