I was invited by a friend to take part in the Facebook Artwork Challenge. The challenge was to post 3 images each day for 5 days in a row and the trick for me was how to do it in an interesting and informative way.
I decided to sketch a rough outline of how my work has developed over the last 30 or so years. This is not easy using only 15 images but I managed to at least put some kind of a timeline into the range of examples, ending around 4 years ago. The work I have been doing since then will form the basis for a solo exhibition that I hope to arrange fairly soon.
The record of the 5 days postings can be found on my Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/patrick.s.ford
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Toshiro Mifune at the 33 Temple
Remembering a faded photo that I had seen on one of my visits to the '33' Temple in Kyoto which showed a samurai (played by Tishiro Mifune) walking along the outside covered walkway at the temple, I decided to discover more details about the scene.
Eventually I tracked down a DVD of 'The Samurai Trilogy' by Hiroshi Inagaki. In part 2, 'Duel at Ichijoji Temple' (1955) there is a scene at the temple. The whole scene takes around 2 minutes and does not play a major part in the story but I was deeply satisfied to have tracked down the origin of the old photograph I had seen a few years before.
The trilogy is very enjoyable and it is an epic story - that of the legendary 17th Century swordsman Musashi Miyamoto who spent his last days at Kumamoto Castle on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.
In the film, the scene can be found at 56:00-58:10.
A trailer for the film can be found on YouTube.com here.
Eventually I tracked down a DVD of 'The Samurai Trilogy' by Hiroshi Inagaki. In part 2, 'Duel at Ichijoji Temple' (1955) there is a scene at the temple. The whole scene takes around 2 minutes and does not play a major part in the story but I was deeply satisfied to have tracked down the origin of the old photograph I had seen a few years before.
The trilogy is very enjoyable and it is an epic story - that of the legendary 17th Century swordsman Musashi Miyamoto who spent his last days at Kumamoto Castle on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu.
In the film, the scene can be found at 56:00-58:10.
A trailer for the film can be found on YouTube.com here.
Saturday, February 7, 2015
YY9 Gallery 10th Anniversary Exhibtition
'In Conversations with 100 local artists'
On Thursday 22nd January YY9 Gallery opened its 10th Anniversary exhibition at its space in Chaiwan.
The show featured five series of art works. The gallery featured the work of four of its regular artists, each showing several pieces and the fifth series was a collaborative work comprised of work by 100 invited artists.
The four featured artists were Chris Lo, Alannala Lau, Kennis Chan and Jaffa Lam and the large collaborative display included work by Kacey Wong, Movana Chen (also gallery manager), Norman de Brackinghe, Simon Boon, Rosanna Li, Michael Wolf and Lam Wai Kit.
I was also lucky enough to be invited to take part and I created a small piece called 'Dialogue with Rosetta'. As the theme was 'conversation' I thought this would be a good match.
The Rosetta Stone was discovered in Egypt in 1799 and was inscribed with 3 languages: Ancient Greek, Demotic and Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. It was realised that the texts were in fact the same and the first two versions (which could be read) enabled the third, the Hieroglyphs, to be deciphered. Before this time the Ancient Egyptian language had not been understood since just before the fall of the Roman Empire.
In Art it sometimes feels as though we are searching for another kind of Rosetta Stone that can bring people together in dialogue and understanding.
The Rosetta Stone was discovered in Egypt in 1799 and was inscribed with 3 languages: Ancient Greek, Demotic and Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphs. It was realised that the texts were in fact the same and the first two versions (which could be read) enabled the third, the Hieroglyphs, to be deciphered. Before this time the Ancient Egyptian language had not been understood since just before the fall of the Roman Empire.
In Art it sometimes feels as though we are searching for another kind of Rosetta Stone that can bring people together in dialogue and understanding.
Opening night (Photo Courtesy of the gallery)
