Historians are better at guessing and they are hopeless at defining, but they argue a lot. I guess that defines me as an architectural and art historian. :)
Friday, 30 October 2009
飯
就在這個‘我很骯髒’的念頭剛剛要浮出來的時候,我想起了這個暑假在日本農村裡婆婆們煮給我們吃的飯,一對每天和土壤接觸的手煮出來的飯,或許會使飯更有一種土地的味道。
希望我明天不會肚子疼吧。
Thursday, 1 October 2009
From Scotland
Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Battle of the Ancients and Moderns
Monday, 21 September 2009
Jamie Cullum has a blog!
Saturday, 19 September 2009
《惘然記》
Sunday, 13 September 2009
A few words before leaving
Friday, 11 September 2009
重拾舊愛
Saturday, 5 September 2009
A Cute Devil
Friday, 28 August 2009
左右互搏系列一
左右互搏系列一
在西北的旅途上聽了劉若英的《後來》很多遍。
很想為我的過去道歉,傷了她人的心。
我不能說我沒有任何的後悔,但更甚的或許是說不出的懷念。
年少時,很多的東西都沒想透,也說不清。
現在可以做的就是默默送上祝福,希望遠方的妳想起的是年少無知時那天真的臉孔。
我,會繼續天真下去的。
俗語有云:「真小人,偽君子。」
用現代的話講,《公主復仇記》裏面有說:「男人有兩種,一種是仆街,一種是扮皇子的仆街。」
而我就這樣輕描淡寫的原諒了自己。
二零零九年八月二十七號甘肅路上
左右互搏系列
左右互搏系列
人越大,腦筋痴了越多線,發現自己的衣服和世界一樣不只是黑和白。
左腦的理智跟右腦的浪漫常常打仗,心裏面也找不到一個肯定的答案,沒有答案的問題像搞研究一樣,一篇論文嘗試回答問題後卻往往在結尾提出更多的問題。從而產生更多更多更多的問題。
左右互搏系列裡想寫的可能是一些毋寧兩何的事情,也可以是自我瞭解,自我反省的過程,更有可能的是自打嘴巴的文章。
講到底,只是找一個藉口,為自己的胡說八道,留下一點點胡思亂想的記憶。
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Thoughts before another journey
Friday, 14 August 2009
Monday, 3 August 2009
Unintentional Time Capsule
from a rice field with contemporary art to a city without much, if any, public art;
found myself sleeping in my old bed but in a new home;
had my first ever all nighter karaoke in Hong Kong with new friends right after a class reunion of seventy something friends I've known for more than 10 years;
I'm now sitting in front of a new room with the same monitor, same table, same chair, same keyboard, same speaker, same mouse, same standing light, but new room with finishings I have never seen in my life.
New height, new orientation, cars and birds singing from behind my head instead of to my right. Light penetrating from unfamiliar angles onto a furniture I've seen for 10 years but now seems all too alien.
People are prepared to get lost when they travel to new places, I was not prepared for myself to get lost in my own home.
As I continue to stumble around in this thing called 'home', I found a green ipod mini from 5 years ago and is once again trapped in a world of alien familiarity, of a reconstructed memory of long gone times, flashes of people who have stayed and who have gone.
A new Bose headphones that was lent and returned plugged into an old green ipod mini that was lost and found.
Please don't ask me what happened in that foriegn land, I am still living in one.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Off focus
Saturday, 20 June 2009
4/6/2009 Japan Trip Day 1 (Blue Note Tokyo)
Located right next to Frank Lloyd Wright's Imperial Hotel, the hotel I stayed (which name I have already forgotten) at was built last year. It had a comfortable lobby with a very smart metal stand for you to put your bag on while you do your check in and check out at the reception.
First meal in Tokyo was a combination of sashimi combo and Shabu Shabu. There were altogether 5 hungry adults, so I could not take the risk of leisurely taking photos of the beef.
Blue Note Tokyo, it originated in Harlem, New York. However, this is a much cleaner, smoke free, less mystified and reserved Japanese version of the jazz club. Being a total outsider with regards to serious jazz. I only know that the main act was a famous jazz drummer who was turning 84. And he sure blew our minds off with his energy and creativity.
People talk about cultural shock in Japan, what comes to mind is the lack of English skills and different customs.Used to being in places where I cannot speak the local dialect, language difference did not pose a big threat to my system. My first feeling of culture shock struck me when I walked into the shower of my hotel room. What better (or worse) culture shock can there be when the most intimate and private act of the day had to be altered from a standing position in shower into a sitting position in showering. It actually makes sense to sit down when one showers, but it took some time to adjust to this culture.
And the all too famous toilet seat that washes your bottom after you finish your business.
My second culture shock hit me when I had to change into the Yukata (Japanese sleeping gown / summer dress). Again, culture shock infiltrating into the most intimate part of a person's daily habits.
Pseudo Zen garden outside Imperial Hotel. Do we have time to think about thinking within the setting of a metropolis?
Saturday, 13 June 2009
情緒是不等人的
Saturday, 6 June 2009
'What is art?'
Saturday, 2 May 2009
The early bird catches the worm
In the wee small hours of the morning
While the whole wide world is fast asleep
You lie awake and think about the girl
And never ever think of counting sheep
When your lonely heart has learned its lesson
Youd be hers if only she would call
In the wee small hours of the morning
Thats the time you miss her most of all
Monday, 27 April 2009
Sunday, 26 April 2009
愛自己
There's a hero if you look inside your heart
You don't have to be afraid of what you are.
There's an answer if you reach into your soul
and the sorrow that you know will melt away
And then a hero comes along
with the strength to carry on
and you cast your fears aside
and you know you can survive.
yeah yeah
So, when you feel like hope is gone
look inside you and be strong
and you'll finally see the truth
that a hero lies in you.
It's a long road when you face the world alone;
No one reaches out a hand for you to hold.
You can find love if you search within your self
and the emptiness you felt will disappear.
And then a hero comes along
with the strength to carry on
and you cast your fears aside
and you know you can survive.
So, when you feel like hope is gone
look inside you and be strong
and you'll finally see the truth
that a hero lies in you.
oh....Lord knows dreams are hard to follow,
But don't let anyone tear them away.
Just Hold on, there will be tomorrow,
In time you'll find the way
And then a hero comes along
with the strength to carry on
and you cast your fears aside
and you know you can survive.
So, when you feel like hope is gone
look inside you and be strong
and you'll finally see the truth
that a hero lies in you
that a hero lies in ... you
mmmm that a hero lies in.....you.
還是愛自己比較簡單,比較安全。
Saturday, 25 April 2009
Friday, 24 April 2009
找自己
亂,靜。
想,思,
忘,愛。
跑步跟尋找自己一樣,每一個人都懂,每一個人都會。
你沒有隊友,沒有指引,只有心中的一條路。
它是最簡單的運動,也是最難的運動。
你有一千個理由放棄,只有一個理由繼續,
就是要贏自己的過去。
是時後到外面走一走了。
Thursday, 23 April 2009
Tuesday, 21 April 2009
Monday, 20 April 2009
Saturday, 11 April 2009
History
...but when it comes to my own history, my own development, my own progression, my rationality is clouded in a heavy mist of uncertainties...
George Santayana once said, 'The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again".
I never thought I would come to this today, because if I did, I would have chosen a different path many years ago. Is this history repeating itself, or am I have a revolution with myself?
Regardless, I hear birds singing through the morning air and the music continues to loop.
Sunday, 22 March 2009
When did we lose our child like ability to see the world?
I'm responsible for looking at societies' response to it's construction and development over all these years since it's finishing in 1986.
I came across this article and it made me wonder why art and architecture had to be imbued with all these complex ideologies in order to have depth and culture. When did we begin to feed ourselves with the notion that because it has many folds of complexity and implicit meanings, that is what makes it beautiful and deeply mysterious?
A child never thinks like that. The world is beautiful in its own right no matter the colour, form or subject matter. Here's the opening sentence to the article:
"I picked up my niece at Vienna International Airport wondering what I would do with her. She is 22 years old, on her first visit to Vienna, and isn't interested in anything. You probably have relatives like this."
Which made me think a lot about why adults struggle so hard to find interesting things to do with people a generation below them. (It's not just Macdonald's Happy Meal / a playground or a concert that serves a growing child's burst of imaginative creativity, is it?)
It also reminded me of a TED video on "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" that mw urged me to watch awhile ago.
The article ended with this sentence:
"Even my niece was drawn to this magical place, waking up in surprise from her sleepy life to discover that there was at least one museum she actually liked."
Is it time architects go back to basics and think about how our inner childs look at buildings of tomorrow?
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
My begging and Art HK09
Art HK 09: Hong Kong International Art Fair Announces This Year's Exhibitor List
Hong Kong International Art Fair announced that 110 of the world’s leading galleries from 24 countries will exhibit at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) from 14-17 May (Preview and Vernissage 13 May).
New participants for 2009 include Tomio Koyama, White Cube, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE and Galleria Continua, as well as Lisson Gallery and Gagosian Gallery. Antony Gormley and Anish Kapoor will both be present, alongside leading Asian artists such as Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang and Jitish Kallat. This year, ART HK 09 is also pleased to introduce ART FUTURES, an initiative to enable galleries under five years old to showcase one or two emerging artists and to encourage a presence of fresh, exciting new work at the Fair.
In addition to being the leading platform for buying art in the region, ART HK provides a much needed focal point for the art world in Asia for networking and discourse between curators, artists, collectors and critics.
Asia Art Archive will present a series of thought-provoking programmes with some of the leading experts and practitioners in the field. Backroom Conversations will include panel discussions, talks and screenings that touch on a number of prevalent issues, and offer a first-hand look into the contemporary art world today. Speakers include: Vasif Kortun, Director of Platform Garanti Contemporary Art Center, Istanbul; Frances Morris, Permanent Collections Curator, Tate Modern; and Uli Sigg, collector of Chinese contemporary art.
Guided Tours will be available in both English and Cantonese organised by Para/Site Art Space.
Whether you are a seasoned collector, thinking of buying for the first time, or just keen to be part of one of the most significant cultural events in the international art calendar, we look forward to welcoming you to ART HK 09.
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=29603
Monday, 16 March 2009
Why there will never be total equality between men and women
1) Men can get pregnant.
2) Men are not allowed to be topless / when women are allowed to be topless in public.
3) Women will open the door for men and it does not appear strange. (and the whole idea of being a gentleman for the ladies is discarded)
On a side note, you know how you always get people saying oh American English is for dumb people and they use simple words and phrases. That thought just came to me and then I realised why. Because traditionally, it began as a cultural melting pot. And you have people from all over the world with English as their second language. So the natural evolution of language will find its course along the most simplistic means. If you compare that to the evolution of British English which is used by native speakers for thousands of years, of course it has a much more complex system.
I bet somebody has found that out already, just that I've never read that article yet.
Why do people visit museums (6 theories)
Why museums have become our home from home
People are visiting our galleries and museums at a startling rate. Is it the cafés, the absence of swearing... maybe even the art?
Hugo RifkindWhy do people go to museums? It's not easy to find out. Frankly, there's a lot of waffle. I've spent the past week in them, trotting up to people and saying: “According to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, museum and gallery attendance is rocketing in Britain. Why are you here?” Everybody is polite, because people always are in museums and galleries, but nobody really knows. “I was interested in the exhibition,” they might say, not all that helpfully. Or, “the kids like it”. It's hard, at first, to see the thread. People go for all sorts of reasons. Or so they think.
A friend and I, for example, once went to the Saatchi Gallery, drunk, to understand how our other friend Jez had ruined his shoes. He'd been a few weeks before, also drunk, and he'd blundered into Richard Wilson's 20:50. Do you know it? Big room full of reflective engine oil, with a walkway down the middle. Totally disorientating. Amazing. Jez had flailed around, bewildered, and scooped the stuff on to his feet. Art all over his Nikes. We went to see if we could replicate it. It sounded, like, mind-expanding. Hey, we were students.
It turns out that this was actually a very old-fashioned way to behave. According to the various histories of museums into which I have delved (Giles Waterfield's Palaces of Art is particularly good on this), I was buying into the German Romantic idea of the museum as a temple, in which the visitor “should enjoy a quasi-mystical experience”. Sounds about right. None of the many museum-goers to whom I spoke in the past week was doing anything like this. So, here's theory No1: museum numbers are up, because, quite suddenly, museums aren't much like museums.
I've a few theories to come, but this one makes a lot of sense. It certainly does in Liverpool, which, as 2008's EU Capital of Culture, saw museum and gallery attendances soar by something like 400 per cent.
“We decided to take a real look at the audience,” says Phil Redmond, who was the creative director of Liverpool 2008 and also, just so it clicks, the guy who created Grange Hill, Brookside and Hollyoaks. He says: “If you have people who are used to bright and breezy entertainment with TV, you have to make the venues a lot more bright and breezy too. You make them more kid-friendly. Have a kid zone. Education workshops. Follow the dinosaur prints.”
Redmond adds that you need to balance this with the ability for people to sit quietly in museums and reflect, and that some things should be family-friendly and some perhaps not. It's notable, though, that when it comes to attendances, family-friendly is what works. Consider: Tate Liverpool (bright, breezy) up 67 per cent; Merseyside Maritime Museum (likewise) up 69 per cent; The Lady Lever Art Gallery (austere, heavyweight) down 16 per cent.
You could call theory No1 the “dumbing down” theory, only none of the punters I met was dumb. There was Sean Barron, the bar manager from Brighton, who was up to see the Picasso exhibition at the National Gallery and was “particularly pleased to see Picasso's interpretation of the Las Meninas” because he liked the Velásquez original. There was the Carter/House/Downing family from Woking and surrounds, all three generations, who were in the British Museum only because little Abigail, 8, was doing a project on the Egyptians, but knew their stuff about the mummies and had been to St Albans the other week when she was studying the Romans.
Quite un-dumb, in fact, which allows me to sluice neatly into theory No2, as expounded by the likes of Melvyn Bragg, the broadcaster, and Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum. This is what you might call the “dumbing up” theory. In other words, museum numbers are up because people are getting cleverer.
There's a lot to be said for this. This is the Britain where everybody loves watching Stephen Fry on QI, and more people listen to Radio 4 than Radio 1. “There is a huge desire,” MacGregor says, “to understand and to address complexity, and to spend the time that it takes to do so.” For the museum's Babylon exhibition (which ends tomorrow), the average dwell-time was an hour. For Hadrian, it was an hour and 40 minutes. For the current exhibition on Shah Abbas, it is about an hour and a half. It is not true, MacGregor says, that we live in an era of dropping attention spans.
Nicholas Kenyon, formerly the controller of the Proms and now managing director of the Barbican, reckons that there is something very British about the pace of a museum: “There is something in our culture that is free-flowing. People can take as long as they want.” He notices it particularly, he says, coming from a background in the performing arts.
The British Museum, perhaps, sits bang in the centre of competing notions about what a museum should be. There are cafés and a restaurant, and it's certainly family-friendly. But there's a dose of mystery here, too. In Liverpool, Redmond insisted that the whole point of collections is that “they are there to contextualise our past”. We have to view them, he said, “in terms of the stories they can tell. People often think that collections themselves are the point, and don't need to be explained.”
This sits uneasily with more oldfashioned notions of custodianship, which many still feel is the purpose of a museum. Still, he has a point. I thought of his words when I went through to the Duveen Gallery to see the Elgin Marbles and hunted in vain for a sign to told me that, yes, these actually were the Elgin Marbles.
I walked through the V&A on a Monday afternoon, and in some sections - South- East Asia, Japan, European Textiles - I didn't see a soul. This is your proper quasi-mystical museum experience. Take your German Romantic friends, if you have any. They'll love it. To stand alone in half-light on a polished floor, staring up at a 16thcentury tapestry of men with crazy beards, lambs in armour and a soldier shaking the hand of a bear is a bewildering experience. You can feel the ticking in your head. It's not what crowds want. The V&A was down last year by 15 per cent - although perhaps that's because they did so well the year before with the Kylie exhibition.
You might be alone, but you don't worry about getting mugged. The V&A says that it rarely has more than a couple of security incidents a year. The National Gallery is bang on Trafalgar Square, but even they need to kick people out only every couple of months. That brings me to theory No3. Museum numbers are up because museums are safe. “They attract only a certain type of person, let's face it,” says Margaret Child, 79, from Essex, visiting the National with a group of older ladies and then heading off to see Sunset Boulevard: “In any museum, do you ever hear the F-word? You hear it up and down every high street. In the cafeteria, all ages, all denominations, no one swearing.”
I meet Debbie Norton and Sarah O'Connell, both from Haringey, in the Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green, which is part museum, part playground. They are with their respective two-year-olds, Jessie and Leila. “It's a safe space to play,” Debbie says: “We can have something to eat, they can entertain themselves.” Sarah says that the kids can run off and she can wait a minute or two before having to chase them. “It's also safe as in health-and-safety safe,” she says. In Tate Modern, I was struck by the number of disabled folk in buggies.
Aside from me and my drunk friends, people really do behave themselves in museums. Redmond jokes that this is because there is “more security per square metre than anywhere else on Earth”. He agrees, though, that there is something about museums that people respect. Neil MacGregor , at the British Museum, agrees. “The Great Court has become London's village green,” he says. “It's where you bring the children. It's where you meet a friend. It's the space that belongs to everyone.”
Free entry has a huge amount to do with this. That should probably be Theory 4, the credit-crunch theory. People are going to museums because museums are free. Most of Britain's biggest museums have been free for years, but, as MacGregor puts it, it's the rhetoric of free admission since 2001 that has had an impact, as much as the fact. When the Tory culture spokesman, Hugo Swire, spoke of reintroducing entry charges in 2007 there was national uproar, and a few months later David Cameron sacked him.
When I asked Redmond his best tip for getting people into museums, he snorted and said “create a recession”. Everybody going to a museum approves of free entry, even if (and this is the crucial bit) they are then paying extra to see a special exhibition, such as Picasso at the National (£12.50) or Shah Abbas at the British Museum (£12). Free admission to museums has given the public a sense of ownership over them. This ties into Theory1, and the way that many museums no longer feel like somebody else's country house. They feel like they are ours.
And so to Theory5. They're coming thick and fast now, these theories, but this, I think, is my favourite. People are flocking to museums because museums are the best public space we have. Britain is too secular to value its churches and too divorced from local governance to give a damn about town halls. Schools are not the social hubs they once were. Museums fill a gap.
All the other theories, I reckon, trickle into this one. Museums are as much about activities, these days, as collections. Debates at the British Museum. DJs at the Royal Academy. The Museum of Childhood, as discussed, being used as a playpark. In East London, galleries stay open late every Thursday, as nightlife. The V&A does the same on Fridays. Cafés. Restaurants. Places to go.
The National Wool Museum in Wales had 24,344 visitors last year. That's a bad Saturday morning for the British Museum, but it is 11 per cent up on last year. Ann Whittall, the museum's manager, tells me why. “We've got a very successful family trail,” she says. “The Woolly Trail. It helps families to understand what they are seeing. It's interactive and you get thread at the end. We've a café that sells local produce, and mills. We're 16 miles north of Carmarthen, so in the winter we rely on our local audience. We have a carol concert and a craft fair at Christmas time. We have a knitting club, and nursery groups meet here, too.”
That's almost every theory, in a single tiny package. See how they all work? Only the German Romantics need feel left out.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article5901145.ece
Saturday, 14 March 2009
六四大和解, Will it happen this year?
「六四和解不應受害者提出」
王丹回應放下對立建議
【明報專訊】今年是「六四事件」20周年紀念,作家戴晴早前表示現在是時候尋求「大和解」,讓中共與民運人士放低對立,但當年的學生領袖王丹形容要求事件受害者提出和解實屬「可笑」:「打傷了人,還要受傷一方提出和解,哪有這種事情?」他說:「我有我的底線——我可以和解,但絕不可能是由我提出來。當下還未見到任何東西,讓我可接受和解。」
去 年於美國哈佛取得博士銜的王丹,今年到英國牛津大學聖安東尼學院作一年的博士後研究。英國時間周五下午,王丹在牛津舉行了一場主題圍繞六四的演講。他表 示,當年的學生運動主要爭取反貪腐,相信透過政治改革尋求民主政體,是達到目的之唯一方法,即使現在回看,他仍然相信當年確是中國展開和平民主演變的契 機,但「六四的崩塌,不單只代表極權的勝利,還有貪腐的勝利」。
中國留學生﹕民主保證得了我的學費?
演講會吸引了近300名 學生和各地學者,擠滿現場座位之餘,有人更要坐在梯級,聽眾一般對中國學生當年表現予以肯定,也有來自內地的學生持不同意見,有年輕的博士生問王丹:「中 國為什麼需要民主?餵飽13億人並不容易,若我選了你,你能保證我的父母有能力支付我來這裏讀書的學費嗎?」個別中國學生隨即報以掌聲,王丹回應說:「人 除了吃飯以外還要有尊嚴,民主就像讓你到超市購物可以有選擇,我認為中國人配得上選擇。」
席上亦討論到近20年經濟上的「中國奇蹟」,成為 中共領導迴避民主改革的藉口,被問到目前更複雜的利益關係會否成為政治改革的阻力,王丹說,內地目前的問題比1989年之時還要複雜,一場金融危機令到千 萬計的民工失去工作,無論在農村或城市都無法維生。他雖然預期未來難以再出現由學生發起的民主運動,但壓力有可能會來自老百姓、農民工甚或是退休軍人,「他們對政府的訴求是具大的,這問題胡溫和中共領導肯定比我更緊張,因為他們比我更掌握問題所在」。
不寄望現領導平反六四
王丹說,無論對現屆領導人或下屆領導人,都不旨望他們會平反六四或推動民主改革,「我們把希望放在趙紫陽、朱鎔基、胡錦濤和溫家寶,但只能換來一次又一次的失望……(中國還未具備民主條件?)你看香港,有穩定和龐大的中產階級,為何2007年還不肯讓他們普選?」他說,現在只對習近平、李克強之後、曾經歷六四的一代抱有一點希望。
對 於另一經歷民運的作家戴晴早前接受訪問時提出仿效南非模式的大和解方案,通過調查真相讓雙方放下對立,王丹認為不可能由受害一方提出,「他們(中共)強, 我們(民運人士與家屬)弱,怎可能要受害的一方先提出和解?」、「我可以接受和解,但不可能由我先提出,亦要有和解的條件,讓流亡人士回國,讓受難者家屬 得到賠償。」他又說,即使現在提出和解,亦不會得到中共實際回應。
對於中國民主改革,王丹一再強調要保持「由下而上」的壓力,他寄望近年在內地冒起的公民社會能夠發揮作用,迫使政府必須變革,呼籲西方社會支持中國民間社會和非政府組織發展。由於香港曾拒絕王丹入境,王丹表示,在牛津完成研究後,計劃返回美國求職。
特約記者 羅永聰 英國牛津報道
Friday, 13 March 2009
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Watch it if you want to be moved to tears
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Here's some background information
And my brother's reaction to it
Monday, 9 March 2009
How art killed our culture
The modern world has screwed itself and art led the way.
But even if we agree or partially agree to his observations, it will take a monumental force to change our perception. Which is way I have faith in Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial... and more Echigo Tsumari Art Triennal.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
BBC: Child Drawings of Darfur
The International Criminal Court is accepting supporting evidence of children's drawings of the alleged crimes committed in Darfur. This sketch by Abdul Maggit depicts a typical scene of destruction.
Rights group Waging Peace collected the drawings from refugees in Chad. Abduljabbar's picture shows someone being thrown into a fire and a soldier who appears to be cutting off a man’s head.
This picture by Mohamat shows another village attack. Next to each civilian who has been shot is the word "Morts", which means dead people in French.
Mohammed's drawing shows Janjaweed militia in two pick-up trucks using machine guns on civilians. He also shows a tank. The Sudanese government has always denied using heavy artillery in Darfur.
Adam, 15, shows shot civilians' bodies being tossed into the river. On the back of the drawing, he wrote: "Look at these pictures carefully, and you will see what happened in Darfur. Thank you."
Ismael, also 15, drew a Sudanese helicopter bombing his village, torching houses and killing civilians and a donkey. He said the armed men on horseback were Janjaweed.
Bakhid was eight years old when he saw his village being attacked and burned by Janjaweed forces on horse back and Sudanese forces in vehicles and tanks.
One young artist named Aisha said: "It is very kind to send us food, but this is Africa and we are used to being hungry. What I ask is that you please take the guns away from the people who are killing us."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_pictures/7923247.stm
Stokes Croft in Bristol
Dims: 100w x 81h
Aerosol Stencil on canvas discarded from Jamaica Street Artist Studios.
Artist: Deborah Weymont
I don't think John Lennon saw that coming....
Helicopters over China
Dims: 73w x 45h
Aerosol and Paint over Other Artist's Work
Artist: Kit Merryfield
SOLD: £44
Western army helicopters over Chinese landscape painting.... hmmmm.. I bet they are just doing humanitarian aids.
Monday, 2 March 2009
The Future of Dating
Courtesy from http://eatthewholebuffalo.blogspot.com/
Friday, 27 February 2009
Comments to Hong Kong Town Planning Board (on Former Central Police Station Complex)
First a big thank you to the team who was involved in this project, not only is this about the project, but also about starting a new chapter (or perhaps, the beginnings of the book) of conservation in Hong Kong.
I think it is essential that with the argument of sustainable development, the essential aesthetic, architectural, historical, engineering fabrics should be kept intact. Because, to me, these are the essence that will make people understand / create new dialogs based on the significance in the past. Future uses of these 'fabrics' must respect and relate to these 'fabrics'. If this is not done appropriately, we are left with the facade of a historical building, but no core value or essence that will tell the story of its past or of Hong Kong's past.
With such concerns in mind, in my opinion, it is essential that the building height of the new building in planning should have a height restriction. The argument for this is that the reason why this new building exists is because of the old existing building.
If we look at this plan as a movie / a song, the new building should be supporting artist to reveal the core value or essence of the main artist as well as the plot of the movie / movement of the song. If the supporting artist performs well, it would mean that he / she has done his / her best to be a supporter.
If he / she takes over the main artist, then he/she is not performing his/her task as a supporting role. This will create a discord and disrupt the harmony of the film / song. And the audience will be left in confusion as to which narrative they should follow.
Here's the link to their website:
http://www.centralandwestern.org/Y.H3.4/index.html
Thursday, 26 February 2009
Happiest news from Hong Kong
http://hkadc.blogspot.com/
3 days of not showering... which made me think (since I had a lot of water to waste with the 3 days quota)
2) When did the notion of 'shower every day' come into popular minds in our modern age, I'm guessing post industrial revolution as cities became crowded, filthy and dirty, there was a demand to lower the potential of germs getting spread around.
3) Have our immune system deteriorated because we are cleaner these days? If yes, does it mean we should not keep our places 100% clean for babies because they need to develop their own immune system against the environment.
4) The New York Times proved my theory on 3) right : )
Tuesday, 24 February 2009
Do we dream enough?
They were both investment bankers in Wall Street turned Ice Cream shop owner.
Do we dream enough?
http://sweetrepublic.com/
http://www.sweetrepublic.com/
Monday, 23 February 2009
從博物館走上街頭尋找港人身份認同.謝曉陽 (亞洲週刊)
從博物館走上街頭尋找港人身份認同.謝曉陽
殖民地的歷史,該如何書寫﹖丁新豹打破中國傳統禁忌,導
殖民地的歷史,該如何書寫﹖在英國殖民管治一百五十年下
墓園和義莊,都是華人社會的禁忌,卻也是活的歷史見證。
你帶香港人遊墓園的用意在哪﹖
墓園其實是一個非常有歷史價值的地方,譬如去年十一月我
位於香港西環摩星嶺的「超遠墳場」,則另有特色。那是一
你在香港這座所謂的國際金融中心成長,如何跟歷史、文物
我從小學開始,就喜歡看中國的連環圖,而且大部分都是歷
你很主張走出文物、走出博物館,有什麼具體經驗﹖
從十四年前,歷史博物館就開始舉辦「香港歷史文化研究報
此外,我們四年前還針對高中生開始舉辦「小小館長培訓班
走出博物館、推廣文物教育的想法,跟香港特殊的歷史環境
香港被英國殖民統治一百五十年,在殖民教育制度下,人們
歷史博物館這三十年走下來,很不容易吧﹖
在香港,歷史博物館的生存的確比藝術館、科學館困難一點
博物館目前有何困難﹖
博物館有兩大特色,就是會花錢和效益不顯著。香港政府每
走過了三十年,正值香港回歸中國大陸初期,歷史博物館有
近年我們有兩個新的趨勢,一是增加了跨地域文物的展覽,
此外,我們正在思考,如何吸引更多大陸旅客。我們知道,
你似乎從小就選擇了歷史這條路,那你認為,「歷史」的價
首先,我覺得歷史可以使人類聰明,達到溫故知新的效果,
Reference:
http://www.yzzk.com/cfm/Co
Sunday, 22 February 2009
A quote on skyscrapers of our generation
-------- Humphry Repton (1752-1818) quoting Edmund Burke
In plain simple English:
Designs that are merely big in scale are a sign of lack of imagination. All artworks that are great are artificial. Only nature is allowed to do artworks that are natural.
That was written in the 18th century, and it refers to British landscape designing, so I guess we have moved ahead of their times and realised that this statement is faulty?
And we should continue to race against each other to build the tallest, highest, most expensive building in the world to prove that we have great engineering capabilities and inventiveness.
While the electronics world are coming out with products that are becoming more compact with more functions and memory; buildings are becoming bigger, taller, grander.
Well, I guess they are the same afterall, they are simply consumer products of our age, with price tags stuck on them to see who becomes the most famous brand as well as help consumers make 2nd hand profit on ebay or in the real estate market.
One of my philosophies in life, that hurts.
"It's alright to make mistakes, just don't lie about them. Life's simpler that way."
------------ anonymous artist wrote in Japanese.
"I guess if we tell the truth, we don't have to remember anything."
------------ reaction to the artist's work by S. Aw
I follow this philosophy and hence I offend and hurt a lot of people.
My apologise.... but it's unlikely I will abandon this philosophy anytime soon.
Saturday, 21 February 2009
Can't wait
I can't wait to do something really meaningful in life and get paid for that.
I can't wait to be touched by all the beauties in life and work with them in my future job.
I can't wait to combine different perceptions of what art is all about and present it to whom art is all about. The people.
I have a burst of energy waiting to be released to good use (I hope) and I just can't sit still on my chair thinking about how one can touch another's life through history, art and architecture.
But most of all... I can't wait to be over and done with essays and presentation in the horrible month called March.
I digress too much.
I can't wait for my next digression.
Friday, 20 February 2009
Sudden thought on the difference between English and Chinese language.
I just thought about capital letters in the English language and how Chinese does not have capital letters.
Is there a paper about this difference and what that means to English and Chinese as a language and how people are influenced or not influenced by that?
The beauty of chance reflections that city dwellers perhaps lack there of
-----Alexander Pope, English philosopher
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Chip Tsao (陶傑) compares HK students abroad in UK and HK local students
For me it was very uninspirational, condescending and very generalised.
But perhaps I should learn more how the HK government uses its money on subsidising students to go abroad and how it uses its money to do education reform in HK....
But Mr. Tsao who claims to be The number one scholar in Hong Kong (香港第一才子) should know that not all things are skewed to one side.
1) “patriotic education” - go to any country and tell them that learning one country's national anthem and mandatory hoisting one's national flag is an ill founded idea and see what they say to you.
2) Would the Labour government in UK or the Democrats in US educate their children about the corruption of their own party and reveal all the dark secrets behind the scene?
NO.
Why do we know about that then?
Because they have different ruling parties who know how to play politics to reveal that to the wider public. China has one and only one ruling party, why would it let you dig up its dark secrets?
Would you dig up your own dark secrets Mr. Tsao? Or does paparazzi generally dig it out for you?
So there is nothing wrong with not including “Mao: The Unknown Story” by Jung Chang in their high school education, it's the political, social system of China that is different if you want to be precise.
3) Lan Kwai Fong is crowded with foreign students and they can tell 'a martini from a Babycham' because their studying environment provides them with the skills to do so.
When have you seen a foreigner study in local high schools?
And when have you seen local HK students integrating foreigners into their circle of friends like what Singaporeans do?
It's because UK boosts cross cultural exchange and when you are a kid studying abroad, you try your very best to get to know other cultures so you won't stick out like an odd ball.
The so-called 'government official’s children' (which I am not one of) can tell the difference between one drink from another because they can integrate with other cultures easier than, say foreigners can to HK culture.
The root of all evils is the dominant language called English, which is taking over the world.
Why don't you ask a foreigner whether they can tell one dim sum from another?
4) Modern education basically started as a result of Industrial Revolution, there were too many kids in the filthy dirty streets, and intellectuals saw fit to house them in proper institutions so they can becoming a functioning part of an element in an industrialised society. Now we have come a long way from that and the British have refined their model according to their own needs and wants because they have been the ruler of their country for the past centuries or so.
Hong Kong, being a British colony in the past, obviously created an education that was favourable to the British which meant that the education system would work as a factory to create a cream of society who would want to go to Britain for further education.
But Hong Kong have just took back our autonomy for 11 years and the government is struggling to come into terms with post colonialism and has failed to provided a successful education reform, and a lot of people has lost hope in that reform. It doesn't mean adopting or assimilating Chinese education into our system is not good. Look how prestigious Beijing University and Tsing Wah University is in the world.
So please stop being fearful of being patriotic and be proud of being a Chinese, because whether you like it or not. Hong Kong is going to become directly under Chinese rule in 2047. And the best is not to breed misunderstanding and mistrust between Mainland China and Hong Kong, but to actively engage in cultural exchange that is not only driven by economic forces, but through educational reforms.
If you don't want to be patriot about loving China, then don't.
But at least love Hong Kong and give suggestions on ways of improving local education instead of dreaming about the past. Rather, try and understand the past so you can try and predict the future.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
Banned kissing on no kissing zone in front of railway station
Wednesday, 11 February 2009
1) Nipples 2) MOMA Ad-Bombs Brooklyn's Top Transit Hub 3) Angel of the South 4) Chinese moral story from Ming Pao
1) Grow up... they are nipples, cows have them, your mum has them.
As if you would turn down a free Picasso if it was given free to your gallery. Not that Christina here has the same energy or artistic quality as Picasso, but find a better excuse to turn down paintings than 'because the nipples might offend viewers.'
2) I have seen ads for museum and gallery visits in public transport systems. But not something like this scale. I bet people from MOMA had more crazier ideas but perhaps was downscaled since the subway is after all a place to facilitate a undisturbed flow of sardines from one place to another.
What I love about it is how
"A few of the works even have audio guides, which can be heard on the stations’ pay phones or downloaded to portable devices."
Congratulations to MOMA efforts. Transport railway systems and government bureaucracies need to have maximum creativity in their space to inspire the public rather than cool, inhuman management risk free space that is clean and boring enough for it to be like airport toilets.
3) A giant horse in Kent is the Angel of the South..... hmmm.... very creative indeed... may I ask whats so special about this sculptural horse?
It's HUGE.... oh... and whatelse?
.... It's HUGE......
I have to say though.. compared to the other competitors, this makes much more sense.. actually the more I thought about this article on "What Does the White Horse Mean?", the more sense it made to me. For me, it is the tie of the Horse to the landscape around it that made the most sense. Afterall this sculptural piece is relating itself with its outdoor surrounding very beautifully.
4) The story of leeching from the wealth of other people and turning into your own.
The difference between Mr. Bill Gates and Mr. Richard Li.