Art & Miniatures as Method: The Case of Gio Ponti’s Projects for Daniel Koo (1963) and Su Gin-Djih’s Shek O Bus Terminus (1955)
Speaker(s): Emily Verla Bovino
Date: November 9, 2020 (Monday)
Time: 7:00-8:30 pm
Venue: Online Via Zoom
Zoom Link
https://hku.zoom.us/j/91980952194?pwd=VmF2NytHbkhVR3dtTkZSUWdsanNMUT09
Meeting ID: 919 8095 2194
Password: dla01
Encounters with a miniature bus model diorama of the Shek O Bus Terminus and the work of Hong Kong artist Leelee Chan produced new insights into the histories and social lives of neglected works of Hong Kong modernism: Su Gin Djih’s Shek O Bus Terminus (1955) and Gio Ponti’s projects for department store magnate Daniel Koo Shing-Cheong, the Shui Hing Building (now Prestige Tower, 1963) and Villa Koo (also known as Ponti Villa, 1963). This talk will discuss the political unconscious of the three buildings, Hong Kong bus model culture as alternative historiography and how attending to the architectural settings of Hong Kong art and design can generate unexpected stories about the city’s built environment.
About the Speaker
Emily Verla Bovino, PhD (MA, PhD Art History, Theory and Criticism, University of California, San Diego; BA, Urban Studies, Columbia University) is an art historian, urbanist, artist and art writer. Her research focuses on the role of concepts in art practice; the residency as method in contemporary art; curatorial practice and research; art criticism as an expanded field; and intersections between contemporary art, architecture, urbanism and film. She spent formative years in Hong Kong from 1984 to 1991 and returned to the city in 2018 as Professor of Art and Architectural History at SCAD Hong Kong. She was awarded the SCAD Presidential Fellowship for Research in 2019 and started the curatorial initiative Art Now! for the former North Kowloon Magistracy (2018-2020).