Sketchy future for Hong Kong artists

Hong Kong artists always had it rough: no support, no venues, no time, no money. Then something changed. More and more galleries started showcasing local artists, the government became more willing to cough up money and international curators took notice of up-and-comers like Tozer Pak.

This shift towards the cultural can be attributed to the collapse of Hong Kong industry. As factories moved to mainland China and the economy tanked in the late 1990s and early 2000s, thousands of industrial units sat vacant, and artists were finally able to afford their own work space. That in turn allowed them to produce more art and, in many cases, become full-time artists. Ten years ago, the idea that somebody fresh out of art school could make a living as an artist was unthinkable. Now it’s commonplace.

But the bad old days might make a comeback. Earlier this year, the government introduced a policy that makes it easier for the owners of old industrial buildings to convert them to other uses. According to Secretary of Development Carrie Lam, the policy will “release the potential of old industrial buildings” by providing cheap office space to “knowledge-based” businesses. But critics say it’s just a cash grab that will benefit property developers and hike property prices.

Buildings come down, rent goes up

“The creative industries that have moved into the industrial buildings will see the cost of rent going up, which is not very good for them,” says Paul Zimmerman, head of Designing Hong Kong, an urban development watchdog. “Creative industries need low-cost, high-ceilinged facilities. They need the time and space to experiment. For the industrial areas, the incentive should really be to keep the property and renovate it to current standards, not to take it down entirely.”

For artists, the concern is that the new policy will encourage property investors to speculate on the rising value of industrial space, which will drive up rents and make it difficult for artists to make a living. “This year is the first we have seen where prices have risen to the level where new graduates can’t afford a space,” says Homan Ho, an artist and a member of the Revitalization Internalize Partnership, a group set up to protect the interests of artists. “If they don’t have their own space, they can’t devote themselves to art full time. Then we’ve lost an artist.”

Ho is based in Fotan, an industrial area in Shatin that began to attract artists after a group of Chinese University art professors opened studios there in the early 2000s. Today, it is home to as many as 200 artists, many of whom open their studios to the public each January for Fotan Open Studios, a two-weekend event that attracted 6,000 visitors earlier this year. Several other neighborhoods, including Kwun Tong and Chai Wan, are also home to large concentrations of artists.

Artists as manufacturers

Somehow, though, the government neglected to consult them before implementing the new policy. The problem, says Ho, is that it assumes that artists, designers and other creative types need to work in newly renovated spaces. “But after renovations, the rent will be higher. The government misunderstands the needs of artists,” he says. “They think we want to act like shops and use our studios like galleries. We don’t need visitors -- we’re manufacturing something. The old buildings are smelly and filled with dust. We like that. We don’t need to convert them into anything else.”

After Ho and other artists raised a ruckus this spring, the Arts Development Council is now undertaking a study to determine just how many artists work in industrial areas. It’s not clear what will happen after that. Ideally, says Ho, the government could covert some of its many empty properties into work spaces for artists. But Hong Kong lacks a clear cultural policy, which makes it difficult for different government departments to work together on arts-related issues. If artists approach the government for support, says Ho, “one department will say that some aspect of our idea is under the jurisdiction of another department, so they can’t deal with it, then another department will say the same thing.”

As Zimmerman puts it, some departments are concerned about the arts, but “others work for the property developers.” Until that changes, there’s no guarantee that Hong Kong’s nascent arts scene will ever have a chance to grow up.

Keep up with the artists

Artists rarely open their studios to the public, but there are other ways to keep up with what's going on in Hong Kong’s industrial district art colonies.

1. Check out the Blue Lotus Gallery, which showcases emerging local artists and is located in the Wah Luen Building, the epicentre of the Fotan arts community.

2. Get a coffee at G16, a new artist-run bookstore/café on the ground floor of the Wah Luen Building. Open from Thursday to Sunday, there are occasional exhibitions here, too.

3. Keep an eye on the Kwun Tong scene at Hidden Culture, an artists’ studio that hosts occasional exhibitions, and Osage Kwun Tong, Hong Kong’s largest art space.

4. Find out about the next Fotan Open Studios event and other exhibitions for the public at the Fotanian website.