Happy Birthday Likeboxes

Tasked with creating an engaging art installation for the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the artist drew inspiration from her family tradition of exchanging hand-drawn birthday cards. Aiming to share the joy of both receiving and creating heartfelt birthday greetings, the installation initially faced skepticism regarding visitor participation and the quality of their contributions. Serving dually as a social experiment, it tested the altruism of local as well as visiting audiences. Its resounding success has since affirmed its broad appeal across diverse age groups and cultures.

The installation mainly comprises 366 Likeboxes, each an illuminated mailbox representing a day of the year. Visitors receive a hand-drawn birthday card from the Likebox corresponding to their birthdate, gifted by a previous visitor, and are invited to create one for a future visitor in return, perpetuating a chain of kindness. Adorned with intricate, paper-cutting-like patterns created from various Chinese characters, each Likebox presents a visual puzzle, for visitors to unravel and ”unlock the magic within”. The joyous ritual of decoding the patterns and exchanging birthday cards transforms each visit into a journey of discoveries and moments of special connection.

Hundreds of social media posts show that visitors are deeply touched by the installation and the experiences it facilitates. Many are inspired to create birthday cards for their loved ones, extending the warmth and kindness experienced from the installation to their families and friends. Celebrating a universally shared and valued occasion - our birthday - the installation connects people from diverse backgrounds and promotes kindness and a pay-it-forward mindset within the community—endeavors especially crucial in our increasingly divided world and challenging times.

The Likeboxes, with facades resembling social media posts, encourage visitors to reflect on the often-impersonal nature of digital interactions while sharing heartfelt wishes on cards adorned with social media motifs and elements from the exhibiting historical Chinese Painting and Calligraphy. Among tens of thousands of birthday cards received, over 4,000 have been photographed and shared on social media, celebrating creativity and generosity. Each card, a unique gift to the recipient and a contribution to the collective celebration, is placed in a Likebox where intricate pattern on its door is to be decoded, and with the aid of an onsite QR code when necessary. Debuted in July 2023 at the museum’s intimate Chih Lo Lou Gallery, the exhibition featuring birthday-themed Chinese Art and the installation was extended due to the overwhelming popularity of the installation. Building on its success, a new stand-alone exhibition, “Happy Birthday Likeboxes in Sunlight”, was launched in late January 2024 on the museum’s sunlit top floor. Here, the Likeboxes shimmer in sunlight, their column silhouettes echo the architectural landscape and harmonize with the mountains beyond, while shadows cast by Chinese character motifs of happiness on the glass walls animate and add poetry to the space.