Lady Liberty, a crowdfunded, 3D-printed sculpture, was conceived and constructed in just one week during last year’s unrest
SPORTING A HELMET, goggles and a respirator, the uniform of Hong Kong’s anti-government protesters, Lady Liberty raises her left arm to the sky—or rather, to the ceiling. She is the newest version of a crowdfunded, 3D-printed sculpture which became a totem during last year’s unrest.
Conceived and constructed in just one week, the original waved a flag demanding “Revolution Now”. The new model, in brilliant white, has been designed to fill a small gallery space above a “yellow” café in Kowloon, holding up the roof to represent the determination of Hong Kongers. Last June an attempt by the government of Hong Kong to pass an unpopular extradition bill was met with furious anger. Millions of people marched and joined peaceful rallies; thousands turned to violence. Protesters also found creative ways to draw attention to what was happening, producing anti-government cartoons and adding art to “Lennon Walls” along with posters and post-it notes. Then, on August 21st, a user on LIHKG, a popular online forum, suggested making a statue. Three days later 8,000 people voted on their favourite of nine designs. A crowdfunding campaign raised HK$200,000 in six hours. With a team of 70 volunteer artists and designers the first effort cost just HK$45,000. The team has since dwindled to a core of 30 but they have employed dozens of protesters on projects. “We don’t ask for real names,” explains “Flash”, a spokesperson for the group: everyone goes by the nicknames that they use online, a remnant of anonymity needed to keep comrades safe. For six weeks Lady Liberty was moved between university campuses and protest sites around Hong Kong island. In October, as the protests were becoming more dangerous, the team decided to display her on Lion Rock, a mountainous outcrop which can be seen from much of Hong Kong. In the midst of a storm, it took 20 people four hours to haul her 120kg body to the top. By the morning her defiant image was shared around the world. But, although they fastened her down with metal cables, that afternoon persons unknown pushed her over. She was soon righted only to be toppled again the next day. This time she was pushed right off the cliff. Her dismembered body was salvaged; her torso and flagpole are on display in the exhibition. It gives the viewer a chance to inspect the sculpture’s anatomy in order to better understand its construction. A steel frame acts as a skeleton. Another layer is sculpted with polystyrene and then covered with plastic. The hands and feet are 3D-printed. The ponytail was detachable. “The marks and damages are testimony of how Hong Kong is crumbling in the hands of the pro-China government,” a caption says. On display too is a replica of the black flag the original Lady Liberty carried, which in English reads “Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now”. Sometimes translated as “Revolution Of Our Times”, the slogan is attributed to Edward Leung, a philosopher and would-be pro-independence politician who many young people consider to be the spiritual leader of the movement. Flash argues that the flag is not a symbol of the pro-independence movement. “Revolution Now” doesn’t mean toppling a government, he insists: it is simply a demand for change. The Chinese Communist Party might disagree. It has made it increasingly clear that anything that threatens the unity of the country will not be tolerated. This exhibition opened the day after the party announced a plan to beef up Hong Kong’s national-security laws with one it will write itself—a move many Hong Kongers consider a fundamental transgression of the “high degree of autonomy” they were promised under the “one country, two systems” principle. Despite the momentousness of the news, the atmosphere at the exhibition opening was muted. “We don’t know what the law is going to do to us or to the arts,” says Flash. “Obviously we are against it, we are angry; we are sad; we are frustrated.” The title of the show, “We Are Not____Exhibition”, is fitting for these anguished times. “We haven’t done a lot of things,” says Flash, pointing at the flag. “We haven’t freed Hong Kong, we haven’t started a revolution and we don’t have universal suffrage.” On a wall the title of the show is painted with a thick black line—mimicking the redaction on an official document—and visitors are invited to fill in the blank. “We have to speak out even though we are being oppressed and suppressed,” Flash explains. “Like Lady Liberty being tossed off a rock, the reason why we wanted to come back is we don’t want to be silenced.”
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