Representing Macau
1.Avoid two stereotype images
-Colony of Portugal
-Las Vegas of the East
2. Revealing…
-The physical change (eg. More and more casinos)
-The cultural features (eg. Historical buildings)
3. Contracting the real /surreal landscape of Macau

Conclusion
-Lampton:
“The trick behind the photograph is that audience is only seeing
what the photographer want you to see”

-Macau is not as good as we thought…
The recent incidents showed us the real sides of Macau
eg. Corruption (the case of Au Man Lung)
eg. Denial of entry to Legco members
eg. Sands Hotel (金沙賭場) in Macau laid off 500 after financial crisis

Question
1. Do you think the author was “honest" enough of telling us the real picture of Macau?
Is there anything we can add?
2. If you were Lampton, which places you will choose to take pictures in Hong Kong to
illustrate the reality here?

Reference List
Carol Archer, “Spaces in Transition: Photographs by Adam Lampton”
http://www.adamlampton.com/macau_viewer/macau_pics.html
http://www.christianstudy.com/data/pastoral/gambling01.html
http://hk.search.yahoo.com/search/images?view=detailed&p=stanley+ho&b=1&pstart=1&curr_index=3&imgsz=&imgc=&ei=UTF-8

Macao ,2007 (Adam Lampton) by Edica

Objective:
-Revealing…
1.The physical change (eg. More and more casinos)
2.The cultural features (eg. Historical buildings)
-Contracting…
The real /surreal landscape of Macau

Representing Macau:
-Avoid two stereotype images
1.Colony of Portugal
2.Las Vegas of the East

-Adam showed us the difference between the reality and the “dream”





Conclusion:
-Lampton:
“The trick behind the photograph is that audience is only seeing what the photographer want you to see”

-Recent incidents showed us the real sides of Macau:
1. Corruption (the case of Au Man Lung)
2 .Denial of entry to Legco members
3. Sands Hotel (金沙賭場) in Macau laid off 500 after financial crisis
-Macau may not as good as we thought

Question:
1.Do you think the author was “honest" enough of telling us the real picture of Macau?
Is there anything we can add?
2.If you were Lampton, which places you will choose to take pictures in Hong Kong to illustrate the reality here?

Reference List
Carol Archer, “Spaces in Transition: Photographs by Adam Lampton”
http://www.adamlampton.com/macau_viewer/macau_pics.html
http://www.christianstudy.com/data/pastoral/gambling01.html
http://hk.search.yahoo.com/search/images?view=detailed&p=stanley+ho&b=1&pstart=1&curr_index=3&imgsz=&imgc=&ei=UTF-8

Golden Chicken 2, by Hong Jack

Golden Chicken 2 by Tsz Hong, Jack

Introduction of Golden Chicken 2:
Chinese: 金雞 2
Year: 2002Director: Samson Chiu
Producer: Peter Chan Ho SunMain
Character: Ng Kwun Yu

Story:
Divided into two parts:

First part – Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS period)

Second part- decade spanning romance between Kum and her cousin

Intention:
-mirrored and complemented the success and setbacks of recent HK history-convey some positive messages to the HK people
-appreciating HK people‘s tough and hard working attitude
-celebrating the anniversary of HK’s 50th year under Mainland rule hanging over the territory head


Positive messages:
-‘bad memories are necessary, it only to make the good thing better’
-positive attitude to tackle problem during the tough period in HK


Appreciation of HK people:
-Each character have their own story
-Anthony Wong- perishes in the throes of passion
-Ronald Cheung- mentally deranges john who attaches himself a little too closely Kum’s life and her body hair
-Leon Lai- hunky doctor who’s batting SARS and his own fatigue
-Angelica Lee- regret that she left and didn’t take care for her husband-Kum put a tough, chipper face on everything and resolves to carry on.


Prefer everything remain constant within 50 years:
-Andy Lau as the chief executive‘the linkage rate of currency between US and HK remain 7.8:1
-prefer unchanging within the future years-especially the political system (independence)


Further Question:
Are there any other representation of this film that the filmmaker want to present to us? If yes, what do you think about the techniques he used for presenting these messages to us?


Reference:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BnzFWZnmFkE
www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/golden_chicken_2htm
www.hmv.com.hk/product/dvd.asp?sku=483935 www.cinespot.com/hkmreviews/c3goldenchicken2.html

Branding the city "My life as Mcdull" by Shan

Love McDull !!Love Hong Kong!!



My life as McDull

•A sense of local patriotism
•Self-aware humours
•Hong Kong urban landscape
•Hong Kong spirit









Sense of local patriotism


•Just like we fought for SARS in 2003
•On Hong Kong, not China
•E.g. McDull wanted to be an athlete in
Olympics--- Hong Kong athletes are not rubbish




•Handover
•“Hong Kong experienced a de-sinicisation process
which gradually separated Hong Kong socially, politically,
and culturally from mainland China.”
•Film---carry the patriotism message.
(E.g. McDull, Prince de la Bun )








Self-aware humours


•Related to the linguistic matter
Hongkonger who speaks Cantonese can understand & laugh for it
•Difficult to translate accurately
•Create sense of belonging


•E.g. name of McDull (basin)
•The songs consist of Cantonese
•The pronunciation of some English word, such as, “orange”, “banana” and “umbrella”
•Imply problems or pressure of being a Hongkonger
•Want to make you smile







•Cartoon and the little pig are used purposely
•Reflect a real Hong Kong through a child eye
•Relieve the workload of the reality


Hong Kong urban landscape

•Shek Kip Mei (old district in H.K.)
---high population density
•Awakes you about the past of Hong Kong
•Reconstruction of old districts (Urbanization)
---improve the quality of living environment
•loss of memory


•“Landmarks” are common view of the city
•Important signs for Hongkongers
•E.g. The crisscross road
Neon light advertisement
Cha Chan Tan
Skyscraper






Hong Kong spirit

•Hongkongers are hard-working
(E.g.Mai Tai, McDull)
•Hongkongers are tough
(can-do spirit---SARS


•The author also said that
the ‘Hong Kong dream’,
the ‘Economic Miracle of Asia’
and the ‘Pearl of the Orient’
are established gradually by Hongkongers.
•The fruit is not built by one day.

References

•Books:
Kwai Cheung Lo. 2006. “Knocking off Nationalism in Hong Kong cinema”, Duke University Press
Ma, Eric. 1999. “Mediating Hong Kong Identity (II): Re-sinicization.” Culture, politics and television in Hong Kong, London: Routledge
Ma, Eric. 1999. “Mediating Hong Kong Identity (I): De-sinicization.” Culture, politics and television in Hong Kong, London: Routledge
Stephanie Donald and John G. Gammack. 2007. “Structures of Attention and the City of Life Hong Kong”. In Donald and Gammack, Tourism and the Branded City: film and identity on the Pacific Rim”. London: Ashgate
•Movies:
“My Life as McDull” (dir. Toe Yuen, 2001)
“McDull, Prince de la Bun” (dir. Toe Yuen, 2004)
•Website:
http://www.beyondhollywood.com/moviepics/mcdull2_1.htm

Artistic Collaboration II - Marina Abramovic and Ulay -by Givy

1. Marina Abramovic and Ulay

2. Marina Abramovic was a female performance artist who was born in Belgrade, former Yugoslavia and modern day Serbia, in 1946. She was an important figure within performance art history back in the 70s, as she regarded herself as "Grandmother of performance art". Most of her performances, especially her early ones, aim to push her body to extreme and show the limitation of the human body. She also explored the relationship of the body and the mind. Occasionally she performed to test the limits of the relationship between performer and audience. In 1976, she moved to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and met Ulay.

3. Ulay, born Frank Uwe Laysiepan, is usually being addressed on by the short form of his last name, Ulay. He was born in Solingen, Germany, in 1943. All through his career he moved from places to places and collaborated with local artists there. Other than performance art, he also creates artwork using photography. In his performance art pieces he usually explored the relationship of body and space.

4. Marina Abramovic and Ulay were actually born on the same day, November the 30th. They were both significant performance artists in the 70s. Once they’ve met they started their long 12 years of collaborative work, starting from 1976 till 1988, which is the year they ended their relationship. They were both interested in the relationship of body and the mind.

5. Back in the 70s, Performance art's popularity is growing both in America and Europe. There are more and more new generation of performance artists. And many famous performances at that time are regarded as shocking and irritating, for example, there are always artists doing self-destruction performances like cutting themselves on the body. Some even engaged in performances that put their own lives at risk. Like Rhythm 5 performed by Abramovic. The artist laid herself surrounded by burning flames which she almost died of suffocation.

6. Introduction of 3 work by Marina Abramovic and Ulay.

The first one is "Relation in Space". This was first performed in Venice Biennale in 1976. During this performce, Ulay and Abramovic approached each other from different sides of the space, which is like the wings of a stage, and collide with each other in the middle. Then they returned to either sides and started again. They repeated this action for 58 minutes. During the early stages, Ulay and Abramovic softly touch each other when they pass, almost as if by accident. At later stage the walking gradually turns into running. As they continue to collide, Abramovic sometimes close to falling over as Ulay is stronger than her.

7. [A video excerpt of the performance]

8. This art work is based on a principle, which is "No rehearsal, no repetition, and no predicted end". As claimed by the Abramovic, that she represents female energy, and Ulay represent the male energy. By collision the mix the two energy.

9. Another work to introduce is "Relation in Time". It was from the same series as "Relation in Space". It was performed at G7 Studio in Bologna, Italy. In this performance the artists sit back to back for 17 hours with their hair tied together. The first 16 hours was performed without audiences. After that the audiences were let in and they sat for another hour before ending the performance. At the start of the seventeen-hour performance, they were sitting up straight. Later, when fatigue sets in, Abramovic, in particular, begins to slump a little, so that their hair, which was tied together tightly, begins to become looser.

10. [A video excerpt showing different stages as the performance wears on]

11. In my opinion, what "Relation in Time" tries to bring out is relation between two people over time. During performance, the two artists are sitting back to back and the only connection is their hair. Symbolically they were maintaining the connection by sitting up straight. And It requires mental strength to stay still for 17 hours, as you see that some time later Abramovic slumped and the tied hair is loosen. This makes me think that maintaining connecting is requiring lot of power over your mind and body to actually accomplish it.

12. And I think it also brings out how relation can't be kept lacking well physical condition no matter how your mind wants to. This is so typically Abramovic as she has a history of pushing her body's limit to extreme to explore the constraint of physical body in her performances.

13. Another work to introduce is "Breathing in, Breathing out".

14. "Breathing in, Breathing out" was first performed in Belgrade, in April 1977. Indeed, during the performance, the artists' nostrils are blocked by cigarette filter, so they are unable to breathe in flesh air with their noses. Then they press their mouth together for 20 minutes just rely on the air each other breathes out. Until all the oxygen in that one breath of air is used up, they collapsed.

15. This is how the artists describe the piece. Ulay is the one inhale the fresh air at the beginning of the performance. So he said, "I am breathing in oxygen. I am breathing out carbon dioxide."


16. In fact, they both passed out at the end. It shows limits of the body: lack of oxygen that leads to asphyxiation, and you just can't go on performing even if your will want you to. They are again testing body limits. It also metaphorically show how two people can wear each other out.

17. About the problem on documenting performance art

Most of the time, performance art is meant to be seen live. And documenting it by film or photograph can be a poor representation of the actual performance as the images can only show a certain perspective and could be misleading, thus giving false perception to the viewers.

18. This is a screen capture of the official video clip for "Relation in Space". This shows how the scene on the periphery are cut out, you cannot see the way Abramovic and Ulay prepare themselves for the next collision.



19. Abramovic herself has actually stated that documentation cannot be a substitute for live experience, as it is unreliable and can lead to "total mystification and misrepresentation of the actual events." And she didn't filmed or photographed her early performances due to this belief.

20. Sometimes I really don't get those performance art. Especially those involve artists inflicting harm on themselves. I understand sometime there is a symbolic meaning within. But sometimes I think artists are trying to get an effect or attention, along with their naked bodies because the act is shocking, and people pay attention to it thus amplifies the effect of the performance.

21. [My view on their] Collaboration:
I think the duo, Amramovic and Ulay, is a good example of two artists that have similar views and direction and abilities, unlike those other artwork introduced in the class that one artist is specialised on a specific field. And many of their performances require two people. It's not like creating a product, but actually perform together. This vividly illustrates collaboration.

Artistic Collaboration II - Guerrilla Girls - by yeeman

The Guerrilla Girls

Introduction of The Guerrila Girls

•A group of feminist artists established in NYC in 1985
•Incensed by an exhibition held by MOMA( which includes 17 female artists only)
•Create posters, write books, give talks
•Key issues: Role of women, film, politics & pop culture

•Wear gorilla masks to hide their identities

PURPOSES:
•let audiences focus on the issues
•Can speak without hesitation and ruining their careers

•Humorous presentation
•‘Our situation as women and artists of color in the art world was so pathetic, all we could do was make fun of it. It felt so good to ridicule and belittle a system that excluded us. There was also that stale idea that feminists don't have a sense of humor.’ --- Paula Modersohn-Becker

PURPOSES:
•Can get their ‘enemies’ interested in their work, think about it and gradually change their minds
•Feminists can be funny

‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?’

•The Girls conducted a count at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1989
•Count the no. of naked males & females & female artists
•Less than 5% female artists, but 85% of the nudes were female

•The Girls ran it as an ad. on NYC buses
•Bus company stopped running it by saying the figure is too suggestive and seemed to have more than a fan in her hand

•The poster is a success
•The Girls did a recount in 2005
•Fewer women artists, more naked males
•‘Women artists are underrepresented while women as models in male artists’ work are ubiquitous’ (---From Themes in Contemporary Art)
•Does it mean that women has to be naked in order to get maximum exposure in art museums ?

‘The anatomically correct Oscar’

•A giant billboard in the heart of Hollywood
•Displayed during March,2002
•Collaboration between GG and Alice Locas (a group of female film makers)
•Statistics: Best Director has never been awarded to a woman, only 3% of the acting awards have gone to people of color

•The girls transformed the original gold statuette into a pasty, fat, white, middle-aged man
•Resembles the winners of The Oscars
•“He’s white & male,just like the guys who win!” --- The GG

•The display of the billboard comes just weeks before the Oscars (which was held on 24March), and The Oscars is actually held just a few blocks away from the billboard
•Halle Berry : Best Actress
•Denzel Washington: Best Actor(both are African-American)

IDENTITY

•identity politics
•“Identity politics is a term used to refer to the beliefs and activities of those who target racism, sexism, and other forms of prejudice and work for social rights”(--- From Themes in Contemporary Art)
•The GG often engage with such kind of politics since they’ve been fighting equality over the years

LANGUAGE

•Language plays an important role in GG’s works
•Language can create strong impacts on viewers
•Declarative language: states its message bluntly & unambiguously
•The Girls illustrate such kind of language by using statistics & simple short texts

My opinions

•Humorous
•‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?’ is well-made (eye catching color, right information combined with right graphics to make the right statement)
•Direct representation
•Makes me more aware of the inequalities people face today & things we always take for granted

REFERENCES:

•Robertson, Jean, and Craig McDaniel. Themes of contemporary art : visual art after 1980. New York : Oxford University Press, 2005
•But is it art? : the spirit of art as activism. Edited by Nina Felshin. Seattle : Bay Press, c1995
•Walker, John. Art in the age of mass media. London : Pluto Press, 1994
•http://www.wikipedia.org/
•http://www.guerrillagirls.com/

Artistic Collaboration II-Christo and Jean Claude - by Ryan Chan

Nov 26 Ryan Chan

VIS 354

Contemporary Art

Artistic Collaboration II

Christo and Jean-Claude

Christo and

 Jeanne-Claude

Christo was born in Bulgaria

Jeanne-Claude was born in Morocco

They are a married couple who create environmental installation art.

They were born on the same date - 13 June 1935.

The first collaboration was created in 1961.

Style of their artworks

their work is visually impressive and often controversial as a result of its scale.

The purpose of their art, they contend, is simply to make the world a "more beautiful place" or to create new ways of seeing familiar landscapes.

They emphasized that their projects didn’t contain any deeper meaning than their immediate aesthetic.

The Gates

Reason of  creating “the Gates”

The architects surrounded the park with a stone wall,leaving entrances to the park at each interruption in the wall, where a walkway starts, those entrances are called Gates.

They had planned to install steel gates to lock the park at night.

The city hired a designer for those gates, but Mr. Olmstead disliked the complicated design and decided that there would be no closing gates, however the name gates remained. Many of these park entrances have names: Mariners Gate; Boys and Girls Gate; Artists Gate; Emigrants Gate; Explorers Gate; Inventors Gate...

“The Gates” was completed with the blooming of the 7,503 fabric panels on February 12, 2005.

7503 gates

16 feet (487 meters) tall

width from 5 feet 6 inches to 18 feet (1,68 to 5,48 meters) according to the 25 different widths of walkways, on 23 miles (37 kilometers) of walkways in Central Park

spaced at 12 foot (3,65 meter)

The gates and the fabric panels were seen from far away

The weaving and sewing of the fabric panels were done in Germany.

The work remained for 16 days, then the gates were removed and recycled after that.

Darft of “the Gates”

Map and view of “the Gates”

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My opinion

This is a work that very straight forward and simple to express the natural beauty.

It makes the environment nearby the park to be more comfortable.

I agree that the artists’ concept, there are no need to involve any deeper meaning, it just can be sensed to be an art, beauty and it can give joy to people, then this is a successful work of art.

Discussion

Is “the Gates” an art? Why?

What do think that the meaning or the visual  feathers is more important for an artwork?

Artistic Collaboration I- Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller - by Jim Wong

Janet Cardiff
a Canadian installation artist
Born in Brussels
studied at Queen's University (BFA) and the University of Alberta (MVA)


George Bures Miller
a Canadian artist
noted for his collaborative works with wife Janet Cardiff



The Paradise Institute


Materials: Mixed Media
Duration: 13 min.
Dimensions: 5.1m x 11m x 3m high
It won La Biennale di Venezia Special Award at Venice

What is The Paradise Institute?
“a new artistic format located between disciplines.”
A hybrid genre, The paradise Institute takes aspects from video projection, audio, and performance.

Viewers approach a simple plywood pavilion, mount a set of stairs, and enter a dimly lit interior complete with red carpet and two rows of seats.
They peer over the balcony onto a miniature replica of a grand old movie theatre created with hyper-perspective.

There is the “visual film” and its accompanying soundtrack that unfolds before the viewers; layered over this is the “aural action” of a supposed audience.
The film is a mix of genres: it is part noir, part thriller, part sci-fi, and part experimental.
Focus on the language and experience of cinema.
a 16-seat movie theatre where viewers watched a film
every individual in the audience experiences through the headphones.
The sense of isolation each might feel is broken by intrusions seemingly coming from inside the theatre.
A cellphone belonging to a member of the audience rings.
A close “female friend” whispers intimately in your ear: “Did you check the stove before we left?”
How’d they do that?
record and re-record

Cardiff and Miller were their own movie producers, writers and cameramen.


The Killing Machine



Materials: Mixed media, sound, pneumatics, robotics
Duration: approx. 5 min.

Partly inspired by
Franz Kafka's 'In the Penal Colony’
the American system of capital punishment as well as the current political situation
the piece is an ironic approach to killing and torture machines
The moving arms
The electric dental Chair
A moving megaphone speaker encircles an electric dental chair.
The chair is covered in pink fun fur with leather straps and spikes.

A disco ball turns above the mechanism reflecting an array of coloured lights while a guitar hit by a robotic wand wails and a wall of old TV’s turns on and off creating an glow.
two robotic arms that hover and move- sometimes
like a ballet
sometimes attacking the invisible prisoner in the chair with pneumonic pistons.

In our culture right now there is a strange deliberate and indifferent approach to killing. I think that creating this piece comes from a response to that.

Body III - Andres Serrano "Piss Christ" - by Ian

Key works of Andres Serrano:

Piss Christ (1987)

•Title: Piss Christ

•Artist: Andres Serrano

•Year: 1987

•Category: Prints

•Medium: Cibachrome print mounted on Plexiglas

•Dimensions: h: 59.7 x w: 40.6 cm

Shit series:

Heroic Shit (2008)

Romantic Shit (2008)

Deep Shit (2008)

"A History of Sex" Series

Eline (1996)

Key points:
•Abject
–a distinction was made between the “good and proper body” and the “abject”

•Religious aspect
–offensive to Christians
–threatens the identity of conservative Christians
–blasphemous

Quotes from the artist:

1. "The photograph, and the title itself, are ambiguously provocative but certainly not blasphemous."
   
2. "I have always felt that my work is religious, not sacrilegious.”
   
3. "My Catholic upbringing informs this work which helps me to redefine and personalize my relationship with God. "
   
4. "My use of such bodily fluids as blood and urine in this context is parallel to Catholicism's obsession with the body and blood of Christ."

Questions:

1. Do you think Piss Christ (1987) is an anti-Christ artwork?
   
2. To what extent do the artist’s works express the theme of “body”?

My opinion:

• The title of the work causes the problem

• If we do not know that Serrano store his urine in a jar, the work is quite beautiful

• Christ transformed to light by light because the blood and urine burn like a halo and light, as always, light makes it beautiful.

Body III - Orlan , "Omniprescence" - by Ava

Omnipresence (1993)

• 9 plastic surgery operations in 1990-93
• performed before live audiences
• remained awake, read and spoke during operations
• planned and executed, directed and edited by Orlan

• Omnipresence is her 7th operation
• took place in New York in November 1993 transmitted live via satellite to her New York gallery, Paris, Banff, Toronto and other sites
• Viewers could communicate with her during the performance
•The Omnipresence video and photographs record the entire surgical process




ISSUES EXPLORED

1. To challenge traditional perceptions of beauty
•an expression of the sublime and grotesque, eccentricities carved into human flesh and sculpted in living bone
•celebrates bodies combined with technology

2. “Self-sculpturing”/ creating oneself
•the idea of giving birth to oneself but at the same time that birth was a split, a cloning, a play on identity and otherness
•By surgery people can change their faced, bodies, skins, colors and, which are innately determined by human genes
• people can change genders by nowadays technology
•a way of refiguring yourself. It involves the idea of not accepting what is automatically inherited through genes

3. To challenge the concept of suffering/ pain
•she was under local anaesthetic 麻醉 during the operation
•kept smiling, speaking and reading
•she thinks pain is outdated



Her face a few days after the 7th surgical operationa


























Omnipresence No.2

• Created in conjunction with the 7th surgerg
•16 meters long
•Made out of two horizontal rows of images

•Bottom row: Orlan’s features digitally combined with different classic beauties from the art historical canon
•Top row: Orlan’s photographs of her face gradually healed after the operation.

• Meaning:

-“machine-body” vs. “ machine-computer”

- Questions the historical and contemporary notions of physical beauty

- Contests the distance between the real and the virtual

Drawings done by Blood (1993)

• drawn with Orlan’s blood during her eighth surgical operation performance
•Involves the use of abject object
•Functions as forceful material evidence that her body is her artistic tool

Relevant works about body

Self-Hybridization series (1999)

African Self-Hybridization series (2000-2003)

• Facial features combined with the features found on artifacts from pre-Columbian (Olmec, Aztec, Mayan) civilizations and masks from some black African civilization

• Meaning: to unearth the incredible diversity of esthetic ideals across time and space
-Explores the non-Western conceptions of beauty
-Reveals the West’s imposition of its canons of beauty onto other cultures
-Implies the replacement of a set of aesthetic principles from one hegemony to another