Artist talk Han Feng, Chinese Art Centre

I attended an artist’s talk Han Feng, at the  Chinese Art Centre which was organised in partnership with Contemporary Art Society

This is Feng’s first UK solo, he won the first John Moores  China Painting prize last year and Contemporary   Art Society organised an opportunity to learn about the artist’s work in person.

Feng was incredibly shy and softly spoken, almost timid; however his work resonates with a bold and bleak defiance.

The images are reduced to simple forms; the viewer is drawn in by the perspective into a sterile, grubby, suspended existence. Feng paints underground urban tunnels which lead on to unknown destinations. There is no sign of natural light as though the viewer will delve deeper into an unknown maze or just reach a dead end. The viewer is faced with the challenge: Continue moving forward until an exit appears or just turn back.

 Feng also plays with the notion of man’s aspiration, these towers appear endless however are made from fragile tracing paper which will eventually degrade.

This is a leather jacket for a bird; a bird is given the opportunity to become a consumer however will lose the ability to fly.

Feng’s work appears critical of the urban lifestyle, his work lacks hope, forcing the viewer to conjure their own or become lost within the urban jungle.

You can see more examples of his work at the Manchester contemporaries, (Buy Art Fair) which launches tomorrow 28 September 2012 and will only be showing over the weekend. If you want to invest in an artist work this is a great opportunity to gain some affordable art!

Yu-Chen Wang, A Splash and A Last Drop

The Chinese Art Centre host a residency programme, London-based artist, Yu-Chen Wang was creating site-specific installation as apart of her residency. She created a performance piece which was apart of the Future Everything and hosted at the Victoria Baths. The whole of the Victoria Baths had different areas of work, with loads to see, it was a really great event.

The project is based on the fictional story of Yu-Chen’s new experiment of creating “A Last Drop” in order to re-fill the pool at Victoria Baths and ensure that the water will never dry up again.

I hadn't realised what I had gotten myself into when I volunteered, I was given a short section of text to learn which referenced Manchester's industrial revolution. All I knew was I needed to be suited and booted, consider everything in this paragraph and talk to visitors in own words, about what I knew as they came to the baths.

I was then given very special attire which helped vistors identify me as apart of the work.

Each of the nine volunteers had there own text and collectively we would build a history for visitors which led to the opening of the baths. There was then a live performance (which will be released later in the year) involving a traveller who comes to explore...

The best moment for me was standing frozen inside the baths whilst I listen to the Cavendish Singers sang a traditional Victorian Choir, it was a very bizarre and surreal experience!

Limited edition hand-made publications are given out to the public whilst the performance is filmed by the members of Manchester Metropolitian University, Media Lab. Cornerhouse will premiere the film to coincide Yu-Chen Wang’s artist book, published by Chinese Arts Centre later this year. Hopefully when this happens I'll be able to attach a link to the video so everyone can see what happened.