A visual representation of "City" by Louise Ho
PAN Ching Kiu Quanna
St. Stephen's Girls' College
My artwork, which is created by paper cutting and painting, was inspired by the poem ‘City’ written by Louise Ho. My work is divided into two parts. In order to make a contrast with the dark alley, where the street-sleeper resides, I used a variety of vivid colours in drawing the flourishing city on the left hand side. The skyscrapers created by paper strips are reflecting a fiery sunset. This creates the image of a hustling and bustling city. On the contrary, I used dark colours to draw the items to create a gloomy mood on the right hand side. Such colour tone reflects the helplessness and isolation of the street-sleeper in the city. This piece emphasises the dichotomy between the rich and poor in Hong Kong, and I hope my artwork could raise people’s awareness of the socio-economic inequality.
City
No fingers claw at the bronze gauze
Of a Hong Kong December dusk,
Only a maze of criss-crossing feet
That enmeshes the city
In a merciless grid.
Between many lanes
Of traffic, the street-sleeper
Carves out his island home.
Or under the thundering fly-over,
Another makes his own peace of mind.
Under the staircase,
By the public lavatory,
A man entirely unto himself
Lifts his hand
And opens his palm.
His digits
Do not rend the air,
They merely touch
As pain does, effortlessly.
Louise Ho
“City” was published in Incense Tree: Collected Poems of Louise Ho by Louise Ho, p.45.
Copyrights © 2009 by Hong Kong University Press. Reprinted by permission of Hong Kong University Press.