Happenings in Fotan this coming Saturday 14/2

















Happenings in Fotan this coming Saturday 14 Feb:
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"Love Simply" at Hang Fat Studio will open again on 14/2 after Fotanian 2009! We are not alone on that day. Blue Lotus Gallery at 5/F of Wah Luen Block A will open their new exhibition "No Sex in the City" and Studiobibliotheque at 18/F of Wah Luen Block B will open their show "Drawing Out Conversations". Also G/43 Art Space (Block B, G/F, Unit 43) 'Complaint Choir of Hong Kong'.

Feel free to come to have a 4 studios-trip.

Search for love.
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Review of Love simply | John Batten

Full version of the review on South China Morning Post

Love Simply
Fotan Artists’ Open Studios
Until 18 January 2009

Fo Tan’s current open studio weekends allow visitors to discover artist studios, small ad hoc shows, video installations and a few lightly curated exhibitions.

Love Simply is one of the better group exhibitions and organised by recent art graduate Tang Kwok Hin; an up-and-coming artist himself and a sensitive curator.

The exhibition has the feel of the similarly titled film, Love Actually – the movie is broken into separate scenes with each actor eventually playing out, almost, implausible encounters with each other. Likewise, the artists in this exhibition unconsciously overlap – as most studied together and know each other - around this most private, and often devastating, of emotions.

Gwen Chung Chin Man offers two paintings in the form of a wall diary of written words and random images that document the pain of her decision to break up with a much-loved long-term boyfriend, the regret associated with that decision and the failure to re-start the relationship due his ‘moving on’.

Lui Long Tin with ‘The Kiss of Metaphysics’ (pictured: detail of painting) uses a seemingly odd example: her own orthodontic treatment. By improving her own appearance, Lui argues that being attractive will allow mankind – with the help of love and its reproductive capacities - to continue.

Michael Lee Hong Hwee offers a cerebral exploration in his ‘Foundations: the Consolations of Museology’ book project, of which the short companion DVD ‘Hinterlands’ is shown in this exhibition. The viewer watches scenes and a dialogue of a couple, on the verge of breaking up, making a final trip together and visiting ten museums, “each of which”, as the artist explains, “consoles humans of their weaknesses: unpopularity…ugliness…messiness…cowardice… (etc).”

Lastly, Tang Kwok Hin exhibits a photograph of filial tradition: the re-painting of his grandmother’s gravestone in red and its yearly expression of love simply.

- John Batten.

Listing information:

Hang Fat Studio
Unit 21, 4/F, Block A, Wah Luen Industrial Centre15-21 Wong Chuk Yeung Street, Fo Tan, N.T.

Love Simply | press release

Love Simply - Fotanian Open Studio 2009

Studio: Hang Fat Studio
Venue: Unit 21, 4/F, Block A, Wah Luen Industrial Centre, 15-21 Wong Chuk Yeung Street, Fo Tan, NT, Hong Kong
Artists: Chung Ching Man, Lee Ho Wing, Lee Kit, Leung Yu Tung, Lui Long Ting, Michael Lee Hong Hwee, Ng Choi Hung, Tang Kwok Hin
Curator: Tang Kwok Hin

: Talk about contemporary love

包易賣,大錢難撈,針鼻削鐵,只向微中取利;
父來少,同子來多,簷前滴水,點滴何曾倒流?

It is easy to sell a piece of toast. It is difficult to gain a great deal of money. Like using heads of nails to pare iron, they can only produce little effect.
Seldom come along with dads but dads often come along with their children. Like drops from eaves of houses, do we see drops rising towards the sky?

This is a set of renowned couplet placed at the front door of “Da Tong” restaurant in Guangzhou talking about what the restaurant’s owner see in his work, especially expressing the sadness. People over the world own these sorts of sincere feelings. Someone loves to express. Someone loves to conceal. In the context of words and films, themes related emotions often exist. However, it is comparatively less in the contemporary art scene due to its privacy, as the privacy denote the difficulty to make dialogues between artists and spectators. For instance, if presenting “I love you”, it is basically not appropriate to speak it once as an artwork for avoiding superficial presentation in the content of art. When we transform this sincere feeling into context of art, the difficulty of transformation will show up. Like applying a painting to represent love is hard to gain the same level of power comparing to spoken words “ I love you”.

“Love Simply” is an exhibition presenting the ways and experiment that the artists transform sincere emotion into art by not changing the essential parts, including love to parents, couple, friends, strangers or objects.

簡單愛 - 伙炭工作室開放計劃2009

單位︰恆發行
地點︰香港新界火炭黃竹洋街15-21號華聯工業中心A座4樓21室
藝術家︰鍾靜雯、李可穎、李傑、梁御東、呂朗婷、李鴻輝、吳彩虹、鄧國騫
策展人︰鄧國騫

: 談「當代」「情」

包易賣,大錢難撈,針鼻削鐵,只向微中取利;
父來少,同子來多,簷前滴水,點滴何曾倒流?

一副在廣州大同酒家門前著名的對聯,道出了作為經營者在酒樓打混時候看到的種種唏噓。這種真摰情感,充斥在世界的每個角落。有些人會選擇將它表達;有些人會選擇把它壓抑。而在文字及電影的世界裏,我們可以找到不少相關情感的主題或內容,倒是在當代藝術的環境,卻較難看到這一類型的展覽。

為甚麼?因為它的私密。這種私密好像令人感到跟觀眾有溝通困難。舉例說,如要陳述「我愛你」,在藝術的展示上為了不流表面,故並不會單以說一遍我愛你作為作品。而當你要將這最真誠的情感轉化為一種當代藝術的表現形式,我們會發現,最真誠的情感卻最難套上這個當代的文本。就好像要跟心儀的對象表白,要製作一幅能夠跟「我愛你」三個字有等同震憾力的繪畫一樣。箇中難度就在於此。

這個展覽,藝術家追求的是一種最直接的情感表達,並透過藝術手段,將它不偏不移的轉化過來。當中包括對父母親的情、異性的情、朋友的情、陌生人的情,以至事物的情等。

Early work of the Artists in Fotanian 2009 - Love Simply






















Gwen, CHUNG Ching-man
Happy Picnickers, 2007
Acrylic on wood
64x64cm

















Joe, LUI Long-ting
Show Your Colour - You Are the Unique One, 2008
Mixed media
360x100x15cm


















LEE Kit
One day, I had a picnic with my mum at home on my hand-painted cloth, 2008
Acrylic on fabric, photo document and poster
Dimension variable



















Michael, Lee Hong-hwee
Skive-A Worker's Guide, 2005-2008
Digital print on forex
Dimension variable

















Michelle, LEE Ho-wing
Pick up Ten Years' Memories, 2007
Installation
Dimension variable


















Rainbow, NG Choi-hung
Speechless, 2007
Mixed media on canvas
105x85cm

















TANG Kwok-hin
Stubborn Stone, 2008
Comics
29x19x8cm


Love Simply

簡單愛 伙炭工作室開放計劃2009

單位︰恆發行
地點︰香港新界火炭黃竹洋街15-21號華聯工業中心A座4樓21室
藝術家︰鍾靜雯、李可穎、李傑、梁御東、呂朗婷、李鴻輝、吳彩虹、鄧國騫
策展人︰鄧國騫

: 談「當代」「情」

大包易賣,大錢難撈,針鼻削鐵,只向微中取利;
同父來少,同子來多,簷前滴水,點滴何曾倒流?

一副在廣州大同酒家門前著名的對聯,道出了作為經營者在酒樓打混時候看到的種種唏噓。這種真摰情感,充斥在世界的每個角落。有些人會選擇將它表達;有些人會選擇把它壓抑。而在文字及電影的世界裏,我們可以找到不少相關情感的主題或內容,倒是在當代藝術的環境,卻較難看到這一類型的展覽。

為甚麼?因為它的私密。這種私密好像令人感到跟觀眾有溝通困難。舉例說,如要陳述「我愛你」,在藝術的展示上為了不流表面,故並不會單以說一遍我愛你作為作品。而當你要將這最真誠的情感轉化為一種當代藝術的表現形式,我們會發現,最真誠的情感卻最難套上這個當代的文本。就好像要跟心儀的對象表白,要製作一幅能夠跟「我愛你」三個字有等同震憾力的繪畫一樣。箇中難度就在於此。

這個展覽,藝術家追求的是一種最直接的情感表達,並透過藝術手段,將它不偏不移的轉化過來。當中包括對父母親的情、異性的情、朋友的情、陌生人的情,以至事物的情等。

: 情感的私隱與公共性

情感表達最令人感到吊詭的,是這個過程實置於一種極盡含混的狀況中。藝術家的私隱呈視於一個公共空間,單就這個層面去理解,觀眾理應難以跟藝術家的作品建立起交流,因為那是藝術家很個人的感受。但事實上,情感也是有共性的,尤其是對於一些富有生活及生命經驗的人,他們大都感性,又或因此而淡泊於感情。無論是何者,我們也不能否認人與人之間均擁有一些相關情感的基本共同經驗,那是來自人與生俱來的、天賦的七情六慾。
也許你是看透世情的高僧,也只放棄了對個人的情緒而將如斯感情投放於眾生;也許你十惡不赦,厭惡除你以外的所有人,也不能撇下搶奪過來的金錢與陪你出生入死的手槍;也許你不愛喧鬧繁華,也只好承認曾有一刻喜愛上孤獨和自己;也許你是剛出生的嬰孩,也對於因成人滿足了你的食慾與物慾而停止了渴求的哭泣。也許人皆有情。

Fotanian 2009