My blog
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Crunk
Sunday, Apr 4, 2010 9:47AM / Standard Entry
Almost the very last piece of film. We spent the whole day in Wing Shya's studio today working on one additional film. I won't tell you much about it but it's AWESOME.
Wing is just an amazing talented artist, so much fun to work with. We got great shots and all were happy even though it was a very very long day for everyone.
Meanwhile the construction rolled on at the space and I'm back in there today, still trying to finalise many many details.
The actual last bit of film will be done today with Hong Kong actress Josie Ho. I bumped into her in a bar the other night and when i told her about the film she said she wanted in! No problem! Josie is great and was a fantastic model for me a couple of years back when she jumped around my studio for a night which resulted in this lovely painting....
For All The Doubts, 175x150cm, 2007. Oil on canvas.
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ergh
Friday, Apr 2, 2010 10:19AM / Standard Entry
ok, i definitely had no idea they were gonna put me on the cover of Time Out! I'm really camera shy to be honest and would rather they just put a piece of art there in my place.
But am very grateful for the exposure that Time Out have bought to the show. Thanks so much to them for that.
Really nice bunch of guys who run the publication here in HK.
http://www.timeout.com.hk/art/features/32996/a-new-hope-simon-birch.html
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4
Friday, Apr 2, 2010 9:45AM / Standard Entry
a few more shots, these are from the day before yesterday so we're a bit our of synch on the blog here but anyway....
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good
Friday, Apr 2, 2010 8:56AM / Standard Entry
Public holiday in HK today but the Hope and Glory construction rolls on regardless.
I'm in and out of the editing suite as a run back and forth to the space. Only a week now until it's all ready and still so much work to do.
Am constantly tired but couldn't be happier with it all. The momentum is relentless on both the physical side on site and the repercussions of the event too.
The phone rings constantly with conversations about PR, forum organisation, event management, book publication, merchandise and a million other things that are the life of the show after the doors open.
There is work to manage for the next 2 months with a wonderful forum series at the show which Valerie and Robert (if I'm Luke Skywalker then I guess they're Han Solo and Princess Leia) have managed with incredible intelligence and consideration.
I encourage all to join these discussions as they will give insight, not only to the show but also to where Hong Kong is at culturally and what the future may hold. They have lined up some extremely competent and reputable people to join the panel that will discuss these topics.
Both Robert and Valerie have given there time freely with no reward, just because they believe strongly in the cultural development of our community. Would be hard to find two more compassionate and considerate people.
There have been many other people along the way that have shared this spirit of contribution. It's a wonderful thing and certainly gives me hope for the direction of humanity and encourages me to be a better person and live in a more considerate way and, hopefully, to continue to make good art and share it with the world.
which is exactly what I've been doing all week! and here's some shots of the last couple of days of production to prove it....!
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I've been cheating on AND....
Tuesday, Feb 16, 2010 9:35AM / Standard Entry
OK, I haven't blogged for a couple of months, sorry about that!
Well, not entirely true because I've been writing another blog! I wanted to keep a diary of the project I'm working on and set up a blogspot page:
http://monkeymodified.blogspot.com/
So, now I feel like I'm having an affair, writing on that page when I should've been writing on AND!
Well, hopefully they won't kick me off and I'll make it up by doing a quick round up right now!
So, my next big show opens April 8th in Hong Kong at Taikoo Place. I have a 20,000sq ft space donated by Swire properties and am building a huge multi-media installation there. The show is called Hope and Glory.
Here is the space:
In other countries there are contemporary art spaces (Guggenheim, Tate, MOMA, Pompidou, etc) but in HK we have nothing. No contemporary art space. So I thought I'd build my own, if only for a few months.
So, for April and May the space will be full of sculptures, films, performance and there will be events, parties and educational programs too.
It's hard to explain exactly what you'll see inside the space but here's a few pre-production images, a total sneak preview of some of the things you will see. I guess visually it's close to a fun fair/circus/theatre set.
This is one of the large sculptures, it's 3m high and about 30m long. It spells 'Tigranes'.
This is a shot from a film that shows in a cinema space at the show, it's a horse galloping around the darkness, We shot it in 3D.
This is from another shoot where we filmed trapeze artists flipping around in the air.
These are the drawings of the 2 cinema spaces that house the horse and trapeze films. They play on 4 screens that surround the viewer.
These 2 are tests for a performance, a modern day freakshow. There are a dozen of these guys wandering around the show.
This is a film we shot a couple of weeks back, it's a version of American Idol where the contestants are artist rather than singers. The guys from CB Fresh did all the work for this.Loads of people joined in to help, including Lisa S, Terence Yin and Tony Magnetic pictured below.
This is another piece of video art interviewing a number of people, like Grace Huang pictured here, who talk about a tragic experience.
British band UNKLE, led by James Lavelle are producing the soundtracks to many of the films in the exhibition.
The show will have a big opening party of course, run by Diesel, and AND members will all be invited.
The show is a first for HK, nothing quite like this has ever been attempted. It's worth noting the show is non-profit. It's also not funded, I've had to finance the whole thing on my own and I can't really afford it. I'm literally emptying my credit cards to make it work!
I've applied to the government for some funding though so we shall see.
Fortunately I get the space for free and a lot of support in other things. Diesel pay for the party, Shanghai Tang are doing one too. Louis Vuitton are covering the forum/lecture series and many many people have contributed their time for free, like the CB Fresh guys and all the actors that helped with the films.
A few other artists got involved too, Stanley Wong, Prodip, Kacey Wong, Alvina Lee and Douglas Young (G.O.D.) are just some of the contributors.
I did a few deals with contractors to get some free services too, I paid for the architects drawings with a painting, the same with the guy that's building our cinema spaces.
There's still a few million dollars of costs though even with all this help.
But somehow it's all coming together and it's a hell of a lot of fun to do too. Money isn't everything after all.
Once the show is up it should have a massive impact on HK. Let's hope it doesn't suck!
The show is unusual in that it pools so many resources, it's a true community project, for the people by the people.Getting architects, actors, corporate and commercial, educational and artists all together is no small thing. It's also unusual in that it's run by a single artist, no government or corporate commissioned the project. Myself and all the other people involved just got motivated and got on with it for no gain other than the fun of making a fucking huge piece of art.
The point being there is no angle, no ulterior motive. Just making cool shit and sharing it with the world.
I do hope you all come see the show and get the most from it. I'll look forward to everyone's reactions once it's open. And if any other artists out there want access to information on the show and how we navigated through the complex process of building and installing 10 films using 12 projectors, 6 plasma screens, 10 LCD screens, 20 large sculptures, 30 actors, 6 architects, 30 production crew, 12 designers, 15 assistants, 6 professors...(you get the point) feel free to contact me direct. I'm a big believer in sharing information.
Latersssss.
Birch
Oh, and I will do more blogs here but more regular updates will be on my own site too:
http://monkeymodified.blogspot.com/
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