THE FUZZY LINE between fine and commercial art blurred even more with the opening of Lane Crawford's new store in November. While art is often seen in fine restaurants and high-end hotels, the new flagship store at Two IFC marked the first time a retailer had commissioned artwork specifically for its shop in Hong Kong.
The 82,000sqft space cost more than $100 million, with a large sum going directly into fine and applied art. It is Lane Crawford's biggest expenditure since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, and the first to be led by Jennifer Woo Chung-yan, Wheelock chairman Peter Woo Kwong-ching's daughter and Lane Crawford's president and managing director. And it's not going to be a one-time purchase.
'We didn't have an art programme prior to this,' says Robert Champagne, Lane Crawford's architectural design manager. 'To purchase art for a project is a very capital-intensive thing. If we hadn't planned it in the budget from the onset, we wouldn't have had it. When we did the budget, we had to add two extra columns - for fine and applied art, with a couple of million dollars allowed.'
Yabu Pushelberg was hired to design the store partly because Lane Crawford admired the way the Toronto-based interiors firm employed art in its projects. It suggested artists Dennis Lin in Toronto and Hirotoshi Sawada in Nagoya for sculptural work, as the IFC store has several atrium spaces and skylights suitable for mobiles.
Fans of installation artist Sawada's work are generally hard pressed to find it in any gallery. Instead, his art graces high-profile interior spaces in North America, Europe and his native Japan. These include Fiamma Restaurant in Las Vegas' MGM Grand, and Blue Fin in New York's W Hotel.
'Sawada is really a character,' says Champagne. 'He came to Hong Kong and presented his designs in the form of sketches and skits and pantomime.'
