26-2-2014 The Works

This year's Hong Kong Arts Festival got under way on the 18th February. It's going to include 138 performances, and more than 220 events. Among those on show this week is a searingly dramatic play transposed from 19th century Sweden to South Africa. August Strindberg's "Miss Julie", written in 1888, is a naturalistic play that focuses on issues of class, power, gender, love and sex. Julie is the strong willed daughter of a count, raised by her father to be as independent as a man. She and her father's servant Jean fall from flirtation into an intensely competitive relationship that may be love, or may be just lust. A new adaptation by South African director, Yael Farber, looks at at the play from a more female perspective. Premiered in 2012, her version, "Mies Julie" is set in a remote farmhouse kitchen in South Africa on the night of the Freedom Day anniversary.
Even in his architecture, Frank Gehry is known for believing in the creative possibilities of the accidental. In 1983 when he was commissioned to create with a new plastic laminate called ColorCore, one piece was accidentally shattered. The pieces reminded him of fish scales. A year later, he had created the first Fish Lamps from wire armatures and shattered pieces of ColorCore. They became part of a series of fish-inspired work that now includes the gigantic fish sculpture in Barcelona. Currently showing in Hong Kong at the Gagosian Gallery is a selection of Frank Gehry's fish lamps.
The first Asia Hotel Art Hair was held in Tokyo in 2008. Since then, it's become a semi-annual event, held alternately in Hong Kong and Seoul, Korea. This year marks the fifth Hong Kong version, and the fair features a special section called "AHAF Beyond the space at Harbour City". As most of the works are shown in hotel rooms, there are limitations on size, and organisers are working with Harbour City to place larger-scale works throughout the shopping mall.
Subyub Lee is a young singer-songwriter, currently putting together his first album, whose work you may have heard in the movie "Love In The Buff". This week, Subyub came to our studio to talk to Ben Tse and to perform his song from that movie "What's Behind"