If you go into the loading bay at any time, you will see painters, sculptors, and installation artists carrying crates of unfinished works to 黁竈帑 迷你倉. Not just more space in the building. It’s both a secret place to store things and a place where creative people in Hong Kong’s Southern District can start – visit our site for more information!
Low studio rents were going away because of rising property prices, and oddball venues were being taken over by developers, so artists had to come up with new ideas. Ministorage step: a sensible, even subterranean version. Artists who work with marble slabs and heavy tools are just a few minutes away from old factories that have been turned into art spaces. Photographers put away light boxes and cheap props. These batteries hide test altars and work with roll doors; they are small but strong.
Wet weather can really be a bad thing in Hong Kong. Artworks don’t twist or melt in ministorage because the temperature is controlled and the space is locked up. This little thing is important. A recent art show featured statues made from reclaimed wood. All of the pieces were sensitive to water, so they only made it to the show at the last minute because they had been kept dry for months in a government storage yard in Wong Chuk Hang.
Pop-up art shows and events move quickly. Want to clean up one show and get ready for the next? Storage units come through in a big way, full of wall panels, screens, and even wine crates on the first night. One person said she would joke that her schedules for showing things to vendors depended on how close the MTR and elevators were.
It’s not hot; no movies are being made about fluorescent-lit storage lanes. But behind every flashy Instagram post is a Wong Chuk Hang kitchen with locked doors where the real art lives, works, and sometimes takes off. Hong Kong creators are slowly putting the odds in their favor one storage box at a time. They are the creative strength that no one sees.