Crusading Hong Kong artists awarded inaugural Human Rights Art Prizes

Works depicting the hardships of mainland immigrants and African refugees won two top awards in the inaugural Hong Kong Human Rights Art Prize.

Elva Lai Ming-Chu won in the Emerging Artist category with her piece, Family Photo Album: Washing, a series of pictures showing the lives of people who came to Hong Kong from the mainland in the 1960s and how many family members were separated by famine and poverty.

Photographer Alvin Fung Tsz Chung won the Community Artist prize for Under the Sun, depicting three refugees of African origin in Hong Kong whom the artist met and interviewed.

The subjects' backs face the camera, representing the challenges Fung faced in being able to fully understand their heart-breaking stories without having experienced any similar ordeal.

The awards were launched by the Hong Kong Refugee Advice Centre in an effort to show the work of young artists, while recognising the role of art in raising awareness of and defending human rights.

The emerging and community artist winners were chosen by judges working in the human rights field. Staff from the centre chose two further winners, dubbed the Choice awards.

Community artist Jack Li Yip-fuk won one of the Choice awards for his photograph Impressions of Subdivided Flat, which highlights the difficulty that people in Hong Kong face in securing affordable, adequate housing due to rising property prices.

The artist states that the situation gives rise to a distorted future where people have lost their basic right to housing.

"Jack's piece brings attention to the challenges many vulnerable people in Hong Kong experience in enjoying an adequate standard of living," said the centre's executive director, Aleta Miller. "Most refugees struggle to find decent accommodation on a paltry HK$1,200-a-month rent subsidy provided under the humanitarian assistance scheme."

Emerging artist Lo Chi-kit won the other Choice award for his piece Under the Shadow, which he dedicated to detained, imprisoned and exiled human rights activists on the mainland.

"Chi-kit's work highlights the persecution and oppression that human rights defenders face around the world - sometimes to the point of being forced to flee their countries," Miller said.

(2013-11-08/scmp)