Artist tests freedom of speech in Hong Kong with daring billboard work

In a statement released on social media, the artist wrote: “There is no true creativity without freedom. Anything less is subpar, consumerist, and for the purchase of vapid billionaires and oligarchs. It is thus an indictment of Art Basel when it continues to stage its event in Hong Kong at a time when freedom of expression is under assault in the territory.”

Badiucao submitted the video under the alias Andy Chou, the name of a character from his graphic novel. He emphasised that the commissioning organisation did not know the true meaning of the work. He obscured his identity because he feared that if he used the name Badiucao it would be “immediately flagg[ed]” and the work taken down.

In 2018, Badiucao was due to stage a solo exhibition in Hong Kong, featuring Joshua Wong, a key figure in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Umbrella Movement.

“At the time I was still anonymous … I did not show my face. But three days before the opening of the show, the Chinese government found out my identity and took my relatives into the police station,” he explained.

Facing the threat of police stopping his show, Badiucao reluctantly cancelled it. In 2019, he revealed his face publicly.

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Though the video was submitted through two layers of pseudonyms, the face saying the words is the artist’s.

“Being able to display the very face of mine in Hong Kong, after this, to me is significant – but it’s also a test of how much freedom of expression Hong Kong still has,” he said.

Badiucao said he doesn’t know what the consequences of his latest work would be now that he has revealed its true meaning.

“I am not officially on those wanted lists from the Hong Kong Police like Kevin Yam and other Australian Hongkongers, thus theoretically I should not be a taboo.”

Yam, an exiled pro-democracy dissident, shared the artist’s post on X with the caption: “NOW THIS IS COURAGE”.

“I am very curious to know … what will be the response from the Hong Kong government?” Badiucao said. He is ready for the likelihood his work will be removed.

“It is a test for the freedom-of-speech situation in Hong Kong. And it’s an attempt to show that artists or activists that still have the ability or space, if we really spin our creativity, to infiltrate and go through this existing censorship and reach our audience one way or another.”

At time of publication, the status of the work remains unknown.