Hong Kong

Pok Chi Lau, artist

born 1950

Hong Kong, 1985

Where object was made: Kowloon Walled City, Hong Kong, China (present-day Hong Kong)

Material/technique: gelatin silver print

Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 59 x 86.5 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 23 1/4 x 34 1/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 70 x 101.7 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 27 9/16 x 40 1/16 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 30 x 40 in

Credit line: Gift of Jim Sleeper

Accession number: 2010.0161

Not on display

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This large-format photograph depicts the claustrophobic scene of a run-down apartment complex set behind a large pile of trash in Hong Kong. The repetitive façade of the building fills the entire picture plane. The cramped balconies draped with laundry suggest the presence of people, despite the broken windows and dilapidated appearance of the structure. The photograph exudes an overall sense of disorder and disrepair that speaks to the effects of industrialization and overcrowding in China.

Since 1967, Lau has observed and documented the Chinese Diaspora. Lau’s photographs range in subject from Chinatowns located in the United States to rural villages and cities in China. Born in Hong Kong, Lau left China in 1969 to study art in Canada, eventually settling in Lawrence, Kansas, as a professor at the University of Kansas.