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Saturday, Jun 21, 2008 11:21AM / Members only
i literally haven't written since i decided to open an art gallery in JANUARY!
jesus!
...
well, i OPENED IT!
check it out at www.ooibotos.com
and photos of the gallery are at
http://www.jonathandsolomon.com/index.html?id=109,115
(jonathan solomon is a professor of architecture at HKU. i let him do whatever he wanted pretty much, but i told him, please do something crazy and dramatic and radical. the origami-like red fiberglass facade was the result.)
it's located at 5 gresson street - in the middle of nowhere, yet in the middle of absolutely everything. basically, the gallery is on the wet market lane located between 88-90 and 92-94 queen's road east.
we have really weird hours, so if you care to drop by, please check the website first.
my gallery is my major "fuck you, no compromises" statement to the world, the only thing i do in my life (besides blogging here every six months) which isn't meant to please anyone but ME -- a desperately needed antidote to my very commercial life of making stuff people love and buy.
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too much water under the bridge to attempt a recap. highlights were:
shooting the shanghai tang ad campaign (april)
visiting zhou yi, artist, during the installation of her monumental towers on place vendome, paris (april)
checking out the milan furniture fair (april);
opening the art gallery (may);
shanghai tang party at legation quarter, beijing (june) -- i just came back from that.
those are all the highlights my addled mind can remember at this moment, but, it's just the tip of the iceberg.
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i just came back from beijing, where i was fortunate enough to see the graduation projects of the central academy of fine arts, from all divisions - fashion to painting to photography to industrial design.
CONCLUSION (with the concurrence of 3 deans of the school, with whom i was walking around the shows!): oil painting is dead. "so stale", "there's a problem with the teaching". HELL YEAH.
there were plenty of graduates from the fine arts department who clearly possessed virtuoso technique. but not the vision or content to match.
anyway, i can't look at a painting these days without feeling straitjacketed. not only does NEW, CONTEMPORARY painting seem hemmed in by technique and materials, but its manifold expressions have been fully explored (and exhausted) during the last 300 years. PLEASE ARGUE WITH ME, because i'm saying something outrageously sacrilegious.
(and please do NOT write a comment to this blog which is CUTE, approving, pat and servile. I HATE that!)
not surprisingly, my art gallery is devoted to THE AVANT-GARDE in all categories, especially photography, because the latter is THE MOST DYNAMIC CATEGORY OF FINE ART these days, for many reasons, which deserve a separate, compelling expatiation.
but, dammit, not now.
gotta run.....
but, PHEW, i wrote an update!
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Saturday, Feb 23, 2008 7:45AM / Members only
we -- IN HONG KONG and ONLY in hk -- expect our cantopop stars and starlets to be perfect, plastic, pre-pubescent, desexualized, eternally teenage, virginal human beings, rather like living hello kitty characters -- rather than full-blooded adults who engage in normal activities, like sex, recreational drug use, cursing -- well, the full gamut of normal behavīor of fully-formed human beings, replete with the inevitable deficiencies of behavīor and character. the fact that we are horrified and transfixed by the entire episode illustrates the profound and unfair ambivalence in which we hold up these overexposed chinese pop stars. the whole episode is a testament to the hypocrisy and sexual repressiveness of hong kong chinese society at large. i'm glad we got to see these celebrities naked and fornicating. it only shows that they are real flesh and blood, breathing and sweating like the rest of us. at the same time, i'm appalled by society's inability to avert its eyes and lose interest in this sordid, rather pathetic episode in cantopop gossip history. (for myself, i had no idea about this whole thing until i was in the heli lounge at shun tak two days ago and saw someone who looked like daniel wu, having a press conference on the TV. one of my companions then told me it was edison chen, apologizing for his sexual peccadilloes)
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i can't wait until China Stylus (Jay FC. check out his page on AnD) and Red Dog Studio (Timon Wehrli), come out with their book of beautifully shot nude photos of chinese women, both ordinary and famous! that will shake things up too. OH!!! did you know that famous chinese women sometimes get naked and have sex????
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JESUS, what kind of place do we live in????
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Tuesday, Jan 15, 2008 9:26AM / Members only
my dream last night.
suddenly, my stomach started feeling jumpy -- but to the point where i could see some creature's head, literally moving beneath the skin on my abdomen. the thrumming sensation turned into something much more violent, jumping. at which point, i actually stuck my hand into my abdomen and tore out a small dinosaur. naturally, that left a huge gaping hole in my gullet. another small dinosaur quickly followed on the heels of the first. and i had to dip my hand into my abdominal cavity again, this time, ripping off most of the flesh on my torso.
suddenly, i was in a suburban tract home. again, i felt a distinct stirring, then a more tumultuous, back and forth sensation in my stomach. i tore one creature another out of my body, but, this time, in quicker, then, never-ending, succession. each creature was different -- an admixture between a reptile/dinosaur and a transformer-like plated crustacean. while asleep, i was distinctly aware and living through the sensation of each abdominal disturbance. finally, i was sitting inside the living room of my suburban home, when i saw a young, green, hapless, rather adorable dinosaur show up on the front lawn. somehow, it dawned on me that i had to kill this dinosaur in order to make all the little ones vanish or die.
i woke up at that point.
i never remember my dreams, let alone write them down, but this one is still fresh in my consciousness. i can still feel each creature in my body, thrashing around....
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Tuesday, Jan 8, 2008 10:00PM / Members only
www.clockenflap.com
first, the name is deliriously absurd.
next, the artists from st/art will be painting the "flap", so to speak.
plus, there are some cool bands playing there all day. from 2 pm to 2 am! namely, the Young Knives.
cyberport.
if you need convincing, go to www.start.hk, then you will understand the vibe, the purpose, THE IMPORTANCE OF SUPPORTING WHAT LITTLE GRASSROOTS ARTISTIC COMMUNITY there is in hk.
for once, i myself am going to get off my a-- and drag as many people there as possible.
GO!!
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Saturday, Dec 29, 2007 12:58PM / Members only
cousin, i'm sorry to use an expletive in my blog entry. don't be mad.
it was the only expression i could use to describe what i'm seeing this morning at my flat.
my son's eight-year old friend is over here and he is completely flummoxed when his head is not immersed in some kind of metal box, namely, a computer, nintendo, wii, or television set. he tried to throw a ball with my son a few minutes ago and he couldn't even muster that. i mean, he could throw the ball, but without any hope of it landing anywhere near my son, even at the distance of 10 feet! the idea of running around or playing tag or kicking a ball completely eludes him. the idea of a board game is equally alien.
he has no mastery over the physical world because of a complete failure to pursue any sporting or athletic activity. he is shockingly uncoordinated and inept when it comes to anything requiring muscle coordination, aim, endurance.
being what i'm like, i.e., vocal, judgmental, harsh, terrifying, i actually told the little boy i felt sorry for him because he is unable to enjoy life without having his brain sucked into an electric, metal box. he responded, "i don't want to come over to your house to play again". in my heart, i thought, "i hope he tells his mother what i've said, because she's a lame excuse for a parent"
his parents should be crucified for completely ignoring his physical, intellectual and spiritual formation.
i feel sorry for this kid. but his semi-lobotomized plight is typical of hong kong. and all the chinese kids growing up here, whose parents are just as flabby in mind, body and spirit. no wonder!
YUCK
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