1. 《LIFE+》Magazine
  2. 《LIFE+》Magazine Issue List
  3. Summer 2023 Issue
  4. The disappearing art of waterlight graffiti
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    10 July 2023
    See a large LED screen that you’re able to draw on freestyle, using only water to illuminate its thousands of bright white pixels, and you’d be forgiven for thinking, this is digital art.
    Bao Ho, local graffiti artist

    But you’d be wrong. Waterlight Graffiti, a creation by French artist Antonin Fourneau, is most definitely analogue. Inspired by observing the art of Dishu whilst in Beijing a decade ago, he was fascinated to recreate the ephemeral nature of this Chinese calligraphic practice, which uses water painted on to the ground to temporarily depict characters and write messages. As the water dries, the art disappears, lost forever.

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    “But there is another inspiration for me,” explains Antonin. “It’s Etch A Sketch,” he adds, his eyes sparkling. “I was addicted to my Etch A Sketch when I was a kid. And when I saw the Dishu, and thought of an LED screen, I knew I had to do something like this.”

    Photo: Antonin Fourneau, creator of Waterlight Graffiti

    But the hardware to transform water droplets into LED graphics simply did not exist. So Fourneau, who might be described as an artistic geek, decided to create it. And two years later, Patent Number WO 2014/072532 A1 allowed members of the public to spray water on a wall and create his very own Waterlight Graffiti.

    “There is no computer behind. Part of my practice is to reduce the quantity of technology inside. I’m not exactly an artist. I create a frame for an experience with the user, and a part of my interest is to then observe the behaviour of the audience.”

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    This social aesthetic approach, where the interpretation of the art and the behaviour it inspires in those consuming or interacting with it, is a strong narrative throughout Fourneau’s extensive body of work.

    Photo: Etch A Sketch

    Joining Antonin in front of his Waterlight Grafitti wall in Central Market and subsequent Nina Mall, is Hong Kong street artist, Bao Ho. More used to painting walls at scale with spray cans and rollers, Ho was invited by French May curator, Xavier Mahé, to collaborate with Fourneau to explore the possibilities of creating a work in water on the LED wall .

    Photo: Dishu

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    And water is a theme within the work she originated. Siren’s Song, a painting to remind us of the fragility of the environment in which we live, depicts a Siren emerging from the ocean depths, her hands clasping a delicate bird, while preserving and protecting the inhabitants of the marine world.

    “I keep painting animals and nature,” explains Bao Ho, “because I like to remind people we still have beautiful things around us, and that they must take care of them.” Turning to the Waterlight Grafitti wall, she notes, “Sometimes it’s very difficult when we’re doing art, despite using ecological paint, we still can’t be 100% environmentally friendly. But here painting in water we can. It’s beautiful.”

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