I’ve mentioned my busy semester a few times now, I realize, but this has seriously been my busiest sem so far. 1/1/2 more years to go!! So of course, I was perfectly happy to take a long break this weekend. I went to deTour at PMQ along with City Girl, City Stories on a media tour and here are my highlights of the event! A lot of fun, feel-good activities for everyone!

This year’s theme is Connection, about the connection of artists and designers from different cultures and various creative media connecting together on one site. First up is Urban Symphony on the Courtyard, an installation of entangled tubes that brings me back to my band days in secondary school (I was a saxophonist!). I think you can talk into some of the bells and hear an echoing on the other end, but it didn’t really work for me, haha!

| Cover picture: Urban Symphony, Alen Ng, Courtyard, G/F |

Cotton Run, LAAB
Courtyard, G/F

I was hoping to see some real action going on, and dramatic smoke effects in the air… but it was really all kids and parents queuing up to go on the “exercise” wheel! Running on the wheel generates the cotton candy maker, and staff work on making cotton candy while people go on the wheel. It’s so cute to see kids receiving small blobs of pink cotton candy for their efforts! :D Basically, run harder for more cotton candy!!

The Poverty Line, Stefen Chow & Hui-Yi Lin
5/F Verandah

The Poverty Line is a great thought-provoking photography project by Stefen Chow and Hui-Yi Lin who work together and bring awareness to what people living at the poverty line in different countries are able to afford in food everyday. Each country is represented by the newspaper in the background and there is also a local touch to the food items for each country. On one level, it’s fun to identify the food products and to guess the country represented in the more than 1600 photographs showcased in this exhibition. On a more serious note, it makes you reflect on what the urban poor are merely able to afford everyday.

The Poverty Line website | Facebook

Do check out The Poverty Line’s website for more photos! I was so fascinated looking at the photos for Singapore and Hong Kong. Stefen Chow well captures the local flavor for these two places.

I’ve been a fan of Lego exhibits ever since I visited Legoland in Johor, Malaysia. So much good stuff there. deTour also features a Lego pop-up exhibition by Andy Hung with a variety of Lego exhibits. Look at this traditional Chinese street with the traditional style of buildings complete with roof decorations and a rickshaw on the street, love it!

Colorful stretch of Amsterdam buildings and yes, Florentijn Hofman’s Rubber Duck!

There’s also a Make Your Own Mosaic wall in the space for kids to make their own Lego mosaics. The two different Marilyn Monroes caught my eye, haha! ;)

A touch of The Little Prince here too!

The LEGO Builder, Andy Hung
H307 (Hollywood)

Landscape of Cloud, Keith Lam
Qube (2/F)

More exhibitions on the Qube, PMQ’s exhibition space on the second space. I’d like to highlight Keith Lam’s new media installation Landscape of Cloud! It’s a circle of projectors connected to large clouds above. You can put anything on the projector, right on that small square of light, and it will detect the color of the object. The connecting tube and cloud then changes colors accordingly. It really works, I assure you. I was curious and put my hand on the projector, and it turned pink!

One of my favorite parts of the deTour tour was getting a screen printed tote bag! There’s a 4-step process to redeem the tote bag, but I won’t go into details here. I was excited to see the screen printing process, since I’d heard about it but never had the chance to see it before!

Screen printing is a printing technique by which ink is transferred onto a surface via a mesh screen. You can choose from either a blue or red design, so there are two different screens with the blue and red design on it.

I was surprised to see that you can wash these screens, but apparently, it’s part of the process. I was worried that the ink will get on my hands but it doesn’t! I ain’t no science person to know why.

A cardboard is first placed inside the tote bag. Ink (or what looks to me like paint) is then dabbed across the top of the design on the screen. Next, you can slide this giant brush across the design on the screen to get it onto the tote bag below. It’s good to put a bit of weight into the sliding to get the ink transferred well, unless you like a fading color look. ;) You can position the screen any way you like on top of the tote bag to make the design yours!

I went with the blue design for my tote bag. I was kind of a little surprised to see the design printed on my bag when I lifted the screen up. Like, it worked!!

Visiting deTour made for a fun afternoon, and I’m glad I could make the time to go! I realize that my highlights only consist of exhibitions and installations, but there are a lot more other pop-up stores, workshops and other activities to check out! deTour is on till 6th December, so be sure to take a trip there! You could go around to check out HKwalls after that, too. :)

Go to deTour’s and PMQ’s website and social media to find out more:

deTour website | Facebook | Instagram

PMQ website | Facebook | Instagram

Now, I’ll need to hunker down on my final essays and prep for upcoming exams… Wish me luck!!