Starting a Dialogue
Curator Chantal Wong has always been impressed by the powerful works submitted to the Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize (HKHRAP)—especially those by individuals who might not have come from a particularly arty background. She vividly remembers Ophelia Jacarini’s embroidered female bodies that explore women’s sexuality, empowerment, freedom and trauma, as well as the black-and-white images laying bare the physical abuse suffered by Hong Kong’s domestic workers by photographer Xyza Cruz Bacani, a former maid herself.
“Some people are formally trained, some people are not, but that does not define the value of the artwork,” says Wong, who co-founded Learning Together,
