For the next two months, art enthusiasts will be able to take in some of the finest works by Hong Kong and mainland Chinese artists from the comfort of their commute or an after-work stroll – and discover that some even come alive.
The artworks are part of the Hong Kong Museum of Art’s “Art For Everyone” campaign. Images of 100 paintings and antiquities from the museum’s permanent collection can now be found in 490 public venues – on billboards, digital screens and advertising spaces – scattered across Hong Kong’s 18 districts.
An app, developed by Hong Kong-based Gusto XR Lab, was launched alongside the campaign. It features a map detailing the locations and backgrounds of the artworks, as well as augmented reality (AR) technology that brings a selected 10 magically to life.
Point the app’s AR-enabled camera at any one of the 15 displays of the early 19th century painting A Chinese lady, for example, and you will see her take a journey through time aboard the MTR. The painting’s looming, black background vanishes behind two closing MTR doors, and a series of images flash by outside the windows, showing Hong Kong’s transformation from colonial outpost into the metropolis of today.
The nameless woman, painted by a nameless artist, cocks a smile and gently flicks her fingers before her commute comes to an end outside the present-day Museum of Art.
“Art For Everyone” is “unprecedented”, the first time the museum has taken its permanent collection out to the public in its 59-year history, says Nancy Lee, chairwoman of Friends of Hong Kong Museum of Art, which spearheaded the effort.
“The campaign was conceived for the Covid era, a time when social distancing has become a normal part of our lives, distancing people from each other and from the arts,” says Lee.
The initiative seeks to close this gap while taking advantage of display space that is available across Hong Kong due to the economic downturn: the side of a tram has been customised to show one work while others will flash across the enormous, 1,400-square-metre screen outside Causeway Bay’s Sogo department store.
Works from the museum’s four core collections feature in the campaign: Chinese Antiquities, Chinese Painting and Calligraphy, China Trade Art, and Modern and Hong Kong Art.
The museum, which has been reassessing its mission since completing a four-year renovation in late 2019, hopes the displays will prove a hit on social media and attract global attention, particularly for the 23 local artists whose works are in the spotlight, says Lee.
Sixty organisations and individuals either sponsored or contributed to “Art For Everyone”, and one key supporter has been the MTR, she says.
Each of Hong Kong’s 98 MTR stations will show at least one work and will keep them up for an entire year. Those elsewhere will come down on May 23.
“You exit the MTR and walk around the station, and have art to look at. You look up and say ‘Oh, that’s a work of art, that’s not an advertisement’,” says Lee. “It’s wonderful, a way of bringing art to the public – and we wanted that for everyone, everywhere, where you least expect it.”
The bilingual AR-enabled app – ArtForEveryone.hk – is available on Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, as well as from the campaign’s website.