Nothing to See There – The Subtle Art of Graffiti Supression During The 2019 Hong Kong Protests

Hong Kong, summer 2019. Amid massive protests and increasingly severe government repression, graffiti is proliferating in the city and becoming an iconic expression of dissent. Hans Leo Maes/TypicalPlan documents and makes an inventory of the different forms taken by the incessant work of state officials to cover up, hide, or attempt to remove these inscriptions from public space. This book particularly highlights the smudged inscriptions of tram stops. Under the combined action of graffiti and attempts to erase them by the authorities, unique and ghostly visuals emerge, with a plasticity that refers to certain current forms of the post-graffiti and contemporary art. This pugnacity also questions the real motivations of a state determined to eliminate as quickly as possible all traces of protest.