36 Calendars

On 2nd February, I went to Cornwall House to watch "Song Dong: 36 Calendars". When I first went inside, I thought the room was big and not a lot of space was used. The whole color was just black and white, which was simple. There were many papers on the wall and tables. When we then got closer to the papers, we knew that all papers were drawn by pencil. There were total 36 annual household wall calendars, more than 430 papers. Song Dong's drawing inspiration was from his daughter's drawing book. He wanted to draw all the things that he still remembered from his childhood and adult (1978-2013) by pencil to make annul calendars. The reason for no coloring was that he hoped to keep the papers for one layer only. Also, he invited people to come and draw on his work.

I really love this art work. I think I was like watching his diary, which should be secret. He drew a picture of the most special thing for that month, described the things and wrote his feeling about them. All were done by pencil and I think that was like a child’s work but the drawings were exquisite, Indeed, I really know more about him. For examples, he was poor when he was young; he had a happy family; he experienced some special moments. I think I am like going into his heart. I really appreciate that because it is not easy to draw back the memory of his early life and draw thoroughgoing.




My favourite one is the picture of him and his girlfriend (his wife), which was over 20 years ago. From this picture, I can feel that he loved his wife so much because he still remembered the things and what they talked when they were still having a companionship. That was sweet.



For me, I had more feelings on some paintings, such as Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, because I knew that event and I wanted to know what he thought of it.





Also, Liu Xiang got the champion in the Olympic Games in 2004 but lost it in 2008 and 2012. Song Dong thought that the Olympic Games aims to encourage people to do more sports. We should not just focus on getting champions. I really like his opinions because that was unique and positive.





Besides, the colouring of his work by other people had drawn my attention. They could draw anything they like, even rubbed his work and repainted on it. Some of them were really creative and I believed they were children. I hope I was in it because I like Song Dong’s drawings!





I think this colouring could encourage people to write a diary or the things which are special to them. When we become older, the things we did before may be forgot. If so, what is the meaning of life? Therefore, recording all the special things, crazy things, stupid things, meaningful things you have done is really important. It can let you remember all these moments and your feelings. When you look back of these, you can still remember them and know that you have change the world a little bit. For the things that you did wrong or you didn't know how to handle, you can reflect yourself in the diary and change to be better to make improvements. That’s life! After visiting his art work, I want to write a diary too!

The art work I chose

     "Formula of Autocracy", the art work I found from Michael Cheval, really impressed me. 

      When I saw this painting from the first time, I remembered a painting mentioned in the class. That is "The Arnolfini Portrait". It was a record of the marriage of a couple. The man has traditionally been identified as the Italian merchant, Giovanni Arnolfini and his wife, Giovanna Cenami, but this has not been confirmed. This was a private wedding, the painter was a witness of this wedding and the painting acted as a marriage certificate.

     Michael Cheval seemed to use "The Arnolfini Portrait" to be the reference of his painting, "Formula of Autocracy". In this painting, most of the objects, people and structure were the same. However, there were two men instead of a couple. They seem to be the same person, who is Putin, the president of Russia. In the painting, Putin grasped another Putin’s hand and he was taking an oath. Also, there was a crown on the ground instead of a dog. I think it is an ironic painting to Putin. It says that Putin just told an oath to himself only in a private environment instead of the Russian. The crown means the power and he is the king of Russia. Michael wants to mock Putin that he is autocracy, which matches the title of the painting.

     Michael is a Russian. He does not agree with Putin’s work and thinks that he does not listen to others and the residents. He complains through the painting and use old popular painting as a reference. That is good to raise people’s attention. I believe that he cares about the politics of Russia. As a resident, we should care more about the politic and express your idea so that the country and the city can be improved.

Andy Warhol Cinema

On the same day, I had visited the Andy Warhol Cinema. It was very quiet and dim with many different screens but it did not look like a cinema.

    First, I went to the corner. There were many televisions and earphones. The video in the televisions were that some people were talking or someone had a speech for about 15-20 minutes. Those screens were magnified and focused on their faces. In the videos, I explored that, when people were talking, there are many unobserved small emotions on their face.

     Then I walked to the front. There was a big screen showing a video of some people playing and having conversations for also about 15-20 minutes. However, it was silent so that we could only observe their motions and movements by eyes. I found that the director Andy had used some color effects on the video to make it be differently and we would see it with different feelings. It is because we didn't know that what was the content of the video, colors showed different motions.

Then, I went to the side of that big screen. There were two screens. One screen showed that two women standing far from each other and they moved separately. Another one showed theirs heads, which moved same but they looked standing closely. It is because Andy used different angles to close up the women’s face and look like they were close to each other.

     There were still a set of videos. There were many closed-up of faces with black and white screen. They were all quiet but moving and looking at the camera. That was mysterious as they were just like looking at me and really people standing in front of me.

 

     Finally, there was a big screen in front of the main entrance showing one couple kissing for about 15 minutes long. It focused on the movement of their mouth and they really enjoyed the moment.

     Andy’s style was simple but aesthetic. Andy was daring to try out new shooting methods to improve the existing shooting techniques that time. Those videos were his experiments of shooting movies. Most of them were focusing on people’s motions so that they didn't include the sound. For the experiments, people in the videos needed to repeat same movements for 15-20 minutes long. That was hard. I think that the videos were dexterous and shadowy, shy and shining, looming over. They let us thought that we were staying still and moving on in space and time. He did a great effort on it and he was arguably the most influential artist of the late 20^th century. 

Ferry Pier sound performance

On the 26^th January, I have been to the Kwun Tong Ferry Pier. I was confused as I didn’t think I would see art work there.

     Actually, that was a sound performance. First, Mr. Akio (the performer) took a rope on the floor and put the wood on it like the picture. The wood was very long. Then he started to nail some big and small nails on the wood slowly and randomly. It had “pop” sounds. I was really confused that I didn’t know what that means. Did we need to see him just nailing the whole wood? Then I discovered that there was a woman sitting in under the wood and she did some movements. Then her movements became faster when Mr. Akio had almost finished nailing. I expected that there was more amazing performance. Really, then Mr. Akio took two chopsticks and started to sweep the nails. Unexpectedly, different speed of sweeping created an amusing song. The woman came out from the wood and danced like a butterfly. At the moment, I realized that the woman’s movements were based on the sounds that Mr. Akio created. Then the woman finally stopped when Mr. Akio stopped.

This performance really impressed me. I think it told us a story of a butterfly’s life. First, the nailing means that the larva was growing slowly and didn’t move a lot. That was a bit boring. Then, the larva became a butterfly pupa. After nailing, the chopsticks swept on the nails means that it then became imago and flew freely to have a wonderful life. The size difference of nails and the speed of sweeping create different musical scales. I haven’t thought that nails and chopsticks do have a relationship. They can cooperate to be a piano! (haha)

Then they went to another place and stood oppositely. The woman took up the glass bottle on the floor and then started moving. The water in the bottle flowed out. She looked at Mr. Akio. Then, Mr. Akio took the bottle and hit the ground with “knock” sounds. Then, she knocked two bottles and continued to move with bottles, which were like to communicate to him. Then Mr. Akio blew from the bottle, which was like piping.

    I have different feeling of this part of performance. I think that they use sound to talk and communicate without using words. It was like alien language. However, when I listened indeed with heart, I found that the sounds were crisp and sweet-sounding. There were many ways to create sounds by glass bottles: a bottle hitting the ground, hitting two bottles, blowing a bottle and water in bottle flowing out. These sounds were common in our life but I have never listened them carefully. The best part was that Mr. Akio blew the bottle. He was very talented as that was not easy and the sounds were unique.

Performing sound art, the location is very important. Mr. Akio chose ferry pier because there is an open area with the sound of the waves, the sound of nature. Therefore, we can listen to the reflected sounds of nature through the performance and that makes perfect performance. In fact, I think it is true that the sound of nature is better than the sound that people made. Although pop music is pleasant to hear, it may let you be hyper instead of relaxing. Industrial sound is even noise. Therefore, the sound of nature, such as singing bird, moving wave and blowing leave, is more suitable for people to listen more, to relax then be energetic.

From this performance, I found that Mr. Akio is good at using objects close at hand to create pleasant rhythms and interesting sounds. He lets me know that sound art can be diversity and with different formats. Also, I have noticed more about the sounds around me, such as breaking glass bottles and hitting two metals, which may be also interesting. 

Michael Cheval -- the contemporary artist I chose

        Michael Cheval is the world's leading contemporary artist, specializing in Absurdist paintings, drawings and portraits. In his definition, "absurdity" is an inverted side or reality, a reverse side of logic. It does not emerge from the dreams of surrealists, or the work of subconsciousness. It is a game of imagination, where all ties are carefully chosen to construct a literary plot. Any one of Cheval's paintings is a map of his journey into illusion. His work is often metaphorical and requires a sharp eye to decipher the often hidden allusions.    

       Born in 1966 in Kotelnikovo, a small town of southern Russia, Cheval developed passion for art in his early childhood. When his family moved to Germany in 1980, the West European culture made a great impression on the young artist. In 1986, he moved to Turkmenistan and graduated from Ashgabad school of Fine Art. Absorbing Eastern philosophy and the character of Central Asia, he began working as an independent professional artist, shaping his style and surrealistic direction. His decision to immigrate in 1997 to USA began a new epoch for the artist. He returned to the Western culture that greatly inspired him in his German youth, but now he brought his own experience, his philosophy, and vision.

       In 1998, Cheval became a member of the prestigious New York's National Arts Club where he was distinguished with the Exhibition Committee Award in 2000. He is also a member of the Society for Art of Imagination since 2002. Cheval published two full-colored art albums—Lullabies in 2004 and Nature of Absurdity in 2007. His work is internationally acclaimed and can often be seen in USA galleries and abroad.


Reason for choosing him
I choose this artist because when I saw his paintings at the first time, I was really impressed. The people are drawn exquisitely and truly. The backgrounds are also sharp and complicated. However, the whole paintings become surreal. That is amazing and surprising. It seems that they were drawn for a long time with the painter's heart. I am touched deeply by his paintings. Therefore, I want to write about him to know more about his paintings and him.


Reference:  http://www.chevalfineart.com/

Fotanian Open Studio

On the 19th January, I visited the Fotanian Open Studio with my course’s teacher and students. When we arrived, I had special feeling on the building. It is an industrial building, which is old, dirty and smelly. I cannot imagine that there are some beautiful paintings or works in such an inconspicuous or even abhorrent building. Then, I chose to visit Wah Luen industrial centre block A and started from the top of the building.

The first studio, which impressed me, is from Lyn Raymer. Her studio has not many works to display. However, the atmosphere of her studio is warm and like her home. There is a long sofa, a dining table, a microwave oven and even some food. Besides, there are a lot of windows with wonderful view of mountains. Sunshine going through the widows lets the room become brighter and we feel more energetic. I am thinking that a comfortable atmosphere may be so important to an artist. In such a good environment, they may have inspiration easier and quicker than expect.

Another reason of it impressed me is that she is a Western artist but she drew a Chinese characteristics’ painting with words and I like it so much.

Another studio that impressed me and is my favorite is Joy Art Club from Winnie Davies. The first thing is the door. It is sharp and the painting on it is like a primary school student’s work, which is cute. Then, when I walked in, I found her studio is full of paintings and works and they dazzle my eyes. The artist likes the beauty of human body so much and she paints and does a lot of work of it with different meanings. Some of them are talking the social issues; some of them are talking political affairs; some of them are just appreciate the human body’s beauty. In addition, she paints a lot of real scenes of China and Hong Kong, which are worth for us to think deeply.

I love all of her works and the deep meanings of her works. I have asked for the meaning of her works and she explained to me very in detail. I believe if I didn’t ask her, I would not know so much of her works. She lets me know that artists can paint to dig at the political or social issues but they can also paint just for beauty. I like her also because she is familiar with different aspects of painting and works, including ink painting, oil painting, and sculpture. I think she is talented. Also, her works are interesting and fruitful. In this area, all paintings and works are about human body’s beauty; in that area, all paintings are about digging at China’s political problems and Hong Kong’s problems; in that area, the paintings are for beauty purpose only… I enjoy it so much.

The ink paintings are beautiful. They are full of artistic conception and like the archaic one. I always feel ink paintings are great because they just include black color and grey color by using water to pale to it.

The left one is talking about People's Liberation Army era, women’s beautiful body were all hid and it was unfortunate. Actually, I haven’t thought of it before. Now, I think the women that time were hard because they need to be a “man” and could not dress up.

The right one is talking about a woman who was going to marry a man. However, she is thinking whether she should go before she wore the canonical because she needed to pay for the “price” and she could not regret.

These are a series of human body painting, which are abstract. They look like hills…

These are the sculptures of legs and body. They are very interesting.

And, she really likes human body...

He is Liu Xiaobo in the window with iron grating--the prison.

There is an empty chair, because of...

This painting is talking now girls can betray their body to have compensated dating for just a LV bag. This is what we are facing in Hong Kong. I cannot tolerate these girls.

It is a view of demonstrating people from the window. It reflects to the real Hong Kong now. Many people don't feel satisfied of the government. They demonstrate and hope to attract the government. But, have they been successful? Has the government paid attention to them?

These are a series of four seasons. They are like chaotic but actually are not coincidence.

There is still a studio that impressed me. It is King’s Gallery from many Russian artists. There are many women portraits. They are colorful and sharp. It is a big studio with so much space, chairs, snacks and drink. The decoration is great too. It is more elegant comparing to other studios and I believe this studio has more resources. From this studio, I have thought a question: If the studio is more elegant and with food, will it attract more people to come and visit? Because of comfortable, I also want to stay longer. If yes, will it be unfair to other artists with less resource.

After visiting the studios, I realize that although the outside of the building is ugly, there are many beautiful things inside it. I thought studios must be at high class venues with elegant decorations so that they can set off the beautiful paintings. But now, I know that art can be so close to common people and places. Studios can be in such an inconspicuous building but inside it is another world of the artists. I really like this visit!