Two approaches to socially engaged art with the Hong Kong Filipino community

Abstract

Abstract The Filipino community of Hong Kong has often suffered from the way the vast majority of its members are perceived: their work as domestic helpers has created conditions for the general Hong Kong public to put them in a subservient position within the local society. Local art practitioners have recently attempted to address this issue by creating art projects aimed at changing the position of Filipino domestic workers in the social culture of the SAR. Zheng Bo created an interactive object in a public space that he himself presents as a public service, while Luke Ching (working for within the Rooftop Institute collective) organized a number of workshops aimed at bringing together the Filipino domestic helpers and the children of the family who employ them. While both approaches are designed to bring people from widely different horizons together to work out and reconcile their differences, they, however, function very differently and fulfil profoundly different missions. These two projects will be analysed and assessed in the context of the ideas of Nicolas Mirzoeff about visual culture and the frequently quoted works of Jacques Rancière in the domain of socially engaged art practices.