Ling U

Presented by the MACAH) programme of DA+CI at Lingnan University, Beyond Fonts Beyond Signboards (BFBS) is an exhibition co-curated by five students, trying to address the artistic and cultural value of handwritten signboards in Hong Kong through the lens of modernology. Held at the L0 Gallery in Jockey Club Creative Arts Centre (JCCAC), BFBS will feature works by six contemporary artists and artisans who shed light on the narrative continuity of these ubiquitous yet overlooked urban artifacts, including Wai Wai, Don MAK, LEE Kin Ming, @streetsignhk, @The.Plumber.King YIM Chiu Tong and Annie WAN.

The exhibition draws inspiration from Japanese scholar Wajirō Kon’s concept of “modernology” in the 1920s. He defined it as “a research method whose object of study is what unfolds today before our eyes; therefore, what we intend to investigate is humanity’s present state” in his article. Following this approach, we discover that Hong Kong, where used to be renowned as an enchanting signboard forest, has diminished. Only a few signboards survive today due to strict regulations and technological advancement. Signboards primarily perform as advertisements, but they have elevated into local street aesthetics and deeply interwoven with the city image over decades, serving as windows that offer insights into our culture and way of life.

BFBS intends to provide a fresh perspective beyond cultural conservation. It invites audiences to step into the role of street observers, rediscover the often-overlooked artistic values embedded in signboards, unravel their unique narratives and infuse creativity into signboard artistry. With the participation of six artistic units, the exhibition is divided into three sections: Observation - the street observation studies of artists, Deconstruction - take an in-depth investigation of the signboard typefaces, and Recontextualization - contemporary artists and artisans bringing new life to the typefaces, each unveils a captivating chapter of handwritten signboards.

Observation will bring together the artworks from Wai Wai and Don MAK, both artists exemplify the practice of street observation and capture the fleeting moments of Hong Kong’s transforming signboard-streetscape via illustrations. Street observation is a methodology under modernology to discover the accumulated material traces of the past that failed to conform to the present. Their works provide new lenses for viewing ordinary signboards, inviting audiences to take a closer observation of the signboard streetscape nowadays.

Deconstruction will present the iconic font styles of renowned calligraphy AU Kin Kung (Hong Kong Beiwei Kaishu 香港北魏楷書) and street signwriter LEE Hon (Lee Hon Kaishu 李漢楷體) from the collections of LEE Kin Ming and @streetsignhk, revealing their substantial cultural context beneath. Both of them are the most commonly seen signboard typefaces nowadays and have been symbolized as totems of Hong Kong visual culture.

Recontextualization will demonstrate how contemporary artists and artisans, including @The.Plumber.King YIM Chiu Tong, Annie WAN and LEE Kin Ming, incorporate signboard typefaces into their artistic practices. Nowadays, the typefaces have deviated from their commercial usage and shifted into an aesthetic form. By shifting presentational situations, artists imbue and draw new meanings to the signboard typefaces through mediums like ceramics, paint, and collage, ensuring this aesthetic legacy lives on conceptually.

While the disappearance of signboards may seem inevitable, this exhibition attempts to provide a new angle to appreciate these overlooked urban artifacts and demonstrate how their artistic and cultural legacy can endure through the creative reinterpretation and reinvention of contemporary artists and artisans. Their reimaginings reinforce an ongoing path for signboard culture to live on not just as nostalgia, but as an aesthetic essence exclusive to Hong Kong culture that will endure far into the future.

Wai Wai is a local illustrator, artist and the founder of Wai Wai Studio. She makes illustrations, shutter painting, mural painting, teaching and hand-cut silhouette projects with different parties. She loves to depict local vintage shops to bring people closer to their communities.

Don MAK is an illustrator born and raised in Hong Kong who is now based in the UK. He is the founder of the DONMAK & CO. illustration studio, which has collaborated with different brands and organizations. He often uses Hong Kong’s streetscapes as the main subject of his works and records its daily moments.

LEE Kin Ming is the successor of China Bright Production and the founder of ‘Lee Hon’s Street Calligraphy Conservation Project’. He started digitalizing the manuscripts of street signwriter Lee Hon in 2016 and successfully launched the font ‘Lee Hon Kong Kai’ in 2020.

@streetsignhk

@The.Plumber.King  YIM Chiu Tong

Annie WAN