Exhibition - 20th April - 31st May 2011 10am - 8pm
Venue - ArtisTree 1/F Cornwall House, TaiKoo Place FREE ADMISSION
Nearest MTR Quarry Bay
This History behind the man
This exhibition is a well thought out informative history of one of Hong Kong's most loved graffiti artists. Long before Banksy had even cut his first stencil Tsang Tsou-choi was using traditional Chinese calligraphy, with ink and a paint brush, to write his message on public spaces for the world to read. Of course being unable to read Chinese the message, up until now, has been lost on me.
Royal Blood
Now that the exhibition has enlightened me I know that he thought himself the rightful royal ruler of the Kowloon peninsula and his messages demanded he should be given total rule of all of Kowloon. He objected to Elizabeth 1 being the colonial ruler so his first messages were addressed to her. After the handover things didn't go quite as he expected and so he had to continue painting his messages for all to see. After 1997 they were aimed at the Chinese government and he continued to claim that he was in fact the King of Kowloon. He was still waiting for tax to be paid to him from Donald Tsang upon his death. Tsang never replied to his tax demand which was painted on a wall in Kowloon!
It is estimated that over 51 years of scribbling in 80 locations over Hong Kong he generated 55,845 pieces of work and used 1,170 litres of ink.
The Exhibition
The rooms are darkened with well lit exhibits not only of his work, of which there is miles, but of various artifacts from his life that have been preserved for posterity. Some quite mundane memorabilia such as old felt tip pens and empty ink bottles claimed to belong to the King. G.O.D. now uses some of his ideas and sells them as trendy items in their shops. They have an alarm clock and a t-shirt adorned with the Kings calligraphy, now hot fashion items. Buy now while stocks last!
Space Invader
During his lifetime his fame spread around the world and he was visited by Space Invader - graffiti artist , a famous American graffiti artist who placed one of his tile designs on the wall of the old folks home where he lived. This has now been removed and is carefully displayed. I am reliably informed this is worth thousands these days.
Local Talent
Students from local schools have used King Kowloon as inspiration for their own work and this is also on display and well worth a look. Who says Hong Kong students cannot be creative?
take peaceful living people and makes their RV's a maximum security prison with restrictions, stipulations and rules-rules-and more rules
Posted by: Belstaff Winter Coats | December 26, 2011 at 04:04 PM
So cute! I already like you on FB and also get your posts on Google Reader. :)
Posted by: moncler nouveau | December 03, 2011 at 12:33 AM
I tend to agree with you. Some of the 'memorabilia' for sale was nothing more than exploitation in an attempt to get the brand more well known so, therefore, sell items such as baseball hats and clocks. You have to really ask that ever present question "It is art?"
Posted by: Lesley | May 18, 2011 at 11:16 AM
The King Kowloon exhibition preyed on much of the nostalgic sentiment of the Hong Kong people. With due respect to the old man’s genius form of writing, it is a show that was founded on exploitations by Swire, product designers and 2nd rated artists. Take an alternative view and read on from_http://artswise.blogspot.com
Posted by: sundial | May 18, 2011 at 10:49 AM
After reading the information about him at the exhibition I came to the opinion that he was in fact a total nut case!
Posted by: Lesley | April 29, 2011 at 10:17 PM
I remember seeing this graffiti when we first came to HK and wondered what on earth it was all about. At first I thought it was all some sort of advertising.
Misguided old fool or a man in need of recognition?
Posted by: Richard Peters | April 29, 2011 at 03:24 PM