In our 10 Minutes With ... Andrew Mok, the rising artist shares how he’s taking things project by project—and how social media has helped him reach audiences beyond Hong Kong
Andrew Mok may be only 18 and a fresh graduate from Hong Kong’s Victoria Shanghai Academy, but he’s already created a buzz in the streetwear game with his 3D printed sculptures—mainly headphone accessories—that he creates with his brother, Tate.
The Hong Kong-based artist, better known on Instagram as @yalocaloffgod, not only counts more than 320,000 followers on his page but he also debuted his creations at Men’s Fashion Week in Paris last month in a collaboration with Japanese luxury streetwear brand, A Bathing Ape, for its 2024 spring/summer menswear collection. Mok’s pieces included his signature headphone accessories, as well as shoe accessories, sunglasses and jewellery.
However, this is not the only thing that Mok is busy with. In February this year, he hosted a solo art exhibition at Harbour City; in March he met musician and Louis Vuitton creative director Pharrell Williams when he came to Hong Kong; in June, he starred in the music video for Cutie, the latest single from Hong Kong singer Gareth T; also in June he was invited to visit Apple Park, the Apple headquarters in California, to meet their CEO Tim Cook; and he’s also working on his own clothing collection.
Tatler caught up with the rising talent recently and discussed his creative process, how he’s built his presence as an artist on social media and more.
Read more: Paris Fashion Week recap: 5 standout moments from the 2024 men’s spring/summer shows
How do you think social media has influenced your trajectory as an artist?
It’s helped me in terms of growing as an artist. Social media is a platform through which you can spread art; without it, it’s harder for an independent creator to share their work.
Having this platform that I have right now—and the followers who support my work—make me less worried about what I want to do in the future. It’s helped me with my creative thinking and in choosing the direction I want to go in: if I still want to do art or move towards fashion.
In your experience, what are the pros and cons of finding success on social media?
Connecting with like-minded people and finding creators who are doing similar things are some of the pros. It’s very useful to have peers—you can ask them for advice or just comment on their work. To have a [community] of people [who are] doing similar things on social media is one thing that I’m very grateful for.
One con is that it’s harder to [establish] an idea is yours in terms of copyright, because social media allows people the freedom to post whatever they want. When I first made the headphone attachments, a lot of people started copying them. I was lucky enough to have a big enough following at that time, so people knew it was my thing, but for people with smaller audiences, it’s harder for them to do something new because social media is so competitive.
