Since learning about the existence of Art HK, it has become an annual ritual. But this year, Art HK has been taken over by Art Basel. But whatever changes there may be, for me, I like it for the same simple reason: it's an excellent opportunity of sampling what artists from different parts of the world, especially those closer to Hong Kong are doing and feeling and through their self expression and their sometimes bizarre perspectives, I may often come to some very different views of this wonderful plastic world of ours, views which in a sense, may be considered no less "real" than those held by the average man in the street but certainly much more interesting..
Why is one eye of this man wide open and the other closed? Why is he gnashing his teeth? Why does he got eyebrows on one of his eyes but not both? One eye passive, submissive, the other alert and angry? Doesn't he recall the face of Teng Xiao Ping? if so, what is he blind to: corruption, social inequalities, political repression, lack of freedom of speech and other freedoms supposed to be common aims of all civilized nations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights December 1948. Part of his face looks "realistic" and part of it like that of the traditional "theatre mask" in Beiing opera. His expression is ambiguous. Is he smiling or grimacing? Or is it like what Lyotard says in the "Differend", the two sides of his "face" are not communicating with each other because they simply cannot: they operate by different sets of rules: one black, the other white, one internal, one external, one political, the other humanistic, one ideal, the other practical, one in the past, the other in the present? Is he being awakened from his eternal slumber because he is not happy with what he sees is happening now? Who knows?
Why is one eye of this man wide open and the other closed? Why is he gnashing his teeth? Why does he got eyebrows on one of his eyes but not both? One eye passive, submissive, the other alert and angry? Doesn't he recall the face of Teng Xiao Ping? if so, what is he blind to: corruption, social inequalities, political repression, lack of freedom of speech and other freedoms supposed to be common aims of all civilized nations under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights December 1948. Part of his face looks "realistic" and part of it like that of the traditional "theatre mask" in Beiing opera. His expression is ambiguous. Is he smiling or grimacing? Or is it like what Lyotard says in the "Differend", the two sides of his "face" are not communicating with each other because they simply cannot: they operate by different sets of rules: one black, the other white, one internal, one external, one political, the other humanistic, one ideal, the other practical, one in the past, the other in the present? Is he being awakened from his eternal slumber because he is not happy with what he sees is happening now? Who knows?
Again, he has lost the use of one eye and is equally tense. What is his open eye seeing that causes such tenseness of his lips? Was his other eye gouged off and if so, was it done voluntarily or by accident? He's only got one ear: his right ear. Why is his eye blind only to what's happening on his right hand side? His eyes are alert to what is happening to his left but he can't hear on his left. is this a political comment? Why is his nose like a pig's snout?
The skeleton of a monkey? Dancing, stomping or avoiding?
Fragments of metal, glass, wood, color in various forms, shapes, combination, configuration
A woman in Afro-hairstyle, full of trinkets on her body. What is she looking at? What is she thinking about? Why the patches of blue, green, purple, orange indifferently smeared on her face indifferently? Was she awed by someone, something? The image of tribal culture overlaid by the cheapest products of modern consumer economy applied with complete disregard to taste?
What is this hanging sculpture, like a kind of metallic abalone, pierced by knife blades, made of different patches of wood, copper, leather etc, of different colors, shapes, textures by Wang Yuyang 2013
Another view of this satelite-like structure
This one is called the Musuem Box by Sergei Shekhovtson 2013,. His perception of the Museum in Bilbao in Spain? Everything seem to have become "commodity", ready for shipment?
The other side of the Box, the artist's cramped living space with hardly anything.
Tree, or human figurine supporting acrobat-like on her head other ball-like material for creation?
The former Chairman Mao whose figure now seem overgrown with fungi?
man on a loud hailer and birds
A mat collé with various strips of criss-crossing bands overlapping each other
Old micro-pillows/cushions and two metal rings with photographs of former times: a collection of discrete memories and past experiences?
various pillows, cushions sewed into the shape of a human brain?
A chest of such balls or cushionettes
"Stripped bare" by Kendell Geers in glass and metal: looks like the piece of plexiglass has been shot resulting in a number of thread like force lines
The pattern formed by applying force at the centre
Dried pumpkin-like (?) shells of various sizes thoughtfully aligned on the corner with matching colors.
"Interior or layered space " a gouache on paper by Julia Steiner
A half minotaur 2000 by Richard Patterson
Bronze figures by Lia Rumma, The sexual symbolism seems obvious
"My Fantasy" 2012 by He Xiangyu, an image of the artist himself in a glass coffin covered by a red silk cloth
A walrus by Rob Pruitt
Interesting collection of cups, glass, vases, urns , colors and shapes etc. I like the shadows they cast on the wall too.
"Hierarchy" 1988 by Nedko Solakov, graphite, oil & mixed media on a canvas
Mouse Deer and Bosch Vacuum 2013 by Osang Gwon
Traditional Religious figure with halo now stripped naked with fingers with Buddhist hand sign by Osang Gwon 2013
Leopard on a man with snake-skin suit
A Suspended Cathedral by MadeIn Company (Xu Zhen born 1977 ) 2013, a gigantic piece of installation art: Gothic Art with irrelevant strings attached everywhere and the whole suspended in the air with the most primitive rope knots, as if it were a piece of heavily machinry: the status of art today?
(To be cont'd.)
The fungi growing from Mao must be poisonous.
回覆刪除[版主回覆07/17/2013 17:28:29]The fungi is black. The revolution is supposed to be represented by "blood red". Perhaps the revolution is dead. Hence the change of color?
Exhibitions nowadays mostly display artworks that are conceptual and experimental. Sometimes there might be a piece or two that is inspiring and admirable.
回覆刪除Nice music! It's so passionate.
[版主回覆07/18/2013 08:45:22]Yes, you're right. Some art works have the power to awe, to overwhelm and perhaps to inspire. Such works may fall into what Kant calls "the Sublime" which stretches our sensation and our imagination to the limit so that instead of following existing standards and conventional values, they set new rules and set new standards and push art into the edge of chaos, and push art into unknown territory to explores ever newer horizons. I like also like the quiet magic of Mark Rothko's juxtapositioning of different colors on the same plane surface like his Two Openings in Black over Wine and his Orange and Yellow and many others.
[Mia回覆07/17/2013 18:40:15]Thanks for the brief survey of various art trends. I studied art history and 20th Century modern art movements so I am familiar with modernists' styles, approaches and their arguments. Modernism and post-modernism theories are inspiring and have also opened up endless possibilities to art-making and ways creating art. I enjoy seeing contemporary art which including street art, performance art, installations, and digital art as well as classical art. Realism isn't the only form of art making. I enjoy artworks that are inspirational, intriguing, and engaging, which, in my opinion, are rare. If I see it, my heart would be touched and I would be in awe. Mark Rothko's paintings have that effect. Art that served as propaganda inevitably will have a short shelf life.
[版主回覆07/17/2013 17:41:53]There are many overlaps. Some continue to work in the "traditional" styles following the "representational" theory where the painted object must bear a very close resemblance to "real" objects, others go for "expression" where the colors are supposed to express, not objective "reality" but the artist's "feelings/moods" etc evoked by objects/people he/she sees; still others go for abstract expressionism where the art work expresses nothing but itself, its colors, its form, its textures etc and some wish the art works to portray the artist concept of what the world has become e.g the surrealists like Dali, Margritte etc and some as you say, turn the object of art into a means of "art" reflecting upon its own "function' and art becomes almost entirely "conceptual" eg. pop art and some wish the art object to burst the framework and come out and form part of our perceptual space and become dynamic e.g so-called "kinetic" art. Some wish art to become a "performance". . But some still adhere to the modernist notion eg. those who follow "socialist realism" wish art to serve the purpose of the socialist revolution: as a means of raising the consciousness of the people towards what they need to do ie. promote the cause of "revolution" but very few of them now.
Art as such leaves more room for imagination.
回覆刪除I missed the exhibition this year for certain inexcusable reasons but thanks for the sharing.
[版主回覆07/17/2013 18:52:08]You don't know what you've missed. I hope I'll be able to fill you in on some of the juicy details. Just give me a bit of time.
那些人像雕塑的臉上，
回覆刪除總像有一絲絲的不忿，
是藝術家的反照？
[版主回覆07/18/2013 08:04:28]Artists only know viscerally how they feel and they "think" with their creations in colors, forms, textures and often they may be only vaguely aware of what moves them and what pushes them to embody whatever it is that they instinctually feel and wish to express in what they in fact create and present. Often they may be as "surprised" as we are at what they have produced and they could "discover" themselves only in the process of the artistic creation.
回覆刪除[版主回覆07/18/2013 08:06:17]Glad you like it. I like it too. Cortazar is one of my favourite light music composers.
問：有背景音樂？我這兒是＂靜音＂什麼也沒有。
回覆刪除我看藝術品很直接。但雪山飛狐哥哥卻會停下來思考它很多的問題，經過思考／消化後＂看到＂更多深層面東西（這是很多觀眾＂看＂不到的），有時可能對作品作出反問；真希望（若）您能與作品的創作者來个訪談，一定有更多精彩的內容被發掘出來，創作者會受益不淺。
作品精彩，您的＂導讀＂一樣精彩！感謝您的分享！
[版主回覆07/19/2013 10:07:18]of course, there's music. it's music by Ernesto Cortazar. You can find it in Xuite. You are you. I am me.: different eyes, different mind, different sensitivities, different experiences, different psyche. You are a creative artist, I am a thinking consumer of "art". I know very little of art. But I have an instinctive fondness of looking at the world through different perspectives. I find enormous joy looking at the world through the eyes of different artists: it's rich, complex, mystifying and rewarding. But I'm afraid I'm not much good at doing "導讀" because I never got any training in "art". I'm just like any other looker-on at the art works. But often I am fascinated. I can't help myself.