Hong Kong Art

David Clarke offers a fascinating account of art made in Hong Kong in the years leading up to and following the handover of British sovereignty to China in 1997. This process differed from post-colonial experiences elsewhere in the world in that it did not end in independence but in absorption into a much larger entity with an entirely different political system. Until now, the cultural aspects of this passage have not been given the attention they deserve, apart perhaps from the analysis of film. Clarke fills the gap by considering a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, video and installation pieces, as well as other kinds of visual production such as architecture, fashion, graphic design and graffiti. He shows how the approach of the handover heightened a sense of local identity, and how this found expression in the politicized art that became common at the time. This topical book is the first comprehensive discussion of all forms of art made in Hong Kong during the decolonization period.