Hong Kong: Miniature Sculptures for Social Housing

Man in the Cage, a project of Kwong Chi-Kit, an artist and art director at Publicis Hong Kong, presents an original vision of inadequate housing on the islands: miniature scenes of Hong Kong residents living in extremely precarious conditions reconstructed, arranged and dispersed across urban areas. In this interview, Kwong Chi-Kit explains that the project aims to visually and physically convey the problem of cage houses to both citizens and the government in Hong Kong, a city where rents have reached record highs and where it is estimated that 100,000 people live in sub-standard housing. Cages used in the work are actual mousetraps set up downtown in some of Hong Kong’s busiest and most upscale streets (Pedder Street, Queen’s Road Central, etc.) arousing interest, indifference and/or questions from those passing by (you can watch videos here).

This project is part of a larger campaign entitled “Cage Home” initialed by local NGO SoCO Publicis Hong Kong. They were awarded the ADSA International Non-Profit and Social Advertising Award in August for their ongoing work.