27 June 2011

艾未未回來了



在剛過去的星期看了<愛未來>-一個關於藝術和言論自由的展覽,剛巧艾未未就在這星期回家了。究竟艾未未有沒有經濟犯罪,無故拘留是錯或對,對於法律知識較貧乏的我,真不敢言說。這次的事件卻令我們反思中國現有的社會問題。

當謊言和偽善成為一個社會的共識,
我們將面臨體制性的原則喪失和判斷喪失。
當基本原則和判斷都喪失了,
美學就喪失了依據。-艾未未
 

令我訝異的是,這次展覽的很多都已是六七十年代的作品,看上去卻是多麼的現代。原來幾十年來,中國都有一羣人在默默地努力,做著應該做的事,說出應該說的話。雖說中國現在一日千里,我還是看到很多不公平,不真實和扼殺自由的事。我真的不希望謊言和偽善會成為社會的共識,我卻看見這些事每天都在發生。

我們可以做的,就是堅持。

Speak the truth, keep the integrity.


中國女藝術家肖魯曾在中國美術館向自己的作品開槍
 
你或者可以控制我的行為,但你可以控制我的思想嗎?

NO THINKING -高小蘭



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04 June 2011

Art must be beautiful?

by Korean artist Park Kyung-Sun. truly beautiful.

Will you call this beautiful?

Kids imitating sculptures by Yi Hwan-Kwon. 
Are they beautiful? I don't know. 
But they certainly make you think
from a very different angle.

I look forward to the real-life version of this
- by Hong Kong designer Douglas Young.

The annual debate at HK Art Fair this year was titled 'Art must be beautiful', and what Singaporean Artist Ming Wong did had brought much shock to many people.  Against the topic, he started stripping his clothes off, from the Maggie Cheung look as in In the Mood For Love to only dirty underwear left.  His point was that what is beautiful on the outside might not be beautiful inside, which I truly agree.  There is always many ways to look at things.  He also stated that "Hong Kong is captivating like a woman wearing an expensive fur coat but underneath wears dirty knickers." Well...this, is a very subjective statement.

ART
What is art? In general art is any kind of creations often involving expressions and emotions, but the word has been used so extensively that anything can be called art.  As I've seen recently from a shop display, that 'Sport is Art'.  Really?

MUST BE
There isn't anything called MUST in this world.  Nothing is a must. 

BEAUTIFUL
What is beauty?  Beauty is such a subjective thing, what is beautiful to you might not be beautiful to me.  It also depends on how you see it.  There is a beauty in everything.

With all these words more than subjective, I don't see any point to debate on this.  But even with my subjective definition of these words, I don't think art must be beautiful.  They are often stirring, sad, lonely, ugly, incomplete etc., giving me space to think and allowing me to see from a different point of view.  Of course, as a human being, I am naturally attracted to beautiful things, but they are definitely not the only things that attract me.

Apart from this very interesting debate, I must also say, the art pieces from Korea are really outstanding.