Proliferation of Protest Art

People leave messages tied together at a shop

In Sham Shui Po there is some gentrification going on, with some old shop spaces turned into hipster cafes, much like the one I wrote about yesterday that houses a photography exhibition on last year's protests.

Carrie Lam as a giant candle

On our way to that show, we saw a few other "yellow" cafes that had other protest art. One in particular had multi-coloured ribbons out in front, like a Lennon Wall with scraps of fabric, where people wrote messages that were tied together.

Inside was a collection of works from artists working in various mediums. There were sculptures of protesters clashing with the police on a platform shaped like an upside down umbrella -- made from wax.

There was even a bust of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in red wax, complete with a wick at the top of her head. The protest slogan "If we burn you burn with us" immediately came to mind, inspired by The Hunger Games.

But it was a series of woodblock prints that I liked in particular. They were made by Malaysian artist Tekkhean Lee, who visited Hong Kong during the protests and made these woodcuts that portray the emotions, the drama, and the feelings of last year.

Particularly evocative are protesters surrounded by clouds of tear gas, the turbulent scenes of defending themselves with just umbrellas, and the camaraderie of the protesters helping each other.

Amazing woodcut prints of protests

There are some definitive scenes, of a man with his arms outstretched as a policeman points a gun at him in Tsuen Wan in late August, students in uniform holding a pen together as a human chain of protest, a sea of umbrellas parting ways to allow an ambulance pass through, and a first-aider who lost her right eye allegedly from a rubber bullet in Tsim Sha Tsui.

The amount of protest art that was produced last year has been amazing, some of it satirical, some inspiring, some depicting violence. Will it continue after the national security law is enacted within days?

Time will only tell.