YY9 Gallery Until Fri 31

An artist recently remarked to me: “Why do it if it’s been done and we see it all the time?” The clichés of Hong Kong are vast in spread, and familiar to all of us: wet markets, urban sprawl, the movies, the 1960s. Perhaps because its bankability never stops (just look at Stanley Wong or Douglas Young), and its immediate relatability makes it accessible – it’s easy art, on all gears.
Hence comes Cross, a small exhibition of Hong Kong artists themed on the urban crossing and our gritty streets. Thankfully, the show values simplicity and is devoid of curator speak rambling on into oblivion about  some superimposed manifesto. It’s so very Hong Kong: busy escalators, desolate playgrounds, black and white photographs that are a bit too sentimental, and cute ceramic penguins that satire common human drama.
The standout is Silas Fong’s Upon the Escalator. The 14 minute video has some clever plays with timing. Fong whimsically traps his characters in freeze frame photographic resemblance – remarkably it is during these moments they spring to life, examining the world around them, forging interactions with others trapped in parallel. So perhaps pausing in chaotic action can be interactive, even meditative, and serve up moments of empathetic human connection.
One wishes Galen Tse’s photos were bigger, so as to observe the myriad of blotchy colours rarely seen in our pristine cityscape. As for the clichés, they’re best left for wide-eyed art students to copy and the masters to reinvent. Bourree Lam