Hong Kong's art month is back with a robust offering of public art. Any visitor to Tsim Sha Tsui's Avenue of Stars can scarcely miss the 7.5-meter-high, brightly colored cartoonesque figure towering over Victoria Harbour. On display through May 13, The Lobster Painter is the latest large-scale steel sculpture by Philip Colbert, who describes the opportunity to display at such an iconic location as "a dream". "I love the idea of the sculpture, with its dripping paint brush, towering above ... with the city as a backdrop," he says.

The British neo-pop artist is hoping that viewers take away "a positive energy and the spirit of surrealism and humor "from his piece. He reminds us that the lobster has inspired many surrealists before him, including Salvador Dali.

"I have always loved the power of visual symbols, especially if they contain profound meaning, and the lobster has been an important mortality symbol since antiquity. It's my artistic alter ego, and acts as a storytelling device," Colbert says.

Along the waterfront at WestK's Art Park, more than 18 local performing and visual artists are participating in Pollinator, a large-scale interactive installation cocreated by the renowned American artists Alex Schweder and Ward Shelley.
Centered around a giant wheel, different groups of artists inhabit their individual pods, as well as host live performances at scheduled times through April 21.

Something to look up to

Across the harbor, more than 20 moody, monochrome figures have assembled at the Central Harbourfront Event Space for Upward - Huang Yulong, presented by Hong Kong gallery Ora-Ora. For the titular Chinese artist, there's beauty in the anonymity of the uniform streetwear, painstakingly assembled with 3D printing. Clothed in a hoodie, divisions of gender, class, wealth and body type disappear.

While Huang has utilized similar figures before, these freshly minted, 3-meter-tall faceless figures are for the first time symbolically looking up at the sky - an optimistic touch directly inspired by the high-profile location. "I wanted to make some connection with this landmark," he says.

At night, each figure glows with light emitting from its "heart". "I really love Hong Kong, and I hope I can make something for the city," says the Anhui-born artist. "So this idea is totally about hope - everybody looking upwards."

A piece of Huang's work will remain on the site after the exhibition closes on March 31. A lone hooded sculpture with a bronze finish and called Be My Side L will continue to sit on a park bench against the giant ferris wheel.

Grand statements

Pacific Place mall is hosting Art Basel Hong Kong's only off-site exhibition. Monster Chetwynd's large-scale installation piece, Lanternfly Ballet, centers around three huge insects that are periodically brought to life by dancers. "Hong Kong has this nostalgic feeling for me, connecting back to memories I have, so it's interesting to be engaging with the city and its world of nature through Lanternfly Ballet," says the Switzerland-based artist, who lived in Hong Kong, briefly, at age six. "I hope the installation and performances spark curiosity and draw visitors into this imagined world of Hong Kong's lantern bugs."

Not to be outdone, on Tuesday the nearby Landmark mall unveiled an installation by American visual artist Lauren Tsai. Called My Dream: Our Hill, the piece exudes nostalgia for the imaginary worlds created by lonely young people.

Two impressive installations by London-based Pakistani artist Sara Shakeel are on show at Taikoo Place through April 27. The South-Asian tradition of metallic thread embroidery is reimagined in The Jewel System - a "map of existence" made using more than 3.9 million pieces of ethically sourced colored crystals and assembled by a team of 80 artisans in Pakistan. The lobby to Two Taikoo Place meanwhile hosts Genesis in Jewels - an installation embodying the artist's vision of the Big Bang, created with multiple layers of cloth.

Different dimensions

Ticketed displays of large-scale art installations, presented in novel and interactive formats, are also available. Gate33 Gallery, at Kai Tak's Airside, is playing host to Weird Sensation Feels Good: The World of ASMR.The acronym stands for autonomous sensory meridian response - a term used to describe the goosebump-like physical sensations that accompany responses to multimedia. Created by Airside with Stockholm's ArkDes and London's Design Museum, the show, featuring more than 40 works, invites visitors to get a real sense of how content creators manipulate user response.

Back in Taikoo, German artist Jens Ritter is presenting six retired guitars that have been turned into intricate works of art as part of the appropriately titled Sleeping Beauties exhibition. Ritter is offering the story of his journey with each reinvented piece to 1880 Hong Kong members for free. Non-members can book a paid tour guided by the artist.