'One's Origin' - Group exhibition by the Hong Kong International Youth Arts Association (HKIYAA)

I was invited by artist and good friend Manling Cheung, to participate in the exhibition 'One's origin' at the Jao Tsung-I Academy, near to Mei Foo, and decided to present the current status of my ongoing performance work 'No holiday'.

The group show featured a large variety of work: paintings, including work by Manling Cheung - https://www.facebook.com/manling.cheung, drawings, sculpture and photography, including some amazing images by Kent Foran - http://www.kentforan.com. It was great for me to have the opportunity to show photographs taken during my performances along with the red suitcase which is my constant companion in the 'No holiday' performance.

I also placed 3 postcards representing 3 of the locations at which the performance has been conducted. These were available for the audience to take away with them.

The opening of the exhibition took place on the afternoon of Thursday 5th October and it will run until Friday 13th October. 

Kent Foran - Photographer

I was recently looking at the work of photographer Kent Foran and felt provoked to put a mention here in the hope that others would also appreciate his work.

Kent works at the Hong Kong Design Institute in the English Language Department but away from the HKDI campus Kent is prolific photographer. 

People often discuss the relative merits of photographers and what may be the reason for the success of their work. For me it is quite simple. It has nothing to do with the equipment being used or how expensive the camera. It is not even due to the education of the individual, although it can steer someone in the general, correct direction. For me it is quite simply having an eye for an image. We may call it the 'Decisive moment' as Cartier-Bresson did, or describe how someone is good at composition. The fact remains that when an artist creates a work, many elements come together to form a powerful resolution, an equilibrium of qualities that is difficult to describe in detail. In fact to do so would be similar to dissecting a beautiful and noble animal in order to understand what makes it so. 

Kent, for me, has a terrific 'eye'. His work speaks for itself, so please visit his website and  you see what I mean.

http://www.kentforan.com

Umbrella Revolution

Following the invitation of a photographer friend, Kent Foran, I opted to work on some of his images to create an artwork in response to the protests in Hong Kong. 

From 26th September to 15th December 2014, spontaneous protests broke out after the announcement by the Government in Beijing that, although they would allow each eligible Hong Kong citizen to vote, they would restrict the candidates on offer to 3 hand-picked Pro-Beijing cronies. This was a huge step-away from the 'Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong' promised by Beijing at the handover. 

To see more of Kent's wonderful photography, visit his website: http://www.kentforan.com

Kent Foran took some amazing, creative photographs at the three protest sites in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mongkok and he shared them with several of the occupying protesters who modified them into personal art statements that depicted their feelings and experiences. Many of these images can be found on the 'Occupy Art' group page on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Occupy-Art/307874486086324?fref=ts 

I took two of Kent's images, a b/w shot of the Causeway Bay protest site featuring powerful reflections and a large luxury brand advert juxtaposed with the protest site, and a second image showing a protestor in heavy disguise at the site in Mongkok, chopped them up and re-combined them into a single image.

The advert has been replaced by the large protestor who stares defiantly and directly back at the audience. Between him and the audience there are bars, originally the bars of the window but now they are acting like bars of a cage keeping the protestor constrained in one location, confining him. Alternatively, are the bars there for his protection...or for our? Or, are the bars part of the defences that he has erected himself as a barricade? As the rest of the scene recedes from us, reducing in scale, regressing to monochrome, the protestor glares outwards in full colour, vivid and full of energy.