How mosaics capture moments of Hong Kong history
Many years ago, artist Adrian Wong Ho-yin was astonished to discover a lazy trick used by many Hong Kong contractors. He was walking down an alley in Tsim Sha Tsui, not far from
Chungking Mansions , when he noticed a wall clad in mosaic tiles bulging from water damage. He looked more closely and realised that there were at least six or seven types of tiles layered atop each other.
'It felt like I was standing in the present and looking through a wormhole into the past,' he says.
He soon discovered that layering tiles in this way is a common short cut used when renovating old shops, flats or building facades to save on cost and time. His observations turned into a fascination for Hong Kong's ubiquitous mosaic tiles. Designs, he noticed, were often mismatched or seemingly random.
Tiling Error V: Shuriken (2024) by Adrian Wong, part of 'Oi! Spotlight: With Love from Hong Kong'. Photo: courtesy Oil Street Art Space
'I got really interested in mistakes made by craftsmen and contractors,' he says. 'I found a lot of beauty in this accidental collision of patterns and colours.'
Wong's attraction to tiles shapes his artistic output. His show, 'With Love from Hong Kong', running until August 31 at the Oil Street Art Space in North Point, recreates vintage Hong Kong interiors, including 1960s-style mosaic tile patterns framed like paintings on the wall. Each pattern is slightly off kilter, like so many of the mosaic tiles you see in the stairwells of old tenement buildings, on the facades of mid-century tong lau or in old cha chaan teng such as the renowned Mido Cafe in Yau Ma Tei. 'Laziness plus a couple of generations becomes charm,' quips Wong.
That charm seems to be especially strong these days. Hong Kong has been riding a wave of nostalgia for anything that harks back to its golden days as a booming Asian Tiger economy with a cultural reach that could be felt around the world. There is
renewed interest in historic shops , and even new businesses are using vintage objects and throwback design elements to create a sense of yesteryear. Mosaic tiles, such as those used in
Kowloon Cafe, in Sydney , Australia, are often key to creating a truly nostalgic Hong Kong space.
Adrian Wong's With Love from Hong Kong, installation view, at the Oil Street Art Space in North Point. Photo: courtesy Oil Street Art Space
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