Project: a mosaic mural for a swimming pool at the Ladies Recreation Club, Hong Kong

Date: mounted 2009

With: Conic Collections, Ltd., Hong Kong

   

The Ladies Recreation Club was founded in 1883 and is one of the oldest colonial clubs in Hong Kong. It is situated on a steep incline on the Peak, at the bottom of Old Peak Road, and has superb views of Victoria and the harbour below.

In 2007, the LRC planned a refurbishment of the outdoor swimming pool area of the club, which would increase the overall size of the swimming pool decks and expand the existing terrace. As a result of the refurbishment, a long wall, some 30 metres long and nearly 1.8 metres high, would line one side of the swimming pool and the architects suggested a mosaic to decorate the wall. The mosaic would be made by the Hong Kong-based company, Conic Collections Ltd. Over a few months, I made several designs of swimming figures and worked these through with the pool committee. We selected a final design that would be based on new woodblock prints that I would make.   

The woodblock prints formed the basis of the mosaic, which was made in the Conic Collections' workshop in Foshan, in Guangdong Province, a three-hour boat journey up the Pearl River in China. Foshan has been a centre for glazed pottery and porcelain for thousands of years and is today China’s largest ceramic production area.

The mosaic was meticulously pieced together over two months, using hundreds of thousands of small glazed tiles in various colours. Once the mosaic was finished and checked, it was set in plaster and divided into pieces which were shipped to Hong Kong, then mounted onto the wall in time for the reopening of the outdoor swimming pool area in June 2009.

  

To celebrate the completed refurbishment of the swimming pool and its decks, the LRC hosted a nighttime poolside party in November 2009, with a swim-dive-dance sequence performed in the pool by the Hong Kong Synchronized Swimming Team.