Though it could have ended on a better note, examinations are still over! OVER! Yay. Now, with the holiday, I am looking forward to doing things outside schoolwork! I had the privilege of sharing this with Zita today... since we went to the National Museum to visit the two ongoing photo exhibitions, which are part of Season of Photography. The first exhibition was Voom Potraits by Robert Wilson, while the second one was Doubleness by Chang Chien-Chi. These two exhibitions are rather contrasting, but they are appealing in their own unique way.
Robert Wilson is an artists whose works are mainly on the fine arts and operas. His Voom Potraits works contain videos that represents portraits. The subjects of videos include personalities like Dita Von Tesse and Princess Caroline of Monaco, and actors such as Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr, Brad Pitt and Steve Buscemi. In each video, the subject was very still, or performed little actions. Somehow, these little actions broke the barriers between the flat dimension of a still potrait and a life action potrait. When the subject is still, it only seems that you are staring at a potrait. But when the subject begins to perform his or her action, you realise that there is something more to the potraits. Another thing that I find intriguing was what was the cutoff point of these videos? These videos seem to loop seamlessly and endlessly. I don't know where is the beginning and ending point of the potrait. Was the person supposed to move at all? Was there more story to the potrait that I don't know of? These interesting questions kept coming into my mind.
From the fine art side, we move on to documentary style of photography. Chang Chien-chi's potraits are intimate and truthful works. In this exhibition, he covered three themes. The first was on the illegal migration of Fuzhou's villagers to work in New York City. The story was really heartbreaking and surreal in some manners. Yes, these men living in New York City are living their American dreams of earning more money, but because they are smuggled into the country, they have no way back to Fujian to see their families. I found the most depressing part was when I saw the video and photos on these men relying on porno and sex doll to satisfy themselves. Masturbation is not funny at all in this sense.
The second part was on a temple-cum-mental-institute in Taiwan, where each insane person was chained to another person considered less sane. The pair would do their routines chained together for the whole day, except for when they sleep. It is believed that this method would help to cure these mentally-ill people. From some of the pictures, you can tell which ones are of the less sane. Somehow I get a sense that these people have been used to being chained to another person. But at what point would one consider both of these people to be cured? And what do the saner think of less sane, and vice versa? Do they get chained willingly everyday?
The last part of the exhibition was on the wedding match practice in Asia. The part where I found most intriguing was when each of the couple pose in front of a mock bouquet with mock champagne... to create a mock celebration of their wedding. Another set shows the couples reading the legal requirements. The relationship between the couple was obvious in some. Some were more intimate while others are more distant (with obviously no connection yet). When I was in this part of the exhibition, I do realise that this practice was only prevalent in Asia. It's not really prevalent in Western countries. There's this one photo where the women are sitting down in groups, and I somewhat felt these women are commoditised in this practice!
As you can probably tell, I found Chang's works really inspiring.
It reminds me of what I hope to accomplish if I become an artist. I want to bring into light issues that the society is not aware of. Through this, if there is the need, change could implemented for the better.
Robert Wilson is an artists whose works are mainly on the fine arts and operas. His Voom Potraits works contain videos that represents portraits. The subjects of videos include personalities like Dita Von Tesse and Princess Caroline of Monaco, and actors such as Johnny Depp, Robert Downey Jr, Brad Pitt and Steve Buscemi. In each video, the subject was very still, or performed little actions. Somehow, these little actions broke the barriers between the flat dimension of a still potrait and a life action potrait. When the subject is still, it only seems that you are staring at a potrait. But when the subject begins to perform his or her action, you realise that there is something more to the potraits. Another thing that I find intriguing was what was the cutoff point of these videos? These videos seem to loop seamlessly and endlessly. I don't know where is the beginning and ending point of the potrait. Was the person supposed to move at all? Was there more story to the potrait that I don't know of? These interesting questions kept coming into my mind.
From the fine art side, we move on to documentary style of photography. Chang Chien-chi's potraits are intimate and truthful works. In this exhibition, he covered three themes. The first was on the illegal migration of Fuzhou's villagers to work in New York City. The story was really heartbreaking and surreal in some manners. Yes, these men living in New York City are living their American dreams of earning more money, but because they are smuggled into the country, they have no way back to Fujian to see their families. I found the most depressing part was when I saw the video and photos on these men relying on porno and sex doll to satisfy themselves. Masturbation is not funny at all in this sense.
The second part was on a temple-cum-mental-institute in Taiwan, where each insane person was chained to another person considered less sane. The pair would do their routines chained together for the whole day, except for when they sleep. It is believed that this method would help to cure these mentally-ill people. From some of the pictures, you can tell which ones are of the less sane. Somehow I get a sense that these people have been used to being chained to another person. But at what point would one consider both of these people to be cured? And what do the saner think of less sane, and vice versa? Do they get chained willingly everyday?
The last part of the exhibition was on the wedding match practice in Asia. The part where I found most intriguing was when each of the couple pose in front of a mock bouquet with mock champagne... to create a mock celebration of their wedding. Another set shows the couples reading the legal requirements. The relationship between the couple was obvious in some. Some were more intimate while others are more distant (with obviously no connection yet). When I was in this part of the exhibition, I do realise that this practice was only prevalent in Asia. It's not really prevalent in Western countries. There's this one photo where the women are sitting down in groups, and I somewhat felt these women are commoditised in this practice!
As you can probably tell, I found Chang's works really inspiring.
It reminds me of what I hope to accomplish if I become an artist. I want to bring into light issues that the society is not aware of. Through this, if there is the need, change could implemented for the better.
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