The Works：Umbrella Festival, artist Feng Mengbo, Architect Le Corbusier, in the studio: Jing Wong

During last year’s Occupy Central protest, streets in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok became impromptu galleries for all sorts of artistic expression. As The Works reported at the time, on the day of the final clearance in Admiralty, an assortment of volunteer groups rescued much of that art. Last Sunday, a two-week “Umbrella Festival” opened, not only showing works from those protests, but also new works from performing and visual artists.
Feng Mengbo graduated from the printmaking department of Beijing’s Central Academy of Fine Arts, but new media art quickly became his creative obsession. Feng is often labelled the father of computer-based contemporary art in China. On show at Hanart TZ Gallery “The Loudest is Silent: Picturing Feng Mengbo" not only brings us Feng’s well-known video games, but also new works in which he has returned to painting.
Recently, old controversies over the political affiliations and sympathies of Swiss-French architect Le Corbusier were reawakened with the publication of two books calling him “a militant fascist", an anti-Semite, and a fan of Hitler. The books were published not long before last month’s opening of a three-month exhibition at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, to mark the 50th anniversary of his death. In his work too, Le Corbusier is both praised as the father of modern architecture, and reviled as a pioneer of drab and utilitarian residential blocks. You can make up your own mind at the City Hall, where the first major local retrospective of his work opened early this month, showcasing original drawings, sculptures and models.
Next month local singer-songwriter Jing Wong is planning to release his new EP. He acknowledges the influence of The White Stripes and The Black Keys, but says he’s now turning away from his former folk music style and wants to channel his frustration and anger into his own musical genre which he calls “book rock”.