These Little Corners

28 Dec 2018 | Ashley There are rare cases when shows are free, but this is an exception. "The Barber of Seville" , not the opera, but rather, a dance interpretation by an Italian Dance Company, Artemis Danza , was presented by the Consulate General of Italy in Hong Kong . I was genuinely impressed by the performance. After having watched quite a few performances from the New Vision Arts Festival , I was desperate for something less multi-media and more raw in terms of presentation. This did it for me. There were no strange, stylistic lightings, no set, just powerful dancers, choreography, simple costumes and funny props. This is the kind of performance where without the talent and the potential of literal "performance", there could be no show. I was totally into it. Curtain Call First off, I could feel that this is a genderless performance. With 3 young female and 3 young male dancers, they made a great team. All of them were in simple costumes which cou...

28 Dec 2018 | As hley In the rare instances where I would confuse Hong Kong City Hall with Hong Kong Cultural Centre, this happened on the day of the performance in early November. The show "Negotiation" was supposed to be at Hong Kong City Hall, but I was at Cultural Centre instead. Luckily, I could still catch the show, except the very first bits, maybe the first 15 minutes of it. Anyways, I am saying this just to be fair. I am writing about the parts which I have seen. Handout for the show "Negotiation" is majorly a dance performance, choreographed and performed by Olé Khamachania from Laos, and Picket Klunchun from Thailand. They incorporated traditional and hip-hop elements in their dance. From the name of the performance, we could understand that it is a piece negotiated between the traditional and the new. There were some parts of their movements where they did something that resembled martial arts, or qi gong. I am not sure if they have that sort...

28 Dec 2018 | Ashley In late October, the New Vision Arts Festival was still on. I saw a show called "Aquasonic" at the Sha Tin Town Hall Auditorium. Usually, in this auditorium or any musical concerts played at town halls, the audience would be people who know classical music and are formally dressed. However, this time around, the type of audience going in was different. There were a lot of children, people were dressed very casually. Some people came in groups, like a group of friends or family members. Basically, it felt like the show had a lot of expectations for fun. Unfortunately, it was something else. Performance set, photo taken after the show What attracted me to this show at first, I think the same for other people in the audience, was that an orchestra was going to play underwater. This sole idea was extremely intriguing and tempting. It screams innovation and excitement. However, despite the group, Between Music (Denmark) 's new way of playing mus...

30 Nov 2018 | Ashley What do we know about Iranian films? Does the name Abbas Kiarostami ring a bell? After his recent death in 2016, his last film 24 Frames (2017) was shown at my favourite cinema in Hong Kong, Broadway Cinematheque. In this experimental film, he paid homage to filming, which was all his passion, and composed 24 frames, symbolic to the number of frames we see in one second of a film, and filled them with picturesque sentiments. In the recent Hong Kong Asian Film Festival 2018 (HKAFF), I am happy to know that films by another Iranian film director, Jafar Panahi, also known as Kiarostami's former assistant director, were shown. Film poster at BC Having worked alongside one of the greatest masters in Iranian films, Panahi has inherited a lot of features from Kiarostami's road trip style and the blurriness between fiction and realism. I went to see 3 Faces (2018) directed by Panahi at a local cinema. It is a relatively new film and I was delighted to s...

30 Nov 2018 | Ashley Do you like street art? Do you like taking artsy pictures for your social media? Here is a good place to be! Henderson Land, one of the leaders in urban renewal in Hong Kong, has launched Artlane , an art project in Hong Kong Island Western SOHO District. Once you get out of Sheung Wan MTR station, you will be amazed to see all the colours in this neighbourhood. Blessy Man & Henry Lau, Rainbow Staircase , 2018 You will see mural paintings that bring alive neglected back alleys, small paths between old buildings, old buildings and newly renovated staircases. Their themes revolve around music, jazz, classical Hollywood icons, animals, European streets, impressionist references etc. I would argue that each of them has their own quirk. But all of them create a Utopian world for the viewers, which subsequently attracts more people to this area than ever before. Everyone loves a little fantasy in the midst of reality! Some of them curious, some came wi...

4 Dec 2018 | Ashley What could be more uncanny than seeing a hair that was once part of your body become rubbish for your bin? The answer is no doubt: seeing that hair become an artwork exhibited in a gallery. Yes, that's right. It is an extremely bizarre thing to think about, but Mona Hatoum explores exactly that in some of her artworks. Mona Hatoum, Remains of the Day , 2016-2018 In a recent exhibition named Remains of the Day at White Cube Hong Kong, works by Mona Hatoum were shown. What impressed me the most was not the installation which I imagine to be the most important and has given its name to the exhibition itself, Remains of the Day (2016-18). Rather,  Nail Necklace (2018) and Hair Grids with Knots (6) (2014) held most of my attention. Mona Hatoum, Nail Necklace , 2018 By its very name, Nail Necklace (2018) is indeed a necklace made of nails. Moon-shaped nails were cut off and linked together on a black model in the shape of a necklace. On...

22 Nov 2018 | Ashley Nothing is more exciting than a local Hong Kong film. "Distinction" (《非同凡響》) (2018), a recent local film directed by Au Man Kit Jevons (歐文傑), explores issues such as education, class, disability and prejudice in our current society. As a local Hong Konger, I see myself identifying with a lot of the phenomenon presented in the film. Yet, I find it difficult to establish a relationship with the characters. Similar to "Tomorrow is Another Day" (黃金花）(2017), it is a film that touches on mental issues. But their major difference is their focus. For "Tomorrow is Another Day", its plot evolves around a working class family, more specifically, the mother who takes care of her autistic son. Since they have only a few characters, the audience's attention could concentrate on the story of a few people. In this case, I find it easy to achieve a profound understanding of the protagonists, the mother, the son, and the cheating husband, why they r...

13 Nov 2018 | Ashley There we go, the New Vision Arts Festival is back! One of its opening shows this year is Tree of Codes , a ballet performance performed by Company Wayne McGregor and guests. It was a multi-media performance, which incorporated not only dance, but visual arts, music and lights. Display @ Hong Kong Cultural Centre In fact, the name of the show,  Tree of Codes, is borrowed from a sculptural book by Jonathan Safran Foer, where he cut off words from the original book Street of Crocodiles by Bruno Schulz and constructed another story. The show did a good job creating the illusion of layering, just as how Foer's book looks like. With colourful filters which separated the stage into a front section and a back section, and dancers moving behind and in front, mirroring one another a uniform choreography, it gave me the illusion that the dancers at the back were reflections of the ones in front. The bright colors chosen for the filters also gave this piece ...

13 Nov 2018 | Ashley This is another impressive production presented by the Hong Kong International Black Box Festival ,  a festival of collaboration between Hong Kong Repertory Theatre and West Kowloon Cultural District . This time around, they brought to us MDLSX , a one-person show directed and produced by the acclaimed Italian Company Motus . Performed by Silvia Calderoni, a multi-award-winning actress and artist from Italy, the audience had the opportunity to sneak a peek into her autobiographical tale as a gender-bendy person in a pre-dominantly binary society. At the beginning, the screen at the back of the stage showed a video of a little girl singing karaoke in the shape of a circle. This was shown for quite some time, and I was questioning where the show was going with this. Little did I know that this little girl was actually the actress herself when she was a child, and that soon, she would elevate this moment to a mix of emotional personal tales and rock n' roll ...

8 November 2018 | Ashley What drew me to this solo exhibition of Danish artist Michael Kvium, namely Art Me , at Tang Contemporary Art was the grotesque characters that he sculpted and painted. Michael Kvium, Contemporary Fools: Art, 2017 @Tang Contemporary Art Tang Contemporary Art, like most galleries, has their walls painted white, unlike Empty Gallery, which has everything in black. It was quite a big space I would say which housed, during the time of the exhibition, a circus of peculiar characters. What captured my attention at first gaze was inevitably the human-size sculpture called Contemporary Fools: Art, 2017 . It is a middle-aged man wearing a chic red cap emerging above a yellow metal can of black liquid, and with his arms stretched wide to his sides with skeleton hands. This was already a crooked character that would fascinate anybody. The use of silicon for his body and face, as well as the detail of curly brown hair on his chest and underarm were so effective in...

7 Nov 2018 | Ashley An Empty Gallery experience is bound to give you the thrill. This one was no exception. But what's special about this time is that you open the doors to a mysterious underwater world. Welcome to Gravitational Currents & The Life Magic , a current exhibition at the Empty Gallery! Reception @Empty Gallery Again, like always, there was an ongoing droning sound which captured me that instant I set foot in the reception. Artist Susanne Wintering has placed a multi-channel sound-installation commissioned by Empty Gallery at the centre of the art space, namely Planetary Opera in Three Acts, divided by the currents, 2018 . It is a hydrophone recording of algae, green turtles hatching, crabs rubbing their claws together and other ecological marvels. All of that together inevitably gave me an intense sensory reaction, where at times, the track seemed to devour you and snatch you away as the volume increased and disappeared at its climax. Susanne Winterling...

31 Oct 2018 | Ashley From mid September to 6 Jan 2019, Asia Society is presenting an art exhibition called "Song of Spring: Pan Yu-lin in Paris" (《春之歌：潘玉良在巴黎》). If you are familiar with Greco-Roman paintings, you might recall seeing nymphs bathing under blossoming trees. This is what you will see in this exhibition, but with a twist of Asian implications, proudly presented by the Chinese female artist, Pan Yu-lin, through female models' facial features, hairstyles, dance poses, and her use of Chinese ink technique. What interests me the most about her works is her tendency to intertwine Western and Asian characteristics. Being one of the earliest Chinese female artists staying in France to learn art, I imagine that she felt the need to establish her own definition of herself in a foreign country. From her works presented in the first chamber, we see portraits of people from different ethnic backgrounds, those who were generally considered less privileged in society. T...

15 Oct 2018 |  Ashley For say a person is in despair, does his desperation separate him from reality, thus constructs instead a detrimental world where hope is utterly absent? Dollhouse (身不由己), brought to us by Canadian choreographer and dance master, Bill Coleman, and sound artist Gordan Monahan, constructed a madman's world before us on 12 Oct, 2018 at Tai Kwun's JC Cube. What stood out the most would be the ridiculousness and illogical progression of the show, from dangerous props such as glass and mouse traps, to unsettling sounds made from metal wires, boiling water, to flapping plant things. There was not a part in the performance where the audience knew exactly what was happening or what would happen next. I like to interpret this as the hallucination of a madman, because this performance was indeed a piece of madness, yet sadly not mad enough to be shocking, which explains why the piece was not as exciting as it might sound. If this was a piece intended to create d...

15 Oct 2018 |  Ashley Shoes, shoes, shoes! Everybody loves shoes! Shoes are no longer commodities, but collectibles for some. They also preserve an important role throughout history in relations to power, status and seduction. Do not forget the fairytales with which we are all familiar where shoes play an essential role as well. For example, Cinderella and her glass slippers! Situated at Pacific Place, Shoes: Pleasure and Pain is an ongoing exhibition from 28 Sept to 28 Oct, 2018. It is curated by Helen Persson and organized by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, brought to us in Hong Kong for an inspirational journey where viewers are invited to ponder the meanings behind this collection of shoes from around the world. Entering the dim exhibition area, I was immediately enticed by this breathtaking crystal shoe. It reflected in all directions colourful rays of light. It did not only stand out as a piece of artwork, but as a common reminder of childhood when the tale of...

15 Oct 2018 |  Ashley I have spent most of my conscious time trying to accept my humanity, and I think I have achieved that. Being vulnerable is important. Being vulnerable in front of people is a therapeutic experience. It is indeed a pleasure to have an ear. Having someone feel safe before you and be completely naked is also a pleasure. I enjoy that kind of interaction the most, where we feel safe, vulnerable and simply, human. Recently, Hong Kong Repertory Theatre (香港話劇團) and West Kowloon (西九文化區) co-operated on a festival named Hong Kong International Black Box Festival . Their aim is to bring daring productions from around the world to Hong Kong. On 11 Oct, 2018, I watched a show called One Fine Day (美好的一天), directed by Beijing-based director, Li Jianjun, at the HKRep Black Box. It was indeed a very avant-garde experiment which surprisingly grew emotionally intimate as the show progressed. What was unusual when the audience first settled into the room was the request to ...

15 Oct 2018 |  Ashley The question of surveillance is prominent today under the climate of big data, smart technology, and secretive political dynamics. While we enjoy advanced technology and go about our lives, are we aware of the intrusive gaze imposed upon us? A recent production by CCDC (City Contemporary Dance Company 城市當代舞蹈團) called Mr. Blank (茫然先生) put this question under the limelight. It is an innovative and out-of-the-box production collaborated by multiple artists, with Sang Jijia, acclaimed as "the most perfect dancer", as director and choreographer, Janice Poon for dramaturgy, Dickson Dee for original live music, Oliver Shing for video direction, and so on. As you can already tell, this production is a cross-disciplinary one where dance, drama, music and multimedia elements meticulously intertwined. From their sharing session, we know that this team, despite their differences in specialisation, worked at ease with one another, which I believe, is one of the ...