This fourth illustration in the Obsessions series is named after two iconic red, blue, and white plastic watering cans designed by Star A Industrial for their Red A brand and produced in their San Po Kong factory—No. 568 and No. 1309.

The Red A brand is most famous for their plastic basins, pails, and colanders, as well as its popular red plastic lampshade found in every one of Hong Kong’s wet markets. 

These two watering cans can be found in most traditional hardware, flower shop and neighbourhood homeware shops in Hong Kong, hanging from the ceiling, in beautiful bouquet-like arrangements, before they find their way into thousands of households where they are used to nurture plants. 

To create this print for Latitude 22N, Julie Progin brought together diverse references including the excessively meticulous traditional Chinese patterns known as wan hua dui (ten thousand flowers piled up) that can be found painted on the surface of porcelain vessels, as well as designs and systems present in Hong Kong’s landscape.

No. 568 & No. 1309 is a perfect pair to her print named Pipe Dreams. 

“When I decided to create a pair for Pipe Dreams I wanted to stick to the theme of resilience. I’m moved by the resilience of the last traditional shops in Hong Kong where they find creative solutions to display as much commodities as they can in their tiny ground floor spaces. The art of stacking, hanging, strapping objects together as a space-saving technique produces beautiful patterns and systems that inspire my illustrations.

I also wanted to look at objects that nurture growth of plants and that are common sight in Hong Kong just like the PVC pipes and chose the popular Red A brand, made in Hong Kong, red blue and white plastic watering cans that I grew up seeing everywhere as an icon for all the above.”

Note: Each print is made to order. As such it may take up to 10 days to prepare and ship your print and we will not accept any returns.
Larger prints can be made upon request. Please email us at info@latitude22n.com for enquiry.