Sustainability and pandemic relief converge in Soho House Hong Kong’s new Xoloplastics exhibition

Months of pandemic have had no small impact on the art world, especially in Hong Kong, where the landscape was wiped clean of exhibitions, auctions and industry gatherings in the first wave of COVID-19. A small silver lining, perhaps, is that the city’s homegrown art scene has had space to flourish, giving way to a sense of camaraderie after a shared struggle.

Among these initiatives is Xoloplastics, a sustainable art project cofounded by Mexican-born, Hong Kong-based member Ane Alfeiran, that recycles plastic waste from the streets of Mexico into distinctive triangular tiled canvases for use by artists. This month, Xoloplastics is partnering with Soho House Hong Kong to host a charity exhibition, bringing together eight local member artists to create original works for auction. Seventy per cent of the auction’s proceeds will be donated to an emergency relief programme supporting vulnerable families in Mexico affected by COVID-19. And 30% will go to the participating artists to support Hong Kong’s artistic community.

‘As an artist, I wanted to use my knowledge and passion for the arts to help raise funds for new programmes and initiatives,’ explains Alfeiran. ‘I came up with the idea to combine my interests of sustainability and art by using recycled materials to create unique pieces of work.’ Here, learn more about the featured artists before the exhibition on 12 October.

Amy Maria Tong, ‘Socks Off Before Meditation’ (2020)

Known for her abstract experimentation on still life and portraits, the work of Amy Maria Tong often combines idealised, multi-layered scenarios, expressing the emotional traces from her daily encounters with society. ‘I believe art can inspire people to think in general,’ she says. ‘Artists can create conceptual work that puts our environmental issues into perspective for viewers. Some can evoke emotions.’ Her piece for Xoloplastics depicts a figure contorted in a yogic pose while being fed controlled doses of convenient nature through LED screens. It presents a forgotten idea of being lost in nature, where scenic trails may abruptly turn off via a voice-activated command.

Brendan Fitzpatrick, ‘Still Life Of A White Chrysanthemum’ (2020)

A graduate of Central Saint Martins and the Royal Drawing School, Brendan Fitzpatrick cites the likes of Velasquez, Borremans and Rembrandt as influences on his work. And he accordingly utilises the sight-size technique used by the Old Masters, whereby a model is painted in person to the scale of life. ‘I believe that artists’ adoption of practices using more sustainable mediums can have more of an impact than artworks about sustainability alone,’ he says. His still life for Xoloplastics echoes the chiaroscuro and sharp treatment of natural light evident in 17th-century Dutch vanitas paintings, juxtaposing painterly brushstrokes with the sharp geometry offered by the plastic triangles that comprise the canvas.

Gemma Hayden Blest, ‘Untitled’ (2020)

Gemma Hayden Blest trained under both Alexander McQueen and then Christopher Bailey at Burberry in London and Paris, later moving to Hong Kong to found a florist business. Her art combines these disparate pursuits, resulting in unique compositions that use botanicals as a creative medium. ‘Art exists to encourage thought,’ she says. ‘Even in the most basic of interpretations, it’s there to be admired if not questioned. Within the creative industries it is one of the few practices with any longevity and value increase.’ Blest’s newest canvas uses Xoloplastic’s triangles as a device to diffract images of flowers, off which paint drips and interacts with the physicality of the medium.

Ghost Mountain Field, ‘Pisces’ (2020)

Known for blending Chinese heritage with modern street-art aesthetics, Ghost Mountain Field studied at Goldsmiths College, University of London, and the City & Guilds of London Art School, and has created public murals in Hong Kong, Bangkok, Dublin, and Vancouver. His work draws upon a childhood in Hong Kong’s late colonial era where an influx of imagery both from Japan and the West resulted in a flourishing of subcultures, and creating what he deems a lack of cultural identity for the generation. ‘Art is basically visual communication,’ says Field. ‘It can invoke a strong meaning about anything. Promoting the message of sustainability in art would, in my view, be about making it clever and thought-provoking, but not preachy.’ Dubbed ‘Pisces’, his original Xoloplastics artwork renders a traditionally Chinese circular composition using spray-painting techniques in a seamless marriage of eastern and western artistic technique.

Marcel Heijnen, ‘Quest’ (2020)

Exploring the boundaries of art in a quest for beauty and expression that goes beyond realism, Dutch-born artist and musician Marcel Heijnen is driven by a general curiosity about life and its meaning. ‘Good art generally creates thought- and emotion-provoking triggers,’ he says. ‘Sustainability and the human relationship to our environment and fellow earthlings are important themes that need a continuous push for attention and urgency.’ For Xoloplastics, Heijnen presents a photographic composition that takes an image of political graffiti that has been washed off the billboard of a Hong Kong tram stop, and superimposes it onto plastic triangles. The triangles have been arranged into the Chinese character ‘征’, which means ‘to conquer’ – a reference to the quest today by various actors for our attention, subsequently blurring the line between real and fake.

Sharyn Wortman, ‘Hiding In Plain Sight’ (2020)

Sharyn Wortman brings her experience from a career in advertising to create art pieces that are born from a strong concept, often exploring a deeper discourse about cultural identity and the effects of colonialism. ‘Artworks can communicate a message just as an advertising poster can help us make sustainable choices,’ says Wortman. ‘But this is very one-dimensional. It becomes interesting when materiality is taken into account. What is the work made from, why has the artist chosen to use these materials, and with what have they been juxtaposed to create a multi-layered form of communication? This becomes more emotive and makes compelling work that’s more difficult to ignore.’ Her 3D mini-sculptures are created by sticking Xoloplastics triangles together, creating black and white forms that reference the dazzle paint schemes used by British WWI warships, which served to throw off the targeting systems of German U-boats. In the context of this artwork, the pattern helps to obscure the sinister nature of plastic and its effects on the environment.

Tyler Jackson Pritchard, ‘Truth’ (2020)

Working primarily across painting and photography, Tyler Jackson Pritchard’s body of work seeks to bridge the gap between abstraction and representational art, expressing the underlying constructs and forms that result from external and internal struggle. ‘When using recycled items in art, it reveals to the public the beauty and value that previously used elements still hold after they are used for their primary purpose,’ says Pritchard. His piece fully exploits the structural possibilities of the Xoloplastics triangles, linking them together into a tessellated mosaic that is then mounted on rails – therefore blurring the line between black and white with the addition of 3D movement.

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