Walled City of Kowloon, the city of darkness

An extraordinary point of view throughout unusual photographies. An exhibition exploring the old and long gone Walled City of Kowloon as photographed by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot.

City of Darkness, open to public from 8 November to 8 December 2019 at Blue Lotus Gallery (Sheung Wan)  is an exhibition exploring the old and long gone Walled City of Kowloon as photographed by Greg Girard and Ian Lambot. This influential body of work, which to date sold over 25,000 book copies, is on view in a gallery setting for the first time since first published. 

For nearly 50 years, the community of Kowloon Walled City cut a dark presence in the heart of Hong Kong. Yet without legislation and with little regard for basic services, planning and regulations or building standards, the city not only survived, it positively thrived. 

Ian Lambot and Greg Girard set about photographing the Walled City shortly before its demolition due to a deep fascination and because “for all its horrible shortcomings, its builders and residents succeeded in creating what modern architects, with all their resources of money and expertise, have failed to: the city as ‘organic megastructure’, not set rigidly for a lifetime but continually responsive to the changing requirements of its users, fulfilling every need from water supply to religion, yet providing also the warmth and intimacy of a single huge household …”

Now this project offers a unique insight into the remarkable community that was Kowloon Walled City, home to 35,000 people at its peak and by far the most densely populated neighbourhood the world had ever known.

In the years since 1994 demolition, the Walled City has attained a kind of punk immortality and a visual aesthetic showing a modernist dystopia mixing filth, darkness, and haphazard concrete construction and overcrowding into a single unsettling yet irresistible brew that is often used in movies, video games or described in books to evoke what only this place managed to organically create.

https://bluelotus-gallery.com/new-events/2019/11/8/city-of-darkness-by-greg-girard-amp-ian-lambot

Credits: Greg Girard & Ian Lambot