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If you’re wandering around North Point and craving some artistic refreshment, Oil Street Art Space (Oi!) has just unveiled two mesmerising new exhibitions that use water as a creative lens. One is an immersive, philosophical exploration of time and ecology, while the other is a colourful bathhouse with a heart-shaped ceramic pool that might just be the cutest thing we’ve seen in a gallery.
Jeremy’s Bathhouse by Chan Wai-lap
Tucked inside Oi! Glassie, Hong Kong artist Chan Wai‑lap presents Jeremy’s Bathhouse – a dreamy, ceramic bathhouse as an extension of his ongoing ‘Swimming’ series. Instead of a giant blue swimming pool like his previous Harbour Wonder outdoor installation in 2023, visitors are plunged into a vibrant world of pinks, reds, and purples – all inspired by love, connection, different bathing cultures, and the 2016 viral story of Jeremy, the left-spiral snail whose global mating quest serves as a symbol for Hong Kong singles searching for their match.
The centrepiece is Levo Love, a heart-shaped pool installation made with more than 1,200 handcrafted ceramic tiles designed by Chan, who travelled to Jingdezhen – a city in China known for manufacturing ceramics – to learn ceramic firing techniques. Visitors will also find Chromatic Soap, a set of shower cubicles lined with casts of real soap bars that Chan has collected from bathhouses around the world. The soaps, with their malleable qualities, are a clever nod to how soap moulds to the body, just as relationships shape us.
There are also mirrors strategically placed to reflect you and anyone sharing the moment, and every so often, timed release of mist drifts through, softening the edges and shifting the whole atmosphere from crisp clarity to a dreamy haze.
Space · Ecology · Poetics: Zheng Jing’s Way of Art
While Jeremy’s Bathhouse steals the heart, Zheng Jing’s first solo show in Hong Kong offers something more contemplative. Focusing on non-solid media, the multi-disciplinary artist and professor at the China Academy of Art uses water, sound, air, and light to transform several warehouses into a surreal world that invites viewers to wander through.
In Warehouse 1, visitors will feel as though they are submerged beneath Victoria Harbour, with mirrored installations that let you look up at wave movements through the manipulation of light. There’s also a giant Drifting Bottle vessel featuring a video projection of a human figure endlessly diving, plus a suspended cube from which light beams are projected outward in multiple directions. Stepping out onto the lawn, visitors will discover five golden sculptures modelled after Taihu stones, placed in an elemental cycle of ‘breathing’ to allow energy and spirits to flow through continuously.
As part of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s Oi! Programme, these two exhibitions tie beautifully into Hong Kong’s Art March energy. Jeremy’s Bathhouse is running from now to August 30, while Space · Ecology · Poetics: Zheng Jing’s Way of Art is on show until October 11. Both shows are completely free to enter, so grab a friend and add this to your weekend art crawl.
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