‘High Hoper’: Macau has dreams too

Chiang Chen-Yun catches bus number 25, one of the busiest of Macau’s many bus routes. This will be a journey filled with inspiration: inside, she notices the diversity of the group of people present. A construction worker; a casino manager; a student. She wonders what their dreams are.
Inspired by this moment on bus number 25, Chiang Chen-Yun had an idea: to gather a group of artists and to “collect” the dreams of Macau’s people.
This idea led to the launch of a project called “High Hoper.” It takes the form of a local community-based art project that aims to begin a dialogue about our dreams, using surreal images produced by a range of artistic techniques. The photo exhibition opened last week at the Rui Cunha Foundation.
Fish Ho, the project manager for High Hoper, told the Times that the group wished to “develop and [to] find the dreams of people living in Macau.”
“Our director [Chiang Chen-Yun] is from Taiwan, but she has been living in Macau for quite a long time now, and for her the city is very special (…) one day, she entered bus number 25, which goes to Taipa, and she realized that the people [one encounters] on the bus are [all] so different and special,” Fish Ho explained.
Interviewing people on the street and through online surveys, a group of artists asked the defining question: what is your dream?
After conducting in-depth interviews with some of the “dreamers,” the artists tried to translate these dreams into photographs.
By using colorful make-up, a range of different hairstyles and playing with post-production effects, the result is a set of inspiring images.
Chiang Chen-Yun said in a statement that these images reflect the efforts and the dreams of ten individuals, with Macau always in the background. “I believe that through the dreams of others we can find a path for our [own] lives,” she wrote.
The artist added that although the individual’s dream is always unique, we are never alone when facing our dreams. “We share with others the conviction and the values we place [on our dreams],” she said.
This first exhibition, which features ten images and ten tailor-made costumes, will be on display at the Rui Cunha Foundation until August 9. Mr Rui Cunha, president of the Foundation, said during the opening that the gallery was pleased to receive the exhibit. He added that he too once had a dream of creating a foundation that would serve Macau’s people – a dream that eventually materialized.
Artists will later bring the exhibition to several schools in Macau, said Fish Ho.
“High Hoper” is organized by Point View Art Association, a non-profit art and cultural association founded in Macau in 2008. It is one of several year-round projects financed by the Cultural Affairs Bureau’s subsidy program, “Arts in Community.” CP