El Zorro: Art Basel 2015. 5

Cont'd

Chariot of the Gods 2009 by Hew Locke (b. 1959) inspired by the artist's visits to the Museum of Mankind in London which once housed the exhibits of British Museum's Department of Ethnography of artifacts from the Americas, Africa, the Pacific and tribal Asia and Europe until 1997, when the program was ended. The artwork incorporates the artist's sketches of such museum exhibits as Benin bronzes, Buddhist masks, Inca mummies, Mexican serpents and the famous Easter Island Moai figure called Hoa Hakananai'a into a Western heraldic "coat of arms" motif, to signify Western domination of other peoples.

Brassica ( 2015) in acrylic on canvas by English artist Jason Brooks (b. 1968)

Part of '"They" are coming to Hong Kong' by Dailian artist Yang Maoyuan (楊茂源)(b. 1966) : camel

What could this be?

Sheep!

What a horse!

Could the artist be hinting at the tendency to accumulate consumer products by hordes of the PRC who invade Hong Kong from all parts of China where the camel, the horse, the sheep etc are their natural habitat and leave Hong Kong loaded with consumables beyond their normal carrying capacities, like those distorted animals?

Djanger 2006 in stainless steel tubing and carbon fiber by Frank Stella (b. 1936) American mininalist abstract painter and sculptor

The Pequod meets the Rachet 1988: acrylic and enamel on aluminium by the same artist

Tabula 1981: acrylic on canvas by Simon Hantaï (1922-2008), a French Hungarian artist who advocated the "folding method" of how to start a painting: folding and scrunching the canvas, splashing color paint on it and then unfolding it, leaving the originally blank sections of the canvas with color patches.

Set of 4 mazes

various sketches

Untitled by Susumu Koshimizu (b. 1944) one of the representative artists of Mono-ha (もの派) , a significant artistic movement appeared in late 60's and 70's Japan. He tries his best not to interfere with the materials; wood, iron, stone, Japanese paper by presenting ordinary “things” just as they are but in extraordinary circumstances and thus stripping away our preexisting conventional concept of art as requiring artistic materials to objectively represent things and thereby to enable us to access a new world within such ordinary objects and material.

There are various works by Robert Morris (b. 1931), an American conceptual and minimalist artist and theoretician. Here, one building embedded within another

Train as well as light coming into or going by the house from the same direction

Light coming in at close to 2 p.m

Outside into inside close to 3 p.m in winter.

Mary Poppins passing by the window past 2 p.m. or 4 p.m.?

A garden with Van Gogh's skies but in pale yellow

Column 2014 a pillar of people's heads but with many outside the on the pedestal by Lu Chao (陸超) (b 1988) a Chinese artist from Shenyang

Sunflower 2012 : more faces

even more faces on the wall, on the floor or in columns

Trolley 2014, same artist: consumers to be bought and sold at a price

Museum in Autumn 1926 by Chen Cheng-po (陳澄波) (1895-1947), a native of Taiwan whose painting style is influenced by Chinese, Japanese and Western styles. The museum is the Hyokeikan Gallery of the Tokyo Imperial Household Museum (now Tokyo National Musuem) done when he was studying art there at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts.

Ueno Park (2) (上了野公園) 1927, a park on his way to his school in Tokyo. .

Kegon Waterfall (華嚴瀑布) 1927

Footbridge in Shanghai 1930, using dark color to highlight shadows. The bridge is the Dapu Bridge(打浦) in the western part of the Luwan District (盧灣區), close to where he lived.

Tamsui Scenery (淡水風景)(2) 1935

Linglang Mountain Hall (琳瑯山閣) 1935 in Chiayi (嘉義) where he used to meet intellectuals and artists. He tries to imitate the Southern Style (南宗) Chinese ink painting brushstrokes.

Waterside (水邊) 1939

Flowers in Bloom

3 Beauties by the Sea (海邊三美): 3 ladies in Chinese cheong-sam but with Western style hat and scarf and hairstyle in his so-called Shanghai period (1929-33) but with the sea portrayed in "ink wash" method (水墨法).

Forceful Soulages-like paints: Beauty of the Queen of Sheba 1989 by Ukrainian born American abstract painter Jules Olitsky (1922-2007)

Rollover Mouse from "the Toy Painting series" 1983: synthetic polymer and silkscreen inks on canvas by who else but American Pop Art artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987)?

Probably one of his metal sculptures. Missed the display tag.

Various transparent bombs with no dynamite inside but glass yam tubers and other found objects in the deserts of Maralinga, inhabited by the aboriginal Kokatha and Nukunu tribes in South West Australia which served, without adequate warning to roaming locals, of testing of atomic bombs by Britain in 1956 and 1963. The bombs are fashioned after the "Blue Danube" with 4 fins, to highlight the fact that the natives got to live inside the invisible environmental constraints of the effects of the atomic bombs there. The artist is Dianne Tanzer (b 1973) was born in Woomera, South Australia.

Nothing but piles of taper shape native yams, which is the staple food of the Australian aborigines living in the test area.

Who's that inside? The grandfather of the artist.

And who's she? Her grandmother.

The son of both? Her father as a child?

A man and a woman lying together, all charred?

Is it where these artwork took its inspiration? It's a 1950's map of the test site area.

Zero and one in blood? According to Taoist doctrine, the "One" emerges from zero, signifying nothing, emptiness or the void: the work of Jiro Yoshihara (吉原治良)(1905-1972), leader of the Gutai (具體) Group, and the author of the Gutai Manifesto, 1956.

3 drops of blood above and 2 below

zero against a black background

The zero finds it hard to turn itself into a perfect circle. Here, the circle is not painted, only the background is. The circle is supposed to represent the achievement of perfect "satori" [sudden Buddhist enlightenment (頓悟)] in moments of meditation. No circle is ever perfect. The artist can only try to aim at perfect satori!

From one type of circle into other kinds: painted dishes! From the perfection of enlightened reason and understanding of the ultimate emptiness or irreality of all forms of life to the turbulent movement of human emotions .

A dripping net trying to catch something against a background of literally "broken" or "torn" or "cut" surface.

A perfect circle, breaking from two dimension into three at the centre of the circle in acrylic, cloth, metal mold by Norio Imai (今井紀男) (b 1946), a member of the Gutai Group until it broke up on the death of Yoshihara in 1972.

Circle E 1964, from one centre into multiple projecting centres, some overlapping and merging into others.

The Hammock, 2014/15 in blown glass and steel by Thai artist Pinaree Sanpitak (b. 1961) with the 600 transparent glass beads hung softly on the frame to suggest the restful and serene delicacy of the female form.

The Breast 2014/15 by the same artist

Quiet Conversation 2015 collage, dried flowers and pencil, same artist

Moment 3 ink on paper by Chinese artist Zhang Yanzi (章燕紫 )

Another Moment by her

Her Fable 2014

Her drawwings in her series relating to "pain" called Remedy (止痛帖):various collages related to the medical profession

Two metal sculptures

Pot 2014 by Hassan Sharif (b. 1951), a conceptual artist from UAR

Weaving No.1 2014 by the same artist

Weave 2015 in cotton and wool, same artist

His Keys conceived in 1995 and produced 2015 : wooden panel, metallic hooks and UV print

Pots: another work by him

Tongue 1994 in silver gelatin print by Mohammed Kazem (b. 1969) whose works encompass video, photography and performance to find new ways of apprehending his environment and experiences. It is said that "The foundations of his work are informed by his training as a musician, and Kazem is deeply engaged with developing processes that can render transient phenomena, such as sound and light, in tangible terms. Often positioning himself within his work, Kazem responds to geographical location, materiality and the elements as a means to assert his subjectivity, particularly in relation to the rapid pace of modernisation in the Emirates since the country’s founding.

Another Tongue same period

One end of the coin studded log (called "Wish Tree") in Chrometophobia ( abnormal fear of money) 2010 by Indian artist L N Tallur (b. 1971) with these instructions for viewing: "Take a coin from your pocket and a hammer provided for this noble cause. Take a deep breath. Cleanse your mind of all worries, ugly thoughts and bad actions. Nail or hammer the coin into this wish tree. While nailing, make a wish in your "CLEAN AND FRESH" heart. See your wish come true in a few days." A work inspired by the global financial panic which originated in America in 2008. The ritual is supposed to cleanse our mind/heart of the fear through the sound of the hammering.

The godly supports

Some of the coins hammered into the "Wish Tree".

I Model 2014 : pigment print on linen paper by Chinese artist Ji Zhou (計洲 ) : city of books

People, backpack, office machine, houses chained together

Rice 2011 oil on canvas by Polish artist Wilhelm Sasnal (b. 1972) who studied first architecture and then art, the worked briefly in advertising companies in Kraków while also making paintings, graphic novels (his strips published in "Machina" and "Przekroj", two Polish periodicals), photographs, and film. He exhibited together as the Ładnie Group until 2000. Ironically named after the Polish word meaning "pretty" or "nice," the members made paintings of their contemporary, often banal surroundings, using a deskilled aesthetic that countered the style valued by their instructors. Sasnal produces pencil drawings, ink drawings, photographs, videos and paintings. In his art he employs a variety of media and cultivates a non-uniform practice. Primarily a painter on a wide variety of subjects: banal everyday objects, portraits of historical figures, views of his home town Kraków.