可能香港是一塊福地，在這麼混濁的城市裡面能夠鍛鍊我們出淤泥而不染，樂觀面對一切身邊的事物。
現在我們應該更有福吧？我們快連泥土都看不到了，反正書本裡會記載土壤和蓮花的故事，訓練一下我們的想像力，不是對創意文化更好嗎？
又或者我們應該發揮香港的比較優勢，做這一個世界的淤泥。
同志們，逆境自强，加油啊！
歷史上民族形式的形成都不是有意創造出來的，而是經過長期的演變而形成的。其中一個主要的原因就是當時的藝術創造差不多都是不自覺的，一切在不自覺中形成。
－－－梁思成
Sunday, 19 December 2010
Monday, 18 October 2010
Saturday, 16 October 2010
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Tuesday, 5 October 2010
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
Sunday, 26 September 2010
It's real.
After seeing Modern Children off the ferry port, a short journey through the rice fields took me back to the spot in between the House of Shodoshima, the Voices from Disappeared People and our dormitory. There I was, gazing over the terraces along with the sunshine and a song from Mongolia.
That was how dreams blended with reality, that is what we are trying to do and that is when I saw 6 little birds fly off towards the bright blue sky.
That was how dreams blended with reality, that is what we are trying to do and that is when I saw 6 little birds fly off towards the bright blue sky.
Sunday, 5 September 2010
Change
People say I want to change the world...... I just don't want to wait till everything's too late.
Lily Allen - Kabul Shit
There's a hole in our logic
There's a hole in the sky
And one day just like magic
We're all going to die
'Cause we didn't turn the lights off
And we didn't take the bus
Even though we know we should have
Oh, silly old us
Well we should have recycled
And saved our resources
While there's still someone else's
Someone call the armed forces
And we'll blame it on terror
Also known as religion
But we shouldn't feel guilt
For protecting our children
Excuse me, sir
But is this what they call denial
Just to carry on regardless
We'll only do it for a while
We'll carry on straight down the line
Down the road to nowhere
Do you know where it is leading us
And do we even wanna go there
I don't have the answers
I don't know where we start
Start to pick up all the pieces
Of everything we've torn apart
Now, you'd think that we'd be grateful
For the fact we've got a choice
Instead we throw it back at people
Who don't even have a voice
And the teachers always told us
Told us we should love thy neighbor
And my mother always told me
Told me I should vote new labour
But I don't know who to trust
And I just find it all confusing
All as useless as each other
Past the point of being amusing
Excuse me, sir
But is this what they call denial
Just to carry on regardless
We'll only do it for a while
We'll carry on straight down the line
Down the road to nowhere
Do you know where it is leading us
And do we even wanna go there
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Excuse me, sir
But is this what they call denial
Just to carry on regardless
We'll only do it for a while
We'll carry on straight down the line
Down the road to nowhere
Do you know where it is leading us
And do we even wanna go there
Lily Allen - Kabul Shit
There's a hole in our logic
There's a hole in the sky
And one day just like magic
We're all going to die
'Cause we didn't turn the lights off
And we didn't take the bus
Even though we know we should have
Oh, silly old us
Well we should have recycled
And saved our resources
While there's still someone else's
Someone call the armed forces
And we'll blame it on terror
Also known as religion
But we shouldn't feel guilt
For protecting our children
Excuse me, sir
But is this what they call denial
Just to carry on regardless
We'll only do it for a while
We'll carry on straight down the line
Down the road to nowhere
Do you know where it is leading us
And do we even wanna go there
I don't have the answers
I don't know where we start
Start to pick up all the pieces
Of everything we've torn apart
Now, you'd think that we'd be grateful
For the fact we've got a choice
Instead we throw it back at people
Who don't even have a voice
And the teachers always told us
Told us we should love thy neighbor
And my mother always told me
Told me I should vote new labour
But I don't know who to trust
And I just find it all confusing
All as useless as each other
Past the point of being amusing
Excuse me, sir
But is this what they call denial
Just to carry on regardless
We'll only do it for a while
We'll carry on straight down the line
Down the road to nowhere
Do you know where it is leading us
And do we even wanna go there
Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Excuse me, sir
But is this what they call denial
Just to carry on regardless
We'll only do it for a while
We'll carry on straight down the line
Down the road to nowhere
Do you know where it is leading us
And do we even wanna go there
Friday, 3 September 2010
飲食天堂
很多人都自問對紅酒有研究或興趣，甚至會付很多學費去增加對葡萄的認識。
茶道？每逢期日他也會和家人到茶樓飲茶，把茶葉拿出來，
飲茶？連阿姐都識啦！
嘿，不知這杯red算不算fruity呢？
但要他尊重或多瞭解飲茶的文化，好像是一個笑話，
茶道？每逢期日他也會和家人到茶樓飲茶，把茶葉拿出來，
飲茶？連阿姐都識啦！
嘿，不知這杯red算不算fruity呢？
Monday, 30 August 2010
Saturday, 21 August 2010
New discovery of the day
Why do men have five fingers?
1. Index - lift the toilet seat
2. Middle - hold the pee pee
3. Ring - flush the toilet
4. Pinky - turn on the tap to wash hands
5. Thumb - to balance everything
... I'm a Virgo, sorry...
1. Index - lift the toilet seat
2. Middle - hold the pee pee
3. Ring - flush the toilet
4. Pinky - turn on the tap to wash hands
5. Thumb - to balance everything
... I'm a Virgo, sorry...
Wednesday, 18 August 2010
Terminal
Finally have some personal time at the airport after a crazy Japan trip and intense Hong Kong socialising parties.
I always thought that unplanned time is the best time in a day. Friends being late, missing a bus, stepping on dog poo. These all make you stop and rethink, oh what should I do now, since I have time that I never planned to have.
In fact, I almost stepped on dog poo today while rushing back home to pack and catch the flight to Los Angeles. If I had stepped on dog poo, my shoe may be a lot cleaner, newer and smell better than had I not stepped on dog poo as I would zealously clean the Nike pair over and over again to hide any hint of the result of not paying attention to where my next foot will land on.
My plan for the remaining 10 day of holiday (in fact, my brother is getting wedded on 21 Aug). Is to relax and not think of anything. But before all that happens, let me share with you some interesting stuff:
Hong Kong news:
1. 小販管理隊人員，為甚麼你的名字裏有一個「人」字？
2. Change is in the air...
3. ...and the change has to come quick before it's too late
Architecture news:
1. Magnifying then simplifying the beauty of light - James Turrell
2. I wonder what deconstructionists think of this, but I love it =)
3. Architects, embrace sublime and simplicity. No more comparing whose pee pee is longer / bigger. Focus on how to make architecture for the people, not for press / postcards.
Other news:
1. This is how happy pavements should look like
2. How to witness a lighbulb dying
3. I wonder if cats like tennis balls as their cat bed as well? Cause I hate dogs...
4. Tea bag as purifier, why didn't I think of that earlier!? I 'd be a millionaire by now if I had!!
I love French kisses:
Allons-y un jour!
Oh, and my only finalised plan for the remaining 10 days is:
1. Attend my brother's wedding and drink as much free stuff as I can while I am off medication.
2. Finish Evangelion TV series that a dear younger brother bought for.... academic purposes.
I always thought that unplanned time is the best time in a day. Friends being late, missing a bus, stepping on dog poo. These all make you stop and rethink, oh what should I do now, since I have time that I never planned to have.
In fact, I almost stepped on dog poo today while rushing back home to pack and catch the flight to Los Angeles. If I had stepped on dog poo, my shoe may be a lot cleaner, newer and smell better than had I not stepped on dog poo as I would zealously clean the Nike pair over and over again to hide any hint of the result of not paying attention to where my next foot will land on.
My plan for the remaining 10 day of holiday (in fact, my brother is getting wedded on 21 Aug). Is to relax and not think of anything. But before all that happens, let me share with you some interesting stuff:
Hong Kong news:
1. 小販管理隊人員，為甚麼你的名字裏有一個「人」字？
2. Change is in the air...
3. ...and the change has to come quick before it's too late
Architecture news:
1. Magnifying then simplifying the beauty of light - James Turrell
2. I wonder what deconstructionists think of this, but I love it =)
3. Architects, embrace sublime and simplicity. No more comparing whose pee pee is longer / bigger. Focus on how to make architecture for the people, not for press / postcards.
Other news:
1. This is how happy pavements should look like
2. How to witness a lighbulb dying
3. I wonder if cats like tennis balls as their cat bed as well? Cause I hate dogs...
4. Tea bag as purifier, why didn't I think of that earlier!? I 'd be a millionaire by now if I had!!
I love French kisses:
Allons-y un jour!
Oh, and my only finalised plan for the remaining 10 days is:
1. Attend my brother's wedding and drink as much free stuff as I can while I am off medication.
2. Finish Evangelion TV series that a dear younger brother bought for.... academic purposes.
Monday, 16 August 2010
距離
Swing - 隔三日 見一面
情懷能從來不變 可惜那點 纏綿仍難如當天
如仍能從來一次 低速發展 讓熱情從蜜意 慢慢燃
但這次要矜持 要享受 每點 每點
隔三日 見一面 更加期待 妳的臉
從前曾情迷心竅 一週五天 談情隨時談通宵
到最尾維持不了 只懂看錶 若是尚存蜜意 慢慢燃
但這次要矜持 要享受 每點 每點
隔三日 見一面 更加期待 妳的臉
越是情投合意 越易燃越怕太過痴纏
太早達 沸點 沸點
太激烈 會熄滅 發展緩慢 這一次
要堅持 去感受 每點 每點
隔三日 見一面 儲足難耐 再相見
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Hong Kong, we believe it is time for a change.
Us - Regina Spektor
They made a statue of us
And it put it on a mountain top
Now tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs for fun, for fun
They'll name a city after us
And later say it's all our fault
Then they'll give us a talking to
Then they'll give us a talking to
Because they've got years of experience
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We're living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
We wear our scarves just like a noose
But not 'cause we want eternal sleep
And though our parts are slightly used
New ones are slave labor you can keep
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We're living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
The tourists come and stare at us
The sculptor's mama sends regards
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
Our noses have begun to rust
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Were living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
They made a statue of us
And it put it on a mountain top
Now tourists come and stare at us
Blow bubbles with their gum
Take photographs for fun, for fun
They'll name a city after us
And later say it's all our fault
Then they'll give us a talking to
Then they'll give us a talking to
Because they've got years of experience
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We're living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
We wear our scarves just like a noose
But not 'cause we want eternal sleep
And though our parts are slightly used
New ones are slave labor you can keep
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
We're living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
The tourists come and stare at us
The sculptor's mama sends regards
They made a statue of us
They made a statue of us
Our noses have begun to rust
We're living in a den of thieves
Rummaging for answers in the pages
Were living in a den of thieves
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
And it's contagious
Friday, 13 August 2010
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Tuesday, 10 August 2010
Monday, 2 August 2010
Gromley's back!
Attended Antony Gormley's talk 2 months ago in Hong Kong.
He is also having fun in the Alps!
100 Life-Size Cast Iron Figures by Antony Gormley Installed by Helicopter in the Austrian Alps
And I saw something on the side.... might as well click it... the title doesn't look too bad.
Stunning Nudes by Photographer Rankin at Annroy Gallery, London
He is also having fun in the Alps!
100 Life-Size Cast Iron Figures by Antony Gormley Installed by Helicopter in the Austrian Alps
And I saw something on the side.... might as well click it... the title doesn't look too bad.
Stunning Nudes by Photographer Rankin at Annroy Gallery, London
Saturday, 31 July 2010
在日本，聽到了。
將進酒
李白
君不見黃河之水天上來，奔流到海不復回。
君不見高堂明鏡悲白髮，朝如青絲暮成雪。
人生得意須盡歡，莫使金樽空對月。
天生我材必有用，千金散盡還複來。
烹羊宰牛且為樂，會須一飲三百杯。
岑夫子，丹丘生，將進酒，君莫停。
與君歌一曲，請君為我側耳聽。
鐘鼓饌玉不足貴，但願長醉不願醒。 古來聖賢皆寂寞，惟有飲者留其名。
陳王昔時宴平樂，鬥酒十千恣歡謔。
主人何為言少錢，徑須沽取對君酌。
五花馬，千金裘，呼兒將出換美酒，與爾同銷萬古愁。
什麼時候到香港？
李白
君不見黃河之水天上來，奔流到海不復回。
君不見高堂明鏡悲白髮，朝如青絲暮成雪。
人生得意須盡歡，莫使金樽空對月。
天生我材必有用，千金散盡還複來。
烹羊宰牛且為樂，會須一飲三百杯。
岑夫子，丹丘生，將進酒，君莫停。
與君歌一曲，請君為我側耳聽。
鐘鼓饌玉不足貴，但願長醉不願醒。 古來聖賢皆寂寞，惟有飲者留其名。
陳王昔時宴平樂，鬥酒十千恣歡謔。
主人何為言少錢，徑須沽取對君酌。
五花馬，千金裘，呼兒將出換美酒，與爾同銷萬古愁。
什麼時候到香港？
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
A very good morning
Slept before 11, woke up before 6 and the in-betweens were all you.
http://juanjaime.blogspot.com/2009/05/early-bird-catches-worm.html
http://juanjaime.blogspot.com/2009/05/early-bird-catches-worm.html
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Thank you, take care and good bye.
Thanks for being there for me, you complete my set.
Sweeney Todd - Not While I'm Around (OST)
Jamie Cullum - Not While I'm Around (Jazz version)
Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around.
No one's gonna hurt you, not while I'm around.
Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays,
I'll send 'em howling,
I got ways.
No one's gonna hurt you,
No one's gonna dare.
Others can desert you,
Not to worry,
whistle, I'll be there.
Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while,
But in time...
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around...
..............
Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while
But in time...
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around...
Sweeney Todd - Not While I'm Around (OST)
Jamie Cullum - Not While I'm Around (Jazz version)
Nothing's gonna harm you, not while I'm around.
No one's gonna hurt you, not while I'm around.
Demons are prowling everywhere, nowadays,
I'll send 'em howling,
I got ways.
No one's gonna hurt you,
No one's gonna dare.
Others can desert you,
Not to worry,
whistle, I'll be there.
Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while,
But in time...
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around...
..............
Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while
But in time...
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around...
Friday, 23 July 2010
這樣，已經是一個有趣的早上
1. The truth is out there.
外星人或如Twitter傳訊息
2. Zipper shaped boat in the sea.
Setouchi International Art Festival 2010
3. The truth is already out there.
官商勾結的政經結構 《地產霸權》
4. My belief: if we poop correctly, we can save the world.
Toilets Harvest Energy From Falling Waste Water
5. Come on Hong Kong, put an artist up there!
The battle of Trafalgar Square: six artists vie for fourth plinth spot
6. 孫中山先生的革命，香港你仍須努力
7. 中區警署的胡志明，你準備好了嗎？
外星人或如Twitter傳訊息
2. Zipper shaped boat in the sea.
Setouchi International Art Festival 2010
3. The truth is already out there.
官商勾結的政經結構 《地產霸權》
4. My belief: if we poop correctly, we can save the world.
Toilets Harvest Energy From Falling Waste Water
5. Come on Hong Kong, put an artist up there!
The battle of Trafalgar Square: six artists vie for fourth plinth spot
6. 孫中山先生的革命，香港你仍須努力
7. 中區警署的胡志明，你準備好了嗎？
Thursday, 15 July 2010
主觀的客觀世界
很個人的看法。
這世界沒有客觀的客觀，只有主觀的客觀。
有說科學是客觀的，但當代科學理論只是在我們現在所擁有的智慧，時間，空間是客觀的對。
如果這個世界沒有人或其他有智慧的生物，那就會有客觀的客觀。
舉幾個例：
一。 從 Plato 的 caveman 到現在的 Matrix Trilogy 問的問題都是一樣：
「到底是周莊夢蝶，還是蝶夢周莊？」
二。 前 Galileo 的世界裡面，地球是方的。
三。 New Scientist 有一個文章是這樣的：
「有理論指出人類所熟識的現實，可能是黑洞釋放出來的影像。就好像說，我們認識的世界只是一個從透影機播放出來，然後透放到螢幕上，也就是說，我們都只是一個另外一個現實做出來的影像。」
這世界沒有客觀的客觀，只有主觀的客觀。
有說科學是客觀的，但當代科學理論只是在我們現在所擁有的智慧，時間，空間是客觀的對。
如果這個世界沒有人或其他有智慧的生物，那就會有客觀的客觀。
舉幾個例：
一。 從 Plato 的 caveman 到現在的 Matrix Trilogy 問的問題都是一樣：
「到底是周莊夢蝶，還是蝶夢周莊？」
二。 前 Galileo 的世界裡面，地球是方的。
三。 New Scientist 有一個文章是這樣的：
「有理論指出人類所熟識的現實，可能是黑洞釋放出來的影像。就好像說，我們認識的世界只是一個從透影機播放出來，然後透放到螢幕上，也就是說，我們都只是一個另外一個現實做出來的影像。」
Sunday, 11 July 2010
Random quote of the day
"... having destroyed the confederacy, Nex crowned himself emperor of the newly formed Terran dominion. A government that would prove to be just as corrupt as its predecessor ..."
--------------- Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty
--------------- Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty
天真的我
明報 ：逆境不餒 奮戰人生下半場 自強青年獲嘉獎
【明報專訊】醜陋的毛蟲會一天化蝶，灰暗的人生亦可以重見光明。
香港青年協會一年一度的「黃寬洋青少年進修獎勵計劃」，嘉許的不是會考狀元或者冠軍健兒，事實上，以社會大眾的標準，每個得獎者其實都是「失敗者」﹕少女吸毒以致智力衰退、孤兒流落香港被當家奴、情緒化的少年上課時欲向老師扔䒷。但亦因為失敗，令他們往後所得到的，哪怕只是微不足道的一丁點，也變得格外可貴。 他們的故事告訴你，即使今天面對逆境，在人生的下半場，依然可以反敗為勝。
實習記者 勞雅文 歐文瀚
【明報專訊】醜陋的毛蟲會一天化蝶，灰暗的人生亦可以重見光明。
香港青年協會一年一度的「黃寬洋青少年進修獎勵計劃」，嘉許的不是會考狀元或者冠軍健兒，事實上，以社會大眾的標準，每個得獎者其實都是「失敗者」﹕少女吸毒以致智力衰退、孤兒流落香港被當家奴、情緒化的少年上課時欲向老師扔䒷。但亦因為失敗，令他們往後所得到的，哪怕只是微不足道的一丁點，也變得格外可貴。 他們的故事告訴你，即使今天面對逆境，在人生的下半場，依然可以反敗為勝。
實習記者 勞雅文 歐文瀚
我覺得是感動的，但可否治本而不是治標。
現代化社會已經走到一個要歌頌「今天逆境，明天燦爛」的田地。
可以發夢，讓美麗的故事變成家常便飯嗎？
Friday, 9 July 2010
Friday, 25 June 2010
小學四
自我剪髮的樂趣。
擺脫了自我對美的執著的束縛後，有了一個新習慣。
花了五百大元，購買了兩把 Ninja Sword 牌的剪刀。
默默祝福自己的處女作不會有呻吟和見血的情況後便開始動工。
試問世界上（除非你是服裝設計師），一個人有多少的機會是全權負責自己的打扮？
衣物的長短早標了尺碼，車縫師父隨著你身體的各樣尺寸車的衣服都是別人的布料。只有身體髮膚是全部受諸於父母。也只有頭髮是最顯眼，最經常需要打理的。
替自己剪髮的感覺像是一個重新瞭解自己的手與身體的關係的過程。每一剪都是義無反顧的。赤裸裸站在鏡前一手小心翼翼地讓一片片的髮端落在慢慢乾透的背上，一小朵一小朵蒲公英似的短髮緩緩的掃著沒有乾透的腳。是一種自我的享受，是一種自己對自己的身體說愛你的表現。
大剪過後，再把頭洗濕，然後慢條斯尼的再作出適當的收剪，輕手的跟最後的一點說再見。
我期待一個月後的重逢。
擺脫了自我對美的執著的束縛後，有了一個新習慣。
花了五百大元，購買了兩把 Ninja Sword 牌的剪刀。
默默祝福自己的處女作不會有呻吟和見血的情況後便開始動工。
試問世界上（除非你是服裝設計師），一個人有多少的機會是全權負責自己的打扮？
衣物的長短早標了尺碼，車縫師父隨著你身體的各樣尺寸車的衣服都是別人的布料。只有身體髮膚是全部受諸於父母。也只有頭髮是最顯眼，最經常需要打理的。
替自己剪髮的感覺像是一個重新瞭解自己的手與身體的關係的過程。每一剪都是義無反顧的。赤裸裸站在鏡前一手小心翼翼地讓一片片的髮端落在慢慢乾透的背上，一小朵一小朵蒲公英似的短髮緩緩的掃著沒有乾透的腳。是一種自我的享受，是一種自己對自己的身體說愛你的表現。
大剪過後，再把頭洗濕，然後慢條斯尼的再作出適當的收剪，輕手的跟最後的一點說再見。
我期待一個月後的重逢。
Wednesday, 23 June 2010
小學三
以後切忌「以貌取人」。
可惜現代人忙於裝扮，所以此句與原意有別。曾經不屑世人花無限時間裝扮，化妝，天花龍鳳，彷彿自己快要上台唱粵劇。自己本身修身養性，自小相信美是由內至外散發的，自己也一直用這原則交朋友和追求知識。不為牌子所動，也不貪過廉的劣貨，只求謙虛謹慎，大方得體。但近有一念，我這樣亦是在「以貌」先入為主地「取人」縱使別人對「美」的解讀不同，畢竟那是他個人自由。我也搞不清「美」的意譯是否有高低之分。不過，不同人有不同取得自信，誠信和暸解的方法。自我做好自己份內的事便以足夠。
可惜現代人忙於裝扮，所以此句與原意有別。曾經不屑世人花無限時間裝扮，化妝，天花龍鳳，彷彿自己快要上台唱粵劇。自己本身修身養性，自小相信美是由內至外散發的，自己也一直用這原則交朋友和追求知識。不為牌子所動，也不貪過廉的劣貨，只求謙虛謹慎，大方得體。但近有一念，我這樣亦是在「以貌」先入為主地「取人」縱使別人對「美」的解讀不同，畢竟那是他個人自由。我也搞不清「美」的意譯是否有高低之分。不過，不同人有不同取得自信，誠信和暸解的方法。自我做好自己份內的事便以足夠。
Sunday, 20 June 2010
The Book of Eli
I have always thought Christians to be naive but have a sense of happiness, purpose and wholesomeness that is deep within and is radiated from within their soul.
Their naiveness comes from giving all glory to their God. Referencing all purpose of human lives, all origins of beauty to an artificially constructed figure/wisdom.
Can we not appreciate the beauties of the earth in their own right? Why must we explain the unattainable, the unexplainable? Are we incapable of being amazed by mystery for mysteries sake?
Admittedly, I am jealous of those who have attained their enlightenment. There is an air of resolution, of satisfactory and harmony with their surrounding that makes living for them such a joyous experience. I feel that my soul still has a gap of enlightenment waiting to be attained.
Whatever the future may bring. A few things stays true:
In order to be Buddha, one must be human.
In order to learn the teachings of the Bible, one must be humble and unbiased.
It is the harmony of my space and the space around me that I am concerned with.
I hope that one day, a voice will speak to me as clearly as I am speaking to you now, 'you have found peace and you may rest now'.
Gosh, I miss my brother, whereever he may be, may he find peace and happiness that I have yet to find.
Gosh, I miss him...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKfZrbS79To
Their naiveness comes from giving all glory to their God. Referencing all purpose of human lives, all origins of beauty to an artificially constructed figure/wisdom.
Can we not appreciate the beauties of the earth in their own right? Why must we explain the unattainable, the unexplainable? Are we incapable of being amazed by mystery for mysteries sake?
Admittedly, I am jealous of those who have attained their enlightenment. There is an air of resolution, of satisfactory and harmony with their surrounding that makes living for them such a joyous experience. I feel that my soul still has a gap of enlightenment waiting to be attained.
Whatever the future may bring. A few things stays true:
In order to be Buddha, one must be human.
In order to learn the teachings of the Bible, one must be humble and unbiased.
It is the harmony of my space and the space around me that I am concerned with.
I hope that one day, a voice will speak to me as clearly as I am speaking to you now, 'you have found peace and you may rest now'.
Gosh, I miss my brother, whereever he may be, may he find peace and happiness that I have yet to find.
Gosh, I miss him...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKfZrbS79To
Thursday, 17 June 2010
友人問我
被問，為何你要戴佗錶。
其實我覺得時間是人類發明的一件很美麗的東西。
友人一問友人二：「你覺得自立是否一個很自大的人？」，當時我是這樣想的：
其實我是在自誇與自謙之中找尋一種收放自如的平衡。
兩次我都沒有講。
其實我覺得時間是人類發明的一件很美麗的東西。
友人一問友人二：「你覺得自立是否一個很自大的人？」，當時我是這樣想的：
其實我是在自誇與自謙之中找尋一種收放自如的平衡。
兩次我都沒有講。
Sunday, 13 June 2010
We both can't stop
He loves making love with his music, I love making love with my thoughts,
that's the only difference.
Jamie Cullum on writing Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood - at Music Matters 2009
Jamie Cullum - The Singin' Umbrella mashup live at Music Matters 2009
Jamie Cullum live - Don't Stop the Music - Kulturjournal - NDR
Jamie Cullum Live - Mixtape (HQ audio !!)
Jamie Cullum - Seal, Adele and Michael Jackson Medley - live @ North Sea Jazz 2009
... ok, I'm 6 years his junior and 60cm taller.
that's the only difference.
Jamie Cullum on writing Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood - at Music Matters 2009
Jamie Cullum - The Singin' Umbrella mashup live at Music Matters 2009
Jamie Cullum live - Don't Stop the Music - Kulturjournal - NDR
Jamie Cullum Live - Mixtape (HQ audio !!)
Jamie Cullum - Seal, Adele and Michael Jackson Medley - live @ North Sea Jazz 2009
... ok, I'm 6 years his junior and 60cm taller.
Friday, 11 June 2010
Gran Torino
If our existence is not an illusion and our scientific theories are not too far away from the 'truth', then:
The universe is 13.75 ±0.17 billion years old.
Planet earth is 4.6 billion years old.
Simple cells are 3.8 billion years old.
Humans are 200,000 years old.
Scientists predict that planet earth will last another 7.5 billion years or so.
The current world average life span is 67.2 years old.
How do you want to be remembered?
'Your world is nothing more than all the tiny things you've left behind'
---------- Gran Torino (2008), Jamie Cullum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoLc43YuuTw&feature=channel
Time for a glass of double shot cognac on ice.
The universe is 13.75 ±0.17 billion years old.
Planet earth is 4.6 billion years old.
Simple cells are 3.8 billion years old.
Humans are 200,000 years old.
Scientists predict that planet earth will last another 7.5 billion years or so.
The current world average life span is 67.2 years old.
How do you want to be remembered?
'Your world is nothing more than all the tiny things you've left behind'
---------- Gran Torino (2008), Jamie Cullum
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoLc43YuuTw&feature=channel
Time for a glass of double shot cognac on ice.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
小學一
終於發現大學是學做人，從古人，今人學人。
決定找一些學不完的東西，
閒時可以再次復習，餓時可以再次咀嚼，晚時可以再次領會。
讓我小小的學大學之道吧。
小學一
用眼睛和耳朵和別人說話，心，是留給妳的。
決定找一些學不完的東西，
閒時可以再次復習，餓時可以再次咀嚼，晚時可以再次領會。
讓我小小的學大學之道吧。
小學一
用眼睛和耳朵和別人說話，心，是留給妳的。
Apple iPhone 4
Question:
http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/
click on 'Watch the iPhone 4 video >'
What fascinated me most about the video?
http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/
click on 'Watch the iPhone 4 video >'
What fascinated me most about the video?
Answer:
V
。
x
。
x
。
。
Don't get it? Give you a hint:
00:20-00:30
Art from 0725-0846 in the morning
1.
Blue Flower
Georgia O’Keeffe
1918
Pastel on paper mounted on cardboard
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico Gift, The Burnett Foundation
Is it just me, or...?
Nice colour anyways.
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=1&id=437#inicio
2.
Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing (project) Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1942.
Interior perspective. Pencil, colored pencil, and ink on paper,
28 1/8 x 34 3/4 inches.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation FLLW FDN
Steel Cathedral (project) New York, 1926. Plan.
Graphite pencil and colored pencil on paper,
23 7/16 x 31 inches.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation FLLW FDN
Steel Cathedral (project) New York, 1926. Plan.
Graphite pencil and colored pencil on paper
23 7/16 x 31 inches
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation FLLW FDN
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=0&id=429&fid=0
Personally, Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture is about surprising you by constricting your human scale upon entry and then open up the exterior to surprise your senses with the dramatic change of scale and opening.
More than anything, he build his architecture with light.
My architecture friends, have a look at FLD's plans and section.
This is what I call drawing. It almost has a J.M.W. Turner quality.
'The beauty of Guggenheim is in its folding of the New York streets and turning the language of a long stretched street into a twirling gallery.' A.H.
The Fighting Temeraire Towed to Her Last Berth, 1838, William Turner (1775-1851).
National Gallery, London, UK.
3.
Kapoor!!
'I am no silly Barbie Doll'
Kareena Kapoor
Age 30
No, not her... people say beauty lies in the beholder's eyes...
...
.......
............
...oops, I forgot what I was looking for...
Anish Kapoor!
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=38536
4.
The New Porsche Museum.
I'll spare you photos of Peter Eisenmann's building. Forget the building, I want to see the cars!!
Damn, I thought I was already turned on.....
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=0&id=414&fid
5.
Guess what people told Tim Burton while he was drawing in his youth.
'You can't draw'.
Hey, mum, I can't draw too, want to become my patron?
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=1&id=440#inicio
I missed the show, but no worries, something exciting in MOMA as well!
Let's reclaim the water instead of the land, shall we?
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1031
6.
George Lois American, born 1931
Cover for Esquire Magazine, Issue no. 414, May 1968, 1968.
Offset lithography.
12 5/8 x 9 7/8" (32.1 x 25.1 cm).
Gift of the designer.
Does it remind you of any politicians in Hong Kong?
He will look great on a magazine cover like this.
Catholics, please pray for June 4th.
7.
Georg Baselitz, "Portrait Dr. Ulbricht".
Oil on canvas, 1970, 250 x 200 cm.
Galerie Springer + Winckler, Berlin.
Art Cologne: 2010
For some reason, this painting really scares me.
For art Festivals, I'd stick to Setouchi International Art Festival 2010 and Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2012 if I were you.
And if you were really me, you better check out the place where I work.
Sense Art Studio in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
8.
Oops, no time and space for Shanghai World Expo 2010. Well, I don't want my blog censored, so I better keep my mouth shut.
'Long live WOW! architecture. Yay!'
...with a few brilliant exceptions, of course, one being the Danish Pavilion... OMG!
Real water, real mermaid and the return of the bikes... the Danes must be laughing their Frikadeller's off.
One nice comparison between Shanghai and Copenhagen:
- Shanghai planning department are proud to present their high speed complex road networks, boasting the fact that any car, once you get on the high way, you can reach any corner of the city within 2 hours drive.
- Copenhagen government, 'our plan is to allow bikes to arrive at the sea front within 15 minutes journey from any point within the city'.
Score: Shanghai 1, Copenhagen 0.
Who wants bikes in this industrial, civilised, developed world, right?
Georgia O’Keeffe
1918
Pastel on paper mounted on cardboard
20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)
Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico Gift, The Burnett Foundation
Is it just me, or...?
Nice colour anyways.
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=1&id=437#inicio
2.
Cloverleaf Quadruple Housing (project) Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1942.
Interior perspective. Pencil, colored pencil, and ink on paper,
28 1/8 x 34 3/4 inches.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation FLLW FDN
Steel Cathedral (project) New York, 1926. Plan.
Graphite pencil and colored pencil on paper,
23 7/16 x 31 inches.
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation FLLW FDN
Steel Cathedral (project) New York, 1926. Plan.
Graphite pencil and colored pencil on paper
23 7/16 x 31 inches
The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation FLLW FDN
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=0&id=429&fid=0
Personally, Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture is about surprising you by constricting your human scale upon entry and then open up the exterior to surprise your senses with the dramatic change of scale and opening.
More than anything, he build his architecture with light.
My architecture friends, have a look at FLD's plans and section.
This is what I call drawing. It almost has a J.M.W. Turner quality.
'The beauty of Guggenheim is in its folding of the New York streets and turning the language of a long stretched street into a twirling gallery.' A.H.
The Fighting Temeraire Towed to Her Last Berth, 1838, William Turner (1775-1851).
National Gallery, London, UK.
3.
Kapoor!!
'I am no silly Barbie Doll'
Kareena Kapoor
Age 30
No, not her... people say beauty lies in the beholder's eyes...
...
.......
............
...oops, I forgot what I was looking for...
Anish Kapoor!
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=38536
4.
The New Porsche Museum.
I'll spare you photos of Peter Eisenmann's building. Forget the building, I want to see the cars!!
Damn, I thought I was already turned on.....
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=0&id=414&fid
5.
Guess what people told Tim Burton while he was drawing in his youth.
'You can't draw'.
Hey, mum, I can't draw too, want to become my patron?
http://www.artdaily.com/index.asp?int_sec=210&p=1&id=440#inicio
I missed the show, but no worries, something exciting in MOMA as well!
Let's reclaim the water instead of the land, shall we?
http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/1031
6.
George Lois American, born 1931
Cover for Esquire Magazine, Issue no. 414, May 1968, 1968.
Offset lithography.
12 5/8 x 9 7/8" (32.1 x 25.1 cm).
Gift of the designer.
Does it remind you of any politicians in Hong Kong?
He will look great on a magazine cover like this.
Catholics, please pray for June 4th.
7.
Georg Baselitz, "Portrait Dr. Ulbricht".
Oil on canvas, 1970, 250 x 200 cm.
Galerie Springer + Winckler, Berlin.
Art Cologne: 2010
For some reason, this painting really scares me.
For art Festivals, I'd stick to Setouchi International Art Festival 2010 and Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial 2012 if I were you.
And if you were really me, you better check out the place where I work.
Sense Art Studio in Wan Chai, Hong Kong.
8.
Oops, no time and space for Shanghai World Expo 2010. Well, I don't want my blog censored, so I better keep my mouth shut.
'Long live WOW! architecture. Yay!'
...with a few brilliant exceptions, of course, one being the Danish Pavilion... OMG!
Real water, real mermaid and the return of the bikes... the Danes must be laughing their Frikadeller's off.
One nice comparison between Shanghai and Copenhagen:
- Shanghai planning department are proud to present their high speed complex road networks, boasting the fact that any car, once you get on the high way, you can reach any corner of the city within 2 hours drive.
- Copenhagen government, 'our plan is to allow bikes to arrive at the sea front within 15 minutes journey from any point within the city'.
Score: Shanghai 1, Copenhagen 0.
Who wants bikes in this industrial, civilised, developed world, right?
I teared up.
Learning to distinguish patriotism and individual choices of doing what they think is morally correct.
Doing service for your country should not be termed as patriotic or mingled up with the 'grand plan' of a country, or should it?
We have fought wars and had conflicts for as long as human history can remember]. People say this is because of scarcity of resource and of our animalism. So what is the difference between us and the ant next door?
What is the human project and how should we position ourselves as 'civilised people' in the 21st century?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8722835.stm
Doing service for your country should not be termed as patriotic or mingled up with the 'grand plan' of a country, or should it?
We have fought wars and had conflicts for as long as human history can remember]. People say this is because of scarcity of resource and of our animalism. So what is the difference between us and the ant next door?
What is the human project and how should we position ourselves as 'civilised people' in the 21st century?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/8722835.stm
Monday, 7 June 2010
Give and take
Just peed and brushed my teeth in the shower, so I can continue to eat fishes in the sea.
Sunday, 6 June 2010
My definition of something that is beautiful
1. My teacher Alex once told me whether a painting was good or not was to look at the internet version of it and then look at the real one. If the real one is prettier than the virtual one.
Then it has the potential to let your mind wonder in the virtual world of the real one.
2. If a musician can play his / her music as nice or better in live version than the CD version. And more importantly, know his history and be better than his contemporaries in a revolutionary way.
An example?
Jamie Cullum mixing Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain with Rianna's Umbrella.
They both talk about rain. And it's a mixture of old and new into a brand new style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61tOzOUguF4&NR=1
3. You look into a person's eye when you have casual talks and you forgot who you are or what she looks like.
'I feel like if someone were to touch me, I'd dissolve into molecules. '
------- Jesse, Before Sunset (2004)
Then it has the potential to let your mind wonder in the virtual world of the real one.
2. If a musician can play his / her music as nice or better in live version than the CD version. And more importantly, know his history and be better than his contemporaries in a revolutionary way.
An example?
Jamie Cullum mixing Gene Kelly's Singin' in the Rain with Rianna's Umbrella.
They both talk about rain. And it's a mixture of old and new into a brand new style.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61tOzOUguF4&NR=1
3. You look into a person's eye when you have casual talks and you forgot who you are or what she looks like.
'I feel like if someone were to touch me, I'd dissolve into molecules. '
------- Jesse, Before Sunset (2004)
Saturday, 5 June 2010
問題
問題
修頓球場
二零一零年四月十號
下午四點四十五分
又開一本新日記了。
寫作有一個問題，就是太多或太小。正如現在腦中閃過很多的念頭。
人在同一時間怎可以同時去感受那麼多的訊息？
在我寫這篇日記的同時，坐在我左側後的印度人和他的朋友已經在喋喋不休的說過不停，使我在坐下的兩分鐘前便和自己搏鬥，究竟要不要離坐換一個比較清靜的位置，但又想既來之，則安之吧。
望著雨後的球場上，依然有數位不見不散，衣衫襤褸，赤著上身的阿叔慫恿不迫地形成兩個依伴的三角形，來回掛高球。「喂」，「X你老X，個波lut皮lut骨既！」熱便脫衣，作悶就吸一口煙，這樣就是一個愉快的下午。
如果你聽到「噗」的一大響，然後場上四面八方一片的「喂 ！」 「喂 ！」 「喂 ！」，你會感到場邊有一種緊張的氣氛，然後本能反應的抬頭四處張望。如果球不是飛往觀眾席這一邊，那各位便會裝作若無其事一樣用理智把正在預備擋球，蠢蠢欲動的手停住，以免自己假想的預兆引起的準備動作成為他人引發暗笑的動機。
冷不防，穿藍衣黑褲的洗地工人中了頭獎，還好只是輕輕的碰到他的頭，不然那輕輕襯托著「叮叮」的「沙沙」水聲便會被一堆粗言穢語所取替了。
不過，無論如何，這是不會發生的了。因為那洗地的聲音只是我腦海中的一點殘餘回憶，印度人也在我不知不覺間走了，剩下他的友人獨自自個兒打發時間。就是這樣了，如果「文明社會」的知識基礎是建立在閱讀，然後思考，然後把它再轉化成文字的前提上，那麼這樣的知識永遠都是一個被打了折扣的大前提上被攝取的。
管他的，一路上思考的都不是這些東西。在坐下動筆前，原本想的是我沿途進球場的感覺，這又要追索到剛剛離開書店的決定。
原訂的計劃是在灣仔找一間「星巴克」，找個位置坐下並寫一寫我對於自己近期的看法，但礙於不相信城市空間裏連坐著寫東西也需要用金錢來換取，所以決定到修頓的觀眾席上拾筆行文，但畢竟敵不過檀香的菠蘿包和維記朱奶，所以花了$10作為換取修頓觀眾上的一席的代價。
沿途才發現自己的愚昧無知。球場邊的椅子早坐滿了六，七，甚至八十歲的老人家。穿運動裝的，戴鴨帽的，藍恤衫西裝褲，獨個兒的，受一個毫無血緣關係的傭人照料的。有的眼神目獨，沒有一絲人氣；有的夫妻倆靜靜靠著對方細味場上的一切，更有聯群結黨，指手畫腳論棋盤的。
我走得很小心，怕沾污了這一片神聖的靜土。甚麼都不懂的我，只希望廉價的菠蘿包能不惹來歧視的目光吧。
不過我最想問的問題是：「十分鐘前早已喝完的維記朱奶的吸管是否比以前的變粗了？」
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Antony Gormley and my thoughts on humanity
Attended the talk hosted by British Council with the help of HKIA 2010 and HKMA.
Wish to share my notes of Antony Gormley's talk. He shifted from one topic to another quite rapidly, so I added the title and numbering to make it easier for the reader.
If his ideas are in anyway belittled or misinterpreted, that is entirely my fault and I would like to apologise in advance.
The Body as Workshop - A talk by Antony Gormley
1. Seeing the city of Hong Kong
Before digging into anything about his artwork or his concepts. His first comment was how the typography of Hong Kong amazed him. He in particular could not forget about how the low hanging clouds were all over the city.
The slow ferry across the sea made him feel like going back in time to an age when the industrial revolution seemed to have just started and technology was still timidly experimenting. The dialogue between human made things and the elements, the urban environment, the close connection of earth and sea, the sky and the changing qualities of light all left a big impression to his short visit.
2. What is the role of art?
If we acknowledge the fact that the world is not limitless like before. Then human as a species has a big responsibility ahead of us. If the great human project is to carry on, we have to ask ourselves whether we are moving towards self-destruction.
For people who thought that the centre of the world was their own island or territory, what was going through the person's mind who cut the last tree down in Easter Island?
If we take art as a place for potential transformation,
Can art address such big human questions?
Can art address our value system which places emphasis on surplus?
Gormley grew up in UK, 'was a good hippy' (as he called himself) and went to India for 3 years learning about Buddhism and Hindu culture, he then later paid a visit to Kimberly, Australia. It was during his visits, that he saw a lot of work of art that were more than 1700 years old. It was before Aboriginal painting and it was art before any specialisation or placed in any framework, before art was in surplus culture.
For them, survival and making of art was fundamentally intertwined.
If such possibilities existed before, will art become the central, basic human expression again?
3. The un-institutionalisation of art
The other issue is that of art becoming institutionalised. Can art return to being part of everyday life?
After the end of Impression, art went into a period of question the syntax and framework of the Impressionist and began to address more the viewer instead of institutions.
What followed were big transfers in the western canon of art where art lost its cultural, religious roots and began to touch the previously unknown spiritual realm.
Ever since, the pre-knowledge of iconography seizes to be of necessity. Art became to be open to interpretation. Artists uses the space of art as resounding board for our own existence. In a globalised world, we are our own author of our identity.
Can art also do so to assert our individual identity and individual spirituality?
[Slide show begins]
4. 'Event Horizon', 2010, New York
Our human condition in urban living can perhaps be best illustrated in Manhattan as the epitome of modernism. If over 50% of us relate to the urban grid and experience human life not through primary sources (sun light, wind, free flowing water) and rather look into video, monitor, window, what does that say about our human condition?
Gormley's project in Manhattan involved placing 31 sculptures in the area. 4 on the ground and 27 almost on the perceptual edge of the skyline. As these figures begin to inhibit the real world they act as a relational view for its surrounding. The gaze into the horizon that the embedded homogeneous of the city cannot see.
The body, in a sense is something that is temporarily occupying a certain space. It is a temporary aggregation of cells where we look at. When we observe, we observe subjectively from ourselves to others and relate things through our body senses. The idea of 'you' or 'the others' is only possible with subjectivity. If truth is found through the usages of our senses, then we all live on the other side of the visible.
Then how do we begin to acknowledge the perception of our space if it is so often limited by our skin or edge or defined category.
5. 'Sultra', Sadler's Wall, London, 2008
Gormley worked with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and 16 Monks from the Shaolin temple to do a play in London.
If we were to test the limit of the human bodies, we can also test the edges of our body in relationship to the space that our body occupies, which in this case were metal containers.
If we go back to basics. We have the human body, then clothes to fit that space. Then comes the bed, the room, the cubicle city space, then a residential building, then blocks of towering estates....
What are the potentials or limits of the human body under such a condition?
6. 'Space Station', Hayward Gallery London, 2007
The 'Space Station' is utilising and exploring the space within the gallery by making the piece as large as possible (fire regulations permitting). It is in fact a compressed fetus form with an opening under the elbow where people can crawl in and experience the same fetus form but in negative space and in a much smaller scale.
Through the action of crawling into that space, the viewer who enjoyed free mobility is devoid of his/her original freedom and experiences what the artwork 'Space Station' is experiencing within the gallery space.
7. 'Drawn', Hoxton Square, London 2000
In all these human figure piece, Gormley used his own body as the cast for the figures. The making involves him sitting still and silence and accept the condition of inertia of a sculpture.
The indexical body occupies a space at a certain time and it is the history of its own making. The body is not idealised and contextualised with the sense of architecture (that is, the boundaries of the gallery space). The body and elongated arms stretches out to sense the wall space and to sense the second space (negative space within architecture).
To him, good sculpture uses and emphasizes what it lacks. Rather than having the artwork occupy the privileged space, the viewer is in the prestige position and becomes the active, the moving, the thinking through the realisation of his / her own freedom.
If up, down, left, right, front and back are all subjective perspectives that we push to the space with our bodies. Then perhaps there is none better than directly addressing its limitations in order to make us revalue the space that we inhibit in. If art has moved beyond the duties of science, religion, mythology, then perhaps it is to address our body once again.
For nothing is fixed, everything is influx. The universe is continuously expanding, to fix sculpture at a defining space. The viewer becomes liberated.
8. '2008 pavilion for the Kivik Art Centre in Österlen', Sweden, 2008
In this lesser iconic Gormley piece, he collaborated with David Chipperfield Architects to create a 3 boxes with the same volume. The base is a tomb like experience as the viewer enters, then a stairs leads him/her to the second level where light and opening is contrasted with the ground floor experience to highlight the sensual body experience and how our body quickly adapts to different conditions of space. The third level is a tower like structure with opening to the top. Its vertical elements readdress the horizontal opening of the second level. Again to heighten and remind us of how our body senses the surrounding.
9. I shall skip the two piece 'Full Bowl' and 'Floor' because the lack of photo for these two piece diminishes the power to evoke thoughts.
10.'Inside Australia' to mark the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Perth International Arts Festival in 2003, Lake Ballard, Western Australia, 2003
In the vast Salt Lake system that has been around for million of years. Gormley scattered 51 sculptural pieces over a 10 square mile area. Place the sculptures on such vast landscape. The viewer is reassured of his own freedom of movement. The differen bodies hang like whiskers, almost leaning beyond the point of deception. As the viewer walks around the lake. The heat, the crunching sound of salt and the vastness reminds him/her of his own space and solidarity on this planet.
Our dependency of the urban grid may mean that our profound relationship with time, space and memory may be lost.
11. 'Another Place', Crosby Beach, Liverpool, 2007.
In the Liverpool piece, besides the layer of meanings already mentioned above, the tides come in and come out and temporary erase the existence of the sculpture. Calling on to the viewer to remember the piece's space and time.
[My immediate thoughts: Is human not the same? Isn't the existence of our temporary life nothing but a memory of our occupation in a space and time. And this 'fact' is made concrete by others who are constantly viewing us. So what happens when technology enables us to create another virtual timeless self? And when all information can be uninterrupted recorded into virtual space, how then do we address the elemental space of pure senses?]
12. Feeling Material XIII, 2004
Gormley is exploring energy flow through this piece by using one line. What happen is the that line hits the wall, come back, orbits around in the middle and goes out to hit the wall and moves back to orbits again.
[My immediate thoughts: if the way humans assert our body in relation to our surrounding. Then how do we both philosophical and physically relate our body with the universe which is continuously expanding? It really fascinated me then, how the universe becomes the universe with all these chaotic energy flows creating a harmonious balance for humans to inhibit in. Should we not treasure and respect this miraculous balance?]
13. 'Blind Light', Hayward Gallery, London, 2007
Using a room of 10 metre square. The room is filled with 1/3 part of cloud. As the visitor enters, he is disoriented and loses all sensory anchor points. The disorientation draws consciousness to the viewer's body. This room helps create a no environment, without any subjectivity.
[My personal experience of my visit to the Hayward Gallery in 2007 was surreal. One can hear muffled voices in the distance, but only realise another person when he/she is about 1 metre from myself. Hence you always here 'Oops, i'm sorry', 'Oh, you are there' muffles in the distance and you can barely tell whether that distance is near or far. One becomes extremely aware of one's own body as one really has to concentrate and trust one's own senses in order not to bump into another person or to the glass walls surrounding the space]
14. 'One Another', The Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London, 2009.
The fourth plinth was originally planned for William IV, but it remained empty for a very long time until somebody came up with the bright idea to occupy it with contemporary art. Ever since, artists have used it to showcase their artworks temporarily.
In this 'experiment' (as Gormley terms the project) Gormley invited the 2400 members of the general public to participate in his artwork. Interesting participants would invite themselves through web entry / leaflets and they were selected by random to go on the plinth.
Every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break, different people would have the freedom to take the vantage point and do whatever they wish to do on the platform. Gormley is essnetially using the viewer to be viewed.
and there were of course... the usual expected performers.... but to this Gormley replied that nakedness is not necessarily a problem or a shallow show, as the globe becomes warmer, we may become more tropical.
15. 'Allotment II', Hayward Gallery, London, 1996.
If we return back to the question of what role artworks plays in the scheme of humanity. Can art seize to analyse its own internal framework and return us to our own vitality and our own consciousness? By placing body on the extreme conditions, on top of buildings at the very edge, perhaps we can then become more aware of our own consciousness as we as viewers relate ourselves with the other human scale and put that in context within the urban grid.
16. Angel of the North, Gateshead England, 1994.
This sculpture is a totemic, iconic piece and it marks the end of the industrial age. It address the change from industrial to information. It sits on top of ore deposits, in particularly, coal which sparked off the industrial revolution that have changed fundamentally how humans interact with his/her surroundings.
Gormley interesting noted that it is an angel that will never fly and is not invisible.
[My immediate thoughts: Humanity must rely on his own consciousness and own understanding to make his living space a better space and without reliance on any all knowing god]
17. 'Breathing Room', White Cube, London 2010
In day time, visitors enter and walk around the space experiencing with the many possibilities of how our bodies relate to space. Viewers than look at other viewers to make association of their own in relation to other viewers and the space around them.
The interesting thing about this piece is that it absorbs sunlight in the morning and begins to glow in the dark. Is this then a drawing, an architecture, a fabricated reality to regulate our bodies to fit certain spaces, or, as city dwellers, are we entitled to more choices?
18. Ending comments
Gormley felt that it is essential for humans to link ourselves with the landscape and hold on to memory in that sense. The land, time, space we occupy and space that others occupy.
We know now for certain the limitations of human civilisation. The idea of the other horizon is better is but a phony concept where colonisation of other planets is nothing but a lavish and extravagant dream that we are not capable of before our own planet runs out of resources.
As technology begins to divide us more and more from the elemental world we have to refocus our attention on the close ties we have to our land and hold on dearly to these elemental conditions that all species except humans have learnt to embrace and respect.
If there is nothing more, nothing better out there, then how do we face reality? Or perhaps there is nothing out there, but there is something right here, within us that we are capable of utilising to make this world a better place for everyone.
The final sentence he said in the lecture was this.
'We have to learn how to live barely and that will be difficult.'
19. My casual chats with Gormley after the talk.
I love how my t-shirt says 'I see dead people', can read that in context with Gormley's work =)
[G:Gormely, Juanjaime:J]
a). My first question was a bit dumb and self-explanatory. But I was very nervous talking for the first time to my idol. I blurted the question out without thinking through it carefully:
J: Your last sentence in the lecture was that 'We have to learn how to live barely and that will be difficult.' With all the sculptures you have produced, they try to explore body and its relation to space. But we are restricted forever in our own bodies. I suppose that is our limitation. But again, with our bodies we have created endless potentials.
So do you think the human species has more limitations or more endless potentials?
G: (smiles), I myself have not found the answer to this question.
b). I told him I understood EXACTLY what he meant by space, time, landscape and memory because I was engaged in the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial. And he fondly recalled the experience of him finishing the work and lying down on the ground with an old lady who once lived in the house. Gormley thought that the project was already alright when she gave him a gentle grin as they look up into the 'Another Singularity' piece hanging in mid air of the house.
'Another Singularity', Echigo Tsumari Triennial 2009, Japan. 2009.
I then told him I was involved in the Setouchi International Art Festival 2010 and was surprised to learn that he didn't know about the project!
c). Then I made another stupid comment (I was really really very nervous, but eager to engage with such a humble but intellectual individual) when one of the audience asked him about public projects. He said that he planned to create a 120 metre transparent human figure which allowed the general public to walk through the legs and upwards through the body, into the brain and down the other side. It would be a double helix and placed near the Olympic arena.
I said this was very politically charged as you are placing the piece in Beijing Olympics, so it is an critique on Communism with one human figure controlling the flow of tragic and space allowed for the general mass. And he politely corrected me that it was the London Olympics 2012 and that it was based on the Tatlin model, which luckily, for me, still made references to the Marxist ideology.
Sigh, the embarrassment of one's ignorance and rushing to conclusions.
d). When conversing with Gormley, I was very excited because I first saw his piece the 'Blind Light' in Hayward Gallery, London. I was blown away by how there was no instrument of 'art' or 'art' related materials that we usually associate with. Just four walls of glass, some man made fog/cloud and room light. It made me greatly conscious of my immediate primary senses.
I told him bluntly that the 'Blind Light was his best piece if it tries to heighten our body senses while the other sculptural pieces were weaker. Although he very gentlemanly, kindly agreed with my comment.I would like to now, take back my comment.
After further understanding his pieces. I think 'Blind Light' enabled the viewer to heighten our own individual senses, but the power of relating to otherness and other space was more powerful in his signature sculptural pieces. Because it was the solitude which brought out the homogenous mass and asserted the mass with its individuality. While 'Blind Light' was more oriented inwards, the focus was on once individual experience through spaces.
20. Some interesting questions raised by other listeners.
Person 1, 'If your piece is based on the human body, then do you talk about the mind?'
G: ......(hesitates)....... yes, I also talk about the mind in my piece......
Person 2, 'In Hong Kong, we are desperately in need for good public art. You perhaps have seen and made good public art all over the world. We in Hong Kong have no resource and no support and artists are always limited and constrained by the authorities, what would be a good example of public art in UK? Perhaps the Angel of the North piece?'
G: No I would not say my piece is good in anyway. I am slightly embarrassed about the Angel of the North piece actually.
Most people, 'Hi, I am bla bla bla, I work in bla bla bla, here is my name card, it was an amazing show, very interesting, it would be lovely to see your piece in Hong Kong, I have seen your works here and there, thanks for a very interesting talk.......'
Hence I barely remembered their questions.
He did pay particular intense attention to a teacher who wanted to ask him to help out in education. She mentioned something about the tragedy of people ending their own lives and poverty and Gormley being Gormley, was very concerned with tragic human conditions and asked her to write down her contact so he can try his best to help out in the future.
21. My afterthoughts
1. Why are we still wearing clothes, if clothes is not a necessity (excluding extreme weather conditions)? Have we not enough wisdom and confidence to acknowledge that the human body is perfect as it is?
A few answers:
As more and more people acknowledge the fact that we are facing limited resource (unless we suddenly get Superman's stone, whatever the name of it was) and with the 'Death of God' (no, I haven't read the book yet, apologies to Nietzsche fans).
The continuous rise in individuality and equality would ultimately mean that resources will be redistributed evenly. And if that happens, 'we will have to learn how to live barely and that will be difficult.'
But I honestly do not see the logic behind wearing clothes if it is of no necessity to our comforts (excluding extreme conditions) and is simply a cultural trait. People may begin to say, so what, after clothes, we start not living in houses, start bartering, is that not a going back in civilisation?
I think the phrase 'development', 'progress', 'civilisation' is waiting for a brand new interpretation that will lead us to a society that is created for the betterment of humanity and the space the humanity occupies.
2.Which is more likely to bring human civilisation to its knees? Continue war and exploitation of resources or stop wearing clothes?
3. Western ideology are turned more outwards while Eastern ideology is turned more inwards.
In the case of the Greeks, the looked outwardly for a perfect condition and debated that humans are continuing to strive for that perfection of beauty that lay somewhere hidden (i.e. there exists a model of a perfect chair somewhere in the cosmos and we humans are constantly refining our understand and skills to create that perfect chair).
The Jews carried on this belief with perfect truth and beauty embodied in a single all knowing God. His teachings then was manifested on earth through the Christians with Jesus Christ to emphasis the longing of the suffering humanity to seek faith, hope and love through a perfect human being. Colonisation was a belief in an outwardly better world beyond the horizon, the urge to discover new lands, collect exotic items, explore in the final frontiers was conscious in the minds of the west. Their believe in freedom, equality and liberty to all was to be done through the mass movement with big outward articulations. (i.e. French Rev., Marxism, Martin Luther King Junior)
The Eastern ideology ever since the beginning of Chinese civilisation has continued to look at the human condition more inwardly. Although the maps of China expanded and contracted, it was mostly within similar boundaries. Pioneers who traveled beyond the boundaries of China had little intention to colonise other countries as the orients saw themselves to be at the centre of their world already. Philosophers such as Confucius and Buddha gave advices and wisdom but did not ask their disciples to spread the good news as far as the sea can reach. They emphasis on the inward understanding and pursuit for spiritual truth through looking into oneself and in harmony with one's surrounding. The struggles of Chinese dynasties has also always been turned inward with the similar races attacking each other. Little was their interest in engaging with the others (with the small exception of the Mongols who were essentially non-Han Chinese race).
The dichotomy of the East and West may be perhaps because of the fertility of the land and resource of the East (at least in the emperor's eyes), enabling it to be sustainable on its own and not push for surplus elsewhere. [I shall not venture further in this topic, but a study into the different way Western and Eastern artist regards themselves in relation to their society may also shed some light on this issue].
Gormley also noted that the Western psyche is very used to linear development, while the East is more about writing a more stable circle. And it's about time our civilisation try to figure out a balance between the two before it's too late.
4. We are so familiar with our own body and relation to another that we forget about its possibilities and are trapped within our own assumed and defined limits. Gormley's piece enable us to see the limitations of our body in order so we can bare this in mind when we explore new ways of interpreting our body in relation to the space around us.
5. The marble tower of artist must come down to meet the mass and be at harmony with the mass. For this, not belittling artist, but artist must be humble and non-self centered if he/she is addressing the universal human conditions which looks at what makes us similar rather than focusing on the the idiosyncratic individual.
6. Ah, the irony of me using the internet to talk about space, time and memory of a site specific work. And perhaps the final frontier that has never ending resource is the internet?
7. Antony Gormley just become my third favourite non-architectural aritst, after Mark Rothko and Oscar Oiwa. And followed by Anish Kappor and JMW Turner.
8. Gormley is planning a work in Hong Kong!!!
The increasingly abandoning garage in front of the old Star Ferry pier. We should thank our government for taking the pier down and reclaiming the land. Otherwise, Gormley may have to find a more... remote place for his project.
9. 'Art is there to measure what we have lost to modernisation' - Fram Kitagawa
10. 'Art is using the limited to talk about the unlimited' - Alexander Hui Yat Chuen
Disclaimer
Before putting this on the blog, I seriously thought about keeping the article to myself and share it amongst my close friends. But if I only occupy a finite amount of space and time, perhaps more interesting discussions can come about if I made this open to the public.
I hope the owners of the photos which I randomly pulled from the internet will forgive me for not asking for permission and accept the humbleness of all human beings in the scale of cosmic relationship.
And if I have in any way offended any individual in this blog entry.
I apologies for my ignorance,'we all live on the other side of the visible' afterall.
Antony Gormely official website
http://www.antonygormley.com/
Wish to share my notes of Antony Gormley's talk. He shifted from one topic to another quite rapidly, so I added the title and numbering to make it easier for the reader.
If his ideas are in anyway belittled or misinterpreted, that is entirely my fault and I would like to apologise in advance.
The Body as Workshop - A talk by Antony Gormley
1. Seeing the city of Hong Kong
Before digging into anything about his artwork or his concepts. His first comment was how the typography of Hong Kong amazed him. He in particular could not forget about how the low hanging clouds were all over the city.
The slow ferry across the sea made him feel like going back in time to an age when the industrial revolution seemed to have just started and technology was still timidly experimenting. The dialogue between human made things and the elements, the urban environment, the close connection of earth and sea, the sky and the changing qualities of light all left a big impression to his short visit.
2. What is the role of art?
If we acknowledge the fact that the world is not limitless like before. Then human as a species has a big responsibility ahead of us. If the great human project is to carry on, we have to ask ourselves whether we are moving towards self-destruction.
For people who thought that the centre of the world was their own island or territory, what was going through the person's mind who cut the last tree down in Easter Island?
If we take art as a place for potential transformation,
Can art address such big human questions?
Can art address our value system which places emphasis on surplus?
Gormley grew up in UK, 'was a good hippy' (as he called himself) and went to India for 3 years learning about Buddhism and Hindu culture, he then later paid a visit to Kimberly, Australia. It was during his visits, that he saw a lot of work of art that were more than 1700 years old. It was before Aboriginal painting and it was art before any specialisation or placed in any framework, before art was in surplus culture.
For them, survival and making of art was fundamentally intertwined.
If such possibilities existed before, will art become the central, basic human expression again?
3. The un-institutionalisation of art
The other issue is that of art becoming institutionalised. Can art return to being part of everyday life?
After the end of Impression, art went into a period of question the syntax and framework of the Impressionist and began to address more the viewer instead of institutions.
What followed were big transfers in the western canon of art where art lost its cultural, religious roots and began to touch the previously unknown spiritual realm.
Ever since, the pre-knowledge of iconography seizes to be of necessity. Art became to be open to interpretation. Artists uses the space of art as resounding board for our own existence. In a globalised world, we are our own author of our identity.
Can art also do so to assert our individual identity and individual spirituality?
[Slide show begins]
4. 'Event Horizon', 2010, New York
Our human condition in urban living can perhaps be best illustrated in Manhattan as the epitome of modernism. If over 50% of us relate to the urban grid and experience human life not through primary sources (sun light, wind, free flowing water) and rather look into video, monitor, window, what does that say about our human condition?
Gormley's project in Manhattan involved placing 31 sculptures in the area. 4 on the ground and 27 almost on the perceptual edge of the skyline. As these figures begin to inhibit the real world they act as a relational view for its surrounding. The gaze into the horizon that the embedded homogeneous of the city cannot see.
The body, in a sense is something that is temporarily occupying a certain space. It is a temporary aggregation of cells where we look at. When we observe, we observe subjectively from ourselves to others and relate things through our body senses. The idea of 'you' or 'the others' is only possible with subjectivity. If truth is found through the usages of our senses, then we all live on the other side of the visible.
Then how do we begin to acknowledge the perception of our space if it is so often limited by our skin or edge or defined category.
5. 'Sultra', Sadler's Wall, London, 2008
Gormley worked with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and 16 Monks from the Shaolin temple to do a play in London.If we were to test the limit of the human bodies, we can also test the edges of our body in relationship to the space that our body occupies, which in this case were metal containers.
If we go back to basics. We have the human body, then clothes to fit that space. Then comes the bed, the room, the cubicle city space, then a residential building, then blocks of towering estates....
What are the potentials or limits of the human body under such a condition?
6. 'Space Station', Hayward Gallery London, 2007
The 'Space Station' is utilising and exploring the space within the gallery by making the piece as large as possible (fire regulations permitting). It is in fact a compressed fetus form with an opening under the elbow where people can crawl in and experience the same fetus form but in negative space and in a much smaller scale.Through the action of crawling into that space, the viewer who enjoyed free mobility is devoid of his/her original freedom and experiences what the artwork 'Space Station' is experiencing within the gallery space.
7. 'Drawn', Hoxton Square, London 2000
In all these human figure piece, Gormley used his own body as the cast for the figures. The making involves him sitting still and silence and accept the condition of inertia of a sculpture.The indexical body occupies a space at a certain time and it is the history of its own making. The body is not idealised and contextualised with the sense of architecture (that is, the boundaries of the gallery space). The body and elongated arms stretches out to sense the wall space and to sense the second space (negative space within architecture).
To him, good sculpture uses and emphasizes what it lacks. Rather than having the artwork occupy the privileged space, the viewer is in the prestige position and becomes the active, the moving, the thinking through the realisation of his / her own freedom.
If up, down, left, right, front and back are all subjective perspectives that we push to the space with our bodies. Then perhaps there is none better than directly addressing its limitations in order to make us revalue the space that we inhibit in. If art has moved beyond the duties of science, religion, mythology, then perhaps it is to address our body once again.
For nothing is fixed, everything is influx. The universe is continuously expanding, to fix sculpture at a defining space. The viewer becomes liberated.
8. '2008 pavilion for the Kivik Art Centre in Österlen', Sweden, 2008
In this lesser iconic Gormley piece, he collaborated with David Chipperfield Architects to create a 3 boxes with the same volume. The base is a tomb like experience as the viewer enters, then a stairs leads him/her to the second level where light and opening is contrasted with the ground floor experience to highlight the sensual body experience and how our body quickly adapts to different conditions of space. The third level is a tower like structure with opening to the top. Its vertical elements readdress the horizontal opening of the second level. Again to heighten and remind us of how our body senses the surrounding.9. I shall skip the two piece 'Full Bowl' and 'Floor' because the lack of photo for these two piece diminishes the power to evoke thoughts.
10.
In the vast Salt Lake system that has been around for million of years. Gormley scattered 51 sculptural pieces over a 10 square mile area. Place the sculptures on such vast landscape. The viewer is reassured of his own freedom of movement. The differen bodies hang like whiskers, almost leaning beyond the point of deception. As the viewer walks around the lake. The heat, the crunching sound of salt and the vastness reminds him/her of his own space and solidarity on this planet.
Our dependency of the urban grid may mean that our profound relationship with time, space and memory may be lost.11. 'Another Place', Crosby Beach, Liverpool, 2007.
In the Liverpool piece, besides the layer of meanings already mentioned above, the tides come in and come out and temporary erase the existence of the sculpture. Calling on to the viewer to remember the piece's space and time.[My immediate thoughts: Is human not the same? Isn't the existence of our temporary life nothing but a memory of our occupation in a space and time. And this 'fact' is made concrete by others who are constantly viewing us. So what happens when technology enables us to create another virtual timeless self? And when all information can be uninterrupted recorded into virtual space, how then do we address the elemental space of pure senses?]
12. Feeling Material XIII, 2004
Gormley is exploring energy flow through this piece by using one line. What happen is the that line hits the wall, come back, orbits around in the middle and goes out to hit the wall and moves back to orbits again.[My immediate thoughts: if the way humans assert our body in relation to our surrounding. Then how do we both philosophical and physically relate our body with the universe which is continuously expanding? It really fascinated me then, how the universe becomes the universe with all these chaotic energy flows creating a harmonious balance for humans to inhibit in. Should we not treasure and respect this miraculous balance?]
13. 'Blind Light', Hayward Gallery, London, 2007
Using a room of 10 metre square. The room is filled with 1/3 part of cloud. As the visitor enters, he is disoriented and loses all sensory anchor points. The disorientation draws consciousness to the viewer's body. This room helps create a no environment, without any subjectivity.
[My personal experience of my visit to the Hayward Gallery in 2007 was surreal. One can hear muffled voices in the distance, but only realise another person when he/she is about 1 metre from myself. Hence you always here 'Oops, i'm sorry', 'Oh, you are there' muffles in the distance and you can barely tell whether that distance is near or far. One becomes extremely aware of one's own body as one really has to concentrate and trust one's own senses in order not to bump into another person or to the glass walls surrounding the space]
14. 'One Another', The Fourth Plinth, Trafalgar Square, London, 2009.
The fourth plinth was originally planned for William IV, but it remained empty for a very long time until somebody came up with the bright idea to occupy it with contemporary art. Ever since, artists have used it to showcase their artworks temporarily.In this 'experiment' (as Gormley terms the project) Gormley invited the 2400 members of the general public to participate in his artwork. Interesting participants would invite themselves through web entry / leaflets and they were selected by random to go on the plinth.
Every hour, 24 hours a day, for 100 days without a break, different people would have the freedom to take the vantage point and do whatever they wish to do on the platform. Gormley is essnetially using the viewer to be viewed.
and there were of course... the usual expected performers.... but to this Gormley replied that nakedness is not necessarily a problem or a shallow show, as the globe becomes warmer, we may become more tropical.
15. 'Allotment II', Hayward Gallery, London, 1996.
If we return back to the question of what role artworks plays in the scheme of humanity. Can art seize to analyse its own internal framework and return us to our own vitality and our own consciousness? By placing body on the extreme conditions, on top of buildings at the very edge, perhaps we can then become more aware of our own consciousness as we as viewers relate ourselves with the other human scale and put that in context within the urban grid.
16. Angel of the North, Gateshead England, 1994.
This sculpture is a totemic, iconic piece and it marks the end of the industrial age. It address the change from industrial to information. It sits on top of ore deposits, in particularly, coal which sparked off the industrial revolution that have changed fundamentally how humans interact with his/her surroundings.Gormley interesting noted that it is an angel that will never fly and is not invisible.
[My immediate thoughts: Humanity must rely on his own consciousness and own understanding to make his living space a better space and without reliance on any all knowing god]
17. 'Breathing Room', White Cube, London 2010
In day time, visitors enter and walk around the space experiencing with the many possibilities of how our bodies relate to space. Viewers than look at other viewers to make association of their own in relation to other viewers and the space around them.The interesting thing about this piece is that it absorbs sunlight in the morning and begins to glow in the dark. Is this then a drawing, an architecture, a fabricated reality to regulate our bodies to fit certain spaces, or, as city dwellers, are we entitled to more choices?
18. Ending commentsGormley felt that it is essential for humans to link ourselves with the landscape and hold on to memory in that sense. The land, time, space we occupy and space that others occupy.
We know now for certain the limitations of human civilisation. The idea of the other horizon is better is but a phony concept where colonisation of other planets is nothing but a lavish and extravagant dream that we are not capable of before our own planet runs out of resources.
As technology begins to divide us more and more from the elemental world we have to refocus our attention on the close ties we have to our land and hold on dearly to these elemental conditions that all species except humans have learnt to embrace and respect.
If there is nothing more, nothing better out there, then how do we face reality? Or perhaps there is nothing out there, but there is something right here, within us that we are capable of utilising to make this world a better place for everyone.
The final sentence he said in the lecture was this.
'We have to learn how to live barely and that will be difficult.'
19. My casual chats with Gormley after the talk.
I love how my t-shirt says 'I see dead people', can read that in context with Gormley's work =)[G:Gormely, Juanjaime:J]
a). My first question was a bit dumb and self-explanatory. But I was very nervous talking for the first time to my idol. I blurted the question out without thinking through it carefully:
J: Your last sentence in the lecture was that 'We have to learn how to live barely and that will be difficult.' With all the sculptures you have produced, they try to explore body and its relation to space. But we are restricted forever in our own bodies. I suppose that is our limitation. But again, with our bodies we have created endless potentials.
So do you think the human species has more limitations or more endless potentials?
G: (smiles), I myself have not found the answer to this question.
b). I told him I understood EXACTLY what he meant by space, time, landscape and memory because I was engaged in the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennial. And he fondly recalled the experience of him finishing the work and lying down on the ground with an old lady who once lived in the house. Gormley thought that the project was already alright when she gave him a gentle grin as they look up into the 'Another Singularity' piece hanging in mid air of the house.
'Another Singularity', Echigo Tsumari Triennial 2009, Japan. 2009.
I then told him I was involved in the Setouchi International Art Festival 2010 and was surprised to learn that he didn't know about the project!c). Then I made another stupid comment (I was really really very nervous, but eager to engage with such a humble but intellectual individual) when one of the audience asked him about public projects. He said that he planned to create a 120 metre transparent human figure which allowed the general public to walk through the legs and upwards through the body, into the brain and down the other side. It would be a double helix and placed near the Olympic arena.
I said this was very politically charged as you are placing the piece in Beijing Olympics, so it is an critique on Communism with one human figure controlling the flow of tragic and space allowed for the general mass. And he politely corrected me that it was the London Olympics 2012 and that it was based on the Tatlin model, which luckily, for me, still made references to the Marxist ideology.
Sigh, the embarrassment of one's ignorance and rushing to conclusions.
d). When conversing with Gormley, I was very excited because I first saw his piece the 'Blind Light' in Hayward Gallery, London. I was blown away by how there was no instrument of 'art' or 'art' related materials that we usually associate with. Just four walls of glass, some man made fog/cloud and room light. It made me greatly conscious of my immediate primary senses.
I told him bluntly that the 'Blind Light was his best piece if it tries to heighten our body senses while the other sculptural pieces were weaker. Although he very gentlemanly, kindly agreed with my comment.I would like to now, take back my comment.
After further understanding his pieces. I think 'Blind Light' enabled the viewer to heighten our own individual senses, but the power of relating to otherness and other space was more powerful in his signature sculptural pieces. Because it was the solitude which brought out the homogenous mass and asserted the mass with its individuality. While 'Blind Light' was more oriented inwards, the focus was on once individual experience through spaces.
20. Some interesting questions raised by other listeners.
Person 1, 'If your piece is based on the human body, then do you talk about the mind?'
G: ......(hesitates)....... yes, I also talk about the mind in my piece......
Person 2, 'In Hong Kong, we are desperately in need for good public art. You perhaps have seen and made good public art all over the world. We in Hong Kong have no resource and no support and artists are always limited and constrained by the authorities, what would be a good example of public art in UK? Perhaps the Angel of the North piece?'
G: No I would not say my piece is good in anyway. I am slightly embarrassed about the Angel of the North piece actually.
Most people, 'Hi, I am bla bla bla, I work in bla bla bla, here is my name card, it was an amazing show, very interesting, it would be lovely to see your piece in Hong Kong, I have seen your works here and there, thanks for a very interesting talk.......'
Hence I barely remembered their questions.
He did pay particular intense attention to a teacher who wanted to ask him to help out in education. She mentioned something about the tragedy of people ending their own lives and poverty and Gormley being Gormley, was very concerned with tragic human conditions and asked her to write down her contact so he can try his best to help out in the future.
21. My afterthoughts
1. Why are we still wearing clothes, if clothes is not a necessity (excluding extreme weather conditions)? Have we not enough wisdom and confidence to acknowledge that the human body is perfect as it is?
A few answers:
As more and more people acknowledge the fact that we are facing limited resource (unless we suddenly get Superman's stone, whatever the name of it was) and with the 'Death of God' (no, I haven't read the book yet, apologies to Nietzsche fans).
The continuous rise in individuality and equality would ultimately mean that resources will be redistributed evenly. And if that happens, 'we will have to learn how to live barely and that will be difficult.'
But I honestly do not see the logic behind wearing clothes if it is of no necessity to our comforts (excluding extreme conditions) and is simply a cultural trait. People may begin to say, so what, after clothes, we start not living in houses, start bartering, is that not a going back in civilisation?
I think the phrase 'development', 'progress', 'civilisation' is waiting for a brand new interpretation that will lead us to a society that is created for the betterment of humanity and the space the humanity occupies.
2.Which is more likely to bring human civilisation to its knees? Continue war and exploitation of resources or stop wearing clothes?
3. Western ideology are turned more outwards while Eastern ideology is turned more inwards.
In the case of the Greeks, the looked outwardly for a perfect condition and debated that humans are continuing to strive for that perfection of beauty that lay somewhere hidden (i.e. there exists a model of a perfect chair somewhere in the cosmos and we humans are constantly refining our understand and skills to create that perfect chair).
The Jews carried on this belief with perfect truth and beauty embodied in a single all knowing God. His teachings then was manifested on earth through the Christians with Jesus Christ to emphasis the longing of the suffering humanity to seek faith, hope and love through a perfect human being. Colonisation was a belief in an outwardly better world beyond the horizon, the urge to discover new lands, collect exotic items, explore in the final frontiers was conscious in the minds of the west. Their believe in freedom, equality and liberty to all was to be done through the mass movement with big outward articulations. (i.e. French Rev., Marxism, Martin Luther King Junior)
The Eastern ideology ever since the beginning of Chinese civilisation has continued to look at the human condition more inwardly. Although the maps of China expanded and contracted, it was mostly within similar boundaries. Pioneers who traveled beyond the boundaries of China had little intention to colonise other countries as the orients saw themselves to be at the centre of their world already. Philosophers such as Confucius and Buddha gave advices and wisdom but did not ask their disciples to spread the good news as far as the sea can reach. They emphasis on the inward understanding and pursuit for spiritual truth through looking into oneself and in harmony with one's surrounding. The struggles of Chinese dynasties has also always been turned inward with the similar races attacking each other. Little was their interest in engaging with the others (with the small exception of the Mongols who were essentially non-Han Chinese race).
The dichotomy of the East and West may be perhaps because of the fertility of the land and resource of the East (at least in the emperor's eyes), enabling it to be sustainable on its own and not push for surplus elsewhere. [I shall not venture further in this topic, but a study into the different way Western and Eastern artist regards themselves in relation to their society may also shed some light on this issue].
Gormley also noted that the Western psyche is very used to linear development, while the East is more about writing a more stable circle. And it's about time our civilisation try to figure out a balance between the two before it's too late.
4. We are so familiar with our own body and relation to another that we forget about its possibilities and are trapped within our own assumed and defined limits. Gormley's piece enable us to see the limitations of our body in order so we can bare this in mind when we explore new ways of interpreting our body in relation to the space around us.
5. The marble tower of artist must come down to meet the mass and be at harmony with the mass. For this, not belittling artist, but artist must be humble and non-self centered if he/she is addressing the universal human conditions which looks at what makes us similar rather than focusing on the the idiosyncratic individual.
6. Ah, the irony of me using the internet to talk about space, time and memory of a site specific work. And perhaps the final frontier that has never ending resource is the internet?
7. Antony Gormley just become my third favourite non-architectural aritst, after Mark Rothko and Oscar Oiwa. And followed by Anish Kappor and JMW Turner.
8. Gormley is planning a work in Hong Kong!!!
The increasingly abandoning garage in front of the old Star Ferry pier. We should thank our government for taking the pier down and reclaiming the land. Otherwise, Gormley may have to find a more... remote place for his project.
9. 'Art is there to measure what we have lost to modernisation' - Fram Kitagawa
10. 'Art is using the limited to talk about the unlimited' - Alexander Hui Yat Chuen
Disclaimer
Before putting this on the blog, I seriously thought about keeping the article to myself and share it amongst my close friends. But if I only occupy a finite amount of space and time, perhaps more interesting discussions can come about if I made this open to the public.
I hope the owners of the photos which I randomly pulled from the internet will forgive me for not asking for permission and accept the humbleness of all human beings in the scale of cosmic relationship.
And if I have in any way offended any individual in this blog entry.
I apologies for my ignorance,'we all live on the other side of the visible' afterall.
Antony Gormely official website
http://www.antonygormley.com/
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