Aim to provoke. I want to break taboos and challenge ideas that are out of date by using objects and concepts in an unexpected way,” says Douglas Young,
who is sitting opposite me on our cover shoot, dressed from head to toe in jewel-coloured pieces of funeral paper, thus embodying his message with aplomb. “It’s the role of artists to see beauty in unusual places. Funeral paper is stunning but it’s customarily associated with sadness and death, and it’s only when we remove it from its traditional setting that we can appreciate the aesthetic value.”
The founder of lifestyle brand and boutique Goods of Desire (G.O.D.) is using the VIP lounge at this year’s Art Basel in Hong Kong as a platform to spread his unique perspective on beauty. “The lounge is an oasis from the madness of the fair, but it’s also a good place to make people stop and think,” says Young, who has for the past five years created a variety of installations ranging from plastic water pistol walls and red lantern sofas to mah-jong sofas and giant spoon seats. “Visually, it’s different every year, but the central theme has always been a modern interpretation of Hong Kong culture. I’m an advocate of looking at ourselves in an honest way, not tainted by thoughts of poverty or class or background.”
For this year’s project, Young wanted to reference Occupy Central and its “Lennon Wall,” adapted from the Czech wall of the same name. The brightly coloured splash of Post-it notes that stretched up the curved staircase of the Central Government Complex immediately grabbed his attention. “I’m not a political person and I’m not trying to make a political statement. I just thought the Post-it note wall was beautiful,” says Young, who joined protests against its removal. “It could have become a local tradition and a tourist attraction, and there was no need to take it down because it wasn’t about politics, it was about people’s expressions of what they wanted Hong Kong to become. And that’s exactly what I’ve spent my whole career talking about.”
According to the government officials Young spoke to, remnants of the “Lennon Wall” are being held in an unspecified location, but there’s little chance they will see the light of day again. So he decided to recreate the wall for Art Basel in Hong Kong, but with a mischievous G.O.D. spin. “Well, I knew there was no point in doing the same thing twice, which is when I hit on the idea of remaking it out of funeral paper,” says Young. “Both the Post-it note wall and the funeral paper are so loaded with symbolism that people cannot see them from an objective, aesthetic point of view. One is new and the other is old. I wanted to fuse the two in one all-encompassing statement.”
Young is a man who has always been fascinated by dichotomies—old and new, East and West, cheap and expensive, modern and vintage. This is probably a result of his upbringing. Raised in Kowloon Tong by his parents, Ted Young, an engineer, and Carol Louey, he went to Diocesan Boys’ School with his three siblings. However, his comfortable Hong Kong childhood was brought to a swift end at the age of 15 when he was sent to England to finish his education at Uppingham School in Rutland.
“I’m definitely something of a cross-breed,” he says in a plummy accent that speaks of an education in cold British boarding schools and ancient university towns. “I can be a local person, because I speak the language and understand the culture. But after spending 15 years in the UK, I can also see myself with a foreign pair of eyes, which I think is extremely