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

Nam Tam Wan 2016 - Book Publication

Referring back to a previous post about the photographic project I am undertaking at Nam Tam Wan on Cheung Chau Island - Hong Kong, I have now finally arrived at a satisfactory format for the book of images I would like to publish.
I do not intend to print up multiple copies, instead I will present, exhibit and promote the book myself and I will only print copies upon request. This means the book is therefore not being produced commercially and the price cannot be reduced by large unit numbers.

Below I have attached low-resolution captures of the introduction and two pages of images.

If you are interested in purchasing copies of the book, please contact me using my email address: patricksford@live.com

The book is 8" x 10" 20 x 25cm, portrait format, 64 pages, 60 images, colour photos taken by phone camera, 1 image per page, title page, introduction page, blank page at the back, the hard-back cover is black with white lettering on the spine, spine text reads: Nam Tam Wan 2016 Patrick S. Ford

A review of the book as well as an interview I conducted with the 'Local Idea' section of the 'Lik Ink' website and blog can be found here: https://www.likink.com/patrick-s-ford/

Inverse Performance Art Festival 2017 - Part 1

I received another piece of great news informing me that my work was to be included in the Inverse Performance Art Festival in Arkansas, USA at the end of March 2017.
The festival will be held in several locations in Bentonville and Fayetteville in Northwest Arkansas between 30 March and 1st April 2017.

My live-streamed performance, No holiday, will be broadcast to the 21c Bentonville Museum Hotel venue on Friday 31 March 5:00 - 6:00pm (Saturday 1 April 7:00 - 8:00am Hong Kong time).

The walking route of this second installment of the No holiday performance is still being determined but will explore another part of the small island of Cheung Chau in the territory of Hong Kong. I will again take my red suitcase, map and selfie-stick in another attempt to explore the choreography of the holiday experience.

The festival website can be found here:  http://www.inverseperformanceartfestival.org/

, the festival artist listing page:
http://www.inverseperformanceartfestival.org/2017-artists-1/

, and the festival schedule of events:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/inverse-21c-bentonville-tickets-32241453054

Digital Print for exhibition

I had decided to participate in a mini-print exhibition after a brief gap, during which I had been developing a series of performance pieces, and began preliminary work on an image in several sketchbooks. As I worked, the image gradually increased in detail and it became clear to me that my original intended medium (linocut) would be unsuitable.
At this stage I moved onto my Mac and started anew on an image generated with Adobe Illustrator. This seemed to improve the development of the image and appeared to be the correct choice.

The image has now reached a kind of equilibrium and, as time is running out, I will find a digital printer to produce an inkjet edition for me. The initial quotes were surprisingly expensive so I may have to modify my expectations (a familiar process for me).

Unfortunately the print was not selected for exhibition this time. However, the process of working on it has opened up a new thread of investigation and the value of this for my work overall far outweighs participation in the mini-print exhibition.

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

Duration & Dialogue II Performance Art Festival 2017 - Part 1

I was so pleased to learn that my proposal for the Performance Art Festival in Toronto had been accepted!
View my piece on the festival website here:
http://www.durationanddialogue.com/ddii-1/#/patrick-s-ford/
 
The Festival will take place from 27th to 29th of January 2017 at Katzman Contemporary in Toronto, Canada.
http://www.katzmancontemporary.com

 

My performance, entitled 'No holiday' will be realised in Hong Kong and live-streamed to Katzman Contemporary in Toronto. The 13-hour time difference means that I will be walking for the 2 hour period in the early morning and the gallery audience in Canada will be viewing my performance in the evening.
The preparation for the performance is currently underway:

Patrick S. Ford, No Holiday, performance development photograph, Hong Kong, November 2016

Press Release

Patrick S. Ford is delighted to announce his third performance piece, and first to be shown outside of Hong Kong, as part of the Duration & Dialogue II, a performance art festival and symposium held at the Katzman Contemporary art gallery in Toronto, Canada.

In No Holiday, Ford continues his practice of deconstructing everyday life for paradigms that can be isolated and examined within a durational event that retraces an action or an activity observed in life, exploring and reconfiguring observed movements he calls “found actions.” For many working people the highlight of the year is the annual holiday (summer holiday, Chinese new year holiday etc.). During this short, intense period people remove themselves from their habitual surroundings and immerse themselves enthusiastically into what is often unfamiliar geographical and/or cultural territory.

No Holiday deals with the journey to and from this holiday adventure, reversing the usual paradigm by focusing on the journey rather than the destination and eliminating the relief felt upon arrival at the intended holiday location. Ford will take his suitcase, map and selfie stick as he explores the choreography of the holiday experience in unfamiliar surroundings.
Patrick S. Ford, born in the UK, but living and working in Hong Kong since 1993, gained his initial training at Leeds College of Art (UK), BA (Hons) Fine Art at Northumbria University (UK). He then earned his MFA at RMIT (Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia. He currently works as lecturer at the Hong Kong Design Institute. He has lectured on many subjects, conducted workshops on printmaking and drawing in Hong Kong and Japan (Kyoto Saga University of Arts), and held artist-in-residence positions in Hong Kong and China (Guanlan Original Printmaking Base).
Ford, who has worked in a variety of media including: sculpture, printmaking (previous Chairman of the Hong Kong Graphics Society), drawing, and, more recently, performance art, has participated in over 100 visual art exhibitions in: Europe, Asia, North America, and Australasia, and his work is included in many public and private collections.

Chinese translation:

褔伯爵高興地展示第三個個人的行為藝術作品《没有假期 No Holiday》，這是褔第一次香港以外的行為藝術展示。《没有假期 No Holiday》將於二零一七年於加拿大多倫多的 Katzman Contemporary  藝術美術館首演，是次表演藝術由Duration & Dialogue II 藝術節舉辦。

《没有假期No Holiday》中，褔伯爵一直繼續在實踐、解構人類每天當下生活的範例，這些可以是被孤立的行動或活動、可以是持續事件中被細查的行動或活動。褔透過生活中觀察、追溯、探索、及重新裝置這些行動或活動的變動，褔把這個稱為「現成行動（英語：Found Actions）。」

對於需要工作的人群，向來注視每年的假期（春節、夏天假期）。在這個又短暫又緊張的假期間，人群們從習慣性的環境中抽離自己，熱情地將自己沉浸於另一個陌生文化的領域中。

這個《没有假期 No Holiday》行為藝術，反轉一般的假期範例，不著眼假期的目的地及到達目的地時那種解脫的心情，而相反地重點展示出，從旅程出發及回程的歷程中所探索其行動或活動的變動。褔會攜帶旅行箱、地圖、自拍桿，於陌生文化領域中去探索這個像舞蹈藝術排練的假期。

褔伯爵（Patrick Shaun Ford） 出生於英國，是一個英國裔的藝術家、藝術教育學家，於一九九三年在香港工作並居住。褔畢業於英國利茲藝術學院，於英國諾桑比亞大學修習純美術學士學位，在墨爾本皇家理工大學獲得了藝術創作碩士。褔執教於香港知專設計學院，教授視覺藝術與文化、藝術文學士等課程。其間於香港與日本教授版畫及繪畫工作坊（京都嵯峨藝術大學），及獲中國觀瀾版畫原創產業基地邀請成為入駐藝術家。

褔致力藝術工作，並創作了許多以繪畫、雕塑、版畫（前香港版畫協會主席）與表演藝術作品。褔作品展覽於藝術節中超過百次：包括於歐洲、亞洲、北美洲、澳大拉西亞等多處公開及私人的藝術作品集。