How watching Back to the Future and seeing its time-travelling DeLorean car changed the life of Surreal HK photographic artist
- Back to the Future, starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd, follows the adventures of teenager Marty McFly and a time-travelling car
- Photographer and artist Tommy Fung’s artworks are inspired by the DeLorean sports car, which thrilled him when he saw the film aged 12 or 13
Science-fiction classic Back to the Future (1985), directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Michael J Fox and Christopher Lloyd, tells the story of teenager Marty McFly, who is sent back several decades in a time machine built by his friend Emmett “Doc” Brown in a DMC DeLorean sports car. He accidentally changes history and has to rectify things.
Tommy Fung, a Hong Kong-born and based, partly Venezuelan-raised photographer who makes surrealistic artworks under the name Surreal HK, tells Richard Lord how it changed his life.
The first time I watched Back to the Future was in 1992 or 1993, on the television when I was in Venezuela. I was 12 or 13.
It was the fact that the DeLorean is so amazing in that movie. I’m not really into cars; I just liked that car. It was very special: the colour of the metal is unique, and it was the only model at that point (the DeLorean company only made one model, and went bankrupt three years before the film was made, after company director John DeLorean was arrested on drug charges).
You couldn’t see that car in the street – not in Venezuela or anywhere. I wondered at the time if they sold it or if it was just made for the film.
I also loved the story about going to the past and trying to change the future; the concept was fascinating to me. When you mess something up, you try to fix it, but in real life you can’t travel to the past and do so. The future isn’t written; you just have to do what you can now.
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The movie was about something retro, but it was still a very modern movie, especially when you see the sequel and it’s all about the future (the film was followed by two successful sequels, in 1989 and 1990, set in the future and more distant past, respectively).
DeLoreans appear in several of my artworks. The first time I used one, it was the signature car of Hong Kong, a Hong Kong taxi, but flying like the DeLorean, with a background of Temple Street. It has a very cyberpunk feel, with a mixture of the past and the future. I just wanted to mix Back to the Future with Hong Kong.
I kept using flying taxis in some of my works. When you use a taxi, you are rushing; it’s the best way you can steal some time and go wherever you want to go. If you could travel through time, that would be great.
Then one time I finally used a real DeLorean in one of my artworks. It was for my first personal exhibition in a gallery, in 2020, at 13A New Street Art Gallery, in Sai Ying Pun, and the car was in front of it, levitating.
I don’t know how many times I’ve seen the three movies. I find them timeless – they don’t feel like old movies; they’re still fascinating to me.
