The Works：HK Int'l Performance Art Festival, "7-Paperholic" @North Point, Qi Baishi & Shi Lu's works

What exactly is performance art? It’s a form that tends to take performance away from theatre and auditoriums, and that often – although not always - takes the art out of the art gallery. But maybe the difficulty of defining it is the point: it challenges orthodox art forms and cultural norms. It can range from Joseh Beuys sharing a room with a coyote for several hours, to the wince-inducing sadomacohistc self torture of Bob Flanagan. It’s often site-specific, conceptual, and a direct experience between the audience and the performer. Many performance artists use their bodies as their main tool, and it’s often a vehicle for political statement when many other forms of expression are more controlled. It became particularly popular in the 1990s in Eastern European countries formerly repressed by the Soviet Union. Last month, the Hong Kong International Performance Art Festival invited artists from Poland and Hungary to share their experiences and also to perform on our streets.
Also taking to the streets of Hong Kong for inspiration, although in quite a different way, are the artists involved in an ongoing community-based project based on printing. Seven local artists from different backgrounds are using paper to document the old neighbourhood of North Point. The artists involved in “7 paperholic” all make the most of the many different possibilities of paper. Workshops accompanying the exhibition include sketching on the street on lithographic plates, print-making and paper-making.
The intertwined traditions of chinese ink painting and calligraphy date back at least 2,000 years. Art historian and critic Xie He defined many of the rules and forms in his "Six principles of Chinese painting" in the 5th century AD. The traditions are strong and longstanding, but – in the 20th century – artists like Qi Baishi and Shi Lu both departed from, and carried on a dialogue with, those traditions. At the Sun Museum until early July, the exhibition “Eternity Revolving Twin Rocks” showcases more than 40 works by these two masters of ink, each of whom took the traditional forms into a new and personal direction.
There’s no doubt that Hong Kong is gaining an ever-higher profile as a performance venue for musicians from all over the world. Some pass through from one day to the next, even if they do come back from time to time. Others, to our great good fortune, decide to stay. One of those longer-term stayers is Scottish singer-songwriter Laura Kenny. She’s with us in the studio right now, talking to Ben Tse.