He called them motherboards. Artist Ha Bik-chuen’s printing plates on show in Hong Kong
Paper flower seller and self-taught artist Ha Bik-chuen’s many talents included creating collage-like plates used to make prints for sale
Who was Ha Bik-chuen, who died in Hong Kong in 2009? He was many things: autodidact, maverick artist, entrepreneur and hoarder.
Much of what has been written about him, and many of the shows of his work, in the years since his death have focused on the materials found in his overflowing studio in To Kwa Wan in Kowloon, which during his time was an industrial area of Hong Kong.
Photographs, clippings and pamphlets he felt were indicative of social changes in his time had accumulated there, as well as scrapbooks containing detailed records of exhibitions and art happenings he attended.
The trove of objects he retained with such compulsive dedication is so large, and holds such promise of further illuminating Hong Kong’s history, that Michelle Wong Wun-ting has spent the past 11 years going through it.
