Hong Kong 101 Project - Buying art through vending machine

Buying art through vending machine

Written by KAREN HO CHEUK-LUN
Saturday, 19 April 2008
Vangi Fong Wan-chi and Storm Chan Man-cheung, two graduate students in Visual Arts at Hong Kong Baptist University, introduce an alternative vending machine, which is changing the meaning of vending machine – food not for stomach but for eyes indeed. The Art-Vending Machines, selling artwork rating from ten dollars to two hundred dollars, was part of the Honors Project of Miss Fong and Miss Chan. They have gained the support of Euro Vending Ltd. who sponsored them two vending machines. Artworks are displayed in the vending machines and welcome anyone to make a purchase by simply using their Octopus card. Miss Fong and Miss Chan started this kind of art vending machine not only for providing a convenient way of getting art-works but also for raising people’s attention to art. Apart from the above common thoughts, they had their own ideas. Miss Fong said her purpose to start such vending machines is to let people think more about art, whereas Miss Chan thinks it is very important that people are now able to own art by affordable price. They admitted that they once had arguments on how to set the price. As the method of purchase is through the Octopus card system or coins, Miss Chan thought the price should not be too high; yet, Miss Fong thought that people would buy the artwork if they thought it was worthwhile. Miss Fong and Miss Chan’s Art-Vending Machines also participated (they are not invited actually) in a project called “Made in Hong Kong – Made by Hong Kong” Creative Art Projects by Students, organized by the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and made its debut at the “Made in Hong Kong” exhibition from 20th December 2007 to 9th January 2008. Ms Tam Mei-yee, curator (Modern Art) of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, was responsible for the project. She was impressed by the idea of Miss Fong and Miss Chan that the Art-Vending Machine can act as a floating museum, which allows showing people artwork by a fresh way of thinking. Ms Tam believes that there is room to improve, “I think they can do better if the machines are more user-friendly,” she said. Ms Tam said she saw many foreign visitors wanted to make the purchase but gave up, as they did not have an Octopus card. Mr Peter Benz, Assistant Professor of Academy of Visual Arts of Hong Kong Baptist University and Supervisor of Storm’s Honors Project, was also impressed by this idea. Mr Benz once saw an article in a newspaper, saying that someone suggested if Hong Kong could possibly “buy” the La Biennale di Venezia, which was an important art show in Venice, to come to Hong Kong. He described it as a “very commercial approach”. “It is a very typical Hong Kong idea. People don’t make art; don’t think about art by themselves. We just buy art,” Mr Benz said. “It also is a kind of misunderstanding because of the theme that you can simply buy culture.” He said that the project could reflect this idea by raising questions. “It (the machine) questions - what is art? Is art only the stuff we see in the museum?” He Continued. “Is Art always something expensive? Can Art also be cheap? If it is cheap, is it still Art?” Apart from the perspective of art, the Art-Vending Machine might be able to make a change in the vending industry. Mr Kim Wan, Executive Director of Euro Vending Ltd, who helped Miss Fong and Miss Chan make their dream come true, describes the project is “meaningful”. “Vending machines can bring convenience to people,” Mr Wan said. “This idea, mixing art and vending machine business together, can help to enrich the vending machine industry in Hong Kong.” Mr Wan also thought that there is no real platform for local artists to show their works in Hong Kong, therefore the art vending machines may provide a new way for local artists to present their ideas. Miss Fong and Miss Chan have invited 31 artists to join the project and contribute their art-works to the vending machines. Half of the revenue would go to the artists and the other half would go to the graduate students for the costs of the project. According to Mr Wan and the two graduate students, the sales of the art-works were quite good that there were already few thousands of revenues while some products are even sold out. Although everything seems to go very well at present, Miss Fong and Miss Chan said they also have met some difficulties while carrying out the project. In order to let the art-works drop down smoothly, Miss Fong and Miss Chan had to deal with sizes and weights of the art-works to fit them to the vending machines as these machines are originally designed for beverages. “There are different sizes, for example, size of canned drinks, size of bottle drinks and size of juice cartons. It is easier to handle the juice carton size as it does not require a heavy weight,” Miss Chan said. “And it is more difficult for the tube size. We have to order some transparent tubes to hold the art-works and increase the weight to a certain degree by adding extra things so that the art-works can drop out from the machine.” Miss Chan added that the weight of each art-works had to be equal and they tested the works one by one. Mr Benz, who was also one of the artists contributed to the project, as well faced some difficulties while he was creating his art-works. “It (The artwork) has to have a minimum weight but also a maximum weight. It cannot be all kinds of materials. It shouldn’t be too expensive,” he said. “We have a lot of limitations.” Yet, he is happy to have this challenge. The machine was moved to the Hong Kong Baptist University after the exhibition. Starting from 31st January onward, it would be placed at a shopping mall, APM, until 24th February. When asked whether Mr Benz is worried that people will treat the art-works as products only, he said. “Yes of course, most people will treat it (artwork) as a product.” He added that most people who go to the Museum are already interested in art so they would kind of know the Art-Vending Machine is art and will pay accordingly. However, the situation would be different in APM that the Art-Vending Machine will raise a question whether people see it as art or just a product. “I believe most people will just simply see it as a product. But I believe some people don’t! And it will make some people think.” He added that the more important thing is that it might make journalists, TV reporters write about it and people would read about it. “It gradually changes or makes people more aware,” he said. “I hope if there are more projects like this. Over the time, gradually maybe Hong Kong society would change a little bit. It will take a lot of time for sure,” he said. “But somewhere we have to start.” Mr Wan is interested in the art vending machines and he hopes that Miss Fong and Miss Chan can continue this after they graduate, as they still have not decided whether to go on with this idea or not. “I am eager to continue this Art Vending Machine programme,” Mr Wan said. “Yet it depends on them (Miss Fong and Miss Chan). If they decide not to continue it, we will reserve the right to use the idea and invite more local or international artists to join the programme in the future.” Edited by JENNY ZHENG JIALING Comments (0) Show/Hide comments Write comment Show/Hide comment form Name Email Comment Write the displayed characters
Last Updated ( Friday, 18 April 2008 )