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Beyond the human mould
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Feb 4, 2008
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| The 6th Shenzhen Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition reflects dilemmas in modern life.
Although it has only shallow roots in arts and culture, the new-born city of Shenzhen has always encouraged the avant-garde to bud and grow. Such a tendency is evident in a succession of influential exhibitions diverse in experimental ink-wash painting, contemporary oil, graphic design, architecture and urbanism study held during the 12 months.
Based on this well-established foundation, the Shenzhen Contemporary Sculpture Exhibition (SZCSE) has added fuel to help pushing Shenzhen's artistic profile to the next level.
Launched by the He Xiangning Art Museum in 1998, the SZCSE has now become one of China's few "must-see" exhibitions that feature pioneering contemporary art. Somehow, since the last SZCSE was held in 2003, it has taken local audiences four years to again embrace this accla ... ... |
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Graffiti for sale?
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Feb 4, 2008
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| When street-spraying met consumption culture...
Started back in New York in the late 1960s, 'art' graffiti, which first appeared as tags or slogans sprayed over urban spaces by inner-city blacks from the slums, was once considered a controversial street culture that involved vandalism. However, as its style and artistic quality evolved, graffiti was gradually accepted as a kind of "creative expressionism" and a spiritual vent for urban freedom.
It seems everything on earth today is consumable under the overwhelming influence of commercialism. Obviously, graffiti is no exception. So nobody is
really surprised to see graffiti printed
onto groovy fashion items such as Addidas sneakers or LV's flashy "Graffiti Alma" handbags.
Some purist graffiti writers, naturally, began to worry that their art form was
losing its edge in the mainstream. And yet is it not such a bad idea to have graffiti popularized among the public?
To be or n ... ... |
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Hong Kong fanfare
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Feb 4, 2008
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stage
Hong Kong
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| Just two weeks away, the 2008 Hong Kong Arts Festival offers a world-class feast for every taste. Tuck in!
This month, people in the Pearl Riverregion are not only busy celebrating the Chinese New Year, but also excited to welcome a different festival dedicated to world-class arts, namely the 2008 Hong Kong Arts Festival (HKAF), which spans four weeks from February 12 through March 16.
Established in 1972 by a group of individuals who were eager to elevate Hong Kong's artistic profile, the HKAF, a charitable and non-profit organization, has become one of Asia's most popular arts festivals in terms of the number and stature of artists involved, as well as the diversity of programs presented.
Coming to its 36th anniversary, the 2008 HKAF continues to solidify its prestigious status with over 100 performances and related events that feature 31 performing groups, including approximately 1,000 overseas performers and over 370 local performers and supporting staff.
Tisa Ho, t ... ... |
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Japan's beautiful new world?
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Jan 28, 2008
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| How much do you know about Japan? Japanese cars, for sure, and electronics, animation, advanced robots, swords, fascinating country seems to possess the best and worst of things at the same time.
That might sound like a contradiction, but it's exactly by realizing the challenge of living in turbulent times which has enabled Japanese people to become so strong and progressive.
Since the early 1990s, Japan has suffered continuous depressions due to the breakdown of a bubble economy and the outbreak of disastrous earthquakes. The absence of a sense of security somehow led to the nation's unusual obsession with machines and a fear of the world being dystroyed, which can be frequently seen in many Japanese movies, cartoons and novels.
With more sensitive nerves than most other nations, a batch of Japanese artists have kept pondering the high tension and uneasy happiness of modern times, and have begun to ask Utopian questions such as "Ho ... ... |
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From Yunnan with love
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Jan 28, 2008
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| There's probably no better person to deliver the soul of ethnic dance than Yang Liping.
Born in Yunnan as a Bai ethnic, Yang officially started dancing in 1971. Disenchanted by traditional training methods, the free-thinking dancer spent time practicing her own way, thereby creating an individual style that has since wowed critics and audiences. Her excellent performance in leading the grand ethnic dance, Peacock Princess, for instance, even made her a famous name throughout China. Yang further became internationally famous for choreographing, directing and performing her masterpiece, The Soul of Peacock.
Never one to rest on her laurels, Yang has continued to perform many acclaimed dances over the years. With deep attachment to her Bai ethnic background, Yang spent a year collecting the essence of folk songs and dances across Yunnan Province, and applied them to her new ethnic dance musical, Dynamic Yunnan.
Y ... ... |
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O rose thou art sick
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Jan 28, 2008
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| With director Ang Lee's Lust, Caution becoming the biggest winner at the 44th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Eileen Chang, who wrote the original story, has become one of the most talk-about literary figures of recent years.
Born in 1920 to a prestigious family, Chang was the great granddaughter to an influential Qing official. However, Chang's childhood was unhappy as her parents divorced and her father became an opium addict. Somehow, this led to Chang's often cynical view of love and life.
As one of Chang's many stories that deal with the tensions between men and women in love, Red Rose and White Rose, set in 1930s' Shanghai, is about a man named Zhenbao who is married to a quiet lady (the White Rose) but who has an affair with another married woman (the Red Rose). Eventually, Zhenbao realizes that his love fantasy is not as exciting as he imagines.
The novel was adapted to the big screen by acclaimed Hong Kong d ... ... |
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China's young lions
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Jan 28, 2008
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| Fresh raw talent will perform in Hong Kong this month.
With Hong Kong's return to China passing the decade mark, the bonds between the mainland and the SARs have become stronger, not just economically but also culturally.
As a result, the biennale "Fringe Shanghai", which was first staged in late 2006 with the help from the Hong Kong Fringe Club, has become an active promoter of avant-garde performance art in the mainland.
Jointly presented by the Shanghai and HK partners, five cutting-edge projects will participate at the 2008 City Festival in Hong Kong under the program "The Free, Young and Daring － New Theater from the Chinese Mainland since 1997".
"This generation of Chinese artists is young and daring, free of the collective memory of political events," reckons the program's curator, Kwong Wailap. "Unfettered by mainstream demands for commercial success, they depict life in a ... ... |
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Audible landscapes
Art+Culture / Arts
Written by : Shane Qin
Jan 28, 2008
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| Sonic Architecture aims to map Shenzhen and Hong Kong through the art of sound.
According to Paul D Miller, aka DJ Spooky, at a certain point in time and at a certain place, architecture is nothing but frozen music, and music is nothing but liquid architecture.
However, when referring to architecture, people's impressions are always about aesthetic styles or architectural materials, yet their hearing in these surroundings is usually neglected - something that curator Mo-Ling Chui clearly disagrees with.
"Architecture is not just walls or hard stuff. There're actually a lot of invisible things existing within the space, affecting people's movements just like how concrete building functions. Such an intangible thing as sound is made through reflections upon various objects, making the environment and individual experiences more meaningful," says a passionate Chui.
Born in a Cantonese family from Hong Kong an ... ... |
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