The Works：Illustrator Nicolas Vial, Walasse Ting at Kwai Fung Hin, Juergen Teller & Xiang Jing, Si

People have probably been making fun of the powerful, and self-deluding as long as others have collected power or self-importance. Satire has a long history, and satirists aim to expose folly and vice in all their guises. French illustrator Nicolas Vial has drawn satirical cartoons for the newspaper Le Monde for more than 30 years. He now works for the French magazine, Le Figaro. But, although we might wish our age had moved beyond such barbarity, this is a time when the pen so threatens some that they are fanatically determined to disprove the notion that the pen is mightier than the sword.
Nicolas Vial’s home of Paris has inspired many artists, including Chinese artists like painter and poet Walasse Ting as well. He spent five years there, later living in both Amsterdam and New York. His works, known for their vibrant colour, and such subjects as nude women, cats, birds and other animals, are strongly influenced by Matisse. You can experience 25 of them for yourself at the Kwai Fung Hin gallery for the rest of this week.
Male, female. German, Chinese. Photographer, sculptor. Two artists from very different perspectives are examining ideas of desire in very different ways at the Hong Kong Lehman Maupin Gallery. In Juergen Teller’s photographs, food becomes the symbol of desire, but while he brings desire to inanimate objects, Xiang Jing creates nude and hairless female sculptures that invite us to see beyond the idea of the body as an object of desire.
Two iconic French women known for inspiring desire for at least part of their careers are the inspiration for one female singing duo. The women are Brigitte Bardot and Brigitte Lahaie. The due is Brigitte. Sylvie Hoarau and Aurélie Saada, who joined forces in 2008, describe their style as 1950s retro. Brigitte, they say, is “the aunt that cooks, the housewife. Brigitte is woman in plural”.