Pianist Kong adds variety to the score
PIANIST Kong Xiang-dong will be ordering a musical combination plate for dinner tomorrow evening.
The award-winning soloist joins the Pan Asia Symphony and conductor Yip Wai-Hong in presenting a programme of Chinese classical piano works, including The Yellow River Piano Concerto, and Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 in B-flat minor.
Kong, winner of the 1992 Fifth Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia, has also appeared with orchestras in Shanghai, Singapore and Taipei.
The concert begins at 8 pm at the City Hall Concert Hall.
THE Cloud Gate Dance Theatre presents Legacy, a dance drama depicting the story of the Taiwanese pioneers who emigrated from China 300 years ago.
The Cloud Gate Company, the first dance company in Taiwan, was founded by Lin Hwai-min, an innovative choreographer who develops themes from Chinese myths, legends and folklore. His distinctive style of dance combines traditional Chinese elements with Western techniques.
Legacy will be performed on March 4 and 5 at Sha Tin Town Hall.
HOW molten wax can spur a ''profound voyage into the human psyche'' is anyone's guess. But Michelle Guildford, using a 2,000-year-old technique of painting with wax, has unearthed it with promising results.
The Hongkong-born artist began working with wax in 1987. The fruit of her intriguing labour is Landscapes of the Mind, a show of 14 paintings that opens on Monday at the Fringe.
Wax gives a strange luminosity and purity of colour, she believes. She has no role models and she defies being pigeon-holed into a certain style. Of her work, she adds, it is ''just abstract, full of detail and shadow forms.'' Landscapes of the Mind continues until March 13 at the Fringe.
PICK a theme, then trace it in a carpet. Finding pomegranates, vases and medallions is part of the adventure in appreciating carpets. A newly arrived collection of 30 from Tibet, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang gives the observer an occasion to play sleuth.
There are medallion designs from Khotan, an oasis town on the edge of the Taklamakan desert. A collection from the city of Baotou, near the Yellow River, includes a pictorial rug, probably a wedding gift woven for a dowry.
The centre is filled with vases and blooms and in each corner, Buddhist symbols. How do Khaden sleeping rugs from Tibet reveal their Chinese influence? Hint: chrysanthemums.
The display runs until March 15 at Altfield Gallery, 31 Lyndhurst Terrace, Central.
FOR some keyboard jockeys, working on a computer can be an exercise in frustration.
Not so for artist Anne-Sarah Lemeur. She turned it into a creative act. When her fingers sprint along the keyboard, she creates dazzling images, not mis-spelled words.
Merci beaucoup, Anne. Hope springs eternal. Computerised Images runs through March 25 at the Alliance Francaise, 3/F Java Commercial Centre, 128 Java Road, North Point.
SWEET decadence and the mystery of old Shanghai sets the mood for paintings by Li Hai Feng. Artist Fan Chang Jiang transfers his impressionistic style to landscapes. The nude sirens of Dong Hui haunt from elaborately constructed black backgrounds.
Welcome to Forbidden Gardens: The Renaissance in Chinese Painting, a collection of works in mixed media by six Chinese artists who reconcile Western painting techniques with the charm and illusive character of the Chinese tradition.
Forbidden Gardens opens on March 5 at JR Guettinger Gallery at the Fringe.
