By Athena Zhou Zixi
April 12, 2024
This Hong Kong Art Month, McDonald’s collaborates with renowned Japanese artist Verdy to organize an exhibition titled “Shake & Dip Playground” at West Kowloon Cultural District from March 27 to April 14.
This exhibition combines McNuggets and fries with Verdy’s graphic art to give the audience an interactive playground-like experience. It is also their second collaboration after launching the first McDonald’s Pop-Up Store at Complexcon Hong Kong.
Verdy, the exhibition’s designer, is an iconic artist of street fashion and trendy art. He was the artistic director of the just-concluded first Complexcon Hong Kong and BLACKPINK’s Born Pink Word Tour last year.
The five-meter-tall Vick, main character of the exhibition, holds a McDonald’s burger with his tongue out in a drooling expression. The giant sculpture at the exhibition entrance was so eye-catching that Elise Chan, who was walking her dog in West Kowloon, squatted down to take a photo of her dog with Vick.
“I thought it was a black-and-white puppy,” Chan was a little surprised to learn that Vick is a panda-rabbit character, “but anyway, he seems funny and adorable. ”
On the first floor of Shake & Dip Playground, there are several giant McDonald’s M logos made of mirror reflections, next to the flashed-over video of Vick and McNuggets.
“The mirror design is fun and makes an originally small space look twice as big,” grinned Yuna Lam, who came with her friend, “I tried to touch the other half of the M, only to realize it was in the mirror.”
The second floor of the exhibition is designed as an interactive playground. Visitors can hear the classic McDonald’s slogan “Ba Da Ba Ba Ba” when they step on the grids with Ba or Da written on them.
Echoing the theme of “Shake & Dip,” the venue featured a Mc Shaker Fries installation for games and some McNuggets dip models for photos. Visitors can choose the flavor of fries seasoning from Mc Shaker Fries, then grab their fries, twist their bodies, and shake fries to get a higher score.
Photo: Zhou Zixi
Jennie Chow, who brought her kids along to shake the fries, said, “Our family loves McDonald’s shake fries, and this game is even more of a way to shake. At first, my kid shook out a score of 50 points, and then 95 points. It is a lot of fun.”
In addition to this, the exhibition also featured a photo sticker machine where every visitor could take photos with Vicky and Fries and instantly get four cute big headshots. McDonald’s x Verdy souvenirs were for sale at the end of the exhibit.
“We’re big fans of McDonald’s but weren’t expecting much from this exhibit. Now we see it’s very creatively designed and the atmosphere is very relaxing. It would be better if there were more difficult games.” Lam and her friend said.
McDonald’s and West Kowloon art exhibition, who would associate the two? It’s super cool!”
-Yuna Lam
Reported by Zhou Zixi Athena
Edited by Crystal Tsang and Micol Stano