'No holiday' - Sewerby Cliffs, UK.

The summer break offered me the opportunity to take my 'No holiday' performance out of Hong Kong and the first location I found was the wonderful clifftop near Sewerby on the north side Bridlington in East Yorkshire, UK.

Limekiln Lane, which runs down onto the seafront close to the lovely Expanse Hotel, formed the starting point and it was from there that I began walking up and onto the gorgeous, flat, green plateau that runs up the coast to the Sewerby Cricket Club, where the track narrows into a trail that continues to Danes Dyke, South Landing, Flamborough and so on up the coast. In the past I have had the pleasure of following this trail all the way to Filey.

The day was so lovely, the sun was shining, birds were darting to and fro in front of me as I walked and a cooling breeze kept the air fresh. Along the cliff top, there are numerous small hills of dark soil that have been unearthed by moles, the remnants of their subterranean excavations. I have been told that this earth is especially rich and good for gardens.

At the north end of the clifftop walk is the site of the Sewerby Cricket Club, with its sea-view pitch, practice pitch and clubhouse. Many seats are spaced around the pitch for spectators and the whole scene is overlooked by the Georgian Sewerby Hall and gardens. 

One complete circuit of the Cricket Pitch became the conclusion of the day's walk and formed a logical end to the Linear walk. 

It is becoming very interesting to experience the performance in different locations and under different weather conditions. I feel it is beginning to develop a character of its own.

'No holiday' - Sewerby Cliffs, Bridlington, UK - 4th August 2017

The recording can also be viewed on my youtube.com channel here: https://youtu.be/6ZTzwIJvQm4

'No holiday' - Chi Ma Wan

During the development stage of the performance 'No holiday', I experimented with different formats and locations and originally I had singled out the Chi Ma Wan peninsula on the south side of Lantau Island in Hong Kong as being a good location. However, I discovered that the mobile coverage there was intermittent and in several places the connection dropped altogether.

As the performance would be live-streamed to Toronto later that month (January 2017) I decided to switch locations across the channel to Cheung Chau Island. As it happened the curators of the festival introduced a Chinese New year theme and so the new location seemed to be more appropriate as I would be exploring one or two of the small temples on the island.

The work-in-progress on the Chi Ma Wan peninsula had been recorded so that the day's activity could be reviewed later and so I have now decided to edit the footage into a logical presentation and this is now another film version of the 'No holiday' performance.

In the future I am still hoping that I could conduct this performance in other locations.

'No holiday' - Chi Ma Wan, Lantau Island, Hong Kong - 5th January 2017

The recording can also be viewed on my youtube.com channel here: https://youtu.be/8YItpXNAwsk

Students' Cultural Film Project

After a semester teaching Aesthetics and Semiotics to students of Film and Television, Visual Communication and Digital Music and Media I was invited by my Film and Television students to take part in one of their group projects.

The group project had focused upon the last tradesman making hand-painted signs for the mini-buses of Hong Kong, Mr. Mak of Hawk Ltd - M/F, 39 Battery Street, Yau Ma Tei, Kowloon. They interviewed me and asked me several questions about how I felt regarding this phenomenon and if I felt that the decision to create smaller souvenir signs would help to promote the man's business and keep the tradition going.

It is heartwarming that Hong Kong youngsters are interested in these craftsmen and women and wish to raise awareness in order to preserve Hong Kong culture.
The students involved in this project were: Tso Kwong Chi, Chung Sum Yuk, Ng Sze Yung, Yam Yi, Lam Tse Wai, and Cheung Ming Fung.


I was flattered that the students wanted to interview me and also that they called me a 'cultural scholar' in the video...I would have liked to give them a hand with the subtitles though! Joking aside, I do enjoy teaching and interacting with the students and experiences like this make it seem worthwhile when the activity of teaching is becoming harder and harder due to the discouraging actions of management.

Mr Mak's company Facebook page can be found here.

The Film and Television students' youtube page can be found here.

The Path to Enlightenment - July 2017

I had been working on different projects that related to the Sisyphus myth and eventually one group of experimental threads coalesced into a resolved performance piece.

It is said that in order to reach a state of enlightenment and experience nirvana, we must first rid ourselves of worldly delusions. Nirvana literally means something like 'extinguishing' or 'quenching' and the flame that we must extinguish is that of greed, hatred and other selfish and worldly obsessions.

I wished to demonstrate such a struggle and in this performance I found a simple, I should say simplistic, method of encapsulating this struggle. In the performance, I act as another Sisyphean character attempting to extinguish the candle that represents the delusions that must be quenched, and as is the nature of the Sisyphean experience, each attempt fails...the candle relights itself. After a period I try again, only to fail again (shades of Beckett's famous line from Worstward Ho: 'Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better').

This struggle could continue for ever but, thankfully, the candle eventually extinguishes itself after running out of wax and paraffin vapour. So is this the end of the struggle? Perhaps not because as often is the case in life, these tasks are set not by others but by ourselves. We often bring on these torments to ourselves without even realising it.
The beginning of the performance alludes to this, as I am the one who lights the candle thereby initiating the process, which is why I incorporated the lighting of the candle into the performance.

'The Path to Enlightenment' - 2nd July 2017

The recording can also be viewed on my youtube.com channel here: https://youtu.be/gsCFh71jSYs

Etching demonstration for the HK Art Promotion Office

Recently, while sorting out some of my things which had remained boxed up for quite a while I discovered a DVD produced by the Hong Kong Art Promotion Office in 2009, which was made to coincide with an exhibition organised by the Hong Kong Graphics Society, held in the HK Visual Art Centre and Ho Man Tin Plaza shopping centre.
The DVD presented several different printmaking media so my section was quite brief and only allowed for a very superficial introduction.

Mini Print International of Cadaques 2017

From July 1st 2017, I will have the opportunity of exhibiting a recent small scale digital print in Europe. The 4 proofs I submitted allows for the work to be shown in multiple venues with overlapping exhibition dates and also in the hope of sales!

At the moment the exhibiting schedule is as follows: the first venue will be at Taller Galeria Fort at Cadaques, North Eastern Spain from July 1 - Sept 30 2017, then at Wingfield Barns in the UK from July 22 - Sept 3 2017, at Pineda de Mar in Spain from Oct 20 - Nov 12 2017, and finally at Galerie L'Etangd'Art in Bages, France from Nov 19 2017 - Jan 15 2018.

I am currently working on a series of prints, drawings and paintings that are developing out of this initial print. I will post more details about these as they are resolved.

A link to the earlier working process can be found here.

A link to this and other prints can be found here.

Strata - 2017

CONTEMPART '17 - Contemporary Art Conference, Istanbul

Unable to travel to Istanbul to attend the CONTEMPART '17 contemporary art conference due to work commitments, I nevertheless submitted my paper for publication in the conference proceedings along with a 15 minute virtual presentation in the form of a recorded PowerPoint with voice-over.

Two years ago, when I attended the CONTEMPART '15 conference I introduced the concept and method behind my performance 'Going Round in Circles' and found a warm response from the other delegates. Although I am not an academic, I try to demonstrate that my performance art pieces are the result of a combination of background research and practical testing and I aim to maintain a balance between these two sources in my work.

For the 2017 edition of the conference I presented the development of my performance work 'Releasing Sisyphus', which was performed at Repulse Bay on the south of Hong Kong Island on 2nd July 2016. In the paper I examined the myth of Sisyphus, at his character and reflected upon various stories relating to his punishment and the justification for it.

Click here to view more details of the performance 'Releasing Sisyphus'.

Albert Camus examined the myth in his short essay 'The myth of Sisyphus' and concluded that due to the repetitive nature of his task, Sisyphus could find solace and respite in the regular breaks from the forced work that occur after each summit, as the stone rolls back down the hill and Sisyphus descends the hill in order to begin his climb once more. In these brief interludes he is free from toil and, as Camus suggests, may even be happy.

I resolved to symbolically climb the hill in place of Sisyphus and once at the top I built a cairn, a small pile of stones to mark the spot where the climb ends. With the stones I planted small saplings that would bind the stones in place as they grew thereby preventing them from rolling back down the hill. This gesture removed Sisyphus's endless punishment.
We are all carrying our stones to the top of assigned hills, we have our tasks to complete and often there seems no resolution. If I can propose a possible release for Sisyphus, perhaps I may also find a resolution for my own tasks?

Click here to view details of my publications.