JOHN BATTEN GALLERY / Lunar New Year 2005

Thus you will see: the real estate agent whose handwritten property advertisements are casually covered by hand-clasping children (the hand-clasp is actually done while greeting 'Happy New Year!' to someone); basket gifts of fruit propped on polystyrene boxes (retrieved, no doubt, from nearby North Point market) under a concrete overpass awaiting buyers who need a ready gift for a relative about to be visited; proud children’s clothes with their lost 1960s look on sale and bargained; red paper and calligraphy on door and gate and pedestal; and the green shuttered stall (a shoemaker of Chinese slippers favoured by the district’s old men) alongside the ancient steps just near my flat with a week’s worth of coiled incense burning...

I like Hong Kong over the New Year – the impromptu district flower markets; the decorations and gaudy lights; people dressed in new clothes; families walking happily together visiting relatives; markets and supermarkets and shops stocked with goods only seen at New Year (melon seeds; peanuts; Butter Biscuits; tins of Garden Bakery Cream Crackers; chocolates; odd fruit and vegetarian snacks etc) and the energised madness that immediately precedes a relaxed holiday - mingling with the cold weather that always occurs at this time of the year.

Happy New Year!

- John Batten