List of Original "Save Our Planet" Posters. Alexander Calder "Save Our Wildlife"

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2 List of Original "Save Our Planet" Posters Alexander Calder "Save Our Wildlife" uc * ' PJ 3 QJ^^t. R. Buckminster Fuller "Save Our Cities" :A E - ACC jj. 7/x Roy Liechtenstein "Save Our Water", Thr-yc;^""^ Georgia O'Keefe "Save Our Air" ^:*" ;; ' ;i '' v \.JiLfc,i^..rii?lj.5± Edward Steichen "Save Our Wilderness" -A: y --' Ernest Trova "Save Our People" - '- f The "Save Our Planet" poster series was originally conceived and edited by Jean Lipman, former editor of Art in America. These six posters are a set of the original limited edition prints donated to the Arts Centre for display by Olivetti Hong Kong. The posters were originally published by HKL Ltd., under the sponsorship of the Olivetti Corporation of America. The profit from the sales of these posters was donated to UNICEF. These posters were first exhibited in the Whitney Museum, New York City in December One of the main purposes of these posters is to publicize conditions threatening man's present and future, to make individuals throughout the world more aware of environmental pollution, and eventually to force a reassessment of priorities and attitudes towards ecology.

3 UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG LIBRARY Hong Kong Collection

4 The Hong Kong Arts Centre & The Conservancy Association =. A w* present Ecology Poster Exhibition /* R KSL il IE! 9& Date: B35Z1J3 ihlzhh 29th January, th February, 1973 Place: Bank of America St. George's Building, Ice House Street Hong Kong (This exhibition is presented in association with the Bank of America)

5 Introduction Tao Ho The word Ecology, all of a sudden has become a rather fashionable term these days. It seems that people have just discovered the importance of it. In fact, ecological problems have been there ever since the first human created his living environment The reason why we are very much aware of the problem now is because we have just realized, paradoxically, that the environment we are living in, the product of our own technological achievements, is destroying our civilization as well as our very existence. There are two aspects of ecology: one being physical, the other social. The former deals with the problems such as: pollution, conservation, etc. while the latter deals with the overall problem of the structure of our civilization and society. Superficially speaking, ecology and art are quite unrelated. But they are, in fact, unseparable. From the very beginning, art has been an integral part of life. The level of civilization in any historical period can be measured by the importance given to the arts in that society. Technological achievements in the modern world is a serious threat to the existence of the arts. In a society such as Hong Kong, art is often mistreated, separated from life and turned into a luxury item of the privileged class. In fact, art belongs to everybody for it reflects

6 every aspect of life. It is only when there is a balance of the arts and the technology then there is a civilized society. Hong Kong is a dynamic city in the economic and technological sense. It is also a melting pot of the East and the West in the social sense an ideal cradle for the development of a new culture. This new culture can only be achieved, however, if there is total involvement of the whole community. Without culture we are living in a crippled and ecologically unbalanced society regardless how many millions of dollars Hong Kong makes. competition. The winning designs of the public competition are shown in the exhibition. Six of the winning poster designs will be printed and distributed throughout Hong Kong. There are also articles written specially for this exhibition by two world-famous ecology experts: Professor J. Gottmann and Mr. P. Broughton. This exhibition cannot last more than one month. It is hoped that its impact will remain. If Hong Kong is to come out from the cultural dark age and develop a cultural vitality like its economy, then the Arts Centre is an inevitable part of our history of tomorrow. The establishment of the Arts Centre is an interesting experiment in Hong Kong. Its success depends entirely on the support of every individual of our community. There are two major aims in the present Ecology exhibition which has taken a long time to organize: one is an attempt to demonstrate that art exists beyond painting, music and drama; art also concerns social as well as environmental aspects of our city. The other aim is that art and culture require the total involvement of the community. For these two reasons, this exhibition consists of ecology poster designs by world famous artists. In addition, the Arts Centre invited local artists and photographers to contribute poster designs and organized a local ecology poster design

7 The Hong Kong Experiment Jean Gottmann As mankind becomes increasingly urbanized, concern for the welfare of people in the large cities of the world mounts and spreads. Human ecology in the urban environment has become an important field of study, experimentation, and policy-making; there are few places where one can learn as much and as quickly about the ecology of man as in Hong Kong. No ecological problem is more critical than the formation of density in the unequal spatial distribution of species. The human species is the most mobile and migratory of all: it is even trying to break away from its original planet and to colonize new worlds. Nevertheless, the patterns of human settlement have steadily been evolving towards formations of higher density extending over wider, though still small areas. This trend has produced urbanization, the rise and sprawl of large cities. Urban agglomeration on a multi-million scale and at thick density is a new phenomenon, a characteristic of the twentieth century and a fact of geography bound to remain as a major form of settlement for many generations to come. Such concentrations of people cause congestion, pollution, and a variety of technological and social problems. The technology presently used provides means for the basic needs of transport, communications, supply and for the operation of labour-saving devices; but it also produces wastes which pollute the water,

8 the air, and the land and threaten in the long run the environment undergoing such effects of concentrated human activity. The first response to the intensive pollution of a local environment is usually to break up the concentration and disperse the sources of pollution instead of working out the means of controlling the harmful effects of geographical agglomeration. To enforce dispersal local growth must be restricted and stifled. Policies inspired by such least-effort approaches to urban concentration have often been attempted; if they have in some cases alleviated critical situations on the short-range scale in space and time, they have not been able to solve the longrange problems on the wider geographical scale. Attempts to achieve decentralization have perhaps slowed down growth in the bigger metropolis; they have only temporarily deflected the agglomerative trends inherent in modern urbanization. Renouncing the endeavour to organize the means of dense settlement properly has in some places damaged the whole fabric of society. In the conditions of Hong Kong dispersal could not even be attempted; concentration had to be accepted and managed. The process of growth necessarily entailed the living and working in formation of high density by large numbers of people seeking a good or at least a better life. The growth and improvement of Hong Kong have become in technological and social terms one of the most exciting experiments of this time. Its rising and thickening skylines herald the development of a new society at one of the major crossroads of East and West To achieve a good life it must not only control the harmful products of high-density agglomeration but also evolve a pattern of pleasant living together; the development of cultural amenities of an arts centre, and of a variety of artistic activities must be an essential component of urban life, preserving its urbanity. Jean Gottmann AS a French geographer who is at present Professor of Geography and head of the School of Geography at the University of Oxford. He is a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. He also holds a research professorship at the Eco/e des Hautes Etudes of the Sorbonne in Paris (on leave) and is now President of the World Society for Ekistics. A part of his career was in the United States, where he was a recurrent member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. ( ), and taught in several universities. He is the author of more than a dozen books, including Megalopolis (1961).

9 The Arts Centre: Common Ground for a Dialogue of the Arts Philip S. Broughton Art is man's reach, technology his grasp. Art is creative imagination, perceived by the senses, informed by the emerging aspects of life. Art relates technology to the traditions and hopes of the community and can often transmute hopes into prospects. For art contributes form, "the shape of content" as Ben Shahn put it: design that keeps technology from becoming merely a chaos of mechanical solutions. The grasp becomes sure and confident. Technology becomes the instrument, not the master. When art is free to function, able to perform its task, it can transform cities and inspire ages. The Athens of Pericles, Elizabethan England, the Florence of Lorenzo, the Vienna of Mozart and Beethoven are cases in point.

10 Deliberately I have chosen eras of architecture and sculpture, drama, painting, and music. At their best the arts are indivisible, comprehensive in their potential. When they meet on common ground they can have their most effective impact on the community. In times of transition and tension a city seeks identity. It is then that the arts offer the highest hope, an examined vision of things to come. The Arts Centre concept is more than a building in which an occasional series of exhibitions will be held. The Centre can become the common ground, the means to establish a dialogue of the arts which can help shape the future of Hong Kong. Philip S. Broughton is an American who worked for 18 years until 1964 with the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust of Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh he also served on many committees of the Allegheny Conference for Community Development from 1948 to 1964, principally on health, the humanities, conservation, and art matters. He was Deputy Chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities when it was organised in 1966, and Program Advisor for the Commissioner of the Environmental Control Administration in Washington for three years. He now lives at Pebble Beach, California, where he is a writer and consultant

11 Spiritual Values in the Environment Michael Webster In twenty-five years, Hong Kong has grown from a city of 600,000 people to its present population of 4,000,000. From a war-torn remnant it has passed through being a dosshouse for millions of refugees to a modern city where at least the majority of people have enough to eat, and a minimum standard of housing. This has been achieved by tremendous efforts on the part of both Government and people, who have made Hong Kong a place which its citizens can view with pride. It has also created a society so materialistic that the cost in terms of the human spirit cannot be measured. If Hong Kong has in reality become a cultural desert, this is because of the more immediately pressing needs to house and feed the rapidly increasing population, a task which any Government might have found daunting. Now, however, these problems are near solution, and we have time to look at the environmental costs which Hong Kong's rapid and generally commendable reaction to crisis has incurred. Pollution in various forms is familiar all over the world, the more so in industrialised countries; the more sophisticated the industry, the greater the pollution. What is perhaps not so familiar is the social cost of urbanisation and industrialisation although these aspects are beginning to be realised, and we are beginning to think how we can approach solution of such problems.

12 Although it has little heavy industry, Hong Kong is familiar enough with the more unsightly aspects of pollution. It is also, because of its unusual history, and because of its limited land area, an exceptionally clear example of what these forces of development can do to the human spirit. It has many facets, the breakdown of family life, the difficulty of people of village origins in adapting to urban standards, the wasting away of one culture without replacement by another. It also leads to greater mental stresses, a higher crime frequency, more attempts at suicide, and a greater incidence of antisocial behaviour of all types. Part of the attack on such unsavoury aspects of an urban society is the provision of the best possible living environment for all the people. This does not only mean green trees and open spaces, and vistas of unspoiled countryside; these things are hard enough to achieve in 400 square miles of land inhabited by four million people, although they can and should be an ideal to be aimed at. It means also providing food for the human spirit; it is precisely because of this spirit that we can live together in urban agglomerations which no other animal could stand, and it is precisely the culture of this spirit which is the making of a sane and healthy society. Firstly, we need research, to find out what are the causes of the aspects which have gone wrong; we can guess at some of them, but guesswork is not enough. Secondly, we need to show people what is available to the human spirit; it is easy enough to regard nature and art as luxuries for the privileged few, but there is no reason why this should apply here any more than it applies to television sets and washing machines and other purely material luxuries. An understanding of nature, not only of the beauties of the countryside, but even more of the ways in which aspects of nature affect every one of us in our daily lives wherever we may be, can be complemented by an understanding of art and philosophy. Both represent a broadening of the human spirit, and make it possible for man to lead a full and satisfactory life in spite of deficiencies in his material surroundings. They also help him to improve those surroundings, because the care of his environment is vital to his life, and it is reinforced as soon as he becomes aware of values outside himself. This kind of philosophical attitude is too often regarded as far removed from the practical considerations of cleaning up litter and disposing of sewage. But man's activities are not divided up into watertight compartments, and the welding of two apparently diverse factors, art and environmental care, in an exhibition such as this, can only strengthen our approach to both.

13 Hong Kong needs both, and if this exhibition makes even one person who is interested in one of the two factors realise their interrelationship and interdependence, then it has done a job which Hong Kong needs doing. We are already beginning to realise that we need the practical side of environmental care, and public communications are the prime method of getting this message across to those who do not realise it yet. We are perhaps less ready to accept the need for spiritual values linked with the material aspects of our lives; here is an unusual opportunity to combine the products of Chinese and Western thought to make a spiritual approach to a practical problem. Michael Webster is a businessman, part-time journalist, and Executive Secretary of the Hong Kong Conservancy Association. He has been resident in Hong Kong for the past seven years, and in Ma/ays/a for three years before that His interest in conservation and pollution springs from a lifelong study of bird/ife and many countries; he is an acknowledged authority on birds in Hong Kong, and is currently engaged in writing a Field Guide for this region. He has travelled widely in Europe and the Far East, both on business and attending conferences on environmental problems. Hong Kong is still a desert, environmentally and culturally; the Conservancy Association and the Arts Centre, working from different approaches, are both trying to reclaim this desert. But the success of both depends not only on the competence of their efforts, but most of all on the reaction of the people of Hong Kong, for whom and by whom these efforts are being made.

14 List of Invited Artists and Photographers Artists Douglas Bland "Save K. K. Cheung "Save Albert Hiller "Save Tao Ho "Save King Chia-lun "Save Liu Kwok-chung "Save Paul Potter "Save Pat Printer "Save Henry Steiner "Save Barry Will "Save Andy Wong "Save Wucius Wong "Save Our Wildlife" Our Water" Our Air" Our Wilderness" Our Wilderness" Our Air" Our People" Our Cities" Our Cities" Our People" Our Wildlife" Our Water" Photographers Dinshaw Balsara Jimmy Chan Frank Fischbeck Benno Gross Robert Lam Martin Pollard "Save Our Wilderness" "Save Our Air" "Save Our People" "Save Our Cities" "Save Our Wildlife" "Save Our Water"

15 List of Prize-winners of Hong Kong Ecology Poster Design Competition Save Our Wildlife First prize: Wong Wai-tong Merits: Au Si-tong, Chan Hing-tim, Theresa Cheung, Ngan Yu-bo, Wong Kam-keung Save Our Cities First prize: Law Yu-kwok Merits: Joe Chu, Christina Lang, Ng Kam-ming Save Our Water First prize: Lee How-yee Merits: Save Our Air First prize: Victor Lee Merits: Chan Han-ying, Irwis Chan, Chan Kit-bing, Cheng To-ming, Ip Siu-kwan, Lo Yok-ming, So Kai-chau Chan Kam-shing, Cheng To-ming, Lee Kai-ming, Deborah McGrath, Ting Mei-wah Save Our Wilderness First prize: Wong Wan-ling Merits: Chan Sui-shan, Cheng Honkeung, Lee Kai-ming, Leung Kuen-sum, Natalie Ng, Yeung Wai-tak Save Our People First prize: Thomas Kung Chi-lang Merits: Theresa Cheung, Tam Nai-chiu, Wong Tat-yee, Yu San-yin The Arts Centre held a local poster competition based on the themes of the exhibition. The final judging, from 347 entrants, was held on 11th November, 1972 and the judges were Mr. Michael Griffith, Senior Educational Officer (Cultural Craft), Dr. Li Chu-tsing, Visiting Professor of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Professor Timothy Yu, Chairman of Communication Department, Baptist College. Tao Ho and Barry Will acted as technical advisers. Six of these posters will be reproduced by the Arts Centre and will be displayed throughout the Colony by the Urban Services Department as part of the programme for cleaning and improving the environment of Hong Kong.

16 Acknowledgement XD17flbiaS [HKP] H7 X017fltlES ;HK*P ' Hong Kong A r ts Centre. 1400^51 *,* Ecology poster exhibition, [1973] Date Due PRINTED BY THE GREEN PAGODA PRESS LTD.

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