Our common perception of maps is that they are accurate and scientific, but in fact the act of mapping and its content can be speculative and creative. As James Corner puts it, “Mapping is perhaps the most creative act of any design process.” Artists, architects and designers usually use mapping as a tool to explore and represent social, economic and political values in the city and our urban life.

While the creative team is working on the first stage of “Revitalising Village through Art project” in Shunde of China, they would like to share with the audience their plan of conducting a creative research through mapping in the village and how they will end up developing a feasible yet innovative masterplan for its up-grade.

Speaker

Bong Yeung (Design Principal, littleurbanmountain)

Facebook : @littleurbanmountain
Website : https://www.littleurbanmountain.hk/

Born in Hong Kong, Bong Yeung studied Architecture and graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture in 2011. During his final year, he received Dean’s List for “Distinction in Design” and Merit in Thesis, and was selected by Blueprint Magazine as “one of the Best of the Student Shows”.

Yeung worked on several projects in London, Oxford and Exeter and became a UK Registered Architect in 2014. From 2011 to 2018, he worked at the Foster + Partners Hong Kong office, responsible for high profile projects in Asia such as the Murray Building Hotel, Ocean Terminal Extension and Wuhan masterplan. He has also taught part-time in a design module at HKU SPACE and was a guest critic at CUHK and HKU.

In 2017, Yeung won the UNESCO UCCN Shenzhen Design Award For Young Talent. He is the Founder and Design Principal of littleurbanmountain, a studio that focuses on architecture, interior design and art projects. His work has been selected by Drawing Prize and was exhibited at the World Architecture Festival in Berlin and Sir John Soane’s Museum in London from 2017 to 2018. Yeung received a special mention from the jury in ArchiGraphicArts Drawing Competition 2016-17 in Russia. In 2016, a team of three from HKU SPACE led by Yeung gained an honorable mention for the Flexible Housing Society Contest in Spain.

Speaker

Raymond Chan (Founder-Director, Crevice Design Ltd)

Raymond Chan is a Founder of Crevice Design. He received an Associate Degree and Bachelor Degree in Environment and Interior Design at PolyU in 2012 and 2014. During his studies, he was employed by his PolyU tutor and Assistant Professor, Manfred Yuen, as a designer in Groundwork Architecture Studio. He was involved in several social design projects including Wu Chi Qiao Bridge to China Project 2011 and 2012,Hawkerama - Carnival Workshop 2012, and ArtAlive @Park 2014.

Raymond has followed HKPolyU Assistant Professor Alvin Yip to co-curate the Annual Flagship Programme 2014 and 2015 organized by Jockey Club Design Institute for Social Innovation. He received a scholarship to study in Shanghai Tongji University.

Raymond has many innovative design ideas on sustainable interior and furniture design. He designed a series of showcases and displayed shelves which were made of up-cycling materials to propose and promote environmental protection to the society.

Speaker

Monti Lai (Founder, Farm Side Art Research Lab / Artist / Farmer)

Monti Lai is a local environmental artist whose art has a clear focus on the relationship between art and the environment. Her works range from site-specific environmental installation to drawing and participatory art. She is now based at Lai Chi Wo Village exploring the subject with farming practices (paddy rice planting in particular).

Speaker

Lai Sim Fong (Founder and Dramaturg, Artelier)

Lai Sim Fong graduated with a Master of Fine Arts in Theatre Practice at University of Exeter (UK), learning from master Phillip Zarrilli in psycho-physical approach. She studied German, Cultural Studies and Art History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Freiburg University and UC Berkeley (USA). Lai has presented her work in Liverpool, Manchester and Poland.

She works as a dramaturg in theatre and contemporary dance. Recent works include Hong Kong Repertory Theatre’s “Red” and “Attempts on her Life”; Hong Kong Arts Festival’s “Nook”. She was the dramaturg of Hong Kong International Blackbox Festival (WKCD/ HKREP). In 2018 Lai worked as the assistant to director of Rimini Protokoll to produce “Remote Hong Kong” for Tai Kwun.

Organizer

littleurbanmountain

Facebook : @littleurbanmountain
Website : https://www.littleurbanmountain.hk/

littleurbanmountain is a young design studio focusing on architecture, interior design and art in Hong Kong. Founded in 2017 to start a few self initiative projects related to sustainable design and social architecture, the studio has begun to create works from luxurious café, pavilion to public installation art. They try to gather people from different disciplines that enable interesting, experimental and visionary work to happen from big to small scale.

At three years old, a chatty, energetic little boy named Owen Suskind ceased to speak, disappearing into autism with apparently no way out. Almost four years passed and the only stimuli that engaged Owen were Disney films.

Then one day, his father donned a puppet — Lago, the wisecracking parrot from Aladdin — and asked, “What’s it like to be you?” And poof! Owen replied, with dialogue from the movie. Life, Animated tells the remarkable story of how Owen found in Disney animation a pathway to language and a framework for making sense of the world.

Winner of Sundance Film Festival – Directing Award (Documentary) and Oscar nominee for Best Documentary.

Director: Roger Ross Williams
Casts: Owen Suskind, Cornelia Suskind, Walter Suskind, Ron Suskind
Duration: 92 min

With after-screening sharing.

Speaker

Bianca Lee (President, Hong Kong Association of Art Therapists)

Bianca is an artist, advocate, Registered Art Therapist (USA), Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor (USA) and Licensed Professional Counselor (USA). With 10+ years of practicing in the mental health field, she connects with a multitude of diverse populations. Bianca is the current president of the Hong Kong Association of Art Therapists and an honorary lecturer at the University of Hong Kong.

How can we introduce art and creative ideas to Hong Kong? MobArt Gallery is dedicated to connecting artists with the society. In this dialogue, MobArt and their collaborating artists will share their experiences of bringing art into the local community, and how art might survive in this city.

Speaker

Steph Chung (Founder, MobArt)

Steph Chung, a post-80, is the founder of MobArt creative agency, who graduated from the University of Oxford studying Economics & Management.

Started off as a “stranger” to the Art world to crawling galleries and art fairs in London/ Hong Kong/ globally, Steph has a different take on Art as an “outsider”. Because of this “outsider” status, it inspired her to start MobArt, with the objective of bringing art to the people, injecting art into our everyday life.

Juggling between her finance job and her art passion, she has not diminished a bit in her strive to bring Art to the local community and has continued this journey in the last 10 years.
MobArt will continue to elevate people’s interest and appreciation for Art by making it an integral part of everyday life.

Speaker

Travis Ying (Artist)

Ying Man Hon, Travis was born in Hong Kong since 1980s. Growing up in Hong Kong, Ying has completed his studies and received a Master of Fine Arts Degree majoring in Theatre Stage Design from Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts in 2015 and graduated from the Hong Kong Institute of Education majoring in Visual Arts in 2007. Ying is working as a freelance artist now whose expertise is in illustration and graphic design, theatre design and arts education.

Ying is devoted to visual arts education with 8 years of solid teaching experiences. In 2014, he was invited by the 43rd Hong Kong Arts Festival Artists-in-Residence Programme to be the local artist who collaborated with Paper Cinema, renowned artists from UK to organize and execute art workshops with targeted secondary students. Ying used to organise and teach different art classes targeting people from youths to adults. He was the judge of an open comic competition for kids. Ying collaborated with different organisations in art-related projects including theatre stage design and visual arts. In 2014, Ying co-exhibited his work with other artists in Jockey Club Creative Arts Center.

Recently, he won the Best Graphic Cover Design of the Lenovo laptop computer competition and he is the illustration artist of Mingpao Smarties' Power English, by collaborating with Jeffrey CHAN, the author to introduce arts and cultures to primary school students.

Speaker

Neil Wang (Mural Artist and Illustrator)

Neil Wang is a mural artist and illustrator based in Hong Kong. He is a self-taught artist and begun his mural painting journey in 2017 and leave fashion visual merchandiser field at the same time.

Now he become a full-time freelancer and provide eye grabbing art works to his clients and lead the audiences to dive deep and get to know his story. He is deeply inspired by Japanese art, culture and collage art. His artworks are a combination of abstract flow of lines, patterns, textured collages and create illusion for type or lettering.

Speaker

Noble Wong (Founder, Noble Sketchbook)

Noble Wong is a Hong Kong illustrator, mural painter and urban sketcher. He graduated from PolyU with an MSc (with Distinction) in Multimedia Entertainment Technology.

He takes pleasure in sketching things around him, because they embody the shared culture of Hong Kong people. He established his illustration company Noble Sketchbook in 2015. Apart from commercial illustrations and murals, he has worked on community art projects including HKYAF’s “HK Urban Canvas” to illustrate the story of old shops through paintings of the shops’ shutters. In addition, he is working on a revitalisation project of Tai Kwun to illustrate the history of Tai Kwun and Hong Kong Police on the walls inside those beautiful buildings.

Organizer

MobArt Gallery

Facebook : @mobartgallery
Instagram : @about_mobart
Website : http://www.mobart.net

‘We are the bridge connecting artists with those who seek creative talents.’

MobArt strives to foster an environment that supports and nurtures creative talents. Their ambition is to promote art as a lifestyle and act as the bridge between artists and those who value and seek creativity.

MobArt started as a “mobile” gallery in 2008 curating art exhibitions in public spaces with the aim of elevating people’s interest and appreciation for art by making it an integral part of everyday life, which will in turn foster an environment that supports and nurtures creative talents.

They have since evolved into a platform, showcasing artists and acting as the bridge between creative talents and those who value and seek creativity - working collaboratively with private and corporate clients.
This year they have launched a new brand - Draw On Wall ( drawonwall.com ) which is an artist hub with a repository of creative ideas to inspire custom space designs. Their goal is to transform dull walls into an unique piece of art! Draw On Wall focuses on connecting artist with those who seek to fill their walls with life and colour.