Margarete (1981) by Anselm Kiefer
Monday 15 April 2013
Monday 8 April 2013
Around Sound Art Festival + Osage Opening
We visited the Around Sound Exhibition at Kwun Tong Ferry Pier on 26 January. When I first knew we were going to visit an exhibition at a ferry pier, I put a lot of question marks in my head "Why ferry pier?" "Why outdoor?" "Why Kwun Tong?"(since my only impression of this place was industrial estates). But after we arrived there, the avenue answered my questions.
Cedric Maridet, a sound artist was performing his work in the avenue. He used electronics to connect the current on different devices to make the noise music. For example, one of the noise was the lid hit the bowl. This performance was made by found noise. The environment there was quite quiet. As show in the right picture, the area was very spacey and the sound dispersed.
This was a sound performance by Akio Suzuki. He put some planks as a horizontal line in front him and he hammered the nails one by one like a carpentry. He nailed them in different positions haphazardly. It took him around 10 minutes to finish. After he was done, he used one nail to hit all the hammered nails to make connective sound. A clear and pleasant rhythm was the result. At the same time, a girl danced around the planks. She used her body movement to match the frame of sound. It was a really nice performance that the sound art and visual performing art were both presented. Since it was in open area, the sound dispersed and went on with the environmental sound. I felt very clam and relaxed during this sound art performance.
There was another performance by Suzuki. Some bottles filled with water were placed in the middle of an area. The female artist started her body movement and poured out the water from the bottles in different speed and motions. The sound of the poured water hit the ground was presented. Since it was really quiet there, every single sound made a difference. Later Suzuki picked up some bottles and put them down. Since the volume of water was different in each bottle, the sound he made was not the same. Again, this performance merge the space, sound and visual contemporary art together.
My thoughts
I was not familiar with sound art before. Back in high school I was studying Fine Art so I only knew things from the visual form of contemporary art. This visit was the only sound art exhibition I have ever been. It had definitely built up a basic understanding of sound art for me. I really enjoyed the hammering performance because it was soul-stirring and I really like acoustics sound. Compare to electronics sound, I prefer acoustics more since I think it is more connected to the sound of nature. After the visit, I won't say I am a big fan of sound art since I don't have much knowledge about this genre, but I certainly have grown some interests. It changed my view of visual art dominated the contemporary art. Sound art is also fairly important in the development of contemporary art.
Osage Opening - Andy Warhol's Cinema
After the Around Sound Exhibition, we went to the Andy Warhol's Cinema. Since we were not allowed to take pictures inside, I did not have any pictures of any videos. But I really like the video Blowjob (1964) and Kiss (1963). Both of his videos completely captured the passion and intimidation between lovers. Both videos also reflected Andy Warhol's supportive attitude towards homosexuality.
Asian Hotel Art Fair
I went to the Asian Hotel Art Fair on 23 February. It was held in the Mandarin Oriental Hotel with more than 3000 artworks and over 60 primary galleries from Korea, Japan, China and Hong Kong etc. participated in this fair. I was so excited about this fair because it was a great opportunity to see many contemporary Asian artwork and some other western ones in one fair.
Since it was a big fair, the style and media of the artwork varied. There were paintings, sketching, scene art, sculpture, computer art, photography and installation art. All the artworks were placed in different hotel room. It was a visual enjoyment to appreciate the high standard art pieces in luxury hotel rooms.
First room I went to filled with works of Korean contemporary artists.
^ These two works were completed by Kim Jae III. They are imitation marbles painted with acrylic. The texture and form are like honeycomb, so interesting!
^ These works "Accompany" were done by Maeng, Gi-Ho. The material used were mixed media on silk screen. It has strong oriental appearance, for example the cherry blossom on the background, the poem and the signature was written on the top right corner. I thought it was imitating the tradition oriental art, but when I looked closer, the characters in the paintings was ''formed' 'by different graphics from the Pokemon! These paintings have mixed the traditional art culture and the modern manga culture together.
^ Apart from the Korean contemporary art, some western contemporary artworks were featured in the same room. Including drawings from Picasso, Roy Lictenstein and Andy Warhol. Although those were only some minor works by them, they costed A LOT!
Later, I visited another room with more paintings and drawings.
^ These three works were done by Kang Hyo-jin. They looked like some graphic works, but NO, they were oil-painted. I love the surreal style of the artist. He shows the disinterested play of thoughts in his works.
This "My Pet" series (2011) was drawn by KIM So-hee. It is a good sarcasm against human domination in the planet and provoked thoughts - will there be a real "dog days are over"?
< ^ Audrey Hepburn is waiting for you in the hotel room...oh no, it's Gregory Peck.
Audrey Hepburn v Gregory Peck (2010) by KIM Dong-yoo, oil on canvas.
In another room, there were some awesome lenticular artworks by Bae Joonsung. They were my favourite artworks in the whole art fair. The technology of lenticular has been widely used in advertisement, but it was my first time to see lenticualr artworks. In the series of The Costume of Painter, he painted on transparent acrylic films. Through different angle to view the paintings, you can either see dressed Asian females or nudes appear in some old masterpieces. The series shows how Bae Joonsung contextualized the original old paintings and his creativity.
I really like his idea of creating chemistry between Asian females and the classical paintings. When the character is well-dressed, you can see the completed paintings with other characters involved. But when you look in another angle and she becomes naked, every character is gone. In the paintings, The Asian females somehow look like they are living in the fantasy. The series rises the communication with old paintings and contemporary art and encounters harmony between East and West. It has unique style with special lenticular technique and deep meanings.
Phantom in the Painting, J.S. Sargent family jk (2012)
Another highlight from the Art Fair would be a Korean artist Chan-hyo Bao's artwork. His series of Existing in Costume (2009),c-print was very impressive. From the photos below, you may think he just used Photoshop to "swap" his face into some middle age paintings and made them as his works. In fact, those were original photographs with the artist himself featured in the works. He imitated the settings, decorations, makeup and costume from some old paintings to create the works. All his works are humorous with his male face featured in ancient female characters.
Existing in Costume (2009)
^ Reborn by Akatin, toso clay. This artwork is humorous and somehow reminds me of a quote "Impossible is nothing."
^ A Japanese artist 石田克 's artwork. He used ink to create very rough and misery images. They have very strong stokes and contrast. He was in the Art Fair on that day and he explained the artwork on the right implied someone was being flushed.
^ These two are very innovative artwork.
References:
http://www.albemarlegallery.com/artists/bae-joonsung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing
http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/bae_joonsung/artist/278910/
Since it was a big fair, the style and media of the artwork varied. There were paintings, sketching, scene art, sculpture, computer art, photography and installation art. All the artworks were placed in different hotel room. It was a visual enjoyment to appreciate the high standard art pieces in luxury hotel rooms.
First room I went to filled with works of Korean contemporary artists.
^ These two works were completed by Kim Jae III. They are imitation marbles painted with acrylic. The texture and form are like honeycomb, so interesting!
^ These works "Accompany" were done by Maeng, Gi-Ho. The material used were mixed media on silk screen. It has strong oriental appearance, for example the cherry blossom on the background, the poem and the signature was written on the top right corner. I thought it was imitating the tradition oriental art, but when I looked closer, the characters in the paintings was ''formed' 'by different graphics from the Pokemon! These paintings have mixed the traditional art culture and the modern manga culture together.
Western artworks by famous artists
^ Apart from the Korean contemporary art, some western contemporary artworks were featured in the same room. Including drawings from Picasso, Roy Lictenstein and Andy Warhol. Although those were only some minor works by them, they costed A LOT!
Later, I visited another room with more paintings and drawings.
^ These three works were done by Kang Hyo-jin. They looked like some graphic works, but NO, they were oil-painted. I love the surreal style of the artist. He shows the disinterested play of thoughts in his works.
This "My Pet" series (2011) was drawn by KIM So-hee. It is a good sarcasm against human domination in the planet and provoked thoughts - will there be a real "dog days are over"?
< ^ Audrey Hepburn is waiting for you in the hotel room...oh no, it's Gregory Peck.
Audrey Hepburn v Gregory Peck (2010) by KIM Dong-yoo, oil on canvas.
Lenticular Art
In another room, there were some awesome lenticular artworks by Bae Joonsung. They were my favourite artworks in the whole art fair. The technology of lenticular has been widely used in advertisement, but it was my first time to see lenticualr artworks. In the series of The Costume of Painter, he painted on transparent acrylic films. Through different angle to view the paintings, you can either see dressed Asian females or nudes appear in some old masterpieces. The series shows how Bae Joonsung contextualized the original old paintings and his creativity. I really like his idea of creating chemistry between Asian females and the classical paintings. When the character is well-dressed, you can see the completed paintings with other characters involved. But when you look in another angle and she becomes naked, every character is gone. In the paintings, The Asian females somehow look like they are living in the fantasy. The series rises the communication with old paintings and contemporary art and encounters harmony between East and West. It has unique style with special lenticular technique and deep meanings.
Phantom in the Painting, J.S. Sargent family jk (2012)
Another highlight from the Art Fair would be a Korean artist Chan-hyo Bao's artwork. His series of Existing in Costume (2009),c-print was very impressive. From the photos below, you may think he just used Photoshop to "swap" his face into some middle age paintings and made them as his works. In fact, those were original photographs with the artist himself featured in the works. He imitated the settings, decorations, makeup and costume from some old paintings to create the works. All his works are humorous with his male face featured in ancient female characters.
Existing in Costume (2009)
Other rooms
^ Reborn by Akatin, toso clay. This artwork is humorous and somehow reminds me of a quote "Impossible is nothing."
^ A Japanese artist 石田克 's artwork. He used ink to create very rough and misery images. They have very strong stokes and contrast. He was in the Art Fair on that day and he explained the artwork on the right implied someone was being flushed.
^ These two are very innovative artwork.
My thoughts
It was a great opportunity to visit this Art Fair, I was really glad I asked for the ticket. I did not expect too much before the visit since I was not familiar with many Asian artists. This visit totally widened my horizon of contemporary Asian art. There are a lot of leading and amazing contemporary artists in Asia and their works are getting in the global market. In this visit I also saw a lot of artworks in different media and forms. The mix of technology, media and creativity become a new trend in contemporary and I am so fascinated with the diversity of art. I would love to visit the Asian Hotel Art Fair again next year!
References:
http://www.albemarlegallery.com/artists/bae-joonsung
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenticular_printing
http://www.arcadja.com/auctions/en/bae_joonsung/artist/278910/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)