Simon Birch is ringleader of artists in Hong Kong’s conceptual circus ‘Hope and Glory’

HONG KONG PUBLIC ART EXHIBITION

Galactus, by Simon Birch. Hope and Glory installation shot.

Simon Birch, Hong Kong’s celebrated Englishman artist of Armenian heritage, becomes the ringleader of artists in his conceptual circus ‘Hope and Glory,’ which features a bevy of artists as creative collaborators.

The exhibition, curated by Valerie Doran in Hong Kong, is comprised of 20 interlinked multi-media installations and takes on enormous proportions with a force of 16 credited arts professionals and organizations supporting Birch’s efforts.

Under Birch’s artistic direction, the creative team successfully realizes a space of wonder, effectually filling a 20,000 square foot facility with a visual reinterpretation of the sensory experience of a traditional circus in the middle of urban Hong Kong.

Installation and sculpture

The exhibition’s installation and sculpture works dominate the sprawling art space to create a fantasy atmosphere. Viewers wander throughout the space, which has been turned into a surreal labyrinth and enter interactive video pods, where they individually experience custom-made video works complete with meticulously crafted costume production, sound design, and film editing.

Themes: art as a spectacle, as circus

The monumental show explores various major themes, including the idea of art as a spectacle; a fascination with circuses and sideshows, science fiction and ‘hero’ mythologies, all while maintaining an acute awareness of traditional craftsmanship and the labour involved in art production.

The nature of the exhibition required extraordinary measures to properly express Birch’s vision. Curator Valerie Doran writes:

“Collaborating with artists, designers, actors, filmmakers, technicians, curators, educators, costumers, photographers, to bring this world into being, was necessary. And locating this world in a centralized space in Hong Kong was also necessary.”

All 20 works comprising Hope and Glory can be viewed online here, courtesy of the 10 Chancery Lane Gallery in Hong Kong, which represents Birch.

The creative collaborators who were an integral part of expressing Simon Birch’s vision of Hope and Glory include:

Zero Contact Point, by Cang Xin. Hope and Glory installation shot.

Valerie Doran (Hong Kong)- Curator

Paul Kember and Kplusk Architects (Hong Kong) – Exhibition Technical Design

Anothermoutainman (aka Stanley Wong, Hong Kong) – Graphic Design

James Lavelle and UNKLE (London) – Composition and performance of soundtracks for films: ‘All Heads Turn As the Hunt Goes By’,’Juggernaut’, and ‘Clear Air Turbulence’

Gary Gunn (New York) – Composition and production of soundtracks for films: ‘The Arrival Vengeance’,’I used to think I was the Blade Runner, now I know I’m the replicant’, ‘Tannhauser’, and ‘Azhanti High Lightning’

LucyAndBart (Amsterdam) – Designers for ‘Crystallized’ hologram, and design consultant for ‘Twilight Shadows of the Bright Face’ costumes

Florian Ma (Hong Kong)- Film editing and graphic design

Alvina Lee Chui Ping (Hong Kong) – Costume production for ‘Twilight Shadows of the Bright Face’

Robert Peckham (Hong Kong) –  Concept and educational consultant

Prodip (Hong Kong) – Production of paintings re-interpreting ‘Twilight Shadows of the Bright Face’

Bamboo Star (Hong Kong) – Production of Film ‘The Heaven 17’

Douglas Young (Hong Kong) – Co-design and production of ‘Crawling from the Wreckage’ living room environment

Cang Xin (PRC) – Creation and production of ‘Zero Point Contact’ Sculpture

Wing Shya (Hong Kong) – Photography and production of ‘Hutton’ film

Eric Hu (Hong Kong) – Co-production and filming of ‘Kho Virap’ film

Eddie Cheung (Hong Kong) – Composition and production of soundtracks for ‘Kho Virap’ film and ‘Crystalised’ hologram film

Non-profit public art with Hong Kong government support

Hope and Glory runs from April 8- May 30, 2010, and is presented by the non-profit Birch Foundation with generous support from the Hong Kong government as a cultural enrichment for the Hong Kong public. The exhibition event is held in an ideal location which was made available to the Birch Foundation free of charge. Entry into the exhibition is free, and a series of innovative forums and interactive educational events exploring topics and questions generated by the artworks will be held throughout the exhibition period.

Twilight Shadows Of The Bright Face, opening performance, by Simon Birch. Hope and Glory video installation shot.

Forums

Fri 07 May 2010 . Forum 1 ‘Art as Place’
Fri 14 May 2010 . Forum 2 ‘Re-Generation, De-Generation’
Fri 28 May 2010 . Forum 3 ‘HOPE & GLORY : The Making’

Exhibition and Forum Location:

ArtisTree

1/F Cornwall House

TaiKoo Place, Island East

Hong Kong (MTR: Quarry bay, Exit A)

Open Daily from 10 am – 8 pm  (Free Entrance)

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Internationally renowned Hong Kong fashion and film photographer Wing Shya returns to art – Saatchi

 

Wing Shya Angel

PHOTOGRAPHY HONG KONG

Clad in jeans and a faded T-shirt, Wing Shya crunches on a taco and pushes his long black hair behind his shoulders. He thinks about my question. “My style? I don’t know what my style is..” Then grinning he looks at me through his thick-rimmed spectacles. “One night I was partying with friends but I had to get up early for a shoot so I told them I was leaving. They said no, no …stay…don’t worry about being tired tomorrow, your work will be even better …. it’s your style”. He chuckles gently. “They say it is cinematic”.

And his friends aren’t wrong. Think wet stone, dark corners, moody, woozy, languorous images with dramatic spots of light. Wing Shya creates a universe where forties movie glamour collides with a contemporary urban aesthetic and the resulting images tremble with unresolved tension. Like film stills, his static shots, taut with possibilities titillate us with the promise of significant encounters and epic struggles.

Internationally renowned for his award-winning work which spans commercial design, fashion and film, Hong Kong born photographer Wing Shya trained at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Canada. Initially he wanted to be a fine artist and, after winning the photography section of the Hong Kong Biennale, was selected to exhibit in Hong Kong’s Museum of Art. Shocked by poor attendance at the museum, he soon decided commercial work held more promise. His work as a graphic designer in the music business and running a radio station resulted in a life-changing meeting with the world famous film director Wong Kar Wai for whom he went on to serve as a graphic designer and photographer on several acclaimed films from In the Mood For Love to 2046. “After that everyone wanted me, the phone was always ringing”.

Since then his genius has been recognized with prestigious awards and numerous commissions by top brands including Dior, Louis Vuitton and Nike. His evocative “Pearls of the Orient” series of couture fashion shots was featured in the Victoria and Albert’s 2008 China Design Now show and he has been profiled by the Independent newspaper as a member of the ‘Hot List: China’s cultural movers and shakers’.

But now Wing Shya wants to take his work in a new direction. “I want to do more pure work. I want to do fine art again”. As a step towards his goal he is exhibiting a series of photographic works in his first solo Hong Kong show “Prevation: A Manga Story” at the newly-opened Ooi Botos Gallery.

The show was conceived in Japan in 2006 when Wing Shya came across the comics of the manga artist Tatsuyuki Tanaka, well known for his work on the anime classic Akira. “I was excited by cartoon drawing because there are no technical limits, it is free …you can use any angle. Photographers get into a habit of shooting from certain angles because technically it is easier.” Wing Shya’s passion for his work surfaces as his soft voice becomes more fervent. “I wanted my photographic images to be like a cartoon strip, the same angles. I want to stretch the boundaries of photography.”

He tracked Tanaka down and persuaded him to collaborate on a storyboard which Wing Shya has used as inspiration for a series of 38 pigment print images edited down to 17 for the show. “It is a simple story” he explains “it is about right versus wrong”. But don’t be taken in by his humility: behind the fun contemporary cultural references – the manga goddess-style superheroine, her kitsch fairy lights and feathers in Angel for example – there is a complex layering of unexpected elements.

The plot may be playfully B movie worthy but stand back and notice how- thanks to his long-time collaborator and former Wong Kar Wai film lighting gaffer- his work is lit like a full budget Hollywood blockbuster. Dissonances and surprises abound. The Bear and the Beauty reminds us of a cartoon strip …but without speech bubbles. Angel in Black recalls a fashion shoot in which fancy dress replaces couture. Emotional Wounds and Good Evening bring to mind movie stills which, though inert, seem to pulsate with suspended tension.

Thanks to his work off the set and before the shot Wing Shya transforms his simple story into a cipher for the heroic battle between the vigorous forces of good and evil, a grand drama of love and hate played out in a surreal urban world by absurdly-costumed yet archetypal misfit lovers.

See

• original piece in Saatchi
• more stories on manga and cartoon art, photography
• latest reports from Hong Kong

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