Economy of Things

Art-chiving Kwun Tong

22, 23, 29, 30 July 2017

Yuet Wah Street Playground, Kwun Tong, Hong Kong

Organised by Exploration Theatre

The redevelopment of Kwun Tong and relocation of street hawkers into an interim building disrupted the circulation of daily commodities that formed the social fabric of the community.

I created an audio drama for a piece of rubber that has fallen out of favour of customers and the owner of Hoi Kee stationery stall, at a time when vintage stationery became fashionable in Hong Kong. While the original shop moved to a much smaller space in the interim building, teenagers and young people had also grown to embrace lesser known products that give an impression of good taste. Noticing this change in customer preference, the stall owner switched to sell these marketable products to boost the sales that had plummeted since the relocation. The perspective of the ordinary rubber reveals the adaptive strategy of street hawkers as objects of everyday use become associated with their symbolic rather than functional value over the years.