Happiness Here

Hikoko Ito

Born in Akita, Japan, lived in Tokyo, London, Sydney and Hong Kong, Hikoko has an architectural career spanning two decades. As an award-winning architect and a designer, she has always been amazed and inspired by the novel Chinese-character-motifs of her father’s, (Sun Chan, an artist best known for his Chinese character artworks), she endeavours to perpetuate the affectionate tie between generations by incorporating her father’s creations in her works. Since 2012, Hikoko has been creating prints, digital art and artifacts out of decorative Chinese characters patterns. Her works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Mainland China and Paris, and have also adorned stamps, wall murals, interior wall claddings, as well as a collection of scarves and fashion apparels of Hermes’s Shang Xia brand. With focus on intersections between form, space and the Chinese script, she took her father’s legacy to another level by producing larger 3D artworks, such as her art-installation “Co-Existence” exhibited at the Hong Kong Shenzhen Bi-City Architecture Biennale (2014), public park facilities and furniture “Wellness City – Mini Park” for Qianhai Public Arts Festival in Shenzhen, China (2016), large-scale public sculptures “Happiness within” for Yoho Mall Art Deck, Hong Kong (2017), and the art seating “Happiness Here” in front of the Hong Kong government headquarters (2017). Her recent works “Palimpsest”, “Peace in Four Seasons“ and “Jia” were showcased in the 2018 La Biennale di Venezia, the 2018 Xian Artscape Public Art Exhibition, and 2018 Hong Kong Macao Visual Arts Biennale respectively. Hikoko was an artist in residence for Zhejiang Art Museum of Hangzhou China in 2018 and will be a designer in residence for Ron Design library of Hangzhou China in 2019. She is also selected by HongKongPost as the designer for a set of stamps and special side products issued for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.