Art Central

One of my good friends works at UOB (United Overseas Bank) which happened to be the main sponsor for the Art Central festival in Hong Kong this year.  We went on one of the later days, when it was a little less crowded (but still pretty crowed), and enjoyed strolling through the different galleries.

They erected two huge white tents side by side down by the waterfront where, by virtue of ingeniously terrible city planning, no individual ever ends up wandering or venturing.

 We walked in to the throngs of  slightly disheveled, glass of post-work wine seeking, Thursday evening humanity.

One of my favorite exhibits was one belonging to a gallery showcasing pictures from all around my neighborhood.   In fact, this store depicted in the picture below is just down the street from us, and we have ventured in there on a few occasions when treasure-hunting tickles our fancy.

I loved this one - where they spliced and re-framed all these old buildings on one street, in black and white photographs.

This one also struck my fancy - Korean schoolgirls probing around Vermeer's studio - time travel in oil paint form!

 There were a lot of sculptures - some particularly cool ones were these hand-crocheted and strung columns.

 This massive black balloon like thing floating over the entrance of the tent:

This fun little sign near the washrooms:

 

An interesting take on a shower head:

This stone sculpture tied to strings that rhythmically hit a huge drum was oddly soothing and captivating:

 This wonderful interactive sculpture made music upon any movement that you made while within its perfectly calibrated center, simply based on the change in the air (no touch needed!):

Below, a few more things we saw on our stroll through the galleries that caught my eye:

 

 

 There were also comfortable places to sit, and a few bars and cafes offering food and drink.

I thought the lights were a bit too bright in the tent generally - there was a lot of glare and the white walls and gray carpets, while providing the necessary neutral background to showcase the art, felt a bit stark.

But overall, I had a good time and am really glad I went!