Ron Mueck
Margaret of Bamboo Curtain Workshop sent me a few nice pictures of
Ron Mueck's recent works, probably because of the
Cartier exhibition just opened in Tokyo. Oddly I happened to come across again the exhaustive report by
Amateur d'art of a larger exhibition of Mueck's works at Fondation Cartier ended in February.
I have visited Mueck's real works two times. The first encounter with several works in different scales (a kneeling man slightly smaller than life-size, a petit new-born baby hung on wall and the gigantic "Boy" crouching at Arsenal) at Venice Biennale in 2001 was stunning and fascinating. (His catalogue was one of my very few purchases at the event.) Then, another exhibition dedicated to contemporary art at Tokyo MoMA entitled "Continuity/Transgression" at the end of 2002. It seems in his latest pieces something more powerful in psychological terms is emerging, the pensive expression, the nudity, gesture and relation to the environment. Not just the size and the technique. His figurative mimésis could possibly be a mixture of classicism, pop, realism and surrealism to me.
Mueck is an Australian living in London. Lunettes Rouges said Continental European artists are redefining contemporary sculpture, specifically the British artists (naming Anthony Caro, Richard Long, Bill Woodrow and Tony Cragg), counting Mueck, while trends of other modern and contemporary media are mostly American.
Note:
Plate 1 "Mask II" (2000) is a self-portrait of Mueck
Plate 2 "In Bed" (2005)
Images from
Washingtonpost.com
Love can be MSNed
Allow an exceptional personal post here at p-b. I've just come across love, unexpectedly like the first rain of this spring... This is the man who makes me believe that Taiwanese are more hearty people. They have dreams, lovely ones.
Note: the small figure with hat illustrates "you".
Artists in Uniforms
How would
Cindy Sherman and
Andy Warhol look like at school when they were young? Of course there were no piercing on lips and eyebrows yet. And probably they might not have fallen into any "norm" of fashion code. More provocative? Or their creativity should not be exploited in this kind of
superficiality?
How
should the students look like in a senior secondary school dedicated to creativity? It's a mystery whether imposed regularity will kill their creativity, suppress or ignite it. Students like uniform, I heard, because they will be fed up very soon in choosing clothes everyday. Why is there a problem of "choice"? Is it aesthetical inability? Or imposed social value associating self-esteem too much to outlook? Or cultural unconsciousness - in relation to
local school convention? Would
any adult prefer to buy a same set of clothes in order to avoid the same "problem"? You may say, the norm is different in adults' world. Anyhow, could there be alternatives, besides yes or no? Prof
Fumikazu Masuda of Tokyo Kozei University talked about his educational project of clothes exchange scheme to replace uniforms last year in HK. He said the kids loved it, we won't know, but it shed light on possible new ways in tackling the problem.
Whether these 16-year-olds wear black-coloured finger-nails or not is not significant to me, but whether they could be guided to make judgment about themselves with self-awareness is. Could discipline be
more important? Consider fashion per se, it is significant for the provocation to the norm, not because of its "prettiness". And so is the majority of contemporary art works. I am not sure if 10cm-longer-than-the-norm hair-style will create bad influence on the others, but I think an environment which encourages creativity should allow unbound condition for learning to respect differences, out of tolerance, if not real understanding. This 10cm is especially crucial for individuality and origination. Yet, I agree, on the other hand, punkies shall also learn for the same reason when their hair-gel sculpted hair will "influence" the others, and how... but not just banned for the difference. This is itself a valuable educational process which fixed syllabus cannot substitute I think.
The question is not what how long their dresses should be, but how and according what these rules are created, and more importantly, how they should be implemented, rigidly or in a suggestive manner. It's not a question of nurturing creativity or not, it's self-understanding and realization, 'cause fashion nowadays is
implanted under the skin where rules are merely lame. (Image: BMEZine.com via Wired News)
My Oxcar Winners
Top L: Best Actress (Drama) ...
Kearen PangTop R: Best Actress (Tragedy) ... Eno Yim
Bottom L: Best Actress (Thriller) ... Emi Cheng
Bottom R: Best Actress (Appetizer) ... Pollux Kwok
... from
Tree of Actions Named K Acknowledgements: Best Photographer ...
Jesse Wong (click for more)
Resurrect Creativity
HKICC will hold this creative workshop for F3-4 students this weekend. Obviously it has to do with the
School of Creativity. We have invited four artists to design and conduct the workshops: Jamsen Law on video (yes, he's back from Japan!), Siu King Chung on text and visualization, Amy Cheung on creative thinking and Ocean Chan on performing arts.
I made up the title "Creativity Resurrection Day" ("Easter" in Chinese) and composed this poster earlier but the colour version was never out. The design elements are from of the school brochure designed by Freeman Lau actually, except the pillow-head which I like a lot.
Sorry. The workshop is totally full - does not mean my blog post is lame, I hope.
Theatrical Mindfulness
Comparing
20 Beans with other more prominent groups and artists, Stephen Lam wrote in his
article on Economic Journal (and RTHK's web - where you may find the radio programme where Jessica and I talked about the Cattle Depot theatre season) that my approach of adopting Buddhist thoughts in theatre is more intellectual rather than actualizing, unlike
U-Theatre. Ultimately, I want both. If I merely want to "talk" about the philosophical concepts to the audience, what I need the best is a good script before I engaged performers. But so far the process of devising with the artists was definitely crucial for the process too. It's true however that we just talked, not meditated. And, a short period like months of preparation for a performance is merely not enough, for anything
really significant. Perhaps the real question is if I want the audience to understand relevant concepts just from the show, for once. If so, I
have to "sacrifice" something aesthetical, which I
could not yet... (so the problem is if I am through myself!)
There was a period when I tried to introduce some meditation-like methods at 20 Beans' workshops, like counting beans from a mug with chopsticks to help concentration, or various breathing exercises. Practice is important for Buddhism but meditation is not
more important than understanding the
dharma mindfully, e.g. how karma actually works.
In fact I was not 100% certain how I would treat the subjects when I conceived the long-term project. I wanted to put what I thought important in my life together, because they are already connected in my living experience... Call it an attempt, or a reflection on the 12 (or 1) concepts, and about people. Not just concepts, like the old 20 Beans, I hope.
Maybe I should not use any more the term "integration" (of theatre and Buddhism). If I have the chance, or a group like U, perhaps I would pay more attention to the kind of training of the artists (performers). I answered interviewers usually that I have to jump in connecting the philosophical idea(s) and the form (story, visuals, characters, etc.) right before the performance, though it seemed smoother in "Tree K" than in "Lightless Ring". This will be the starting point for the next, the third piece on consciousness.
