Facebook Artwork Challenge

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

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.

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.

Opening night (Photo Courtesy of the gallery)

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.

First showing of work in Portugal

I was so happy to be able to show some of my work in Portugal for the first time this August.

The event was the '7th International Printmaking Biennial Douro 2014' - http://douro-gravura.org/, and I had two etchings on display - 'Cultivation' of 2010 and 'Enclosure' of 2011, both hybrid prints combining intaglio and relief techniques.

'Enclosure' was created during my residency at the Guanlan Print Base in Shenzhen, China.

 

'Cultivation' - 2010

'Enclosure' - 2011

'Going Round in Circles', performance - Part 2

On Wednesday 30^th July 2014 I travelled to Tai Tam Country Park in Hong Kong, specifically to a small hill that had a footpath all the way around, pretty much level for the whole circuit. I set up a base near to a small dam as my starting and finishing point. Nearby was a wooden shelter that would be very conveniently located for my breaks and lunchtime.

I walked around the hill clockwise from 9 to 5, the typical working day, stopping for tea breaks in the mid-morning (roughly 10:30am) and mid-afternoon (roughly 3:00pm) plus a one-hour break for lunch (at around 12:30). I treated the whole day seriously as work.

There was no script for the performance beyond the start, break times and finish.

As I walked (worked) I carried a bag containing essential worker’s tools as well as my packed lunch and something to drink. I also carried a small note-pad to record the circuits i.e. the passing of time.

I notated the circuits of the hill in simple form with one short, straight line for each circuit and a cross bar to complete each group of 5 circuits. The working day is often measured by the worker’s output and this is often compared day by day in order to take stock of productivity. I adopted a strict work ethic and my production was the expiration of energy into circuits of the hill and these had to be measured in order to take stock of the sum of my labour at 5pm when my working day ended.

During the performance I became tired, a little distracted. This mirrored the real experience of work, especially work that is menial in nature. I reacted to these feelings instinctively and my reaction become part of the performance. I found myself clock-watching, calculating how long I needed to walk before I could allow myself a break and my mind was cast back to the days when I have had to hold down jobs I didn't enjoy and which robbed me of invaluable amounts of my life. My consolation during these times was the salary that allowed me to pay my rent and therefore survive.

When the 5pm ‘clocking-off' time came, I felt a sense of relief as I walked back up the steep hill to Park View and a bus back to Central.

'Going Round in Circles', performance - Part 1

On Wednesday 30th July 2014 I plan to conduct a solo performance in Tai Tam Country Park, Hong Kong.
I will walk around a circular path, which leads around a small hill, from 9 to 5 - the archetypal working day, stopping for 15 minute breaks in the morning and afternoon and a 1 hour lunch break. I will carry tools that I will not use.
If I am part-way around a circuit when it is time for a break or lunch, I will continue to complete the circuit before beginning the break. The performance will go ahead whatever the weather, unless a typhoon No.8 signal is hoisted and I am unable to catch the ferry to get to the location.

At the end of the day, I will have spent the day traveling without getting anywhere and I will have carried tools without producing anything.