When did you last receive a hand-drawn birthday card - or create one for someone else?

This summer, take part in Hikoko Ito’s interactive installation Happy Birthday 2U2, inspired by a treasured family tradition of exchanging hand-drawn birthday cards. 

Visit HOTA Gallery to discover 366 Birthday Mailboxes, one for every day of the year, including leap years. Each mailbox features a Happy Motif, co-created by Ito and her late father, artist Sun Chan, reimagining the Chinese character 樂 (meaning happiness). 

Using the Happy Motifs, visitors can locate their unique Birthday Mailbox and find a special hand-drawn card inside to keep. Then, craft a new card to add to the installation and continue the chain of heartfelt connection. The first batch of cards are created by local students and HOTA visitors. To inspire your creation, each card features an artwork from the HOTA Collection that the artist has selected. Keep an eye out on your visit – you might even spot the original artworks around the Gallery.

Every motif matched, every card exchanged whispers: we are here - together. Through shared birthdates and strokes of ink and pigment, we transcend difference, embrace our collective humanity, and pass kindness forward - one heartfelt card at a time. 

Just imagine the smile your card will spark for your birthday twin!

_{Image Credit: Hikoko Ito, HB2U2 2025, Art Gallery of New South Wales. Image courtesy AGNSW.} 

About the artist 

Hikoko Ito is an artist and architect who focuses on contemporary representations of Han characters (known as Hanzi in Chinese, Kanji in Japanese), a script shared across East Asia. Working across prints, furniture, installations, and public art, Ito creates decorative, encrypted patterns in which image and script converge, forming visual puzzles that invite deciphering. Her installations, centred on family and joy, often involve community participation in their creation and invite playful interaction that fosters discovery and connection. 

Recent exhibitions of her work include HOTA Gallery (Nov 2025–Mar 2026; Gold Coast, Australia), the Art Gallery of New South Wales (Mar–Aug 2025; Sydney, Australia), and the Hong Kong Museum of Art (Jul 2023–Jun 2024; Hong Kong).