Artistic impressions
Quietly (perhaps too quietly) but surely, a steady stream of local independent artists have been flying the Hong Kong flag and making their mark abroad. Painter Clementine Chan Yee-man, who currently has a small show at TaiKoo Place, held a solo exhibition in Italy last year. So did Amy Cheung Wan-man, who showcased The Face Machine at the International Exhibition of Sculptures and Installations during the 67th Venice International Film Festival.
Hoi Chiu and Maggie Blue O'Hara, the husband-and-wife team known as the All Theatre Art Association, appeared at the Vancouver Fringe Festival last September while Kwok Mang-ho, aka Frog King, is representing this city at this year's Venice Biennale.
In the US, Chinese-American dramatist David Henry Hwang's latest work Chinglish - a collaboration with local playwright Candace Chong Mui-ngam starring Hong Kong-born stage actress Jennifer Lim - is heading to Broadway after a successful run in Chicago.
That's not all. Tang Shu-wing will be bringing his acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus, a Hong Kong Arts Festival 2008 commission, to Shakespeare's Globe in London next May. The Cantonese production is part of the theatre's programme to mark the 2012 London Olympics, which will also feature another 38 plays in different languages.
Also scheduled for next May is an exhibition on Hong Kong photography at Sundaram Tagore Gallery in New York, curated by Oscar Ho Hing-kay. 'Journey to Nowhere: Marginally Chinese', showcasing images taken between 1989 and 1997, explores the 'psychological meltdown' of the former British colony in the run-up to the handover. 'It is a great opportunity to tell the world that Hong Kong art is excellent,' said Ho.
Sean Curran and Bonni Chan Lai-chu of Theatre du Pif have been invited to stage their original work Dance Me to the End of Love at the Manizales International Theatre Festival in Colombia, South America, next month. Curran says: 'We'll be part of a celebration of Asian performing arts at the festival and we will be the first Hong Kong theatre company to perform in that part of the world.'
It's time this city paid more attention to its own talents. As for the rest of the world - the Hongkongers are coming.
