The Works：Controversies of Visual Arts subject in DSE, group exhibition "Renaissance" at French May

Teaching artistic creativity is a tricky thing. Teachers have to show students how to find their own path, not just create carbon copies of themselves. It’s also an important thing. Much of society’s innovation depends on creativity. But you might not always think it from looking at Hong Kong’s education syllabus. Here, visual arts is an elective subject, and teachers are angry that, according to education authorities’ official guidelines, the … well … visual part of visual arts should be made subservient to written analysis. At least, if you want to pass any exams.
Had it a say, the entire animal kingdom might not agree, but according to Greek philosopher Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things.” The rediscovery of classical Greek philosophical ideas like that one was part of the inspiration for the Renaissance Movement in Italy between the 14th and 17th centuries. Well, “renaissance” actually, and not so complicatedly, means “rebirth”, and in a French May-associated exhibition entitled “Renaissance” at La Galerie, two photographers, a visual artist, and a sculptor, give birth to new human and organic creations inspired by Velasquez, Arcimboldo, and the French naturalist Buffon.
Many of us may have received our first introduction to music through songs, nursery rhymes, or lullabies sung to us by our parents, particularly our mothers. In 1880 the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak even composed a piece about it: “Songs My Mother Taught Me”. That’s one of the songs to be performed in, and the title of, a Mother’s Day concert on Sunday by sopranos Renee Chan and Jasmine Law, and mezzo-soprano Carol Lin. Carol and Renee are with me right now to tell us more.