For Liberty: Art and Design of the Hong Kong Protests
Identity System/ Catalog Design/ Editorial/ Print/ Chinese-English
For Liberty is a project inspired by the art and design of the Hong Kong pro-democracy protests of 2014 and 2019. Combining symbolic elements of the movements, such as umbrellas, graffiti and tear gas, the catalog and accompanying collateral hope to immortalize the spirit and power behind the artists, the people, and the cause of the movements.
ABOUTSupervising ProfessorMelissa Kuperminc
Year of Completion2022
THE SPARKA dynamic blend of Chinese and Western culture, new and old, Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities. One of the things that makes it so unique is that for the longest time, Hong Kong retained its freedom of speech, as it wasn’t under Beijing’s rule. When I saw the photos of the 2019 prodemocracy protests, I was struck by the courage, solidarity, and sheer size of the demonstrations. While ultimately the demonstrations didn’t achieve their goal and the city is now under China’s rule, through this project I wanted to pay homage to the spirit that I believe once defined Hong Kong.
PROCESSAfter extensive research, I gathered thousands of images from the two protests. I wanted to bring out the human side of the demonstrations, and used recurring themes such as graffiti and handwritten elements to allow that raw voice speak for itself.
By tediously editing hundreds of images, I featured real-life graffiti and notes that were created during the demonstrations.
Another recurring theme featured in this project was inspired by the Lennon Walls. These walls popped up around Hong Kong during both the 2014 and 2018 protests and consisted of thousands of Post-its containing handwritten messages of encouragement as a show of solidarity. I used these messages on each of my spreads as navigation, and constructed my own Lennon Wall experience by printing real messages on Post-its.
