Alliance Francaise's Gérard Henry displays his work at ArtWalk
After years of championing local art, Alliance Francaise's Gérard Henry is finally applauded for his own work, writes Fionnuala McHugh
When Gérard Henry draws, he often depicts interiors. He believes that what you see of where a person lives is a projection of what's inside. "If you do it well, you can guess someone's mind," he says.
So what can be deduced of Henry, looking round his Tai Hang flat?
His drawings are a revelation - intricately and obsessively detailed
There are plants, ceramics, photographs, artworks, shelves crammed with films but, most of all, there are hundreds of books.
This is a mind filled with language; Henry, who is deputy director of the Alliance Francaise in Hong Kong, is also editor-in-chief of its bilingual (French and Chinese) magazine Paroles - a French word, which itself means "words".
In that capacity, he is a constant presence on the Hong Kong arts circuit. Long before he became Paroles editor in 1994, he had stitched himself into the local creative scene.
He's been here since 1981, and his knowledge of the city runs deep. "He's amazing," says Tobias Berger, a curator at M+, the museum of visual culture that's part of the West Kowloon Cultural District. "He's been a great guide for those of us who have only come here recently. He's one of the most respected and loved people around."