05/02/2012
03/27/2012
500 Square Feet
Well its official, I finally have rented a studio in Hong Kong.
I have been here for a year now and it looks like we are here longer. How long I'm not quite sure. So with that I have taken the bull by the horns and have rented a studio space.
Due to limited space and high rents in Hong Kong I feel very fortunate that I am now the proud occupant of my 500 sq feet space in De Voeux Road West. Everyone talks in square feet in this town. It's a very corporate orientated country and commercially driven, where money measures success so trying to tap into the creative HK will be a challenge.
Des Voeux Road is where all the HK trams route travels. The road was named after Sir George William Des Voeux who was the 10th Governor of Hong Kong in 1887.
This area is packed with dried seafood shops, all selling the most amazing looking food. Apparently 50 years ago the area was called the ‘Salty Fish Hood’ because most shops sold salty fish. But now all the above buildings are high rise residential and all the ground floor are still selling anything from abalone to shark fins. It’s a wonderful sight walking through here looking at all the dried seafood literally drying in cane baskets along the footpath and lane ways.
I will definitely need to buy some dried fish and start drawing it, just for the memories. I swear I saw some weird looking dried eel or maybe it was snake on the sidewalk a few days ago.
This area is definitely a feast for the eyes and nose. Always busy with lots of butchers and markets thrown in the mix.
Below I posted the first photographs, just an empty shell…
02/27/2012
YAYOI KUSAMA
But this time it was an exciting find.
The artwork is by the very famous Japanese artist,Yayoi Kusama.
Yayoi Kusama started painting polka dots and nets as motifs around
In 2008 at Christies in New York, her work sold for $5.1 million,
The book is full of wonderful pieces of art.
It just inspires me to read the book all over again.
To Read More about Yayoi Kusama
http://www.yayoi-kusama.jp/e/information/index.html
And for all you Aussies
Queensland Art Gallery has an exhibition of her work now on.
Until 11 March 2012
If you cant get there the website has a great catalogue online, really worth a look.
http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/current/yayoi_kusama_look_now,_see_forever
02/15/2012
Hipstamatic
Finally got a new iphone... the old one was looking like a musuem piece!
So with that, comes some new photos of HK through the lense of the hipstamatic.
I have posted a new album... 'Viewing HK through the Hipstamatic'.
As you can see I try to capture as much street art as possible.
So news is...
We are here for another year!
So with that, I'm trying to find a studio in HK, which for the amount of money I want to spend, I may be living the dream!!!
11/28/2011
Gerard Rancinan
11/08/2011
Tokyo, Japan
30th October - Arriving
We arrived Sunday night and I can't believe it, at last we are visiting Japan.
As usual I have decided to get sick! I have a head cold - I can’t think straight and I feel like my head is going to explode! Feeling like this, I can’t help but think we are off to a bad start.
So my initial thought is “Why this week to get sick!?!”
Second thought… OMG! We are going to Japan!
Third thought: I need a couch and an old movie, I need to feel sorry for myself!
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So, with Tim’s expert navigation we find our hotel - Granbell Hotel, Shibuya.
(That’s why I married him… I have no sense of direction!)
First Impressions: The entrance door, is awesome! A big wooden door, which rotates from its centre axis.
The hotel is located in the heart of Shibuya, close to the station and minutes away from the Shibuya Crossing. Fantastic place to stay.
Next - unpack.
Next - get my act together (cold and flu tablets, reapply lipstick).
Next - Go to that famous scene we all recognise as Tokyo: Shibuya Crossing.
You can’t come to Tokyo and not take a walk across the famous intersection. It’s featured in ‘Lost in Translation’ and ‘Baraka’. The place is packed with all types. When the lights turn red at this junction, they all turn red at the same time in every direction. Traffic stops completely and pedestrians surge into the intersection from all sides. It’s a moment of organized chaos.
Drinks tonight at Udagawa Café, Shibuya
Day 1
My cold has really kicked in so cold and flu tablets to the rescue!
Anyway… Off to Harajuku to Yoyogi Park which is one of Tokyo’s largest city parks.
We spent the morning wandering through this beautiful park. Located in the park is the Meiji Shrine*. The shrine was magnificent. We saw two traditional Japanese weddings when we where there which was a lovely surprise.
Tim has just declared that we should come to Japan every six months for the rest of our lives. Get back to you on that!
Then surprise, surprise, we went shopping. We walked down the main drag, ”Omotesando St”. Where there are lots of luxury stores, but Japan is all about the kooky so we need to take the side streets to see some really unique Tokyo fashion.
We stumble across an wonderful toy shop called ‘Kiddyland’. They had some awesome “Alice in Wonderland’ toys which I purchased. Then down Takeshita –dori for some serious Japanese style fashion street watching!
Apparently, on Sundays all the Japanese youth dress up in their comic style outfits. We wish we were here to see that. But unfortunately, this is only a Monday to Friday trip.
On our wander down the streets we came across the Prada building designed by Swiss Architects, Herzog & de Meuron in 2003. "This store is a strikingly unconventional 6-story glass crystal that is soft despite its sharp angles – as a result of its five-sided shape, the smooth curves throughout its interior, and its signature diamond-shaped glass panes, which vary between flat, concave and convex “bubbles”.
http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/pradatokyo/index.htm
Then back to the hotel to reset, a change of outfit and more cold and flu tablets.
Dinner was close by, actually just up the road at a little to a restaurant called AKIYOSHI. This is an open grill, yakatori restaurant, which has a English menu. Since I'm such a fussy eater having the menu in english is a relief as I don’t want be eating gizzard or heart by mistake, as the whole bird is featured on the menu. I loved the ambience of this place, patrons are just chain smoking, drinking beer and eating. Japan has obviously not turned into the rest of the world when it comes to smoking in public places… They basically don’t give a shit! No warning signs on cigarette packets. If you love to smoke, Japan is your country.
Drinks tonight at Bar Fire, Shibuya
*Meiji Shrine was completed and dedicated to the Emperor Meiji and the Empress Shoken in 1920, eight years after the passing of the emperor and six years after the passing of the empress. The shrine was destroyed during the Second World War but was rebuilt shortly thereafter. Emperor Meiji was the first emperor of modern Japan. He was born in 1852 and ascended to the throne in 1867 at the peak of the Meiji Restoration when Japan's feudal era came to an end and the emperor was restored to power. During the Meiji Period, Japan modernized and westernized herself to join the world's major powers by the time Emperor Meiji passed away in 1912.
Day 2
My cold is subsiding…thank god!
Off to visit the Tokyo Museum of Modern Art, to see an exhibition of 20th Century Modern Art and its progression within the Japanese art world.
Then into Tokyo City to visit the Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, which has an exhibition on Toulouse-Lautrec. Quite an extensive exhibition of his works, lots of drawings and studies along with many major lithographs. Great exhibition in a really nice museum, which apparently recently opened in April 2010. Part of the building has been restored from an existing 1894 building, so it brings the old into the modern era.
Now, over to Shinjuku for a look around.
Here we found the original Kinokuniya Book Store, which was founded in 1927. It’s pretty extensive with 9 floors of books to get through. I got a few more ‘Alice in Wonderland’ items to add to the list. We also found a great kid’s book on a story about a poo!! Way too funny…
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Dinner tonight was at ‘Rakushokushu Maru’ in Aoyama.
The most elaborate and interesting Japanese meal I have ever had. The presentation was exquisite.
We ate:
Hotategai to yuba kikuzeri
Fresh Scallops and soy milk skin with chrysanthemum jelly
Irodori mame salad
Salad of persimmon beans and sweet potatoes with endives
Kujudori sumiaburi
Special free-range chicken with salt and yuzu pepper
Kintokiyaki hachimitsu
Butter sweet potato with honey and butter
Hotatekai to yasai
Tempura fresh scallops and vegetable tempura
Buri teriyaki
Grilled yellowtail teriyaki
Oita shiake sumiaburi
Grilled shitake mushroom
Kamo manjyu
Kyoto’s traditional bun made with wild duck and lily bulbs
Drinks tonight at MIXX Bar and Lounge at the ANA.
Wallpaper suggested MIXX at the ANA. This bar is located on the 36th floor and it was a chance to look over the city of Tokyo. But quite frankly I have been spoilt with living in HK, the view just seemed a little underwhelming and the drink cost a little overwhelming, not to mention the 2000 yen table charge.
I order a cocktail called the Cutie Pie which took me an hour to get through (more like a desert than a drink) and Tim had his usual Vodka Martini(s).
Wallpaper has an iphone app that you can download.
Day 3
Unfortunately now Tim has a fully fledged head cold!
Today is all about checking out Shibuya.
First stop Shibuya 109. Outrageous!! You know those girls that look like little Blythe dolls. I now know where they work. HERE! Every girl looks fantastic. It was a great start to the day. The fashion is excellent, the shortest skirts and the cutest blouses, with such detail.
If I was only 5 feet tall, with no breasts or hips then I could fit into everything, but alas…
We spent the whole day in and out of shopping malls and small boutiques. We basically shopped till we dropped this day. Tokyo is mainly flat, so very enjoyable to walk around and doesn’t have that debilitating humidity that HK has.
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Back to the Granbell to reset, a costume change and the off to dinner.
Dinner tonight was at Midori Sushi in Mark City. Don’t let the location put you off or the long waiting line to get in, it moves fast. I felt myself welling up over this experience, as silly as this sounds I really felt like I was in Japan. We sat at the counter and saw them making, with such precision, this exquisite meals. There are about 5 Sushi chefs behind the counter. All the chefs greet you at the same time. I wish I knew what they said? Generous amount of fish sits on top of the rice. Tim had the house speciality “Broiled Conger Eel”.
Japan is so unique. It is so unlike anywhere else and can’t be compared to any other place. Hardly anyone speaks English and they just rabble on in Japanese and that works fine for us.
After dinner we went to a Games arcade. I saw a cute little doll that looked like ‘Alice’, but after eight attempts of trying to win this doll we gave up. With 100 Yen left, we swapped machines and in one foul swoop we won this cute little kitty cat with a cross for an eye! So we walked out winners!
Now time for a drink…
Drinks somewhere in the heart of Shibuya, don’t know the name of the place. Straight up it will cost you 500 yen just to walk in. Really quaint bar probably fits 30 people tops, everyone smoking of course!
Day 4
Tim threw up last night…it was probably the eel? (It did look like a giant tongue, lying over rice.)
We thought it best not to start the day shopping, maybe add a little bit of culture to our holiday. So we started the morning at Shinjuku Gyoen National Park. Beautiful gardens that featured a traditional Japanese Garden (go figure) .I think it must have been a public holiday today as there were lots of families out and about.
On the way back to the station, we discover TOPSHOP. You guessed it, a need to check it out, since there in no TOPSHOP in HK or Australia.
Then back over to Harajuku to have a good wander around and check out all the street fashion and boutique shops. After 4 days of looking around Shibuya and surrounding areas, I really like Harajuka the best. Lots to find if you have the time; even a really large vintage shop if you head towards Jingumae. Again, it’s tricky if you have breasts or biceps and over a size 12… just forget it. They don’t cater for this. I’m so glad I married a man who loves to shop!
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Tonight Dinner was at a Teppan restaurant called “BOTEJYU”, in Shibuya
We tried for the first time a Okonomiyaki. It’s a Japanese savoury pancake served on a hotplate.
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Time for a drink.
A walk through the street of Shibuya to a bar called ‘Bar Valley’. A beautiful warm style bar with a faux log fire. It was like sitting at a upmarket ski resort lodge bar, but with high heels instead of ski boots! Here they chip their own ice. The drinks were made with love and care from the very studious bartender (or mixologist) that delivers the drink to you personally and pours them at your table. A couple’s bar, nice and dark for those late nights. Did I mention the drinks are strong!
Day 5
Early start to the day as our flight is at 10am.
As we were really late booking our last night we had to swap to a smoking floor. NEVER AGAIN! I felt like I was going to vomit when I woke up! Stale ciggy smell!!
But a lovely cab ride to the airport made up for me not being able to breathe!
This was an excellent holiday filled with a lot of snot!!!!
We both agree our best purchases where shoes.
We both agree the best restaurant was Rakushokushu.
Most spoken word “Ach-hoo!” followed by a close second, “My feet hurt”.
Most beer drank “Asahi”
Best find… Big Purple duffel bag to get all our new find purchases back home.
As we only had a very small taste of Japan and our visit was more on the cosmopolitan side. It seems we have only scratched the surface of this very unique country. We will definitely be back and probably next time to see a more traditional Japan with its cherry blossoms and geisha girls.
A special mention to Mike who recommended the hotel, great call as it suited us perfectly. And of course my awesome husband Tim and his trusty iphone, pointing us in the right direction literally!
10/28/2011
Magritte's Tea Party
One of my latest painting was influenced by artist Rene Magritte, titled "Magritte Tea Party".
If you don't know Magritte, in short. A Belgian surrealist artist ( 1898 -1967).
Surrealist artist would use out of place and out of proportion imagery to provoke thought. Think Salvador Dali. He was also among those in Belgium propagating the ideas of the Dadaist movement. He hung out with artist such as E. L. T. Mesens, Arp, Picabia, Schwitters, Tzara and Man Ray.
"Depending upon the mood of the artist, reality can be changed and given a different manifestation in the picture; similarly, the artist can give things a logic such as contradicts the laws of common perception"
You may be familiar with his painting "Treachery of Images", this painting featured, Ceci,nest pas use pipe, (this is not a pipe.)
One of the greatest artist of the 20th Century.
Magritte was born the same year that Lewis Carroll died, 1898. I wonder if he read 'Alice in Wonderland' when he was growing up?
The text in the background of the painting are famous quotes from Magritte.
"Life obliges me to do something, so I paint."
"The mind loves the unknown. It loves images whose meaning is unknown, since the meaning of the mind itself is unknown."
"A truly poetic canvas is an awakened dream."
"No object is stuck with its name so irrevocably that one cannot find another which suits it better."
"An object never serves the same function as its image – or its name."
"To be a surrealist means barring from your mind all remembrance of what you have seen, and being always on the lookout for what has never been."
"Art evokes the mystery without which the world would not exist.""This is not a pipe."
If you want to read more……
http://www.all-art.org/art_20th_century/magritte1.html
10/26/2011
Culcha week
I have been totally immersing myself in a bit of cultural the last couple of weeks.
Art, Film and Ballet.
Joshua Yeldman
Exhibition
What an amazing Australian landscape artist.
Exhibition was at the Cat Street Gallery in Hollywood Road, titled 'Two Rivers' and was works from the Hawkesbury River in Oz and Yulong River in China.
An extensive exhibition, took me over an hour to look at all the piece.
That's the longest I have been in a commercial gallery for a while.
His works are so interesting. He uses the owl as his metaphor, muse or alter ego, Im not quite sure which one, maybe all! But they radiant warmth and have a fluidity that is so mesmerising.
http://www.thecatstreetgallery.com/artist/JoshuaYeldham/works1/
Film
Midnight in Paris
Fantastic, for all art lovers near and far. I should mention first that Owen Wilson has redeemed himself as an actor. After his last film Hall Pass, I thought the end is nigh!
“Midnight in Paris” is a Woody Allen film and it embraces the passion for the arts in Paris in the 1920's.
It features an exclusive list of famous writers and artists from the era.
At midnight Gil, a writer (Owen Wilson) finds himself transported back to 1920's where he mingles with the likes of the Fitzgeralds followed by Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Modigliani, Matisse, Luis Bunuel, Josephine Baker, Van Gogh, Picasso, Man Ray, T.S. Elliot, Cole Porter and several more.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYRWfS2s2v4
http://www.sonyclassics.com/midnightinparis/
This film is about Pina Bausch a German dancer and a choreographer of modern dance.
It was shot in 3D by director Wim Wenders, if you dont know his work, you may be familiar with his film 'Wings of Desire'.
She died at the age of 68 of cancer only five days after diagnosis.
The National Ballet of China
Went to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre for the first time to see this ballet.
I have a view of this building from my office and bedroom and have been curious to see the inside!
back to the ballet....
We saw the 'Ballet Gala' which were works that represented the East and West.
It was a combination of Chinese and Western balletic traditions.
I must say the first part of the programme, the 'Homage to Chinese Ballet' was excellent.
'Red Lantern Dance' and Pas de Deux from Raise the Red Lantern was so vibrant and beautiful,
but the 'The Red Detachment of Women Act II' was fantastic.
It is set in Hainan Island in the 1930s, The Red Detachment of Women follows the story of a maid who struggles to escape from her tyrannical landlord. With the help of a Red Army cadre, the maid is transformed from a peasant girl into a soldier.
The second part of the program was a 'Tribute to Masters of the World'.
My favourite were;
08/30/2011
New Works x 3
"Mouse falling down the Rabbit hole"
"White Rabbit"
"Comme des Garcon King"
(not quite sure if this is finished but putting it out there anyway)
08/11/2011
Chen Jiagang
I saw this exhibition this week at the Angela Li Gallery.
http://www.cbal.com.hk/
This Beijing based artist is such a beautiful photographer. His work has a sense of solitude and beauty about them.
His photographs are large and capture the destruction of China's big cities.
Most of these works are set in an industrial environment, a woman dressed in traditional Chinese clothing is featured throughout the works.
The ancient Chinese usage of the word “jie”, was “to use force to take what others desire”. This usage has continued into modern Chinese, where “jie” is a component in words like theft and hijacking. When Buddhism spread to the east, the term “Kalpa” was transliterated as “jie bo”. Kalpa, meaning eon, is a term from Brahmanism that was adopted by Buddhism. Ancient Hinduism attests that the world is destroyed and created anew over periods of tens of thousands of years, and the period for this destruction is called a “Kalpa”. In Chinese usage, “Kalpa” has been simplified to “jie”, and has come to mean natural and manmade disasters. In this sense, “jie” now has a bit of a connection to the Chinese term, and picks up a bit more of the meaning in translation. So now, common sayings like “inescapable fate”, “survive a disaster” and “irredeemable”, all of which use the word component “jie”, have Buddhist connotations, but also the common connotations of natural and manmade disasters, just as the Cultural Revolution was called a “great disaster” (also using jie).
In this sense, the term “jie” could also be used to describe the Third Line. During the Cold War, Chairman Mao was worried about attacks from the Soviet Union and the United States, which raised talk of war and disaster preparations, digging deep caves, stockpiling grain and avoiding international conflict. At that time, aside from digging caves of various sizes under cities across the country and establishing citizen militias, China also erected countless military factories in remote mountain regions of the southwest and northwest and sent technicians from the major cities into these sparsely populated mountains. The areas where these military factories were built were collectively known as the “Third Line of Defense”, and the urbanites that were sent there in droves were said to be “supporting the construction of the Third Line”. Several decades later, not only did the war fail to materialize, but the end of the Cold War meant that China was once again in business with foreigners. Much of the Third Line was left to crumble, and the fate of the Third Line workers was even worse. In Buddhism, calamitous fire is called “jie huo”, and the ashes left behind are called “jie hui”, which has come to mean any kind of rubble from a disaster. Today’s Third Line is deserted and is a horrible spectacle of rubble and collapsing buildings. For this reason, I call Chen Jiagang’s photographs of the Third Line ‘images of disaster’. These photographs we can see the disastrous state of the Third Line.
Chen Jiagang started out as an architect. He worked in a Third Line factory for a time, and has even seen some success as a real estate developer, but for various reasons his company eventually went bankrupt. These experiences have all added to his Third Line photography: this once bustling place has been reduced to ruins, but for Chen Jiagang, these are no ordinary ruins; they are laden with his memories of times past – the magnanimous construction of the Third Line. They also stir up associations with his experience in real estate. The ruins of the Third Line awaken the pain of his failed real estate ventures. This is not just the rubble of a manmade disaster, it is a symbol of a low point in his life, a tangled mess of national disaster and personal pain. It’s as if he’s not photographing the rubble, or even bringing out a feeling of “magnanimity” from the rubble, because this wouldn’t be sufficient for expressing his complex emotions. The underlying tone of these works is “magnanimous rubble”. To express this kind of feel, Chen Jiagang uses a large format Chamonix camera, and takes fixed point panoramas at full depth, ensuring that every little detail in the image is extremely clear and gives one the feeling of being right there. This makes the rubble more magnanimous and more stunning.
Perhaps the most contentious issue is Chen Jiagang’s use of a young woman in the photographs. I would venture to guess that one of the reasons has to do with the complex emotions involved in Chen Jiagang’s photography of the Third Line ruins. The ruins are not conceptual, nor are they a disaster in the social sense. These ruins are linked to his own personal experience. The place once flourished, and was once the setting for his ideals, for his love. That girl is the specter of his beautiful memories. My favorite piece is ”Third Front – General Factory of Asbestos”. The girl, running, appears to not be fully there, which makes the stagnant ruins appear eerily still. As dusk descends over the ruins, it seems as if we could make it the setting for a modern “Liao Zhai 1” novel, allegorically reflecting the times.
Chen Jiagang approaches his Third Line photography like an engineering project, like a building project, rationally and attentively. He begins by “surveying” – researching, selecting places to shoot and trying out various angles. Then he returns and makes a shooting plan, complete with sketches. When the time is ripe, he starts preparing his equipment, his cars and his supplies. When everything is ready, several jeeps arrive in a flurry of activity, and then he begins taking photos, everything unfolding smoothly and according to plan, perfectly ordered, like an outdoor movie shoot.
Ironically, “Traces of the Third Line” was first exhibited at 798, a flourishing art district, and then exhibited again at the Paris-Beijing Photo Gallery in the same area. The 798 Art District just happens to be an abandoned munitions factory complex. I’m not sure if that’s funny or scary. It’s as if it was all preordained.
Li Xianting
August 5th, 2008
