Justice Centre is taking submissions for its annual Human Rights Arts Prize – entries are open from August 7 to October 5. HKFP is a media sponsor.
The contest is open to anyone above the age of 16; entries are limited to five per artist and the winning artist will be awarded HK$35,000.
The competition began in 2013 as a way of encouraging Hong Kong artists to explore local and international human rights issues. In past, artists have addressed the 2014 Occupy Central movement, refugees, LGBTQ+ rights, and many other topics. A panel of art experts assembled by Katie Vajda – a Hong Kong-based artist and winner of the 2014 Arts prize – will judge the entries.
Piya Muqit, executive director of Justice Centre Hong Kong, wrote that the prize hopes to bring together communities: “We hope the Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize allows us to engage with more sectors of the community, working with artists, institutions, the education sector, media, galleries and corporates, while raising awareness and much-needed funds for the front-line work of Justice Centre Hong Kong.”
The winner last year was Christy Chow for her work “De-stitching,” wherein the artist took apart a shirt that was sewn together by a sweatshop worker in Bangladesh in less than 15 minutes.
She removed 3,745 stitches and counted each one in Cantonese. The process took four and a half hours: “She did this to experience and pay tribute to the labour of this anonymous sweatshop worker. De-stitching questions the value of labour in the world of capitalism, and asks if the value of labour can only be measured monetarily,” Justice Centre wrote on Facebook.
Winners of the HKHRAP 2018 will be announced at an exhibition opening which will feature all shortlisted work on Saturday, 8 December, at The Hive Spring in Wong Chuk Hang.
Enter the competition here. Follow Justice Centre Hong Kong on Facebook and Instagram for updates.
