Fly Me to the Moons

05 Oct 2018 | Ashley

To the Moon (月台)  is an installation situated at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre Piazza, right beside the beautiful Victoria Harbour where Hong Kong's magnificent buildings and lights are in plain view. It was only there for display from 15 Sept to 1 Oct 2018, which was not a very long time considering how intriguing and aesthetically pleasing it was.

So it was night time. I was walking on a sightseeing platform along the Victoria Harbour when I saw something luminous and yellowish moving about down there at the piazza. It was an extremely strange thing to see, because in front of the clock tower, there is a pool, and my question was: why was there a fun fair right above it? There were also seemingly many moons (well, in more practical terms, many round-shaped yellow luminous objects lining the pool). I decided that I needed to find out what peculiar thing had invaded this space.

What a surprise! The moving object was a luminous train. It was a train moving on highly built rails right above the pool. The moons were gently swayed by black mechanical arms which supported them. Under the rail were numerous light boxes on which black silhouettes of people and stories were painted. It was a beautiful sight. It really was. The background of this for me was the curve of the unique architecture of the Hong Kong Cultural Centre.

Image: To the Moon, Interactive Lighting Installation, 2018.

The installation reminded me of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a local traditional festival in mid September. This is when we see the round moon with our family and friends and have mooncakes. The light boxes manifested heart-warming stories of our local community, and in some ways, resembled silhouette theatre, a form of art where dark figures are manipulated manually to tell stories behind a bright screen, which was popular in China long time ago. They also reminded me of lanterns, which children love to play with under the round moon on the day of the festival.

As for the many moons, they could represent the passing of time. Therefore, naturally, the train seemed to carry our authentic household tales across generations as it moved past each of them. Since a round moon traditionally symbolises family, wholeness and warmth, the train passing each of them also instilled in us hope of a harmonious passing-on of stories and traditions in the many years to come.

I find community art like this engaging and necessary. Art is not only a representation of extravagance and high life, but could be as down-to-earth as this installation which aims to tell an authentic story which connects the local community. It would be lovely to see more of these around Hong Kong in the future!


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