'No holiday' - Film Reel 1

After completing the editing of the recorded version of the performance 'No holiday', which was enacted in Venice during the summer, I decided to edit together the four recorded versions into one 'film-reel'.
This would enable me to present the four recordings at one time and it also gives any interested viewers the opportunity to see the four versions one after the other. In this way, the differences in atmosphere, landscape and ambient sounds could be better illustrated.
These differences are very interesting and are one of the motivations for me to allow the project to develop further.

Three postcards have been printed, using images from the Cheung Chau, Sewerby and Venice performances to define each of the locations using the postcard motif to tie-in with the theme of the performance.

The 4 performances were recorded as follows:
1) Chi Ma Wan, Hong Kong - 5 January 2017
2) Cheung Chau, Hong Kong - 21 January 2017
3) Sewerby Cliffs, Bridlington, UK - 4 August 2017
4) Dorosuro, Venice, Italy - 16 August 2017

'No holiday' - Film Reel 1

The recording can also be viewed on my youtube.com channel here: https://youtu.be/E72zI-SsI7s

Drawing Project - Working process

I edited together footage recorded during the recent drawing day on Cheung Chau and edited 2 short videos outlining the construction of two drawings.

These drawings are the latest in an ongoing project that investigates the collaboration between a human (me) and nature and as active participant. Together we create an image through dialogue. As with all conversations, sometimes one party dominates, when they have a lot to say, while the other listens, sometimes it is a balanced two-way interaction. 

I will post more updates from this project in future, hopefully recording the progress of the investigation.

Here are the two drawings made on 7th May 2017.

The first drawing

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

 The second drawing

The recording can also be viewed on my youtube.com channel here: https://youtu.be/g8OmGnUXbss

This project was referred to in the blog of Garry Barker, artist and educator in Leeds, UK. Garry goes into detail about the use of frottage in art, in great detail and great eloquence here.

No holiday

I have edited a recorded version of my performance 'No holiday' that formed part of my preparation for participation in two performance art festivals, the Duration and Dialogue II Festival in Toronto, Canada and the Inverse Performance Art Festival in North-west Arkansas, USA.

This 33 minute version was recorded on Cheung Chau Island in Hong Kong.

Currently in the planning stage are further episodes of the 'No holiday' performance, including locations in the UK and Venice in Italy. News of these developments will be written up later in the year, as they happen.

'No holiday' - Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong - 28th January 2017

The recording can also be viewed on my youtube.com channel here: https://youtu.be/R4V5faOIX1w

Drawing Project - Work in progress

On Sunday 7th May I gathered my prepared materials and walked down to Nam Tam Wan to take a close look at which rocks could be suitable for the next stage of my drawing project.

The small tests I had conducted previously showed promise and I had intended to build upon those results, I just didn't foresee that it would take so long to move the project along. A conference paper, Dada collage, a digital print and various other things came onto the agenda and pushed the drawing project back. However, putting that delay aside I could now turn my attention to drawing the rocks down at the little bay near my home.

I began with a roll of Chinese calligraphy paper, which I have found to be particularly good at picking up the texture of surfaces when creating frottage images. Sometimes the paper may tear, especially when enthusiasm urges me to work faster and so these tears will need to be repaired later at some point.

Several stones picked up on the beach helped to keep the paper in place and prevented the wind from blowing my work away. I used sticks of willow charcoal to transfer the rocks' texture and as I worked I snapped the charcoal into shorts sticks of approximately 2 inches so that I could slide them across the surface of the paper to create soft swathes of texture on the paper.

When the first drawing seemed to be resolved I took a look at it and thought that it didn't require any further working back home, although I will look again another day to see if my opinion on that has changed.

The second attempt was with a larger piece of paper. This paper was thicker, smoother and had a waterproof covering on the reverse side. This had advantages and disadvantages. The advantages were that the paper was more durable, was easier to pin down using the rocks and was easier to push the paper further into crevasses to pick up the texture. The disadvantages were that the smooth surface texture of the paper meant that it was more difficult to create an organic surface of marks, the waterproof covering on the reverse side formed a barrier, making it more difficult to 'feel' the rocks' texture and the pure white colour of the paper was much 'colder'. I was pleased with the results of this second attempt too, although I will certainly need to work again on this one later. It was satisfying to work on a larger scale, it felt as though I was beginning to get somewhere!

Although it was quite a hot day, the wind that threatened to blow away my paper, also cooled me down and stopped me from over-heating.

The first drawing

The second drawing

This project was referred to in the blog of Garry Barker, artist and educator in Leeds, UK. Garry goes

into detail about the use of frottage in art, in great detail and great eloquence here.

Inverse Performance Art Festival 2017 - Part 2

At the risk of  being called an April fool I undertook to perform a new version of my piece 'No holiday' on Cheung Chau.

This time the piece was being live-streamed to the Inverse Performance Art Festival in North-west Arkansas, USA. 

I began walking with my red suitcase, map and selfie-stick at 5:00am, before dawn (4:00pm Arkansas time) and walked for 2 hours. I was the first performer on the schedule of events listed for the 21C Bentonville Hotel venue and therefore my piece was the event that started off the evening. 

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Due to the starting time I needed to choose a route that was not as remote as the version I conducted in January so that there would be a little more ambient lighting. This also meant that there would be more interactions with people, small vehicles etc. and the light would change dramatically as daybreak illuminated the island. During the performance I explored some of the local backstreets, visited the ferry pier and saw the dawn at the Tung Wan beach. I was passed by some small delivery vehicles, restaurants were preparing for the breakfast customers and I even encountered a mobile metal rack full of roasted suckling pig ready to be delivered. 

I was fortunate that with the imminent Ching Ming Festival here on the island, a fairy large bamboo structure had been built in what is usually a basketball area. This unusual temporary building was covered in tin sheet and illuminated from within. As I walked towards this theatre for Cantonese Opera, it shone out from the darkness and became something for me to explore.

When I approached what is effectively the main square on the island and turned towards Tung Wan beach, the sky was breaking to reveal the dawn and as the beach (in Cantonese Tung Wan means East Bay) was perfectly located for a view of the dawn above Hong Kong Island, the setting was very dramatic. I only hope that this was effectively conveyed to the audience watching over in the USA. 

The performance was completed at 7:00am as the broadcast ended. I suggested to the organisers that I should continue walking until they ended the broadcast, leaving the image of me walking in the minds of the audience. This could suggest that I may in fact continue walking and the broadcast was a brief glimpse of the overall activity. It would also not break the meditative atmosphere set up during the previous 2 hours.

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More details of the performance and my approach can be found on the festival website, along with information about the other amazing performances to be experienced in Arkansas: 

http://www.inverseperformanceartfestival.org/2017-artists/w4shn00lj2y4jlct8t6b0fovj12eo3

...and the schedule of events can be viewed here: 

http://www.inverseperformanceartfestival.org/2017-schedule-of-events/

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I was so happy to be able to nurture a new version of 'No holiday' and I am very grateful to Cynthia Post Hunt for allowing me the opportunity to share my work with the audience of the Inverse Performance Art Festival.

Sea view from Nam Tam Wan 1/4/2017

Selfie taken at Nam Tam Wan 1/4/2017

Duration & Dialogue II Performance Art Festival 2017 - Part 2

On Saturday 28th January (Toronto time) / Sunday 29th January (Hong Kong time) 2017 I conducted my latest performance piece: No holiday. The piece was performed on Cheung Chau, one of Hong Kong's Outlying Islands, and live-streamed to the 'Duration & Dialogue II Performance Art Festival' in Toronto, organised by Katzman Contemporary.

The Festival webpage features links to recordings of the performances that have been uploaded to youtube.com, mine can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DK9YcnViKs

This festival presented recordings of both Clayton Lee's performance conducted in the gallery and my performance live-streamed from Hong Kong. The festival organisers suggested playing both recordings side-by-side in an attempt to recreate the full curatorial effect that the festival audience were able to experience. (This featured page has since been replaced by a later pair of performances).

Following straight on after the performance there was a discussion, with Q&A that involved myself, artist Clayton Lee, audience members and moderated by Yan Zhou.

My comments to certain questions have been posted on my youtube channel at the following links:

Introduction video (2.59 mins) : https://youtu.be/q6TzNLl6nfE

Q1 video (2.16) https://youtu.be/FGSDtwtzhLs

Q2 video (3.44) https://youtu.be/tmIySh5TJg8

Q3 video (4.20) https://youtu.be/a82afyBGdL0

Q4 video (3.02) https://youtu.be/bD8moCqXJj4

Q5 video (4.16) https://youtu.be/3MHLIA5KrNg

Q6 video (3.41) https://youtu.be/ps0nCqTht78

Q7 video (2.18) https://youtu.be/GCFrHOXNbjM

Q8 video (3.11) https://youtu.be/yn84ABDO9cE

Q9 video (1.15) https://youtu.be/fNkb3Y2RKAk
Q10 video (2.47) https://youtu.be/e2qJw_sL3Gk

6:45am - Preparing for the Skype link-up with Toronto

Photographic Project in Progress - Nam Tam Wan

In an earlier post I introduced a short 2 minute video I made that was screened online and in the exhibition gallery as part of the 3rd Istanbul Biennial. The theme of the biennial was 'Are We Human? ' and I composed the video using images I had collected while working on another photographic project. I would now like to talk about that project.

In the Autumn of 2015 I went for a stroll along the east coast of Cheung Chau, a small island in the territory of Hong Kong where I had already been living for 3 years. I discovered a pleasant trail that lead down to the water's edge in a small bay that featured a Tin Hau Temple and this had become my regular Saturday and Sunday afternoon walk.

Around 50 meters past the temple there is a concrete walkway raised above the beach, which extended the trail up a short ramp and onto the adjacent headland. One day, as I stopped on this concrete walkway to take a photograph of the bay, I noticed a silver arrow that had been spray painted onto the seaward side of the walkway, pointing down toward the beach. The sand had almost covered the arrow head but there was just enough left to recognise that is was an arrow, rather than a silver line.
One or two weeks later I returned to the same spot and realised that the arrow indicated a drain that had been cut through the walkway almost at beach level. This drain allowed the water that seeped down from higher ground to pass through the walkway and drain back into the sea. The arrow had obviously been painted so that the location of the drain could be found whenever the sand built up and covered the drain.

On subsequent walks I began to notice that the terrain around the drain changed dramatically depending on the amount of water draining from higher ground, the intensity of the rainfall, the amount of debris washed ashore by tide and winds etc. I took a photograph with my camera phone so that I could compare it with how the drain may appear when I returned on my next walk. Without really planning it, I started to take a photograph at that same spot each time I visited the bay. As the images accumulated I realised that something had been triggered and a project had begun by itself without me being aware of it. I value these kinds of phenomena and decided to let it run to see where it may lead.
I purposefully did not pre-plan my visits to the bay to take photographs, I went there only when I had time for a walk and so the frequency of the visits varied. This added a touch of serendipity in that I couldn't predict the condition of the beach around the drain and each visit was a surprise.

I currently have around 50 images and as I had been reviewing them as a series my first action was to create a book of the images so that they could be reviewed sequentially and therefore the changes to the beach could be seen easily as the pages are turned. I  created two hand-made versions and then had a third version made at a local commercial photo lab.
A fourth version is currently underway and will hopefully be published soon as a commercially available book.

2015-11-29

17.17.03

2015-12-21

16.49.09

2016-01-31

16.11.47