STEEL, ROPE / CHAIR_SIDE TABLE_VASE / 2022
BY ARTHUR HAINZ
A furniture set designed to explore the reduction of form and abstraction of personal inspirations.
Nostalgia is a near omni-present theme throughout the work of ARTHUR HAINZ. However, with so much creative influence being derived from memories and experiences of Hong Kong, naturally questions of appropriateness arose around their use. As an expat child, HAINZ spent 9 formative years living in HK. His experiences were, of course, ones of relative priveledge, sailing every week, attending a private school, living in a house in the countryside. Considering the divide between his personal experiences and those of the local population, is it fair to integrate cultural and social elements into his work? With his only claim to HK as his home being the time he spent there, does he have the right?
HAINZ tackles these questions by re-examining his own past works. By tracing abstract silhouettes over pictures of projects such as DEEP BLUE and BUDDHA TEA, he sought to reduce to an essence the forms he had already given to nostalgic inspirations. These simple line drawings were then resurrected into steel wire models, creating designs that existed as second-level abstractions from the original memories. What remains are ghosts of nostalgia, reminiscent only in his own mind of the images he sought to represent, keeping his own memory of HK alive without the need for them to be the focus.