Presented by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department
Organised by the Art Promotion Office
Supported by Antiquities and Monuments Office, Intangible Cultural Heritage Office and Hong Kong Museum of History
Buildings of a city reveal one's memories. Old houses are the most intriguing buildings from the past because they used to be homes, where memories and traces of the life of past inhabitants allow later generations to glimpse into the good old days. They are channels to go back in time and hold a piece of history that encompasses us all. In a contemporary context, art can give old houses a new lease of life, and help foster local cultural memory and community empathy. The value of a house is not in the space built to live in; it is in the extension of the spirit of its inhabitants.
Organised by the Art Promotion Office, ‘Hi! Houses' is an art project set out to re-think the use of space in old houses. The project has chosen four century-old historic buildings in Hong Kong, namely the Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum, Old House at Wong Uk Village, Law Uk Folk Museum and Sam Tung Uk Museum and commissioned four local artists, Wilson Shieh, Lam Tung-pang, Fiona Wong and Jaffa Lam, to lead their teams to create site-specific artworks to inject new life into them. The artists apply their idiosyncratic visual lingo to project how the past inhabitants lived and what stories they had in the old houses.
To know more about the project, please visit the Facebook fan page of 'Hi! Houses' and follow our instagram.
Exhibition information :
Wilson Shieh x Dr Sun Yat-sen Museum
Address : 7 Castle Road, Mid-Levels, Central
*Public Tours : 11am on Monday and 4pm on Friday
Opening hours :
Monday to Wednesday, Friday : 10am — 6pm
Saturday, Sunday and public holidays : 10am — 7pm
Closed on Thursdays (except public holidays)
Lam Tung-pang x Old House at Wong Uk Village
Address : Yuen Chau Kok, Sha Tin
*Public Tours : 11am on Wednesday and 4pm on Thursday
Opening hours :
Monday, Wednesday to Sunday : 9am — 1pm and 2pm — 5pm Closed on Tuesdays
Fiona Wong x Law Uk Folk Museum
Address : 14 Kut Shing Street, Chai Wan
*Public Tours : 11am on Tuesday and 4pm on Saturday
Opening hours :
Monday to Wednesday, Friday to Sunday : 10am — 6pm
Closed on Thursdays (except public holidays)
Jaffa Lam x Sam Tung Uk Museum
Address : 2 Kwu Uk Lane, Tsuen Wan
*Public Tours : 11am on Thursday and 4pm on Sunday
Opening hours : Monday, Wednesday to Sunday : 10am — 6pm
Closed on Tuesdays (except public holidays)
Exhibition until : 9.7.2017
Free admission
Download here:
Exhibition Booklet (43.2 MB)
.jpg "Hi! Houses")
The east-meet-west style of stained glass window, which was popular in the Early Republican China, is used for featuring the period of 1911 Revolution. Key figures in politics, literature, art, film and music of the period are illustrated on the four screens.
Inspired by Hakka salt-baked chicken, Chan See-kwong, an artist of Fiona's team, made use of salt-baked firing to create a series of ceramic salt-baked chickens. Their colour will fade and skins will peel off, as the old house has been experiencing changes through the ages and will encounter many uncertainties in the future.
To see this beautiful scenery of Jaffa Lam's artwork in the Period House of the third prime lineage family of Sam Tung Uk, between 5 to 6pm would be the best time. The words of Chan clan's couplet scattered at the courtyard and silhouette of the lantern will be reflected on the walls.
Leisure and Cultural Services Department