2025
Archival pigment print on fine art paper
A4, 29.7 x 21 cm
Edition of 50 + 1 AP
Each print is hand-signed and individually numbered by the artist

This print is named after two iconic red, blue, and white plastic watering cans—No. 568 and No. 1309.—designed by Star A Industrial for their Red A brand and produced in their San Po Kong factory in Hong Kong.
Whilst the Red A brand is most famous for their plastic basins, pails, and colanders, as well as its popular red plastic lampshade hanging above most of Hong Kong’s wet market stalls, these two watering cans can be found in most traditional hardware, flower and neighbourhood homeware shops in the city. They hang from the ceiling, in striking bouquet-like arrangements, before finding their way into thousands of households where they are used to nurture plants.

To create this print Julie Progin brought together diverse references including the excessively meticulous traditional Chinese patterns known as wan hua dui (ten thousand flowers piled up or mille-fleurs) traditionally painted onto the surface of porcelain vessels, as well as designs and systems present in Hong Kong’s landscape.

Julie Progin shares, “I wanted to draw a cup to match the Pipe Dream cup to present them as a pair. So I decided to stick to the same underlying theme of resilience. I’m moved by the adaptability of the few remaining 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 drawings.
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.”