‘Provocative’: how Gilbert & George’s art changed a Hong Kong transgender activist’s life
- Henry Edward Tse, co-founder of the NGO Transgender Equality Hong Kong, first came across Gilbert & George’s work around age 18 while studying in England
- Two pieces – Existers and Hunger – are very relevant to Tse’s own work in that they tackle ‘untouchable’ subjects and raise awareness for the underprivileged
Anglo-Italian artistic duo Gilbert & George are known for performance pieces and bright, graphic collages, as well as for their highly formal appearance and for always appearing in public together as a couple.
Collage-style photographic work Existers (1984) combines 28 separate images to present the pair in hyperreal colours amid a group of young men, while Hunger (1982) uses 16 photogram images to frankly but cartoonishly depict a graphic sex act.
Henry Edward Tse, whose own fight for gender recognition in the Hong Kong courts led him to co-found the NGO Transgender Equality Hong Kong, tells Richard Lord how they changed his life.
I first came across Gilbert & George’s work, and did an art project on them, while studying in England, when I was around 18.
With the A-level art curriculum I was studying, you had to pick your own subject and conduct independent research, which was drastically different from what I had experienced in Hong Kong.
I attended an evangelical girls’ school in Hong Kong, where we were spoon fed. I got extremely sick of that school – there was a lot of homophobia; going to my new school near Brighton was completely different.
