Giuseppe Penone at Gagosian Hong Kong

The exhibition ‘Leaves of Stone’ opened at the Gagosian HK in January 2016 presenting art that was as poetic as the exhibition title suggested.

In Foglie di pietra, several freestanding pieces comprised trees cast in bronze, their branches entwined, embracing stone architectural fragments that had been carved into decorative, classical acanthus leaves.

Another series, Indistinti confine, featured marble trees, their limbs removed and replaced with bronze knots. Sharp, rusting spikes appeared to pierce the trees in specific places, from where the rust seemed to bleed down and into the marble trunks.

A large drawing took up one entire wall comprised of thorns, thousands of them arranged as though to describe a pair of lips – Spine d’acacia.

Riflesso del bronzo - a highly polished wall-mounted bronze mirror reminds us that mirrors in antiquity presented to the viewer a warm, almost sun-drenched reflection. The mirror was accompanied by its ‘reflection’, a casting that was then itself cast and so on until there were the 8 versions we can see in the exhibition.

Through handcrafted stone and marble Penone comments on the millennia-old relationship between mankind and nature and between past and present cultures and throughout his work he achieves a poetry that takes on physical form.

Nam June Paik: The Late Style - Gagosian Hong Kong

It is a well-known fact that one of the most important and rewarding aspects of sensual pleasure is the anticipation. In full knowledge of this on the evening I arrived at the Gagosian Gallery in Central to see the first exhibition in Hong Kong of the work of Nam June Paik, I deliberately delayed entering the exhibition space by accepting a glass of champagne and calmly reading the press releases in the reception area. After around 15 minutes and suitably primed I then decided it was time to see the work.

I first became aware of Paik’s work in 1977/78 during the foundation course I attended at Jacob Kramer College of Art in the UK (now renamed Leeds College of Art) but I hadn’t had the opportunity of experiencing much of his work since that time so this was a genuine pleasure for me.

As it states in the gallery’s press release Paik’s work represents a ‘lifelong exploration of the role of technology in culture’ and Gagosian’s exhibition of Paik’s work illustrated this perfectly.  Sometimes playful or comical, sometimes critical, displaying a subjective personal view one minute and then becoming almost cynically objective the next Paik explores mankind’s experience of life that has today become inseparable from communicative media and the technology that allows the universal spread of information, whether useful or not.

There were so many highlights in the show but if I had to select one for comment it would have to be Golden Buddha, 2005. A gilded bronze Buddha sits serenely on a white platform as if intently watching a colour television set that broadcasts the image of the Buddha’s own head by means of the Closed-circuit video camera positioned directly above the TV screen. The video camera focuses tightly on the Buddha’s face. It feels too close. We can see nothing on the screen apart from the face of the Buddha, is it a fragment of a Buddha?, is it whole Buddha?, the location is a mystery, the context is totally lost.

Is this Paik’s commentary on the way the media distorts reality, or on the way it selects which parts of the real story it will relay to the viewer? When we appreciate another culture, we attempt to be respectful, we are careful not to offend by misreading culturally embedded symbols and yet in this piece of work by Paik, the camera doesn’t record what the gallery viewer sees, it ignores the entirety of the scene and selects only the face to zoom in on.

Is this Paik’s intention? Maybe it is, maybe not.  As an artist myself I feel the most important function of an artwork is to throw out these questions. For me this is one of, and probably the main function of a work of art: to ask questions. I came away from this exhibition thinking about these subjects, all provoked by Paik’s work. Unfortunately Paik may have left us but his work is still very much alive and it continues to ask questions of us all.

Golden Buddha, 2005

Bakelite Robot, 2002

359 Canal Street, 1991

Chinese Memory, 2005

Giacometti Without End - Gagosian Hong Kong

While I was studying for my first degree in the UK at Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic (later to be renamed Northumbria University), my fellow art students and I were fortunate to have the late Peter Fuller as ‘Art Critic in Residence’. He gave lectures and lead critiques of work by final year students that were tough and bordering on combative but which I’m sure helped those students to understand their own work and become able to defend their opinions and viewpoints.

After graduating I followed his writings and sent him images of my work, which he commented on. He described the sculpture I was making at the time as being reminiscent of the young Giacometti, which was a wonderful compliment as Giacometti was an artist who I greatly admired.

Peter Fuller told me that he would be following the progress of my work in the future. Tragically he was killed in a car crash and the British art world was robbed of one of its most erudite commentators.

Every time I read about the work of Giacometti or see an exhibition of his work I am reminded of the comments by Peter Fuller and that was again the case when I visited the Hong Kong Gagosian Gallery on 17^th April. 

The gallery had been transformed from its usual appearance and now resembled a Parisian gallery or museum with muted lighting and work behind glass cases.  The curating of this show was very good, with links between the works made clear and the drawings, lithographs and books were punctuated by sculptures. 

The way Giacometti drew and constructed 2D images was in complete sympathy with the methods of construction in his sculpture. It is as though he first constructs an imaginary 3D space in which his work can exist and then dips his hands into this volume of space to physically mold the drawings or paintings into shape. As I look at his work, at every second, I am aware of his hands pushing, pulling and twisting the marks into the required shape and configuration. I find his work sublime and it is so refined it brings tears to my eyes as I examine it. 

Unfortunately the gallery attendants prevented me from taking photos with my phone. I don’t understand this policy, if they are selling good quality images as postcards or posters and do not want visitors to create their own high quality images then okay I see the point but I fail to see the harm in taking general gallery shots for one’s own record.

However, this didn’t prevent me from enjoying the exhibition thoroughly and it marked another high point in the Hong Kong art scene: Antony Gormley and Giacometti shows in less than a month…reminds me of life in London!

Images source: artobserved.com / www.galleriesnow.net