March 25 (UPI) — A Hong Kong department store has taken down a work of glitch art made by Patrick Amadon, who snuck messages of support for pro-democracy protesters into the video animation.
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Amadon, based in Los Angeles, debuted the work “No Rioters” on a large digital billboard outside of the Sogo department store in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay shopping district earlier this month coinciding with Art Week — a weeklong showcase in the city headlined by Art Basel and Art Central.
“Quite surprised it made it through. Perhaps I can get a new code added to the National Security Law around billboards,” Amadon said in remarks to UPI about his shock that the piece was initially approved for display.
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The glitch artist tweeted on March 17 notifying his fans that the work, which flashed the names of convicted pro-democracy protesters imperceptible to the naked eye, would be displayed for a few days.
“Managed to sneak pro-democracy protestors’ names, ages, and purported crimes into the flashing text,” Amadon said in the tweet.
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Amadon revealed that the work was taken down in a tweet Friday morning, blasting the censorship.
“I had my work taken down. Censorship is a reality now. Freedom of expression is objectively more limited in Hong Kong than it was,” Amadon said in the tweet.
“Not wanting to stir up trouble is how the regime is enabled to act how they do by the outside world now. It’s not about your own exhibition.”
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Amadon later added that he was frustrated with the “silent compliance” of the art world in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China which faced widespread protests since 2019 critical of China’s increasing influence and restrictive measures imposed in 2020.
“Hearing art people saying ‘Hong Kong is back’ didn’t sit well with me,” Amadon said in a tweet.
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Amadon told NBC News that Art Innovation Gallery, which organized the installation at Sogo, informed him earlier this week that they needed to speak with him about the removal of the artwork because the retailer had been threatened with heavy fines and legal action.
It was not immediately clear if either Beijing or the Hong Kong government were involved in the decision to remove the installation.
Amadon previously condemned the crackdown on protesters in Hong Kong in a tweet from July 2020, in which he said that “Hong Kong needs our help.”
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“It needs the world’s help holding off China, who sensing the weakness domestically with COVID and Trump, is capitalizing by aggressively pushing new laws on HK, violating their agreements and the freedom of the Hong Kong people,” Amadon said at the time.
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The news came as Amadon on Saturday announced he would pull his work from an upcoming Sotheby’s sale over a “lack of representation” of female-identifying artists who “have played a major role in the glitch movement.”
“Representation is important. Inclusivity is important,” Amadon said.”It’s critical that we build this movement correctly since everything we do now not only affects our community today, it will affect thousands on thousands of future artists that inherit what we’ve left them.”
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