Media

HKU weekly notice (from May 14 to May 21, 2016)

13 May 2016

 

Two exhibitions at the HKU Main Library refurbished atrium
The Main Library of the University of Hong Kong will present two concurrent exhibitions at the refurbished 2/F Atrium/Exhibitions Area of the Main Library. The refurbished Atrium/Exhibitions Area is part of the Main Library’s new 2/F Main Entrance construction. It is now ready for its first exhibitions, Reading the City – Library Architecture in Germany - an interpretation of prominent library buildings and urban culture in Germany in drawings by Fabio Barilari from May 16 to June 3, 2016 and Preserving the Past, Informing the Future Exhibition of the "Deacons Archives" from May 16 to June 30, 2016.

1. Reading the City – Library Architecture in Germany - an interpretation of prominent library buildings and urban culture in Germany in drawings by Fabio Barilari
The exhibition is held In coordination with the Goethe-Institut Hongkong (sic) Library. Italian architect Fabio Barilari visited several German cities with support from the Goethe-Institut in 2013 and 2015. During his travels he executed several drawings and sketches in which he interprets urban and library architecture. The exhibition shows a selection of his works along with additional information, short interviews with the library directors and quotes from talks with library users.
(https://www.goethe.de/ins/cn/en/sta/hon/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=20697320)
2. The Deacons Archives contains the bulk of the early surviving records of Deacons and its predecessors, including client deeds and papers, wills and probate, deceased estate client files, powers of attorney, business contracts and agreements, certificates, legal correspondence, accounting records, and more. The date range for the Archives is from 1846 to 2007, with a bulk date range between 1880s and 1950s. This surely provides valued information reflecting the social and economic conditions of Hong Kong particularly in the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century. This exhibition intends to convey the depth, breadth and richness of the Archives’ holdings. The documents on display are various types of records relating to The University of Hong Kong, wills of local renowned entrepreneurs, land lease and land sale deeds, and other intriguing records ranging from the 1900s to the 1960s. A number of damaged documents which have been repaired and restored by our Preservation and Conservation team are also on display, along with images to illustrate the different repair processes.

Media Contact: Mr. Gary Chin, Tel: 2859 2211 / Ms. Marina Yeung, Tel: 2859 8903

British Airways’ HK80 Heritage Exhibition at MC3@702 Creative Space
The Department of Sociology has worked with British Airways to launch a heritage exhibition at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) to showcase its 80 years of history of flying to Hong Kong. The public in Hong Kong are invited to visit the exhibition for free and to stand a chance to win two return tickets to London on British Airways’ award-winning Club World business class.

The exhibition will take visitors through the history of British Airways’ service in Hong Kong. Visitors can get a close-up look at the historical artefacts, including vintage cabin crew uniforms, inflight menu and promotional posters used on the route decades ago. Customers and cabin crew also shared their precious memories of flying British Airways and the old Kai Tak Airport.

British Airways has also collaborated with postgraduate students from the Department of Sociology. Working together with the British Airways’ Heritage Centre curators in the UK, the students helped with the research and interviewed the airline’s loyal customers and long serving staff members about their experiences and memories of the airline over the years.

UK-based British Chinese Heritage Centre of Ming-Ai Institute worked as the curator for the exhibition with materials provided by the British Airways’ Heritage Museum.

British Airways also invites visitors to join a competition by simply sharing a photo of their favourite part of the HK80 exhibition with a description within 80 words on their personal Facebook or Instagram account with a hashtag #BAHK80 (photo sets to be public). The winner with the best entry, as determined by British Airways, will receive two free return tickets to London flying in British Airways’ award-wining Club World business class.

About the Exhibition
Exhibition Period: May 6, 2016 (Fri) to June 30, 2016 (Thu)
Venue: MC³@702 Creative Space, 7/F of the Jockey Club Tower, HKU
Opening Hours: Monday to Friday 10:00-18:00, Saturday 11:00-18:00, closed on Sunday and open on 14 May and 9 June
Language: English
Admission: Free

For more information on the exhibition and the competition, please visit ba.com/bahk80

Should you have any enquiries, please feel free to contact Executive Assistant Connie Ko by email at connieko@hku.hk or by phone at 3917 2309.

An HKU Stephen Hui Geological Museum exhibition launches on Earth Day: Snapshots of a Vanished Environment – Exceptional Fossils from the world famous Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone in Germany
The Stephen Hui Geological Museum of the University of Hong Kong (HKU) launches a two-month exhibition on “Snapshots of a Vanished Environment - Exceptional Fossils from the world famous Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone in Germany” on Earth Day, and will run until June 23, 2016.

The earth’s fossil record is incomplete and only an estimate of around 15% of organisms that ever lived on earth are preserved as fossils. Occasionally, the fossil record presents us with surprises when very rare and specific environmental conditions allow extraordinary preservation of a high concentration and diversity of fossils in so called Fossil Lagerstaetten that represent an ancient in-situ ecological community. Such fossil sites comprise the most important portions of the fossil record for our understanding of the evolution of life and environmental changes throughout the Earth’s history.

One of the world’s most famous fossil Lagerstaette is the Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone in Germany which came to fame with the discovery of a number of complete Archaeopteryx fossils. This exhibition presents 11 rare and exceptionally preserved fossil animals from the 150 million-year-old Solnhofen Limestone, some up to 90 centimetres in diameter. It gives us a glimpse into the environmental challenges these organisms faced 150 million years ago.  

The fossils on display in this exhibition are ancestors of today’s fishes, shrimp, crabs, squid and lobster -- all organisms people can relate to as the modern forms of these prehistoric animals are today part of our daily lifestyles. A horseshoe crab with its preserved death trail is also one of the highlights in this exhibition.

The area where we find the Solnhofen Limestone today was an archipelago at the edge of the Tethys Ocean with lagoons that had limited access to the open sea. Fine grained Solnhofen limestone was deposited in the quiet and stagnant waters of a protected lagoon, cut off from the open turbulent Tethys Ocean by barrier reefs of corals and sponges. The constant evaporation under the tropical warm climate precipitated very fine limy particles from the lagoon water and concentrated the salt, producing a poisonous water layer devoid of oxygen near the bottom of the lagoon that killed anything that entered it. Any organism that fell, drifted or was washed into the lagoon either from the ocean or from the land died and sank to the anoxic bottom water where the usual scavengers and microbial decay were absent. In this environment a diverse fossil assemblage became buried and preserved in soft and fine carbonate mud. Today these fossils give us an unprecedented view of a complete Jurassic ecosystem, including both marine and terrestrial animals and plants.

The exhibition reminds us about the new environmental challenges the modern descendants of these ancient ancestors face in today’s world where their survival is now threatened by human activities after millions of years of successful adaptation to natural environmental changes.

The Stephen Hui Geological Museum acknowledges Dr. Martin Goerlich who kindly provided the fossils for this special exhibition.

Visitors may also visit parts of the museum’s permanent Earth Evolution gallery where fossils from three Fossil Lagerstaettens in China are on display: the Cambrian Chengjiang Biota, the Cretaceous Jehol Biota and the Tertiary Shanwang Biota.

Details of the exhibition:
Venue: The Stephen Hui Geological Museum, Main Campus, HKU, Pokfulam, Hong Kong (Map)
Date: April 22, 2016 (Friday) to June 23, 2016 (Tuesday)
Regular Opening Hours: Monday to Friday from 1pm to 6pm

Special Weekend Openings:
May 7 (Saturdays), from 11a.m. to 6p.m.
May 14 (Saturday) and May 15 (Sunday) (the weekend before the International Museum Day on May 18), from 11a.m. to 6p.m.

Guided Tours:
Venue: The Stephen Hui Geological Museum, Main Campus, HKU, Pokfulam, Hong Kong (Map)
Free guided tours will be arranged at 2p.m.during the weekends. Free of charge. No registration required.
Language: Cantonese (May 7, 14, 15); Speaker: Dr Haz Cheung

Enquiry: Tel: +852 2241 5472

Media enquiries:
HKU Communications & Public Affairs Office Ms Rhea Leung (Tel: +852 2857 8555 / +852 9022 7446/ Email: rhea.leung@hku.hk ) or
HKU Stephen Hui Geological Museum Dr Petra Bach (Tel: +852 2241 5472/ Email: pabach@hku.hk)

UMAG exhibitions
1. When classic meets modern The Art of Takashi Wakamiya: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer Showcasing the meticulous process of craftsmanship

Period: March 18, 2016 (Friday) to June 19, 2016 (Sunday)

The Art of Takashi Wakamiya: Contemporary Japanese Lacquer exhibition is held in collaboration with Takashi Wakamiya’s studio Hikoju Makie, and with the support of the Japanese Consulate in Hong Kong and Macau. A selection of finely executed contemporary objects in Japanese lacquer will be displayed at the exhibition. An acclaimed artist for 30 years, Wakamiya excels in the practice and teaching of traditional lacquer techniques with a high level of precision and has developed an interest in executing, in lacquer, East Asian objects historically made from unrelated materials, such as bronze or ceramic. His studio creates these imitations with such remarkable exactness that onlookers are fooled by the medium. The finely applied lacquer is, when held, much lighter than the metal or clay that it reproduces. A master of deception, Wakamiya and Hikoju Makie also specialise in the creation of life-like animals (beetles, grasshoppers), vegetables and fruits (corn, pumpkins).

Public guided tours
Cantonese: May 7, May 28 & June 18 (Saturday, 15:00)
English: May 7 (Saturday, 15:30); June 18 (Saturday, 16:00)
Putonghua: May 28 & June 18 (Saturday, 15:30)

2. Major global events retold through multimedia exhibition “Chen Xi: So We Remember” Renowned Chinese artist to exhibit for first time in Hong Kong

Period: March 2, 2016 (Wednesday) to May 15, 2016 (Sunday)

Artist Chen Xi created this series of contemporary images to commemorate, to document and to provoke thought. The paintings illustrate important events that have shaped our modern world. In the current show, we present her preliminary pen and watercolour drawings along with the finished oil paintings. Meticulous in her research and true to both the documented incident and the domestic details, Chen Xi creates historical paintings for our present and future generations. Her method directly relates to contemporary life and to a society that is informed and influenced by modern-day media. Interestingly, the artist does not simply depict a historic event, but frames within a TV screen each episode of her sequential and international narrative. By presenting the paintings within the TV's glass, they become screen shots linked to a specific moment in time and space, as well as to the living room setting where the news would have been seen. In addition, the exhibition includes four early paintings that relate to the TV series and Chen Xi's development as an artist.

All exhibition-related activities will be held at 1/F, T.T. Tsui Building, UMAG, HKU, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam.

Opening Hours:
09:30 – 18:00 (Monday to Saturday)
13:00 – 18:00 (Sunday)
Closed on University and Public Holidays

Venue: 1/F Fung Ping Shan Building, UMAG, 90 Bonham Road, Pokfulam
Tel/Email: (852) 2241 5500 (General Enquiry) / museum@hku.hk
Admission: Free

Website: www.hkumag.hku.hk

Connect with UMAG on social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/umag.hku
Twitter: https://twitter.com/UMAG_HKU
Instagram: #WakamiyaLacquer, #JapaneseLacquer
Weibo: http://www.weibo.com/5411839295/profile?topnav=1&wvr=6

Media enquiries:
UMAG Communication Officer Miss Elena Cheung, Tel: (852) 2241 5512, Email: elenac@hku.hk.