Found Art: Mystery artist in Hong Kong

My first day at the Hong Kong Art Fair 2011 was full of joyous finds. A year earlier I’d moved from London to Vietnam, and on my visit to HK’s art fair I saw the exciting work of a number of artists that do not exhibit on the Vietnamese art scene. That evening I exited onto Hong Kong’s elevated walkways and looked for a place to eat. I made a bee-line for a cluster of illuminated signs, and just as I walked down the stairs and waited to cross the road, I saw this painting on the floor:

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I looked around, stood there for a while and just saw the flow of traffic at dusk and no one walking in any of the roads nearby. The painting just looked back at me, being as it was at an angle and tilted upwards. It was carefully sat, resting on some wooden props stuck to the back of it, on the corner of a pavement, neighbours with a traffic light and some green shrubs. Still nobody came. No labels, no stopping vehicles that may have dropped it, even though it was not damaged or chipped.

Of course, I took the painting. With it tucked under my arm, I walked into a restaurant and waited for a table. A fellow customer-in-waiting was an art teacher resident of Hong Kong. We soon shared a meal and a conversation. She mentioned an artist who had left paintings around for people to take, some years ago. I got pretty excited, but she couldn’t remember the name of the artist, nor did she know of anything in the press about it. Nothing I had seen in the art fair was in the style of this found object, carefully finished front and back.

I have not yet discovered who painted it, what it means or how it happened to be there when I walked past. I am, of course, delighted with it. I love the craftsmanship, the irony I interpret in it, the surprising way it came to me. I’ve attached a Chinese painting hook, a small but special present given to me by a Malay antiques collector. I enjoy the mystery, but if anybody has any information, please contact me!