Hello from Hong Kong

Introductions
1

Hi everyone,

it’s lovely to be here. My name is Alex, I’m a true Berliner Kindl (kid of Berlin) who discovered her passion for street art about 8 years ago. It was one of those rainy summer days in Berlin. Hunched under my umbrella, I was walking down the street, my eyes glued on the ground trying to avoid possible puddles when I was stopped in my tracks by bright, big yellow letters on the ground stating “Das ist doch kein Wetter” (roughly: This weather is impossible). That made me smile, BIG TIME! It seemed that someone had read my mind and put it right out there into the streets. Although, I didn’t know who had left the message, I felt instantly connected to that person through his or her message in the street. From that moment on, I was hooked. I started consciously looking for more fun messages, cool images, basically anything somewhat out of the ordinary. And I haven’t stopped ever since.

For roughly the last eight years, I fed my passion through traveling around the globe as a flight attendant for a major German airline. No matter which city I traveled to or how the weather happened to be, I was out there hunting. In 2010, the job took me to HK for the first time, where I lost my heart not only to the city but also to my better half. After having shuttled, between Germany and Hong Kong for about seven years, I decided to settle down in this exciting, crazy, and wonderful town for good at the end of last year. Here, new adventures awaited me, as I started my one-woman-tour guide-business, enabling me to combine my passion for street art with the fascination for my new steady home. As newly-bread tour guide, I was especially happy when I was able to do this year’s official walks for HK’s one and only annual street art festival HKWalls. Other exciting ventures that are currently in the making are, for one, putting all the acquired knowledge about HK street art into a book (because there is hardly anything on HK’s scene out there) and, of course, providing a steady flow of cool images to Street Art Cities.

Thanks for making me a part of this wonderful community, I’m looking forward to many interesting interactions, feedbacks, comments…

Cheers from Hong Kong,
Alex

P.s. If you want to find me on IG, I’m @streetartorama or (with currently ways less pictures) @hongkongstreetarttours.

3 Likes
2

Hi Alex,

Welcome to this amazing community.
Your story looks a lot like mine.
I happend to stumble on street art in Antwerp and next thing i’m doing tours, like you, and organising several walls and a festival later this year.
Can’t wait to see you in action and hopefully we’ll meet in person somewhere soon.

PS: give Tim Jentsch a big hit from us.

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Welcome Alex!

Your story also reminded me of Tim Jentsch, also an avid street art lover and flight attendant. Really impressive that you’r guiding for HKWalls and ofcourse really inspiring that you went and just did it. Moved to HK and see if you can manage to build a life there. It’s such a great, big city and there’s just so much to do, it’s like a jungle, filled with impressions and opportunities!

Please reach out to us if we can improve the app, or the platform for you as a guide. You might have special wishes or feature requests. Just hit us up in the ideas area :slight_smile:

Also; You think it’s possible to get in contact with the organisers of HKWalls? We’re looking at a few pilot seats for festivals/organisers that do the bigger works in big cities. We could help them out with their communication and promotion of the festival.

Hope to hear from you!

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Hi Alex!

You have such a cool and interesting background!! And loved how you connected with the street art scene and now fully immersed in it. Awesome! Its so fun hearing other peoples stories and sharing their same enthusiasm. I am new to this whole community as well, but welcome none the less!

JJ

1 Like
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Hi Bart,

thanks for the warm welcome :slight_smile:

I guess, first I need to familiarize myself with SAC a little more before I‘ll come up with ideas for improvement. But sometime down the road, things might come up especially as a tour guide ;). Thanks for taking that into consideration.

Tim Jentsch and I connected on IG relatively early on and will actually meet tomorrow for the first time in person here in HK. I‘ll take him and Sara around town to see the city and of course hit some street art spots :slight_smile:.

I’m pretty sure that the trio running HKWalls is always open for good ideas and cooperations. I actually think that your HK hunter Jason is Jason Dembski, one of the founders of HKWalls. If not, let me know and I‘ll contact him and check if it‘s okay to give out his contact info.

And if you happen to drop by HK, make sure to let me know :smile:

Cheers from HK,
Alex

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Hi JJ,

thanks for the warm welcome :slight_smile: It’s good to know that I‘m not the only newbie around here.

I just saw that you put up a couple of L.A. pictures, what a great city for street art. I went there last Xmas (my husband’s family lives there) and still have a bunch of pics that I haven’t posted because there are so many brilliant walls. Looking forward to seeing more of your pics on IG.

Cheers to Phoenix from HK,
Alex

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Hi Tim,

thanks for the lovely welcome :slight_smile:

Being part of this forum and of SAC, is really a great possibility to share my passion for street art with a larger community and I’m very much looking forward to it, thanks for the opportunity :slight_smile:

There are still a lot of things that I need to figure out around here but I hope over time I‘ll succeed in doing so and become a valuable contributor to SAC ;).

I‘m very much looking forward to meeting up with Tim Jemtsch, we connected relatively early on in IG, and I‘ll surely pass on your greetings.

Have a wonderful day,
cheers from HK,
Alex

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Welcome Alex,

It looks like you’re, just like all of us, totally infected by this hunter virus. My addiction also started many years ago when I studied at the art academy. In 2011 I started collecting everything in my hometown Heerlen and the ball started rolling when @Bart and I started working together on the first digital map. So awesome that you joined this community. Have fun!!!

Cheers Sanne

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Nope, I’m a newbie with ya!

Yes, LA is one of my fav cities for street art- Im dying to get back to Miami tho and check out that whole scene over there. I’ve loved all the pics you have on your IG. Incredible!!!

Cheers from blazing hot Phoenix!

10

Hi Sanne,

sorry about the delayed reply, have been a little busy lately :sweat_smile:

I have the feeling, once the street art bug bites there is no more shaking it off :wink:

It’s lovely to be part of a community now that is just as mad about street art as I am.

Your and Bart’s idea of putting together a digital map for street art enthusiasts around the world is awesome and I’m happy to be able to contribute.

Have a wonderful day,
warmest regards from HK,
Alex

1 Like
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Hi JJ,

I’m totally with you when it comes to street art in L.A., one of those cities where you don’t know where to start looking. The only problem is that you always need a car to get around, I usually prefer walking or at least public transport.

Miami is another one of those cities that is almost overwhelming when it comes to street art, especially in Wynwood. So far I have been only once and only for four hours (I still needed to work on that flight back to Germany in the afternoon :sweat_smile: ) which wasn’t even nearly enough time. Can’t wait to go back there, well one day :wink: until then it will be pics from HK and around Asia :grinning:

Have a wonderful day,
warm regards from HK,
Alex