PUBLISHED : Saturday, 06 December, 2014, 12:06am
From an original idea of just 200 tiles, the project ballooned into a 4.3 metre by 5.6 metre creation because, according to the hotel’s communications director Patsy Chan, their “crazy” general manager Ulf Bremer asked for 3,000 during a meeting.
Charity was only a small part of the project, Bremer said in unveiling the world-record-setting artwork in the Tsim Sha Tsui hotel yesterday. “The most important thing was to get people involved,” he said. “We showed that they could help the needy through their actions alone.”
Zentangle is an art form inspired by meditation and doodling. The Shangri-La project made use of tiles, each of which contained part of the design for the larger picture, but members of the public were encouraged to make their individual marks on their sponsored tiles as well.
The resulting mosaic has a flowing style akin to embroidery, depicting Hong Kong icons such as the bauhinia flower.
It is a collective made up of individual work and donations of HK$50 per tile that amount to HK$151,200 for Operation Santa Claus, the fundraising campaign organised by the South China Morning Post and RTHK.
Fina Man, the project’s chief artist, believes that Zentangle allows anyone to show off their artistic potential. Man designed the combination artwork while donors added their personal touch to each tile.
“The effect of drawing this type of art is finding peace of mind,” she said.
Man’s words echoes the sentiments of donor Simon Maas, a paramedic from Australia who said the artwork almost made it feel like playtime.
“It’s a sense of being comfortable,” Maas said. “I have zero artistic abilities, but having a bit of a guideline with Zentangle really gave me a sense of direction when I was drawing.”
Bremer and his family completed 10 Zentangle tiles, whereupon he realised how the differing art styles from his wife and children blended into one piece.
The endeavour showed “our family was one unit, and that I really cherish”, he said.
Alec Cheung 