Activists record and preserve Hong Kong’s protest artworks

As Hong Kong's pro-democracy protests enters its ninth week on Sunday (November 23), a group of activists were looking to preserve some of the hundreds of pieces of art ahead of authorities plan to clear the protest sites.

An eviction notice for the main Admiralty protest site, next to the Central business district, was published in newspapers on November 15, suggesting police may move in any day to clear all the street blockades in line with court-ordered injunctions.

Some of the 200 volunteers from a group called, Umbrella Movement Visual Archives and Research Collective regularly walk around the protest sites to collect information and snap photos of paintings, banners, installations and objects that have come to define the movement.

The concept for this project was inspired by an exhibition in London's Victoria and Albert Museum called Disobedient Objects, which examined the role of objects in movements for social change, according to the group's founder Sampson Yu.

While the group's primary aims are to build a digital database, which already consists of around 500 items, it also hopes to physically preserve some 100 pieces of art and objects when the site is cleared.

Its spokesperson, Clarisse Yeung, explained how the art affected protesters.

"When we look at them [artworks and objects] day and night, they keep us alert or boost our morale, they gently express our demands. We want to preserve these things because of an emotional need," Yeung said.

Yeung said they would assign volunteers to stand next to selected objects when the sites are cleared, with an aim to remove them only at the very last minute.

The group has already found a warehouse space to store the objects, though no concrete plans have been made on what to do with them after the protests are over.

Some organisations within local universities have reached out to them, Yu said, and one cultural studies department has expressed interest in working with them for a protest-themed festival in May.

The group will not preserve all objects, as some artists think the act of destruction is part of the artwork's life, while other iconic visuals like the stairway flooded with wishes written on post-it notes dubbed the "Lennon Wall", are almost impossible to physically preserve and will be archived digitally.

Some protesters said they may try to keep their art as it's being cleared. Others, however, including Kain Cheung who with about eight others created a small statue made from umbrellas with messages written on them, said he may simply stand back and observe the authorities reaction to the arwork.

"I really want to see how Hong Kong police or bailiffs face Hong Kong people's art. Even if they immediately, cold-bloodedly clear the site like machines, I really want to see it, and see if they will be touched even to the tiniest bit when they see our artwork," Cheung said.

Others feel the art may take on new meaning if destroyed by authorities.

At one end of the Admiralty protest site, travelling mainland Chinese artist Miso Zhou was painting people and objects around him.

He said he enjoyed depicting everyday life in the protest sites, and hoped he could have time to move some pieces away from the sites, especially so mainland Chinese people can see them.

However, Zhou also said he would not mind too much if authorities destroyed them during the process.

"The artworks participate in society too. If they get destroyed, they become more beautiful. They will have more stories and embrace more layers of meaning. This is the meaning of it all. I think contemporary art should interact with society and reality. It is more meaningful this way," Zhou said.

As the protests approaches its two-month mark on November 28 with Christmas lights beginning to light some of the skyscrapers surrounding the main protest site, it remains to be seen how long the protest site—and its artworks—can survive. — Reuters