Inflatable wonders or graveyards? Hong Kong exhibition triggers an outpouring of mockery

The original artist said the display looked “very ugly.”

Originally published on Global Voices

As part of Hong Kong’s “Night Vibes campaign”, a project to encourage citizens and tourists to revitalise the city’s nightlife, a series of large-scale inflatable world wonders, including the UK’s Stonehenge, Chile’s Easter Island, Egypt’s Pyramids of Giza, Italy’s Tower of Pisa, and France’s Arc de Triomphe, are being displayed in the city's Central Harbour Front between July 5–August 11, 2024. 

Central Venue Management (CVM), the event organiser, told the press that the exhibition is inspired by Armenian AI Studio Joann’s artwork, “Inflatable Wonders,” wherein an artist generates highly detailed depictions of inflatable world wonders using AI.

Social media reactions

Hong Kong's inflatable wonders are white in colour in the daytime, while at night, they are illuminated. Mockeries flooded social media as images of the exhibition went viral on July 5, 2024. Many said the white “inflatable Stonehenge” looked like tombstones and the green-lit “inflatable Pyramids” looked like the green tents that police use to cover dead bodies after road accidents:

Netizens are continuing to mock the new “Inflatable Wonders” art installation at Central Harbourfront, with some comparing the green-lit Pyramid of Giza to the green tents police use to cover dead bodies.

https://t.co/Q42dT96I7L pic.twitter.com/cBTDRtVynn

— Aaron Busch (@tripperhead) July 8, 2024

Some believed that the exhibition curator had intentionally avoided using yellow illumination for the pyramid due to political censorship.” Yellow is commonly used to represent pro-democracy clans in Hong Kong, and local designers have avoided using the colour. The fact that two yellow figures in a huge poster of an art installation, ‘Linning Up’, were covered with grey panels last month reinforced the belief in the practice of colour censorship in public arts. 

Political cartoonist Ah To highlighted the restriction of colour choice in the city:

阿塗’s cartoon today…
“Full of air, full of big heads, full of art”
1- Ugly!
2- Wrong proportions!
3- And the Pyramids are yellow!
4- There is no yellow in Hong Kong… pic.twitter.com/UutBWTM5tR

— Cindy Wan (@CindyWan19) July 7, 2024

The installation is part of SummerFest@Central, an event organized by Central Venue Management (CVM), Central Water Front’s event-organizing space operator. CVM stated that it had acquired permission from Joann to create physical inflatable wonders, though the artist did not participate in the project or receive any compensation for the concept. 

Joann used AI to replace the world’s wonders with inflatable wonders. Many find the surreal AI images captivating, and the artwork went viral on Instagram in 2023. 

‘Inflatable Wonders’ by @/joooo.ann pic.twitter.com/5chxb48F0i

— highsnobiety (@highsnobiety) June 2, 2023

The AI-generated images are fascinating because the artist’s idea is difficult to replicate in reality. Unless the exhibition curator can establish an inflatable wonder as big as the real one, the replica cannot match the AI-generated wonders. Even worse, many, including Joann, find the Hong Kong replicas ugly. 

As images of Hong Kong “inflatable wonders” went viral, the artist told a reporter from Yahoo News that the actual production looked “very ugly” and “not well proportionated”:

The only thing is, I don’t like my name on this ugly exhibition. But the concept is mine. So I would love it to be stopped.

Joann also wrote on Instagram that the display looked like a graveyard, and the lights made the presentation worse:

Hong Kong art installation organiser and creator clash over “very ugly” pieces

Artist Joann says “Inflatable Wonders” exhibition inspired by her resembles “inflatable graveyard”, but organiser vows to press on https://t.co/eXfPUSpY2c pic.twitter.com/zGThY5DAcP

— Bien Perez (@BienPerez) July 7, 2024

Meanwhile, CVM rebuked that online viral photos have distorted the exhibition's image. The curator, Grace Au, even claimed that the green-lit pyramid image was fabricated but later admitted that journalists captured it during the exhibition’s lighting test. 

The organizer’s defensive response did not help the public's perception of the exhibition. Even China's state-funded pro-establishment media outlet, Wen Wei Po, ran a feature story mocking the display.

Tourist attraction strategy questioned

This is not the first time public installations have been greeted with mockery in the city. Previously, the display of Chubby Hearts balloons — a ploy meant to attract tourists — was slammed for its lack of creativity and expensive cost to taxpayers.

1/ Authorities refused to tell @HKFP how much taxpayer money was given to the Chubby Hearts #HongKong art installation.

Not long after we submitted an access to info request, they finally said the project had received around HK$7.8 million. https://t.co/SubSGKZrqV https://t.co/7BednMaVQV pic.twitter.com/4Vs6QpWsdl

— Tom Grundy (@tomgrundy) February 17, 2024

Popular writer Fung Hei Gon saw the incident as an allegory of Hong Kong, a vanishing wonder of the world: 

在AI圖像中，充氣版巴黎鐵塔可以像實物那樣大，若無其事矗立在正常建築物之間，彼此對照，如幻似真，營造出強烈的超現實感。但中環的充氣山寨貨，最高一件只有13米，一看就知是假，不倫不類，根本不可能重現AI的異世風情。…今天的世界潮流都是AI模仿現實，秒速生成圖片，但香港卻反過來在現實中複製AI世界，還複製得四不像，這個假大空的「充氣奇蹟」，是否已預兆了一個城市的未來？更令人感慨的是，以前香港本身就是奇蹟，可是現在，卻只剩下吹出來的「奇蹟」。

In the AI image, the inflatable Effel Tower is a big as the real Tower and it is established among other normal concrete buildings. This creates a magical contrast and a strong sense of surrealism. But the Central replica of inflatable ones, the tallest one, is only 13 metres high. The replicas look so ridiculous that they make it impossible to recreate the exotic world generated by AI… We use AI to replicate and recreate the real world, and it comes up with an image in a matter of seconds. Hong Kong is now doing the vice versa: replicate the AI-generated world in the real world, and the replication looks so out of place. Will these “Inflatable Wonders” represent the future of the city? The more pitifful thing is, Hong Kong used to be a “wonder” in itself, but now, it has become an inflatable wonder.

Some critics from the pro-establishment clan, such as Regina Ip, the Convenor of the Executive Council and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, also raised doubts about the “inflatable attractions”:

Inflatable Wonders and Doraemon drone shows, irrelevant to local heritage, overshadow natural wonders and cultural legacy https://t.co/z3dEAksm4F

— Dimsumdaily Hong Kong (@dimsumdaily_hk) July 7, 2024

Written by Oiwan Lam