Blue artificial flowers for Valentine’s Day or green straws as the tentacles of coronavirus for a “normal” pandemic day. Such motifs can also be seen among the more than 170 experimental veils that are bought in a theater workshop in Hong Kong.
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Costume designer and actor Edmond Kok thought about both traditional occasions and news from the current global health crisis when creating his eccentric face masks. “I would say that every piece of art has its origins in our daily lives. Many of my things inspired me to make these masks. For example, I’ve seen a lot of pictures of coronavirus and its spikes. Coincidentally, I had some pieces among the remains that were similar to them, so I immediately made one, “he explains.
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Coronavirus, Big Brother, plastics
The 50-year-old artist, like many of his other colleagues in the field, lost his job due to coronavirus. But his creativity certainly did not leave him, so he decided to make veils that could one day only remind us of a pandemic – perhaps at a time when he will be designing costumes again and performing on stage.
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Until then, he is passionate about his hobby, which has both cultural and epidemiological, environmental and political overlap. Among his creations is a veil with the motif of Thai temples, which usually pays for a popular tourist destination, but without which the people of Hong Kong now have to do without.
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Another of the face masks attracts attention with a security camera, which emerges from the human face like some futuristic, all-seeing unicorn, always controlling his herd. It also draws attention to the tightened surveillance following the adoption of the new security law, which came into force in Hong Kong in June. According to critics, it limits the degree of autonomy of the city, including freedom of expression, to which another of the veils refers – this time with a hand covering the wearer’s mouth.
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“I would especially like to document how our lives are changing. I wouldn’t say that it’s just the masks I create, but the masks that Hong Kong people wear and tell about what happened to us, “adds Kok.
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Casual wear? No way
For many of his non-traditional veils, the playwright did not need any special items that he did not have in the workshop. You often follow AP agency it was sufficient with clippings from earlier costume designs or with common items for daily use.
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One of the extravagant face masks, for example, is from a plastic box for food from a restaurant with you. It aims to remind people that a pandemic and a change in their behavior, although possibly caused by fears of infection, are polluting the environment.
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The masks from the workshop of the costume designer and the actor are obviously not intended for daily wear, but precisely for the symbolic emphasis on the problems of the present and for artistic self-realization. Thanks to them, the theater director Edmond Kok reaps success mainly on his instagram platform under the nickname “edmondkok”.
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