Asia Hotel Art Fair Hong Kong 2013

I have no idea that artworks can be presented in such a wonderful place! I’m so lucky that I was able to visit the Asia Hotel Art Fair 2013 which was held in a high ranked hotel, Madarin Oriental Hotel. This was an incredible experience! I really felt like I became one of the rich people who may not know what art is or even have no interest in art but just go there and enjoy being so-called artistic. Haha. : ) Anyway, I felt cool about having the chance to visit this art fair.

 

Let me further share with you all what spring up in my mind when I paid visit to the art fair.

 

Firstly, most of the artworks shown there can be classified as contemporary artwork for the reason that their style and medium are modern. Here are some of the artworks that I like.

 

(Revenge by Jovial Yeung)

 

I found this interesting because of the materials that the artist used. There is an organ made with glass filled with red liquid which I think is some kind of blood. But on the surface of the organ, there are full of thorns. That depicts the idea of the hurt feeling and suffering of revenge.

 

(Mimita by 漓潱)

 

(The Tasting by Elisabetta Rogal)

 

This painting is made with wine. Yes. WINE! When I first knew it is made with wine, I was not believing it because the painting is so incredible. It looks like an normal painting. The artist is such a genuis. She has an amazing control over wine because the painting has all the detailed parts, like the shadows, the levels and the tone. She is really mastering using wine to do painting. I like this very much!

 

(Napalm by BANKSY)

 

I like the ironic sense of this artwork. It is indicated that Americans are blind about the real world and always ignore the serious matters (like the poor child between Mickey Mouse and Ronald). I really like the ironic idea of this artwork.

 

(Park by Chan gil)

 

Among all the artworks there, the following impresses me the most.

(A Tale of Two Children by Regis Gonzalez)

I choose it because I like its creepy and dark style. I’m always interested in some dark or scary things. Therefore, I was captured by this artwork when I saw it. As for the colour in the painting, the artist kept the whole picture having a dark tone, including the skin and the face of the children and the clothes of them. In addition, I like the creepy facial expression of the children. They really gave me chill. We can see that the girl has no legs or they’re covered by the boy. Together with the thrilling bird head, the whole picture is able to give me chill. The whole package of this artwork is so engrossing for me. It can make me feel thrilled. I think the artist knows how to capture the sense of horror without showing explicit content. Hence, I like this artwork.


 

 

(Self Defense by Jovial Yeung)

 

 

When you see this artwork in a front direction, you may not find it impressive. However, when you look it in a sidelong glance, you will find the truth. It is a 3D artwork. In the obverse side, there is a girl holding on her sneers trying to protect herself. We can see that the shadow is obvious. But, on the flank of the artwork, we can find that the shadow is made with some three-dimensional materials which is some kind of thorns. I was impressed by the use of 3D materials in order to express the shadow. I think only contemporary artworks have this kind of interesting gimmick. The media of this artwork gives me a strong feeling that the girl in the artwork is really protecting herself. It is because the girl is full of thorns that no one can be able to touch her or even hurt her. Therefore, the materials or the medium of the artwork are related to the message or the story of the artwork. The media itself is not just simply a media, but a implicit message. That is really great that message and media can be incorporated perfectly in this artwork. It shows a good example of how interesting contemporary artwork could be.

Lastly, the artworks presented in the art fair are all very expensive. The art fair is kind of a artwork selling event. This is a valuable experience to see so many great work in such a nice hotel. Visitors dressed up decently. I can see that they enjoyed seeing artwork so much. They may not know much about art. But they treat the fair as a social event to show off their social status. This event really makes me think more about the meaning or the purpose of art. I hate it when art becomes commercial. I hate it when art is used to make money. But if art is not allowed to make money, who still be willing to do artwork? No one. I guess no one can say artwork should not be related to making money.
 

Around Sound Festival

This was the first time that I had the chance to come across such a different kind of performance of sound art in my life. Yes, of course. I have been to many concerts and music shows of orchestra before. But the around sound festival is different from what I have seen before in many ways. The experience was special and interesting. I would like to share my feeling and thinking about the performance of Akio Suzuki who is famous for being a pioneer of sound art to you all.

 

 

 
In the first performance, Akio Suzuki had the tacks nailed on the wood. When he did the nailing, the hitting of the nail and wood created a special sound. During the time when he nailed the tack on the wood, there was a female performer moving and dancing around with the speed of the hitting sound. It was like they were connected together and talking to each other through the sound of Akio Suzuki and the movement of the dancer. I never had an idea that how sound and dance art can be incorporated in this way.


 
I found the medium of the performance very nice and interesting because I barely have the chance to see this kind of sound art together with body art. And I like that there is no a straight story or line that the artists is doing. We can enjoy it and think on other own ways. They leave us a space to see the performance.

 

As far as the place of the festival is concerned, the performance place is located in Kwun Tong Ferry Pier. The sound really fitted well in that place. The pier is a quiet place because not many people use the pier now. It is far from the busy city. The sound of space allowed audients to have a careful listening to the sound created and enabled the performance had the greatest effect since it allowed great amounts of sound to come in without disturbance.


 
This festival makes me aware of the reason why artists decide to choose a particular place or location to perform their artwork, including painting, sound or body art. The place chosen is usually intentionally decided. Therefore, we should be aware of the place of the artwork when we visit an art gallery.

 

All in all, this is such a special experience. I enjoy it very much. : )

Artwork which is relevant to Dirty White Trash

Lowe's poster ads for the John Lewis Christmas campaign

 

 

Lowe’s advertisement borrows the idea of Tim’s shadow sculpture artwork, Dirty White Trash. We can see that they both use different materials to form the assemblage and then point light to create projected shadows on the wall. However, there is a slight difference between these two artworks. Lowe uses lovely and happy things, such as Christmas gifts to make the assemblage while Tim only uses strange or seemingly useless materials to make the assemblage. In other words, the materials of Lowe’s work are related to the meaning or feeling of the projected shadow but Tim’s artworks do not follow this principle. Therefore, they use different medium to form the assemblage but use the same idea of medium which is light to perform the final work.

 

 

reference link:

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2007/november/the-ever-blurring-line-between-art-and-advertising

DIRTY WHITE TRASH (WITH GULLS), 1998

 

  This is an artwork created by Tim Noble and Sue Webster entitled ‘Dirty White Trash (With Gulls)’ in 1998. Tim Noble is famous for taking ordinary things, including rubbish and scrap metal or sometimes even taxidermy animals, to make assemblages and then points light to create projected shadows. So, in this work, he used the rubbish he and his partner produced in six months to make the assemblage.

 

  I think this artwork demonstrates a good example of contemporary art. The use of lighting is one of the signatures of contemporary art. Tim Noble made use of light as the medium to project the object which showed two people, a man and a woman, lay against each other enjoying a cigarette and a glass of wine. He needed to master the use of light in order to project the correct image. However, if we have a closer look at the assemblage, it is not hard to find that there seems to be another story there. We can see that there are two seagulls searching food from the rubbish. In addition, if we combine the whole picture together with the object projected in the wall, it is like two people, Tim and Sue, are celebrating in front of their artwork. Therefore, I really like the idea of his artwork which shows that nothing is as it seems. We can have our own thinking about his artwork based on how we look at it.

 

  Moreover, I find the use of the medium very interesting. He made trash to be the medium of this artwork which reminded me of the saying by Marshall McLuhan: ‘medium is the message’. I think this artwork can vividly show how the saying works. In this artwork, trash was used to be the medium. Why he chose rubbish to be the medium? Maybe Tim is telling us that though trash seems to be nothing special, they are special for him. They remarked the memories of him because they explained that times they spent including their experiences, feelings of they spent in six month. So, medium could be the message of the artist.

 

  Finally, in this work, light redefines abstract forms by transforming them into some relatively concrete objects. This is really interesting because his artwork is consisted of both abstraction and concrete objects. However, the object is shadow which is, by nature, virtual. It is not easy to simply distinguish the nature of this artwork. But this is how contemporary art could be. The idea itself is more important than the details. Therefore, Tim’s artworks fit well in the content of contemporary art.

Tim Noble

(left: Tim Noble           right: Sue Webster)

Tim Noble
Born in Stroud (1966)
 
 
Tim Noble takes ordinary things including rubbish and scrap metal or sometimes even taxidermy animals to make assemblages and then points light to create projected shadows which show a great likeness to something identifiable including self-portraits. His work echoes the idea of 'perceptual psychology' a form of evaluation used for psychological patients. Noble loves to create abstract forms and play with the idea of how humans perceive abstract images and define them with meaning. He works as a collaborative duo with Sue Webster. Their work derives much of its power from its fusion of opposites, form and anti-form, high culture and anti-culture, male and female, craft and rubbish, sex and violence.
 
The following are some of his artworks:
 

Dirty White Trash (with Gulls), 1998

 

Metal Fucking Rats, 2006

 

Yellow Phantasmagoria, 2009

 

Toxic Schizophrenia, 1997

 

THE NEW BARBARIANS, 1997–99

 

 
I would like to have a depth study of his artworks because I like his idea to incorporate diverse materials including rubbish, scrap metal and even taxidermy animals to do the shadow sculpture artworks. The style is so bold. He makes good use of all kinds of materials to create his artworks. Therefore, the medium of his artworks is wide and of diversity. I find his works very surprising since they redefines abstract forms to transform into some relatively concrete objects. They enables me to view artworks in an alternative way. I truly appreciate his works.
 
 
 
Reference:
http://www.timnobleandsuewebster.com/biography.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Noble_and_Sue_Webster

Fotanian Open Studios 2013

When it comes to artworks, many people have the idea that they are always performed and shown in some fancy places with beautiful decoration or in a magnificent exhibition. Being a student who is interested in art, but with not much art background, I was like most of the people thinking that I can only see artworks in those places. However, I was not right.

 

I went to the art studios in Fo Tan on 19th January and I saw many great artworks there. Here are some pictures I took on that day:

 

 

                 

           Wandering - Concrete 01 (Carmen Ho)

 

 

     

 

 

          

The following are some of the artworks I like and appreciate:

 

 

 

 "What is education?" has been a debatable question in Hong Kong over the years. Many citizens criticize that under the spoon-feeding education, schools are like factories churning out moulded products. I like the idea of putting repeated words all over the student's body. It is showing us how students study nowadays. They just cram for examination by directly memorizing materials from textbooks without any analyzing.

 

I like artworks which are sarcastic. They can always bring social issue to my attention and give me space to have self-reflection. That’s why I like seeing artworks with irony. Here are some artworks which are also full of sarcasm that I found in the visit. And I love them very much.

 

 

(Contrast between the rich and the poor)

 

 

 

 (A young girl who is torn between material desire and virginity)

 

 

 

Among all the artworks I have seen on that day, there is a special one which impressed me the most.

 

 

Mutation (Wenty Wu)

 

 

As the picture shows, there is a big snake with colorful skin shedding its skin from the tail. And the snake is transforming into a giraffe. This artwork totally captured my attention. Luckily, I had the chance to talk to Wendy Wu who is the artist of this painting. Being asked why she decided to put two animals with sharp contrast between their natures together in this drawing, she explained that she has long been afraid of snakes in her life, but through painting, she can play with all the things she is scared of. In reality, never can she touch or control objects that scare her. But in painting, she can. She can face them, change them and do whatever she wants by the medium of art. Therefore, she put colorful skin on a snake which is supposed to be scary and ugly in her eyes. Moreover, in hopes of bringing a contrast, she used the transformation of the snake to a giraffe to show that bad thing may not be that scary as they seem. They can be funny and interesting. Giraffes are temperate and kind. Obviously, their nature are completely different from snakes' which are aggressive and poisoning. Wendy loves the nature of giraffes so she linked them in this painting to show this message.

 

I was impressed by her idea because I never thought art can help us face the thing that we do not have courage to encounter. Now, I believe that art can be a good medium to express our fear while it can also be a great way for us to release our fear on every object. Through painting or other mediums of art, we can change what we see in real life. We can modify its appearance in a bid to change our perception on a specific object. We do not have to match what the existing rule or perception in reality tells us. In art, we are not limited. We are free. We are the rules. We are infinite.