Dark Fluid Collective: Clip 4
Details
Dark Fluid Collective: Clip 4
Metadata (MODS) |
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| Titles | Dark Fluid Collective: Clip 4: |
| Name | Angela Su |
| Name | Pak-chye |
| Name | Cally Yu |
| Name | Dr. Joanne Leow |
| Type of Resource | sound recording |
| Identifier | Interview |
| Identifier | Dark Fluid Collective Clip 4 |
| Abstract | This clip focuses on the role of architecture and city spaces within Hong Kong. The artists comment on the impact of emerging city spaces and land reclamation—in particular how these spaces will effect the art community. |
| Extent | 7:36 Minutes |
| Form | sound recording |
| Note | Joanne Leow: on the one hand, you know, there’s one narrative of Hong Kong, which is just like, this is great, we’re reclaiming all this land, we’re building all this stuff, we’re making nature conservation areas, West Kowloon Cultural District’s going to be great, right, and they were just like, (sound of being unconvinced). 19:28 Angela Su: Depends who she talks to, right. (laughing) Joanne Leow: Yeah, so that’s one narrative, that it’s going great, like, you know, and it’s very—it’s a very spectacular and iconic narrative, because you actually have these buildings, right, you actually have this plot of land that did not exist before. And then on the other hand I hear this deep anxiety from people who are like, where are we going, what’s happening here? I mean, all these changes, you can actually see the physical changes having psychological effects, on the young people, you were saying, but also on the rest of the population. So, I mean, I wanted to ask your opinion, I wanted to hear you guys talk a little bit more about that relationship between the immense architectural and infrastructural changes that are occurring in Hong Kong and that kind of psychology of like, you know, the people, which I think you do tap into when you think of your anthology, right, because you’re thinking of these masses of people too, yeah. Sorry (laughing), that’s a really hard question. 20:27 Angela Su: I don’t think we thought about architecture that much. We did some free workshops together, and I invited Andio Lai—he is a graphic artist—to imagine the cityscape of Hong Kong in the future. So, the way he thought about it is, like, he conceptualized it as like a two-layer city, like a developer would 3D print some pillar and then put this pillar in the middle of like, old district like here, a few pillars here and there, and built another layer over, like a canopy on top of the older district. So, it’s going to be like sort of a iPhone, Apple kind of aesthetic, all-white Zaha Hadid kind of thing. I mean, it’s—again, it’s about the discussion about how real estate developers, corporates exploit the rest of the population, and this is deeply ingrained in our culture. 21:29 Joanne Leow: And who does space belong to, who can inherit it, yeah. 21:33 Pak-chye: (speaking in Mandarin). (others occasionally add comments in Mandarin). This is a new city, there is a new city within Hong Kong. This land is for mainland Chinese who want money and power. The developments in this area have half been bought up by people who are profit-driven. The other group of people who have bought up these developments are those Hong Kongers who are willing to cooperate and collaborate with these mainlanders. 22:08 we are talking about the Elements development [in Tsim Shah Tsui]. The architecture of this whole development is really interesting. It is a podium below and then there are different high rises on the top. It’s really ugly. When you look at it from Hong Kong Island, it really does not look good. So everybody makes a joke about it. But if you look at how it is organized in space, it is an island unto itself. There is nothing just outside of it, no street life that we have become used to in Hong Kong. It’s a gated community. And its interior will be connected to the new high speed rail. This high speed rail will allow people to come back and forth from Beijing. And in the future, the largest arts district will be here. This whole new quarter, I don’t know how it would be in the future, but the entire project was given to one company to develop. This means that this whole area is a prime area. We have a lot of laws that govern public spaces that won’t apply here. The whole area will be a private space and that really changes what you can do there without government oversight. 23:57 before this, the private spaces we had weren’t such large ones, only a small housing estate, a private house. But this is not just a small space, it is quite a large quarter. So when you see this, the laws and rights won’t apply in these spaces. And whatever influence China has will be spatially emplaced here, in Hong Kong. 24:39 Joanne Leow: So is this on the reclaimed land, or…? (talking over each other) Angela Su: Yes, where M plus is. So the border is kind of extending to the—in the middle of the city. 24:52 Pak-chye: (speaking in Mandarin) This will have a lot of impact on the arts community. This will give the government a lot more control. In the earliest iteration with the British, this land was originally conceived of as a “promised land” for affordable housing. It was for new housing for the inhabitants of older quarters in the city, they would move to a place closer to the sea. But slowly, bit by bit, the government seemed to “forget” this project. And when we finally started talking about it again it had turned into an Arts District in West Kowloon. Then they tried to get the artists’ support for this project. But the artists didn’t know the background of this. They didn’t understand the promise of this land. We just thought about what we can gain from it. Could we get a gallery space? We asked questions about the kind of funding we could receive from this development. And the government was very happy with this discussion and the original plan seemed to be overturned by a public consultation. And yet now the arts groups may not even get a part of this. Who can participate in this will probably be larger groups. 26:34 Angela Su: (speaking in Mandarin)…When I first heard about it, what the government said was they have a sum money that they can use to develop the arts. So they either build the West Kowloon or nothing. So, there’s not much of a choice anyway, so that’s why… Cally: …a lot of people are, yeah |
| Access Condition | Contact Dr. Joanne Leow |
| Subject Hierarchical Geographic | Asia--China------Hong Kong |
| Subject Local Name | ------Sci-fi--Sea Levels--Climate Change--Hong Kong--Urban Renewal--Conservation--2046---- |