Oi! on Oil Street
I stumbled upon Oi! one day when I was heading over on foot to Tin Hau from North Point. I was first drawn to the beautiful red brick structure and stopped in for a look. There was staff at the help desk there and I learned something about this heritage site.
Oi! is an art space meant for community involvement, especially in being interactive. Standing on Oil Street in Fortress Hill, the building celebrates art, creativity and ideas of sustainable living by offering the space for dialogue, exhibition and respite.
The History of Oi!
At its inception in 1908, the former site of Oi! was the Royal Yacht Club Clubhouse. As such, the building’s location on Oil Street was formerly a waterfront area in North Point. In those times, the venue opened its doors only to the Europeans or otherwise very prominent persons.
Photo: These five trees at Oi! indicate the former coastline in this part of Hong Kong. After the North Point reclamation, the Royal Yacht Club had to move its venue to the Causeway Bay Shelter because the former Yacht Club was no longer at the waterfront.
The exhibition halls of today were where the yachts were repaired at the Royal Yacht Club Clubhouse.
Throughout its century-long history, Oi! has served as government staff quarters and offices. Eventually, the venue was handed over to the Art Promotion Office for restoration and re-positioning into the current space for arts and community. It being a government-led initiative for restoration, Oi! is quite different from other heritage sites in Hong Kong. In partnership projects, the Hong Kong Government would approve funding for successful applicants (usually NGOs) to conduct the restoration work, after which the NGO would take over the operation and maintenance of the venue for its own use.
The Oi! has been given the status of a Grade 2 Historic Building.
The Architecture of Oi!
The former Royal Yacht Club Clubhouse was built in the style of Arts and Crafts architecture. First features to note are the fusion of Chinese and western style architecture. The tiled roof and the red bricks are more representative of the Chinese style, but the arched windows, white paint and doorways are western.
The building has a few sections but overall it is built in a minimalist style. This feature is shown in the fact that the water pipes of the building are exposed. There is also no adornment on the bricks.
Photo: Inside the Kitchen, people can sit freely with their own food if there is no cooking class.
In the restoration effort, the building was repositioned to imitate the idea of a home. Therefore all the different buildings were renamed in home rooms, such as the kitchen, living room, study, balcony and garden etc.
Finally, the different sections of the building shows different heights in its rooftops. One section has a double tiled rooftop as well. This aspect of the architecture provided a textured aesthetics against what used to be hills at the back of the Royal Yacht Club Clubhouse.
Oi! Today
The Lawn at Oi! features a green urban space. On the day of the public tour, an installation by a London artist was featured in the lawn. The theme of this series of installations is People Mountain People Sea, in Chinese it is an idiom referring to the exceedingly crowdedness of a given space.
The public area features many old banyan trees and it was generously shaded. The artsy sitting area comes with distinct seating with a tray for placing food and drinks. There are two such seating areas and they are themselves artwork installations, entitled Branching Benches.
Photo: The Branching Benches is itself an art installation that has a very practical purpose.
I inquired at the small outhouse, as its appearance seems to suggest that food is sold there. However, Oi! Kitchen does not actually offer food for sale. It is the venue for community cooking classes. On days where classes are not held, anyone is free to bring a takeout lunch to sit in the comfort of a hip kitchen space and eat.
Photo: The Kitchen of Oi!
According to the introduction of Oi! on the Art Promotion Office (APO), as a venue of art Oi! maintains a vision with four substantive approaches,
Oi! Spotlight invites both local and overseas artists to showcase their work in response to innovative ideas, boosting cultural exchanges between regions at the same time; Oi! Daily hosts events and invites the public to take part in a dialogue where art becomes a part of our daily life; Oi! OnSite invites talented creators to participate in artist-in-residence programmes with the aim of reconfiguring our impressions of and feelings about our surroundings; and Oi! SoGreen sets out to inspire the public with the plants at Oi! and art programmes that help reconnect them with the natural environment by providing a taste of green living with hints of flowers and fruits.
Photo: The Glass House is a modern addition to the heritage site.
How to Get There
The address of Oi! is 12 Oil Street, North Point. The MTR station at which to get off is the Fortress Hill Station.
Free public tours conducted in Cantonese are available every Saturday and Sunday at 3pm. No pre booking is required, but arrive 5 minutes before 3pm at the reception area. The tour takes about 15 minutes.
Be mindful of the opening hours of Oi! The venue is open Mondays 2pm-8pm (except public holidays, when it is open on normal hours), and Tuesdays to Sundays 10am-8pm. On Christmas Eve and Chinese New Year Eve, it is open 10am-5pm. It is closed on the first two days of the Chinese New Year.
Sources
Descriptions on site at Oi!
The Public Tour of Oi!