Luke CHING (ACC 2023) recently completed his six-month New York Fellowship at the end of June, 2024. Originally from Hong Kong, Ching earned his MA in Fine Arts from The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) in 1998. In 2005 and 2016, he received an award at the Hong Kong Art Biennial Exhibition and Artist of the Year (Visual Art) from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council, respectively. He co-founded Wooferten, an independent arts space, in 2009 with a vision to facilitate the exchange of ideas and to engage the community. 


Since 2013, he has actively explored the role of an artist in society by participating in social activism with a special focus on labor rights. In Hong Kong he has worked at MTR subway stations as a part-time cleaner, in museums as a security guard, and on city streets as a municipal sweeper to embody the perspective and daily life of the people who hold those roles in society. For his U.S. trip, in addition to meeting part-time artists and scholars in the field, Ching sought to investigate the on-the-ground workforce in New York City—a population that has heavily influenced his art and creative process. Ching proposed to envisage and realize the role of ‘the artist as a citizen’, researching empathetic imagination and how art can be used as an intervention in life. Throughout his stay, Ching started to uncover the differences between those who work in these roles in Hong Kong versus the U.S.


While doing his research and work, Ching clarified that he was “not pretending to be a sanitation worker. It is about genuinely being one, and discovering what a sanitation worker can do in their daily lives and as a part of society. Because I am an artist, it is not only about the knowledge of each role in society, but also what working in these roles feels like in my body as a human and as a part of society, and making other people understand this feeling. We need to be creative and active citizens. We cannot just depend on the infrastructure, but rather think outside the institution.”


Luke Ching at Sure We Can

Throughout his time in New York, Ching discovered several relevant organizations for his research. He spoke with individuals who collect cans and recyclable items through Sure We Can (SWC), a nonprofit organization, recycling center, community space, and sustainability hub directly serving canners in New York City. He also found the NYC Trash Academy through the Sanitation Foundation, the official nonprofit partner supporting the NY Department of Sanitation by engaging with individuals, communities, schools, elected officials, and corporate partners to identify and fulfill cleaning initiatives. Through the Academy, Ching took several module courses to learn more about the various waste management systems in New York City. 


Luke Ching with New York Department of Sanitation Union workers

Ching describes himself as a social practice artist. As a citizen of Hong Kong, he seeks to understand and widely share “the idea of how to be an alternative citizen in a city where the situation is always changing.” His art does not solely live as art alone, but as social change that impacts community and people, allowing each of us to see the relationship between ourselves and society. Ching believes “we need to develop a kind of role which does not belong to a certain field, but rather a role that can dynamically move within various fields and perspectives. I try to examine this kind of possibility by creating micro campaigns to make micro changes in our daily lives. Hopefully this change will bring hope and difference to the people who I research.” 


Luke Ching meeting with security guards at the The Metropolitan Museum of Art

To learn more about Luke Ching, watch the video his video interview with the M+ museum in Hong Kong, and follow him on Instagram.

Top image: Luke Ching with his spouse Mei Cheung (ACC 1999) and Robin Nagle, anthropologist-in-residence at New York City’s Department of Sanitation since 2006. All images courtesy of Luke Ching.