Picture of the Day: New Invaders

Two space invaders were freshly installed in Central

French urban artist Invader seems to have a soft spot for Hong Kong.

He is best known for his pixellated mosaics of the 1970s-1980s game Space Invaders and many of them can be found around town in the oddest places, such as high up on the side of a building. It's a wonder how he manages to install them without anyone knowing.

They are right next to the street sign for Battery Path

In any event this afternoon I happened to walk up Battery Path in Central, a pedestrian road I walk along often and I spotted another new Invader mosaic. It looks like two space invaders with yellow hats? Or yellow umbrellas... you be the judge of that.

The mosaic is located near where the Court of Final Appeal used to be located... if that gives it more context...

Hot Sunset Tip -- Secret Spot at Harbour City

Check out that view of Victoria Harbour on the rooftop at Ocean Terminal

I usually don't like to schlep to Harbour City, a shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui, but there has been a slew of restaurant openings there in the new extension designed by Sir Norman Foster. I've visited a few of them, but more seem to be springing up every week.

Invader's giant anchor nearby

My architect cousin who works in China likes to see any newly completed projects when he comes to Hong Kong and asked about this one so we checked it out.

Coming from the Star Ferry in Central the walk to the new area isn't too bad -- it's when you are coming from the MTR that it's a dreaded long walk, battling shoppers and going all the way to Ocean Terminal and then going all the way to the end of it to reach the extension.

Once you get there though, you have unparalleled views of Victoria Harbour. When we looked up at the ceiling we could see people's feet -- so there is a rooftop spot for people to hang out.

Go all the way to the top floor which is the parking lot and then turn around and you will see a terraced viewing area that's perfect for fireworks, but you probably have to sit there all day to keep this coveted spot.

Nevertheless, it's also the ideal place to watch the sunset -- provided you know there's going to be an amazing one coming. The seating here is comfortable and there are staircases on either side to go up or down.

Look! A space invader with a Hong Kong flag

The place could almost be a mini stage for a site-specific performance, or a small cocktail party. It could easily be closed off for a private event.

In addition if you look, you'll find French artist Invader's work -- two mosaic space invaders holding the Hong Kong flag. Also behind by the parking lot is a giant mosaic anchor, and off to the right another space invader on top of an anchor.

Perhaps Harbour City worked with the artist to add these playful details -- they're fun for social media.

Not everyone knows about this spot... yet...

And this viewing area must be one of the best secrets in town -- we even took pictures of the place with no one else there...

A Fun Wipe Out

Street artist Invader's quirky exhibition at PMQ

PMQ or Police Married Quarters in between Soho and Sheung Wan, has a fun art exhibition on until this Sunday called Wipe Out, featuring the fun creative mosaics of Invader, a French street artist.

A pixelated portrait of Invader

He has made tiled mosaics of the original video game Space Invaders as well as other things like Mario of Super Mario Brothers, and the Pink Panther in over 60 cities around the world.

In 2001 until last year, Invader created a number of mosaics that were placed around the city, but it's the Highways Department that has taken down some of them, which he finds amusing, but some diehard fans formed a group to try to recreate the mosaics.

And in the Hong Kong context Invader has created mosaics specific to the city, like Bruce Lee, Doraemon and of course Hong Kong Phooey.

The last time he was here he happened to be staying in Admiralty during the Occupy protests and made a few mosaics inspired by the movement.

One of his projects not related to Hong Kong is called Art4Space, where he and a partner created a tiled mosaic of a space invader and attached it to a mini video camera and a GPS locater sealed in a box which was then put at the end of a giant weather balloon that was filled with helium.

Can you see Bruce Lee in this mosaic?

The plan was to see how high the balloon could go -- higher than the height airplanes travel at and film the entire experience before the balloon pops and as the box and mosaic fall back to earth, a parachute would automatically open so that they would fall safely back to the ground. The GPS would allow the duo to find them.

They did this in Florida and covertly, wearing plastic white jumpsuits and covered their mouths, but the drawback was that because it was so hot there -- hello it's Florida! -- they were sweating profusely in their suits.

Their first attempt failed because the helium tank didn't have enough helium to fill the balloon and they had to retreat and wait a few days for the next good day. The second attempt was perfect and the balloon took off, and at one point they lose track of the balloon because it reached the stratosphere where there was no signal.

A cute slogan that kind of says it all, doesn't it?

Four hours later it came down and emitted its location, but it took them a while to find it. They realize that phone GPS systems put the location to the nearest road, not necessarily the exact point.

It was the next day after hours of walking through other people's private properties did they finally find the camera and mosaic intact and saw the video which they showed us speeded up in parts.

What an interesting exercise.

The mosaics are colourful and cute -- and strangely look better when you look through them in the camera of the smartphone. It all makes sense!

This is one of the more fun art shows that hopefully inspires others to create art that is city-specific, and also have fun or poke fun at things or yourself. Art is everywhere if you look.

Love Hong Kong Phooey here

Wipe Out: An explanatory guide through Invader's creative universe

May 2-17, 2015

2/F, PMQ