These icons are not unfamiliar to Hong Kongers, but maybe the way they’re drawn in math class and the way they spread through blogs is. “There is an understanding in Hong Kong of DIY as something young or messy, but I’m interested in seeing what it actually looks like to be making stuff in your basement,” Samantha points out. “It’s not enough of an option here, or something that’s valued. People are told that they either go to art school or don’t do art.” Adrian adds that the prolific flow of money in Hong Kong means that people just default to high fashion or popular culture.

Arnault adds that Kapok exists for this very purpose, to provide a space in between high-end branding and widely available street art, to provide a space for “something surprising”. Samantha has an additional agenda: “No one here needs to see more America, because it’s so privileged already, but we only see Hollywood here. Some European consulates support interesting work from their countries, and we wanted to show some young, underground American work here as a first step in cultural exchange.”

So these magnificent neon-markered, alternahistory-steeped doodles exist in the space between reality and the subconscious, between ancient mythology and 21st century post-culture, between high art and street art. In a fitting tribute, some of these humble, glorious works rest atop an installation of a monochrome castle and set of rainbows, built by co-curator Adrian Wong.

“The ideal feeling I’d like to evoke is awesomeness, an appreciation of stupid profoundness,” he explains. Too busy playing Nintendo to theorize post-punk, Adrian built the space-commanding castle and rainbows as a visceral reaction to the drawings. Finding them loose, colorful, exciting, and real, he decided to respond to their flatness by pulling them into a 3-dimensional space. He went a step further by choosing castles and rainbows, icons of childhood, but without their trademark color. “They’re a nice thing for the drawings to rest on,” he concludes.

Artists: Brian Chippendale, Thomas Galloway, Matt Lock, Devon Varmega, Brent Wadden

Sleepover Psychedelia
An Exhibition Curated by Samantha Culp and Adrian Wong
Installation by Adrian Wong
Date: April 1st – May 5th, 2006
Place: Kapok Gallery Space
Address: 9 Dragon Road, Tin Hau, Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2549 9254
https://www.ka-pok.com