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Painting、Unpainting
Painting、Unpainting
Jan 3, 2004 - Feb 29, 2004
@1a space
Participating Artists﹕Chester Chu, Woody Lee, Alex Heung, Lee Kit
Please refer to the Chinese version.
Sculpture, Non-sculpture
Sculpture, Non-sculpture
April 17 2004 - May 16, 2004
@1a space
Participated artist: Chris Chan and Wong Wai Yin
Ho Siu-kee
Sculpture, non-sculpture, however, take it as a sculpture exhibition, it is more correspondingly suitable with dealing of sculpture.
It is apparently obvious that media and realms of art in the cross over spectrums has become the main characteristic in contemporary art of today, if we still overparticular about the independence and pure accomplished of one specific art media (for example, sculpture) some of those might consider is lagging behind. But sculpture, with an independent and substantial state, which can express itself well enough through its concept, choice of material and technical skills.
The best discussion to “Sculpture, Non-sculpture” will be focused on the “media” itself, not on a cross over basis, the main reason is to show you not only how the individual media can speak for its own stands, but also to prove that they are created and then further develop through interactions and colligation with other media. If we study from this point of view, it should be led to a subtle conclusion. On a contrary, the fact is too exaggerative, with simply idle talk of cross over media when relying no mastering on personality of a particular media.
The exhibition is basically divided into three main sessions. The first session Image Collection – Your Most Impressive sculpture, we really hope to hear different voices from the public standpoints through open recruitment, to guide us for further discussion. The next session moves into s fruitful dialogue with two participating artists, they give us a record of their experience along the process of creation, and share with us their own appreciation with “sculpture”. From there on we move to the last session, the exhibition itself, playing an important role to reverberate to the previous discussion.
There is a correspondingly strong identical view with Chris Chan and Wong Wai-yin on this media, and they are going to express their own account effectively through their works.
Chris Chan works with traditional technique of modelling, use foam rubber for massive duplication of his own head, and then filled up with seeds, piles of heads are placed inside a glass container – the human heads become a new media for the seeds to breed with its suggestion to review a process of evolution in life. Chan’s work came through the process of craftsmanship in the traditional sculpture form, but he brought to the role a highly capacity for subvert change, in a sensitive account to the traditional function of sculpture to review the process of craftsmanship through durable materials and silent forms.
Wong Wai-yin has a special interest to transform the bits and pits image from daily life into her art, with a slightly signal concept, her works enhance a state of liberation between real life and art. Not well-known objects for the traditional art form are used – plastic bags from the supermarkets, wrapping bags for food, promotional leaflets, newspapers… real objects are playing away and transform themselves into “graphic” painting, in which she has arranged for us according to the real environment in daily lives and re-install them into a three-dimensional sculpture. Some things might have been differently or done better with a dubious behaviour, for instance, in comparison with the traditional meaning of sculpture just to touch on its three-dimensional beauty.
I came to the conclusion that Sculpture. Non-Sculpture has no inclination to make a definition for sculpture, but with the exhibiting works and related discussions, what we actually hope for is a wider reflection on the media and other different possibilities must come.
visible sound | time machine Jun 29, 2004 - Jul 13, 2004
visible sound | time machine
Jun 29, 2004 - Jul 13, 2004
@1a space
Participating Artists﹕ Lau Ching Ping and Jolans Fung
Photography is no longer a reappearance of the reality only-it is also a mirror that reflects the intangible feeling of the heart
Photography is no longer simply a past tense only---it transcends the boundary of time and space, "recording the future", "looking forward to the past" and "recalling today".
Photography is no longer a silent "mute" record---it is also "a sound that could be seen", "an image that could be heard".
In this exhibition, two artists, namely, jolans fung and lau ching ping, were invited to present their photographic works. this exhibition is named as "visible sound | time machine", which was derived by incorporating the theme of jolan’s work named as "visible sound" and that of lau ching ping’s, which was known as "time machine". though both artists explored their own new realm in photography, but juxtaposing them in the same space would create an intriguing relationship. will their work trigger an inter-reactive thinking and dialogue, or will they be mutually contradictive and antagonistic?
The work of both jolans fung and lau ching ping was characterized by taking fragments of sensational scenes from daily life through the mechanical media of photography. also, by turning the things and events that happens in life into two-dimensional images, the possibilities inside and outside the images were further extended. the work of jolans fung struck a chord in our sensual world. through a lineal display of images and progressive images that are focused or out-focused, the silent striking noises were brought out. daily events could be "listened" to. the work of lau ching ping transcends the bondages of time and space. the scenes inside the images could stay evergreen, recording the "future scene", the scenes of the past could, on the contrary, remain the same. time was lost, no matter when they were viewed, the images invariably belongs to "today".
Artist Statement
Lau Ching Ping
today
Try to imagine if lost in space and time, would it be a most favourable way of soul escape that I ever wish for.
What I am saying about is the lost in time, year, nation, boundary and place. seriously, you might think that it is mere travelling in time machine! swaying through the past and future without boundaries of imagination. my knowledge told me that the past had wither and the truly the coming future not yet exist. glazing, mumbling, dreaming back and forth, the original me definitely stand still in time.
Travelling in time and space had already proven to be possible through scientific theory, and this has been my ultimate wish. regretfully enough, I haven’t had the luck to meet time traveller on earth from either the past or the future. I think selecting time travel destination is just as selecting the french wine, criterion would be the best vintage .
As time travel through exceeding light speed is remotely realistic, being with close contact with light and shadow, photography might be the most elementary steps to exchange heart and soul with time and space. our “present” might be the slowest way of walking through the future time machine.
Looking from the other galaxy, it’s would be a scenario of hundred of light years away. my vision of a patch of grass, a mist of cloud, a ferry boat, a flying bird, a bulb of light, a line of smoke, a straight line, a road, a dream. it’s today’s “present” personal privacy, or it should be regard as art museum genre : history/memory/society; nude/action/body; still life/object/real life; landscape/matter/environment. what time would weight is mere transparent light molecules slip away through our coarse fingers . with the most articulate vocabulary, it is just the withering sound of the light.
Jolans Fung
listening
When I saw a thought-provoking image, I would capture the picture
with it’s very own sound, whether it is silence or other association...,
that means, while we see, we also listen--- the visible sound
About the artists
Lau Ching Ping, lives in hong kong. works shown in various group shows, “city vibrance” and “contemporary hong kong art biennial 1992” in hong kong art museum. “contemporary photography from mainland china, hong kong and taiwan’ in hk arts centre (1994). hong kong fringe festival “on hong kong” contemporary photography (1998). co-editor of nunaheduo (dislocation) journal of photography.
Jolans Fung born in hong kong. graduated in ecole nationale supieure des beaux-arts of paris, france in 1990 with the board of examiners’ majority commendation. exchange student scholarship, chelsea school of art, london, u.k in 1988. the bundanon artist-in-residence program, australia teaching experience in 2000. solo exhibitions of “the world without faces”, hong kong in 1999. “the image of hong kong”, chapter 1, 1997. group exhibitions of “space in time in hong kong”, le french may in 1998, contemporary hong kong art biennial, “impressions of hong kong”, at confluences, paris, france in 1998. salon of montrouge, montrouge, france in 1992. salon of contemporary art, bagneux, france in 1991. osaka triennale 90-painting, osaka, japan in 1990. film super 8 at camera one, san jose, u.s.a and polaroid sx-70 at carrefour de la chine, paris, france in 1988. he is co-organizer, “12 hours in oil street” and “neither / or” in oil street in 1999 in hong Kong. co-curator of “instant / instinct” in z+, hong kong.
Writing Machine Collective Jul 11, 2004 - Aug 07, 2004
Writing Machine Collective
Jul 11, 2004 - Aug 07, 2004
@1a space
Writing Machine Collective
Participating Artists﹕ Linda Lai, Keith Lam, Ray Chan, Theresa Mikuria, Eva Lam , Zoie So, Suzannie Leung, Molly Siu, Janice Leung, Coco Ho, Eric Siu, Winnie Cho, Billy Li , Iris Tsang , Edith Yuen, Maggie Chan, KirqueLeung, Cheung Siu-hong, So Kim-hoo, Marvin Hui, Catherine Tai, Jeff Ng
When literature meets the machines…
The computer is not only a tool of creation. It is also a medium of exploration that can generate new and potentially unlimited possibilities. Eleven machines in Writing Machine Collective are going to help you break the boundaries of the established norms of literary creation and interpretation. Non-linear literature transforms every reader into an author able to collaborate with the computer.
“Writing Machine” is not a magic tool in Doraemon’s pocket. It will be concretely shown in front of you from 17th July to 7th Aug in 1a space, Cattle Depot. This is the first Writing Machine collective exhibition in Hong Kong, showcasing the works of new media artists from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong. Don’t miss this chance to explore the new frontiers of digital literature!
The exhibition is curated by Linda Lai and co-presented by 1a space, with financial support from the HKADC and technical support from the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.
Description
"Writing Machine" is a collective project of Electronic Arts comprising of eleven computer-programmed works. Taking narrative experimentation as its research goal, the project explores the contestable possibilities of cybertext . These works can be divided into two types:
1) The first is carefully conceived cybertexts designed to provide special writing adventures that reflect upon writing conventions as well as challenge everyday culture. As machines, these works invite simple rule-driven input that – via pre-programmed self-organization mechanism – results in complex behavior and surprises over time.
2) The second type of works is in the form of a prototype for a simple web-based authoring device, a smaller-scale “writing machine”, that allows content-filling as well as re-programming. This “mini writing machine” would provide visitors with an on-site opportunity to produce their own creative work.
The “writing machine” is an interactive cybertext on the computer platform. By cybertext, we mean the key issue in the entire work is to build a “thinking device,” in contrast with many existing computer-based interactive narratives, the focus of which is mainly on display and forward navigation to complete a set journey with set options. Critical of current practices in interactive narrative, the project engages with questions of web non-linearity, narrative constructed-ness, rule-driven creativity, as well as the principle of “emergence,” that is, complex behavior based on simple rules, which is also the core principle by which computers built and function.
This exhibition complies with the notion of “co-creativity” in current discussions of new media arts. “Co-creativity,” according to Linda Candy and Ernest Edmonds, encourages collaboration unprecedented in conventional art practices on three levels: between author and audience/viewer/user, between artist and technologists, and dialogue between art and technology in general.
Emomentless
Emomentless
13 Aug 2004 - 28 Aug 2004
@1a space
Participating Artists﹕Chan Kam-kwong, Hui Wai-keung Dick, LaiYee-man Alice and Yung Chun-Yin Jimmy
Four local artists, Chan Kam-kwong, Hui Wai-keung Dick, LaiYee-man Alice and Yung Chun-Yin Jimmy, will jointly hold an exhibition on "Emomentless" from August 13 (Friday) to August 28 (Saturday). Interested parities are welcome to visit.
The exhibition will be held at 1aspace, unit 14D, block C, Former Cattle Depot (now as Cattle Depot Artist Village), 63 Ma Tau Kok Road, To Kwa Wan, Kowloon, Hong Kong. The gallery will be opened from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. from Tuesday to Saturday and from 12:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Sunday and public holiday. The Gallery will be closed on Monday and the day after public holiday.
Interested parties are welcome to attend the opening reception on August 13 (Friday) at 7.00 pm at 1aspace, Cattle Depot Artist Village.
The exhibition will show interactive installations merging technology and art. Artists will use light and sound, displace motion, activate conscious being, and use this medium as a message to cultivate a moment, of the things that naturally exists in nature.
Exhibited works will include Un-, You and 01001001 are Tangled with Love and Hatred, You & Me and Unfolding 2:02 to Folding 5:05.
Trespassing Sep 03, 2004 - Sep 19, 2004
Trespassing
Sep 03, 2004 - Sep 19, 2004
@1a space
Trespassing - Digital Interaction, Interactive Media Works by Young Hay
Participating Artist﹕Young Hay
The upcoming exhibition "Trespassing - Digital Interaction" at 1a space, Cattle Depot Artist Village, will show a series of interactive media works by artist Young Hay. These works cross the boundaries between art and science technology, and reflect Young’s new researches on sensor-driven man-machine interface and interactive media art.
"Homage to Chuck Close", a work inspired by Close’s grid paintings, plays with Close’s structural representation of human portrait, and the exchangeability and mobility of digital integers. Making use of computer vision tracking and image analysis technologies, this interactive interface responds to user’s gesture with dislocation of the gridded human portrait.
Another piece, "Interactive Digital Graffiti", provides a large-scale interactive wall, upon which multiple users can collaborate to create music, make paintings, and interact with animated objects, all by simply touching the fabric wall with your hands, figures, body or any opaque objects. It is a novel human-computer interface based on a vision-based gesture tracking technology developed by Young Hay and computer engineer Tang Chi Chung. Via internet, the "Interactive Digital Graffiti" can enable audience from different places or cities to collaborate and create an audio-visual space which crosses the geographical boundaries.
The exhibition will also include other sensor-driven interactive multimedia works by Young Hay. These works will move to Shanghai in late September and exhibit in the Shanghai Biennale 2004. Some works have also been invited to show in the ICAT 2004 (14th International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence) held in Seoul, Korea, in November.
In search of Insomnious Sheep
In Search of Insomnious Sheep
Oct 01, 2004 - Oct 09, 2004
@1a space
“In Search of Insomnious Sheep” Multimedia Installation by Leung Mee Ping
Participating Artist﹕ Leung Mee Ping
Art, The Black Sheep in a Topsy-Turvy World
Artist Leung Mee Ping, besides attaining various foreign exhibitions, is also prolific in executing various self-initiated long term projects, these however make it really difficult for people to trace her intriguing oeuvre. Without forgetting her local viewers, before setting her little mirror-mounted boat off to San Diego, Leung decides to exhibit this new piece of hers in two different local settings. First part program is out on the sea (for audience to either watch from a distance on another yacht, or get actually on the little boat one at a time) near Tai Mei Tuk in September, and then second part in 1a Space at Cattle Depot during October. The two part activities provide the viewers a dialectical comprehension of the vary (re)presentations of the work in its two different settings. Even if you don’t take art that seriously, having a scenic boat trip during the weekend and stay close to nature is surely already a good enough excuse to partake in this art trip.
In her recent solo exhibitions, the titles (such as "Memorizing the Future", "Watertone") seem to be more and more explicit in conveying her artistic view centered around the "double paradox", "In Search of Insomnious Sheep" seems to be more narrative at first sight, but it is still engaging with her continual struggle with truth alright. In the Hong Kong Biennial last year, Leung has already curated her own three works to form the "Trilogy of Insomnious Sheep", tackling similar question zooming in and out different representations of reality. But not content with peeping through the three holes (as Little Prince did) of the triology’s black box, Leung always chose to lift the box, even just to confirm the sheep simply not there.
Hence, we are invited to join in the present search. But if any viewers think spotting the boat is the game to play, therefore indicating the boat must be the lost sheep, seeking it not on land but on sea perhaps worth us to give it another thought. With the mirrored effect of the boat on the sky-mirrored sea, "Insomnious Sheep" might not be referring to any actual sheep suffering from insomnia, but the fictive sheep we imagine for to overcome our own insomnia. Getting on to the little boat and let drift in the sea alone, certainly will force you to reflect the question in more psychoanalytic depth. Whether you are content to muse about the work without leaving your philosophical chair, or satisfy being on the yacht witnessing and listening to another person’s account of his/her experience on the boat, or simply determine to get on the boat to experience the piece by oneself, Leung is already eroding the solid ground underneath the spectators ("theoros") and dissolving your safety distance of "theoria" contemplation.
Aftershock
Aftershock
Oct 12, 2004 - Oct 27, 2004
@1a space
Participating Artists﹕Leslie Adams, Sharon Leahy, Emi Avora, Mark Pearson, Simon Clarks, Claire Pestaille, Matt Golden, Hana Pham, Alison Handy, Simiko Seki, Carol Ho, Joanna Whittle
Not too long ago, when photography and video art were popular, painting was scornfully dismissed as unfashionable are obsolete. “ Painting is dead”, was once an accepted but prejudicial view to the practice of painting.
The art role limelight has cast away from painting; however, painting does not die yet. There are artists react to the challenge of painting to provide that it is a medium still worth to be explored.
The aim of this exhibition is to show the diverse works of a group of young artists ( all graduates of the Royal College of Art, Royal Academy and Universities for the Arts London, England) Who approach painting with a new attitude to explore old questions of painting and try to find new resolutions. The content of their works are all different and incorporate, in varying degrees, abstraction , figuration, landscape and conceptualism. Yet, far from contradiction each other, their works complement and respond to each other in ways that demonstrate the variety of direction which are now possible for those of us who have faith and contemporary ”pluralist” painting.
This exhibition will not only show how each individual artist negotiates his or her particular problem in the painting arena, it will also, by its broad overview, demonstrate to the viewer the new “anything goes and everything is up for grabs “approach to painting which has given it renewed vigor viability.
Cattle Depot Book Fair 2004
Cattle Depot Book Fair 2004 – 'The Practice of Hongkongness'
Nov 4, 2004 - Nov 8, 2004
@1a space
Cattle Depot Book Fair 2004 is definitely more than just another book fair! This year, we will take you to an in-depth discussion of a topic that concerns all of us: the values of hong Kong’s living style. Better still, the Book fair has put in extra flavours of art, which will give all lovers of art and literature a real treat.
HongKongness as Seen through Local values
Since the handover, Hong Kong has gone into a post-colonial period which does not really shake off its shackles as a colony. We have encountered the Asian financial crisis, plagues caused by chickens and the human beings, and public discontents that are results of the unfair political system, mass demonstrations, and radio phone-in programme disputes. We have experienced the downturn of SARS, two July 1st people’s marches, and a ‘clean but unfair’ LEGCO election of September 12th. Residents of the city appear to have died once, lived again, and are now ready again for another death. The theory “2004 is really the beginning of 1997” has emerged, which realizes that our merge with our mother country is either a glass of bitter wine, or an amnesiac drink we must gulp in order to forget.
The government continues to brag about the building of a ‘Big Hong Kong’, even after its numerous failures and setbacks since the handover. The spirit of perseverance enchanted in the song “Under the Lion Rock” has been repeatedly championed, but in the course of time rhetoric changes from an encouragement into a comedy and finally a tragedy. Life moves on, though we have never been in such a state of confusion we are also determined to get out of it.
At the time of transition, there was a heated discussion surrounding local culture and the need of establishing a unique identity for ourselves. However, after frustrations that spanned three years and then another three years, this ‘cultural imagination’ has very much run out of steam. Reality is, as ever, crueller and more satirical than theory. But now, in an autumn when intellectual thinking is changing rapidly, the issues of our identity and the value of Hong Kong’s lifestyle are once again tabled for serious discussion.
What is Hong Kong spirit? Is there really something called “HongKongness”? what are the fundamentals that make Hong Kong as it is now? What are the core values of Hong Kong actually? Freedom? Democracy? Or is it the inexhaustible workaholic? How about the solidarity and willingness to sacrifice oneself for the community that shone during the SARS epidemic? And the remarkable self-discipline displayed during the mass demonstrations? Should we also include the hyperactive but mindless ‘follow the Joneses’ pursuits? Or the one-dimensional commercialist culture?
‘Living the Hong Kong Values’ will be the theme of Cattle Depot Book Fair 2004. There will be a series of activities, including a thematic book exhibition, many talks and several workshops. It is our hope that they can help you to think about this important question.
Writers-in-Residence and Thematic Discussions
Last year we had Lo Wei Luen, Ping Lu and Leung Ping Kwan, this year we have invited another three famous authors to be the writers-in-residence of Cattle Depot Book Fair 2004. Professor Leo Oufan Lee has shown great interest in Hong Kong for a long time, and has studied many aspects of life in this city. He has examined how Hong Kong people have behaved from a state of confusion regarding their identities, to a submission of their citizenship in the Special Administration Region. Professor Lee’s work also focuses on Hong Kong’s cinema, media, education, cultural policies, ‘Hong Kong people’ and their humanities.
Dr. Chan Wan’s interests range from critiques of astrology to debates about educational reforms, from populism to art policies, which he all watches very closely and carefully. He has published his views in numerous essays, urging us to rethink and reflect. Mr. Gus Chiu Yu Mok is an action man. He works vigorously to motivate the public, using his body, language and different art forms to persuade us to express our opinions of the society.
The three writer-in-residence will take different approaches to lead out discussions of ‘Living the Hong Kong Values’. ‘One Way Road with Leo Oufan Lee’ is a field study workshop headed by Professor Leo Oufan and Mr. Leung Man Tao. Following Walter Benjamin’s flaneurist survey of Parisian arcades, they will guide you to tour from the Pacific Square to the Time Square, a culturally multifaceted route that surely has much to inspire you.
Dr. Chan Wan will host a ‘Chan Wan Cultural Ring’ that invites you to engage a wrestle of ideas nad rhetoric. You can discuss any topic that you want! Thorough with his long-time approach, Mr. Gus Chiu Yu Mok will assist you to produce a booklet of ‘My Values of Living’ in the ‘DIY Bookmaking Workshop’. You can show the world how you think about the values of living.
There will be many more programmes at the book fair that further explore our theme of ‘Living the hong Kong Values’. Mr. Ma Kwok Ming will use it as the theme of his presentation, Dr. Chan Wan, Dr. Kwan Kai Man and Dr. Leung Foon will host a seminar that investigates ‘Value: Formation and Foundations’, and the Hong Kong Film Critic Society will organize a forum on ‘Hong Kong’s Living Values as Expressed in the Hong Kong Cinema’.
Flying Library Nov 04, 2004 - Nov 23, 2004
Flying Library
Nov 04, 2004 - Nov 23, 2004
@1a space
Flying Library, The Culture of Books: Signs and Concepts
Participating Artist﹕Kum Chi-keung
With the success and ratifying responses for Cattle Depot Book Fair 2003, co-presented by 1a space, Zuni Icosahedron & various local cultural workers, Cattle Depot Book Fair 2004, bearing the theme "The Practice of HongKongness", is scheduled on 4th till 8th November, 2004 with different events and functions like workshops, school tours, seminars & music performances, to name but a few.
"The Culture of Books: Signs and Concepts" is an exhibition 1aspace organizes to elaborate the concept of reading. In this exhibition, visual artist - Kum Chi-keung is invited to produce work that links books and words with visual arts, and his installation of "flying-books" will thereby opening for the visitors rooms of imagination and infinite spaces of creativity.
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