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LOCAL
The writing on the wall
HKwalls comes to town. Charmaine Ng reports
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Hong Kong has a vibrant street art culture, in part thanks to HKwalls. As a nonprofit arts organisation, HKwalls aims to create opportunities for local and international artists to showcase their talent in Hong Kong through street art and street culture. Part of what it does is actively work on connecting and building relationships with artists, the community and organisations, celebrating creativity and freedom of expression along the way.
Following the cancellation of its annual street art festival in 2020, HKwalls is back – bigger and better than ever. And this year, for the first time, the street art and mural festival is taking place in our local Sai Kung. There are also two new additions to the annual festival: the first ever HKwalls Youth Mentorship Program and the organisation’s first thematic exhibition, Tools of the Trade. That’s a lot of firsts.
“We have always wanted to take the HKwalls festival to Sai Kung; we explored it a number of times over the past six years and met with various members of the community but it just never worked out,” says Jason Dembski, co-founder of HKwalls.
“This year, we felt the energy drawing us back again, but more than ever, and something just clicked; we are super grateful for all the people who have been so helpful and encouraging and really looking forward to becoming a small part of such a great community.”
If 2020 was the year of loss, then 2021 is the year of possibilities. With the Youth Mentorship Program, HKwalls is offering young artists the opportunity to improve their artistic skills, try new techniques and learn how to transform their creative ideas into painted murals. You can look forward to seeing the works of the chosen artists in the festival in Sai Kung.
On top of that, HKwalls’ inaugural thematic exhibition titled Tools of the Trade is taking place from May 8 to June 6 in Sheung Wan. The exhibition showcases street art and graffiti through the lens of the tools that artists use to create their work. Prepare to travel back in time, because some of these tools date back to 1960s USA and 1950s Hong Kong.
