1. 《LIFE+》Magazine
  2. 《LIFE+》Magazine Issue List
  3. Winter 2023 Issue
  4. Creating identity through anonymity
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    21 November 2023
    Known today for its corporate skyscrapers and financial institutions, by contrast, Hong Kong is a city built on manual work, realised by the hands of individuals. Across the city, men and women toiled in noisy factory floors, their limbs moving relentlessly and mechanically, a foretelling of the machinery that would ultimately replace them. In Tsuen Wan, like so many areas of Hong Kong, textile manufacturing dominated for decades, with the sector employing almost half the city’s workforce by the end of the 1960’s. However, the economic diversification of the city led to the local industry’s demise, and in its wake, the buildings it occupied fell by the wayside.

    The face of one of those workers, a woman whose life was dedicated to making garments with the label ‘Made in Hong Kong’ stitched into the seam, now stares down on the contemporary streets of Tsuen Wan. Formed herself by hand, carved into the cement, plaster and brick of the building’s fabric, she has become an icon of the area, and the image that welcomes you to one of the city’s first cultural and creative revitalisation projects, The Mills.

    Street art by Vhils in Borgo Universo Festival 2023
    Photo by Vittoriano Palerma

    The portrait is the work of Portuguese artist, Alexandre Farto, known across the world as Vhils. Previously a prolific exponent of graffiti writing, he turned his attention to this form of creative destruction, where the removal of material, not the addition, becomes the media for his emotions and opinions. Carving, cutting, drilling, and blasting, he etches his imagery into the fabric of the walls on which he works, depicting his portraits simply in shadow, mid tone, and highlight. This groundbreaking bas-relief technique very quickly set Vhils apart, and now his striking work has been presented in over 30 countries worldwide, in solo and group shows. Curator Angelika Li, who commissioned the portrait on behalf of The Mills, described his interpretation of the female factory worker as:

    "Like a minus equals positive. He uses negative space to create heroes of the anonymous people who made Hong Kong".

    Alexandre Farto (Vhils)
    Photo by Nash Does Work

    Most recently, Vhils has collaborated with MAAT, the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology in his home city of Lisbon, to present a monumental solo show entitled Prisma. On this occasion, the media is slow motion video, projected on to a series of walls that create a labyrinth like immersive environment for visitors to this Portuguese institution. Again, dealing with the topic of lost identity, it encourages the viewers to roam through these anonymous spaces, contemplating, reflecting, and hopefully recovering autonomy, through this process of passive observation.

    Street art by Vhils in Boston in 2022
    Photo by Alexander Silva

    Hong Kong and its people are featured alongside eight other major global cities in Prisma. So it may be that the daughter of the nameless worker depicted on the wall of The Mills, can be glimpsed in this most recent work of this visionary artist, Alexandre Farto.

    Street art by Vhils in Festival Iminente at Mucem in Marseille in 2022
    Photo by Expanding Roots

    Creating identity through anonymity

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