Glimpses from Art HK 2012

Since I first came to know of it a few years back, Art HK has always been a wonderful experience for me but the huge quantity of "art works" there is to see and to feel "live" at close quarters also means a dazed brain, tired eyes and sore feet. But I am never disappointed. There are always lots of good masterpieces which fill me with joy. There may be works which turn one's stomache and some which may not be up to par but no matter what, it's always good to see human creativity at work. That means that as a race, we are not yet dead. We may be knitting our brows together in disgust, screaming, foaming at the mouth with anger or recoiling in horror at what men can do to each other from what we see. We may be swindled, soothed or shocked but at least, we know that the human species is still alive, and creating.

Upon arrival, we are met by this splash of colors.A children's play area? But I didn't see any children!

A thoughtful coffee and drinks corner.

The following are what I found, in no particular order. They follow my footsteps as I moved from one section of the hall to another and from time to time retraced my steps to look at works that I thought I'd missed.

Would you believe it? This painting is made from ashes from joss sticks! It's called "Sea No. 6" by Zhang Huan. 2011.

This is my photograph of a photograph by Chen Chieh Jen called Empire's Borders II 2010 : Room of the unknown. Sheer light and rectangles.

And this is another photo by the same artist called Empire's Borders II 2010: Passage.  Again play of light and shade and patterns but a world in shambles.

This is sheer play of color line, texture and form. So simple.

And this, again play of light, texture and color by Paul Pfeiffer.

This one is in more or less the same color. But how different the feel. It's an untitled painting by Yang Shaobin. Is that a sore carbuncle on the right side of his head with a stainless steel angle stapled and nailed down his scalp on the left, his face all distorted and threatening to melt and if so, by what? And that look of impotence in his eyes!

This is an artificial piece which tries to imitate the texture of the Nature's rocks but done up in gold by Asta Groting.

This is comic book stuff with its two headed dogs howling in the context of gorilla and snake headed monster by Mariano Ching, called Howling 2012.. 

This painting is ambiguously called Untitled (double figures, sun, bleach marks), 2011 by Gina Osterloh.

Another work by the same artist, called "The artist's hand: Take my hand" Perhaps in this postmodern age, people, especially those in the West, have become so alienated from one another by the socio-economic system that "artists" are forced to turn inwards and become "narcissistic" and have to make something of their world of self-enclosed solitude in "blue" and long to be connected?

Another Self-Portrait! This time, by Chuck Close in 2012.  His face is divided into tiny little squares and rectangles of color posters. 

Another work by Luis Lorenzana, who also exhibited last year. It's called "Robo Clara" 2012. As before, dressed in Medieval clothes, in Medieval colors but with fantastic subject matter.

A contemporary totem pole with hands turning in different directions, up down, left right, their only link with Nature restricted to a "painted flower", reduced to nothing more substantial than a "sign" or "symbol". Where are we going? Where do we want to go?

新增說明文字

Two parts of the same head with a swastika Nazi sign in one of them. They form part of a series of painted sculptures by Mariano Ching called "Perpetual Motion" consisting of sections of head, body, arms and legs. The artist's expression of the condition of the contemporary mass man, alienated from society and divided against himself, buffeted and driven by instinctual desires and emotions about which he knows little or nothing?

A close up of the other half of the head showing a bird eating a centipede, her heart a sea urchin?