Fisher King 3: Awakening
"Fisher King" will be staged the third time this weekend at On and On's
Cattle Depot Theatre. I was quite excited by the richness of the intellectual contents and colourful theatrical presentations when I watched
Fisher King and Handless Maid last year, the version for the
Hong Kong Arts Festival. It hit me shape, for my idiosyncratic interest in symbols-loaded fairy-tales (particularly dark ones) and the theories in narratives and language. Probably that's why the director and actor, Chan Ping Chiu, has asked me to go through the remaking process this time which has been a great lesson for myself.
I admire his perseverance for re-developing a piece for perfection. On the promotion he states:
"...What I hope to achieve, is not a better narration of the same story, but the manoeuvring of a subject matter more genuinely, in order to approach the heart of the metaphors used in the story, and various believes of life."
As Longtin, a critic, said to me last week, unfortunately, it may be the artists themselves who may obtain any "awakening" finally from this kind of exercise. Seldom of the local audience care what the progress means, if they bother visit the same program twice, or more...probably not even the critics. Hearing that I wish I had written more indeed.
Note 1: "Fisher King 3" will be staged in Singapore (
The Art House), afterwards from 21-24 October.
Note 2: You need a nice
map and instruction to go to the Cattle Depot Artist Village.
Introducing Motat Diary
Leungpo, a friend, long-time creative partner, performer, curator and writer, has succumbed to my luring at last and changed her former email-formated
Motat Diary into a blog......Well, I didn't expect she would put such long
feminism paper on her "diary".
Shanghai Biennale 5
3 more days before the opening of the most important visual arts event in China these years. With "Techniques of the Visible" as this edition's theme, exploring the relationship between humanity and technology "in particular how art has revealed the interdependent social and political forces that produce and subject technology and humanity," it may be a bit disappointing by the use of images in the
official website. I wonder if the images of the city, apparently in their most stereotypical sense, echo with the curatorial statement claiming:
Taken from the ancient Chinese philosophy of 'ying xiang' (image), the concept emerges from an interest in the visual products of modern technology that retain critical historical and emotive references.
Well I may be cynical... probably because this year I could not join the opening. See if I have chance to visit the works of the artist friends from Hong Kong: Hung Keung, Ellen Pau, Young Hay, Leung Meeping and Miranda Tsui before it ends on 27 November.
The Problems of God
Eve forwarded me this email about problems. It coincides with the topic we are currently talking a lot about "how to discover grace in unpleasant circumstances" in our Buddhism discussion. I mean, you don't need to believe in God to be benefited from these nice metaphors. It's not God but a constructive attitude to problems which is pertinent. Why don't you put God
as the problems in this case?
Five Ways God Uses Problems (extracted)
By David Langerfeld
The problems you face will either defeat you or develop you - depending on how you respond to them. Unfortunately, most people fail to see how God wants to use problems for good in their lives.
They react foolishly and resent their problems rather than pausing to consider what benefit they might bring. Here are five ways God wants to use the problems in your life:
1. God uses problems to DIRECT you. Sometimes God must light a fire under you to get you moving. Problems often point us in a new direction and motivate us to change.
2. God uses problems to INSPECT you. People are like tea bags... if you want to know what's inside them, just drop them into hot ever water! Has God tested your faith with a problem? What do problems reveal about you?
3. God uses problems to CORRECT you. Some lessons we learn only through pain and failure. It's likely that as a child your parents told you not to touch hot stove. But you probably learned by being burned. Sometimes we only learn the value of something by losing it.
4. God uses problems to PROTECT you. A problem can be a blessing in disguise if it prevents you from being harmed by something more serious. Last year a friend was fired for refusing to do something unethical that his boss had asked him to do. His unemployment was a problem - but it saved him from being convicted and sent to prison a year later when management's actions were eventually discovered.
5. God uses problems to PERFECT you. Problems, when responded to correctly, are character builders. God is far more interested in your character than your comfort. Your relationship to God and your character are the only two things you're going to take with you into eternity. "We can rejoice when we run into problems... they help us learn to be patient. And patience develops strength of character in us...
HK Architects in Guangdong
Rocco Yim's design has beaten 8 other international architects' proposals and was chosen for the new Guangdong Museum.
The design that resembles a Chinese antique "treasure container" with a superfluously decorative outlook contributes a fitting theme for a museum, distinguishing itself from the
other schemes. The hard and simple rectangular contour probably saves it from visually overdone and overwhelmed by a (traditional) theme, and gives it a futuristic appearance on the contrary. It oddly reminds me also of
Hellraiser's Lament Configuration Box, referring again to those tantalizing objects of the dead.
News Guangdong mentions the "box" as a sharp contrast to the under-planning
Guangzhou Opera House in oval shape:
Then I rediscover both landmarks-to-be (in 3 years) of the Guangzhou cultural zone are winning works by Hong Kong architects. Tung, the Chief Executive of the HKSAR Government, was prompt to address the news and
congratulated Rocco as a local talent, whose work was awarded way back in 1983 as one of the three first-prize winners for the Bastille Opera in Paris. Pathetically, our government can acknowledge we do have talents only when they are approved by the others. Hopeless. I can't help recalling how Rocco's counter-proposal for the Central Library of Hong Kong a few years ago lost disastrously to
the ugly giant standing now in the centre of the Island.
All Worlds in Pixels
Website is still mysterious for me, like the
moon, perhaps.
It's fascinating to explore these little pixel figures and their
panoramic locales, with the elaborated details mimicking a miniature reality. They call it
(isometric) pixel art. Can these adorable colourful critters serve a critical purpose like real Art? How about a digital hell with addicted bloggers?
Sandy's Shanghai
Food seems to become all the more important when one grows old in our society, perhaps, comparing to other things you used to die for when you were younger, those evasive things called dreams. The thought came to my mind shortly after I recovered from the ecstacy of receiving
Sandy Lam's new book,
My Shanghai, as a birthday present from Wingyan. I have to admit it's an utterly charming surprise, being a long-time admirer of the city-rhythm-singer. In the 80-90's she represented a dream figure
for gay men... and now, still glamorous, she is talking about food.
Sandy's Shanghai is culinary, but the mesmerising bit, I think, comes from her air of apparent satisfaction in tiny things and moments. Once the book seems a bit strange from the outlook - combining her personal history and photos as a young girl, the high-profile Shanghaiese dishes, as well as the elegance of her fashion sense... yet the warmth from the genuineness still seizes the reader's heart tight, more than the devourable subjects. Probably there's still a young (naive) part in me that was preserved by the diva's image, or it's just that she is too stunningly beautiful in the prints.
Lamrim
Received from Amazon finally my copy of the
The Great Treatise on the Stages of the Path to Enlightenment, the English version of the
Lamrim! The second book of the series in three will be out only in November. Hope by then my "Books Review" section will be finished with my comments on this preeminent work about Tibetan Buddhism philosophy and practice, of which the Chinese version I have been studying for 4 years by now.
Birthday Gourmet Survivors
Wait. This is not
The Amateur Gourmet's blog... This is exceptional, I mean this dinner I am presenting. Because no one would guess there would be a menu for my 4-course birthday meal at Ivart's prepared by Ming, the chief chef, Wendy the hostess and Mandy the great, who told me that Fred did actually beat the egg-white for the Baked Broccoli with Fluffy Egg... for 2 minutes. It's like 32 birthday dinners in one - fabulous! particularly at the moment when it was finished with the homemade Cinnamon Apple Crumble with Vanilla ice-cream, and a homemade espresso. That's why I can't hold my
rule and have my first "personal" entry posted, to express my gratitude to the lovely cooks, and Fred for his blue singing candle. I hope Judge Jeremy has a chance to taste this before he announces the result for the
The Gourmet Survivor 2004.
P-Battleship (PSB remix)
Classics always contribute endless inspirations for re-creations... like Battleship Potemkin for the Pet Shop Boys this time, which has been highlighted in
ICA London's website as a free event at Trafalgar Square next Sunday (19.09). The "mis-match" would be stunningly attractive years ago perhaps, before similar "tributes-to-masters" become too popular and flood festivals worldwide. Yet I am not denying that it may be interesting still, with the apparent clash of styles, and as a dialogue between contemporary creation and that produced 80+ years ago.
A sound curatorial statement may be more pertinent, I am thinking. Would the
political elements of the "silent screaming" of Eisenstein, and the historical screening site provide a different perspective to interpret the works of the two 50 y/o Go-West boys? And vise versa? How can renewed or stengthened significance be injected to the overly interpreted and praised montage? Well, it seems like the pair has got the key already since they are
petrified by the weather more than anything. Anyway, the UK is just great for all these free ventures.
Ars: 25 years of Tech
Ars Electronica 2004 (Linz, Austria) prepares to question the development of technology in the past 25 years in relation to humanity and thus the position of art (via
Wired News):
Have we gotten any smarter over the past quarter century, or have instant access to information and all those wonderful technological advances made us more confused and far crazier than we were in 1979?
Gerfried Stocker, the artistic director of the event, poses:
"We're also wondering what will ignite the next generation's potential energy for protest. Will it be a revolt against blanket surveillance by the state? Will the world's youth come together to protest globalization? Will it be the environment? Fundamentalism and the fear of terrorism? And where do technology and art fit in?"
To the Little Russians
Did you bid farewell to your parents this morning
when you left home and went to school?
A sunny September day, you expected to learn more
about the world, the beauty of it
in Russian poetries, pictures, stories and songs.
You'd expected to see your pals' faces,
the naughty one with his infamous innocent jokes,
the proud one shone with compliments of teachers,
the silly one who always lost in naive games...
You were there for knowledge and care, to share,
not bullets, nor fear.
Strangers in deceiving faces came
with a purpose you'd never understand,
in cursing steps that hid the fairies' laughters.
The playground shook, the windows trembled,
and the whole world fleed in smoke and fire.
You heard familiar voices, but they screamed
in the way only heard in nightmares.
"Home, home!" receded farther to further.
Tears became blood, when the metal rain shot,
and composed the most affecting murals in sight,
with accusations which shocked the world.
300 voices died out, and 500 were still mourning,
"A world of hatred we've been living, too short."
Your fathers wait in despair, mothers in tears,
pleading to see you segregated by just a wall,
where the sun does not shine, love not grow.
A few naked angels flee from fire,
souls scattered, they are embraced
in warm arms once missed, almost forever.
Yet, more others have their arms open to the air,
or to lost memories only belong to heaven.
Fly, fly, I wish you've only found the secret path,
to escape from the pain and terror,
to the other homeland with more comforting ground.
Maybe, maybe that's merely why
you left all your shoes behind.
Note: images from
Sify News &
Taipei Times.
Meditation in Performance
U-Theatre is famous for their adaptation of meditation and spiritual practice into their rehearsal and performance. Because of my religious and art background,
IATC asked me to write a review after their upcoming performance in November,
Meeting with Vajrasattva, in the
Festival of New Vision in Hong Kong. The introductory conversation this afternoon after the press conference with the two leading figures, Liu and Huang, was quite an exhilarating experience.
"Zen is a bit too evasive and abstract to be expressed through artistic means, we are happy to discover after "The Sound of Ocean" that part of the Tibetan Buddhism provides a channel for even better integration of theatre and religious practice. The hand postures, rituals and all the rich colours give us a lot of inspirations to connect our target to the audience."
ITAC: Does it mean a compromise, a step-down for the audience when you adapt a more narrative approach for "Meeting"?
"Art is a language afterall and, however powerful the performer is, achieved by meditative practices, he needs movements and appearance to visualise it through forms. Grotowsky once said, "Don't perform meditation.""
Liu's air was less serene, that kind of a monk, but more ready to share as compared to the first time I met her in 10 years ago. That time, I almost considered joining the group after a "dynamic meditation" workshop on Lantau Island, at 7am in the morning on a hill. Somehow oddly, that was Hon who actually went to Taiwan and joined U years later.
I found it intriguing that such an internationally renowned group would admit so frankly it's only in their last piece, after more than a dozen of years (of fame), that they started to grasp the heart of their art. Seemingly the way to "bridge" the audience and certain kinds of aesthetics is much longer than I have expected, especially when it comes to true enlightenment.
Huang the master drummer said the new piece would not include as much drumming as the previous works. Great news for me. Not that I don't like the mesmerising beats of spirit, but it is not easy to rid of its quality too pleasing, if not exotic. Anyway, the meeting was more assuring than what have been said about the group in recent years, about their marketisation. As least the "unmediated" charm of the practitioners' presence does not need a designed posture.
