The Works："Picturing Asia" Brian Brake & Steve McCurry, Porcelain by Yuet Tung China Works, Danh Vō

We hope that you’ve had at least some chance to relax, to exercise your creativity, or at least to appreciate a little of the creativity of others, during this summer. The Works may have been on a break, but that doesn’t mean nothing has been happening on the arts scene. In this week’s show, we’ll be catching up on four exhibitions that have got under way in recent weeks, including an exhibition of hand-painted porcelain from one of the oldest porcelain manufacturers still operating in Hong Kong: the almost nine-decades-old Yuet Tung China Works. And we’ll be looking at multimedia works and installations by a filmmaker who has moved from the big screen to the art space. He’s acclaimed Thai filmmaker, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, best known locally for his supernaturally themed: “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.”
From the second half of the 19th century, as the art of photography developed, many photographers travelled to this part of the world from other countries to turn their lenses with fascination on what was then often referred to as ‘”the Orient”. Among those photographers are such impressive image-makers as John Thomson, Felice Beato, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, and Marc Riboud. An exhibition currently on show at the Asia Society features the work of two relatively recent and distinctive photographers Brian Brake and Steve McCurry.
Born in Vietnam, artist Danh Vo became one of the Vietnamese “boat people” at the age of four. After taking to the sea in a homemade boat, his family and around a hundred other refugees were eventually rescued by a freighter belonging to the Danish Maersk shipping company. Denmark gave him, his family, and many of the other refuges, a new home. He now lives in Berlin. His work often reflects on a complex personal relationship with the land of his birth, the countries that have adopted him, and issues such as colonisation and identity. These threads are all in evidence in his on-going site-specific installation at the White Cube gallery in Central.
Although a strong sense of respect, and affection, for the past was long an important aspect of traditional Chinese culture, it can be really hard to look around and find many examples, if any, where that respect doesn’t take second place to more commercial desires. Many traditional crafts have fallen by the wayside. One that is still surviving here, by the skin of its teeth perhaps, is the tradition of hand-painted porcelain. Established in 1928, Yuet Tung China Works was the first porcelain factory in Hong Kong to specialise in hand-painted “guang cai” or coloured ceramics. We visited the workshop in Kowloon Bay and talked to the company’s owner.
Finally this week, in 2010 Thai film-maker Apichatpong Weerasethakul won one of cinema’s highest honours, the Cannes Palme d’Or, for his 2010 feature “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives”. “My country is run by superstition” he has said, and his films, sometimes labelled surrealist, are known for creating a world in which spirit creatures and ghosts are no less real, perhaps more so, than the events his characters may watch on television. But although his movies may seem fanciful, underlying them is often a critique of the militaristic and nationalistic elements of Thai society. And that mixture of critique and mythology extends to his art works other than full length movies, many of which you can currently experience at his first exhibition in Hong Kong: “Apichatpong Weerasethakul: The Serenity of Madness.”