Vanity plates are the ultimate nonessential car accessory used by owners to highlight their status, wealth, humour, desires, beliefs or superstitions – and in Hong Kong they can be seen everywhere. Each plate is like a line of poetry racing through the bustling streets of the city. It is poetry in motion.
This gave me the idea to collect images of the thousands of vanity plates so they can be mixed and matched into poems. I then encouraged poets and people passionate about poetry to take part.
This project presents an exhaustive image collection of vanity plates, a gallery of poems by Hong Kong and international artists as well as a rap song made by DOUGH-BOY, and a game where you can compose and share your own Hong Kong vanity poems.
IG: hkvanit1es
The HKVANIT1ES project has been mentioned in the book “Poetry in Pedagogy Intersections Across and Between the Disciplines” Edited By Dean A. F. Gui, Jason S. Polley, and the web platform described as a good tool for educators and students to engage with poetry.