Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation by Hikoko Ito is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2024 Bronze A' Design Award in Fine Arts and Art Installation Design Competition Category.
BronzeFine Art· 2024
Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation
by Hikoko Ito
Client: Hong Kong Museum of Art
Bronze A' Design Award Winner in Fine Art Category
Verified Award Winner
Verify Award Status for #156417The Design
About Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation
Happy Birthday Likeboxes is an art installation formed by 366 illuminated mailboxes, one for each day of the year. Each mailbox door carries a pattern that hides a Chinese character, and visitors decipher the pattern to open the matching box. Inside, a hand-drawn birthday card left by an earlier visitor can be found. Each visitor then draws a new card for a future visitor and places the card in a postbox. The mailboxes are made of plastic, acrylic plates and LED lights. The installation encourages personal expression and kindness.
The Recognition
About the Bronze A' Design Award
Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation is a Bronze A' Design Award winner, a highly prestigious recognition granted to outstanding designs distinguished by creativity, ingenuity, and astuteness. Bronze winners are amply skillful and strikingly creative artifacts that authenticate the vast experience, imagination, and resourcefulness of their designers. Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation is expected to be a highly regarded, admired, and cherished object that is notably professional and innovative. This Bronze A' Design Award-winning design incorporates best practices in art, science, design, and technology, and is excellent for its attention to detail. Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation splendidly satisfies needs, touches desires, charms feelings, and appeals to curiosity.
Interviews
Grand Interview
Your innovative approach to transforming 366 illuminated mailboxes into a social experiment with Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation has garnered significant attention - what inspired you to bridge traditional card-giving with contemporary social media aesthetics?
In today's fast-paced world, the personal touch of creating or selecting a birthday card and crafting a heartfelt message has sadly diminished, often replaced by the expedient yet impersonal act of sharing generic, copy-and-paste greetings on social media—as if it is just another item to tick off our to-do lists. Through my "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIKEBOXES" installation, which merges the form of traditional mailboxes with the contemporary aesthetics of prevalent social media, I aim to prompt visitors to contemplate the evolution of our communications and recognize the precious elements we've lost along the way. My hope is that this installation will ignite a resurgence of more thoughtful and meaningful personal interactions, beginning with the simple act of creating birthday cards, for a stranger.
The Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation has successfully challenged initial skepticism about visitor participation - how did you design the interactive elements to encourage such meaningful engagement across diverse cultures, from Hong Kong to Paris?
Firstly, I centered the installation around the universally cherished celebration of birthdays—a theme that transcends cultural boundaries, to which everyone can happily relate. Additionally, I made the "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIKEBOXES" experience uniquely comprehensive. Visitors not only receive a birthday card from a previous visitor but also are invited to craft another for the next, perpetuating a pay-it-forward chain of heartfelt messages, making it more inviting to visitors. Most importantly, the HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIKEBOXES installation aims to achieve are something simple yet profoundly meaningful: fostering CONNECTIONS and promoting KINDNESS. These elements deeply resonate with visitors, striking a chord with many seeking connectivity and positivity in a post-Covid, increasingly divided world. Their relevance during these challenging times has spurred extensive participation and wholehearted engagement.
Could you elaborate on how the intricate pattern designs and hidden Chinese characters in Happy Birthday Likeboxes Art Installation evolved, and what role does this decoding process play in deepening visitor connection with the artwork?
Collaborating with my late father, we created 366 distinct motifs from various well-meaning Chinese characters. I then expanded these motifs into repeated patterns that now adorn each of the 366 LIKEBOXES (Birthday Mailboxes). Visitors find a unique pattern corresponding to their birthday, making the experience more personal and memorable. Moreover, each pattern also presents itself as a visual puzzle, adding an element of play and discovery that deepens the visitor’s engagement, introducing a sense of reward upon successful deciphering. The innovative use of Chinese characters, both significant cultural heritage and everyday writing script, also fosters a closer bond with audiences familiar with Chinese characters.
Behind the Design
Press Kit
Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.
- Unique Properties
- The 366 illuminated mailboxes, each representing a day of the year, enable you to receive a hand-drawn birthday card from a previous visitor and create one for a future visitor, perpetuating a continuous chain of kindness. Adorned with intricate patterns that form visual puzzles, these mailboxes invite participants to uncover the hidden Chinese characters, unlocking the magic within. The joyous ritual of decoding patterns and exchanging birthday cards transforms each visit into a journey of discoveries and moments of special connection.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Main installation comprises of 366 Birthday Likeboxes 8445mm x 500mm x 1890mm;
Postbox
500mm x 500mm x 1300mm - Tags
- Art Installation, Community Engagement, Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, Happy Art, Connecting people
- Production Technology
- Materials: Plastic for Likeboxes, acrylic plates for patterns on doors of Likeboxes, LED lights, polyester wallcovering, brisl coated texture paper, ORACAL 651 adhesive patterns on glass walls, wood and steel for Postbox, wooden desks and chairs.
- Design Challenge
- There was skepticism regarding whether visitors would invest time in creating birthday cards for a stranger and if the quality of the contributions would be satisfactory. Serving dually as a social experiment, the installation's launch tested the altruism and community spirit of Hong Kong's residents. The resounding success and the positive reception of the installation and its subsequent variations in various Chinese cities and Paris have since affirmed the project's appeal across diverse age groups and cultures.
- Research
- Rooted in my humble family tradition of drawing birthday cards for my parents, Happy Birthday Likeboxes is a journey through joy and human connection. The adventure begins with the quest for one's unique Birthday Mailbox. This search and the exchange of hand drawn birthday cards transform every visit into an exploration and moments of special connection. Many visitors claimed to have been motivated to start creating birthday cards for their loved ones, extending the warmth & kindness experienced from the installation to their own family circles. By celebrating a universally shared and valued occasion - our birthday - the installation also brings people from various backgrounds, while promoting kindness and a Pay-it-forward mindset within the community.
- Inspiration
- Inspired by my family tradition of exchanging hand-drawn birthday cards, my art installation aims to recreate that joy for visitors, at the same time fostering a pay it forward spirit in the community. The Likeboxes resembling social media posts, encourage visitors to reflect on the often-impersonal nature of digital interactions and to instead create and share a hand-drawn birthday card infused with sincere, heartfelt wishes.
- Project Duration
- The project commenced in April 2023 and the inaugural exhibition of the art installation Happy Birthday Likeboxes debuted in July 2023 at the Chih Lo Lou Gallery on the 4th floor of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. Originally scheduled to end in October 2023, the exhibition's popularity warranted an extension through January 2024. Capitalizing on this success, the museum inaugurated a second exhibition titled Happy Birthday Likeboxes in Sunlight on the 5th floor, commencing January 18th, 2024, which is anticipated to conclude on June 26th, 2024.
- Operation Flow
- 1.Find Your Birthday Likebox that corresponds to your birth date. 2.Decipher the Pattern on its door and uncover the hidden Chinese character to unlock the magic of your Birthday Likebox. 3.Open Your Birthday Likebox. 4.Receive a Unique Birthday Card lovingly gifted by a previous visitor. 5.Select a Drawing Card with printed depiction of an artwork from the Hong Kong Museum of Art collection. 6.Create a New Birthday Card for another future visitor. 7.Send your card at the Post box. Selected works, over 2,500 up to Dec 20th, 2023) are photographed and featured on social media hblbhkmoa.
- Team Members
- Hikoko Ito
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