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Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Art. Show all posts
First found by the wonderful guys over at NEOCha. Beijing based Ray Lei (雷磊) animted this lovely and peculiar short. In a wonderful world, where everyone has rubiks cubes as heads, this animated short is fun.
Whilst you won't learn any Chinese through this video, it is a bit of fun, and has a great soundtrack written by by Li Xingyu (李星宇), a mix of 8 bit computer sounds and any of you familiar with Pink Floyd are in for a treat too.
I present to you Magic Cube & Ping Pong:
Magic cube and Ping-Pong from RAY on Vimeo.
Border Project is another animation by Ray Lei which hosts a rather interesting take on urbanisation, I'll let you make up your own minds about it. Whilst quite a different style to Magic cubes above. It is interesting to see the animation that is coming out of the youth of China.
Concept: 欧宁 Ōu Nìng
Animation: 雷磊 Ray Lei
Music: 金星李 Jīnxīng Lǐ (Stars Lee)
Border Project from RAY on Vimeo.
Ashes of Time Redux [1994 / 2008]
'Ashes of Time Redux' is a good film, dreamlike, disjointed, and possessed a stunningly complex narrative poetry. Often hard to follow and the colouring of the desert scenes is at times rather overexposed and abstract. Though the front cover quite clearly has a swords man this film is more about self-meditation and thoughts of the protagonist than out and out action.
The action scenes that are included are blurry and snarly, not cut together particularly well. However, the purpose of these scenes is to illustrate the tale, and provides this purpose well. The early storyline(s) are tough to follow, but are explained as you go. It had me and my housemate staring at each other in confusion early on.
Ashes of Time Redux (東邪西毒：終極版 : literally meaning "The Heretic East and the Venomous West": The Ultimate Edition) is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Feng the main character is a hard man to figure out, and at the end still leaves you pondering whether he is wise, or an idiot.
Ashes of Time Redux (東邪西毒：終極版 : literally meaning "The Heretic East and the Venomous West": The Ultimate Edition) is set in five parts, five seasons that are part of the Chinese almanac. The story takes place in the jianghu, the world of the martial arts. Ouyang Feng the main character is a hard man to figure out, and at the end still leaves you pondering whether he is wise, or an idiot.
Ashes of Time Redux is inspired by characters from Louis Cha’s martial arts novel ‘The Eagle-Shooting Heroes’. It centers on a man named Ouyang Feng. He left his home in White Camel Mountain when the woman he loved chose to marry his elder brother rather than him. Instead of seeking glory, he ends up as an agent hiring skilled swordsmen to carry out contract killings. His wounded heart has made him pitiless and cynical, but his encounters with friends, clients and future enemies make him conscious of his solitude...
The novels the film is based around actually have the lords of the east and west as much older men and arch nemeses. I would be very interested to read the books at a later date. All in all a good film; if you have the patience to navigate the honestly, mind boggling first half, of a somewhat abstract poetic film.
The novels the film is based around actually have the lords of the east and west as much older men and arch nemeses. I would be very interested to read the books at a later date. All in all a good film; if you have the patience to navigate the honestly, mind boggling first half, of a somewhat abstract poetic film.
Ashes of Time Redux [1994 / 2008]
Wong Kar-Wai: Director
Leslie Cheung, Brigitte Lin, Maggie Cheung, Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Tony Leung Kar Fai
Mandarin w/English Subtitles
Wang Bianlian (Xu Zhu) is an aging street performer known as the King of Masks for his mastery of Sichuan Mask Changing Art. His wife left him with and infant son over 30 years ago. The son died from illness at age 10. This left Wang a melancholy loner desperate for a male heir so he could pass on his rare and dying art.
A famous master performer of the Sichuan Opera, Master Liang offers to bring Wang into his act, thus giving him fame and possible fortune, but Wang opts for staying the simple street performer. Then, one night after a performance he is sold a young boy by a slave trader posing as the boy's parent. "Grandpa" finds new joy in life as he plans to teach "Doggie"(Zhou Renying) (an affectionate term often used for young children in China) his art. All is well until Doggie is found out to really be a girl.
Set in 1930s China, this 1996 film ranges through the heart-breaking and joyful. Showing how hard life was for the characters you truly see the depths and heights of human existence in this film. The actors are all perfect, such that you feel like you have really entered a different world.
Bian Lian: King of Masks is very predictable and has great mirroring of pivotal moments within the film. I reccomend this heart warming tale for all. I watched it for the first time on Youtube. I enjoyed it so much, that I will be buying it.
Video Trailer: IMDB
變臉 (Biàn Liǎn)
literally: "Face-Changing"
Biàn Liǎn is cross between art, illusion and magic. The performers change masks and sometimes entire costumes in the blink of an eye. Face changing has been a part of Sichuan opera since the reign of the Qing Dynasty Emperor Qianlong (1736-1795)...
Face changing was first used in a story about a Robin-Hood styled hero who stole from the rich to help the poor. When feudal officials caught him, he changed his face to puzzle them and escaped as a result.
Performers wear brightly coloured costumes with vivid masks and move to quick, dramatic music. The more accomplished performers can change masks with their sleight of hand up to 60 times in a performance. By using methods of distraction, their glittery costumes and the dancing, they change their masks mysteriously and wow audiences. Biàn Liǎn is a secretive performing art and is only passed down from one generation to the next within families.
In fact, only males are permitted to learn Biàn Liǎn. The old way of thinking was that women do not stay within the family, and would marry out. As such, there was the risk the secret would be passed to another family. Therefore, the art is technically forbidden to women, although more recently a Malaysian Chinese girl named Candy Chong has recently become a popular performer after learning it from her father.
Biàn Liǎn is also not permitted to be learnt by foreigners, and is rarely seen outside of China. Modern times have seen Biàn Liǎn evolve. In the Qing Dynasty, they used to use red, black or gold powder to change the colour of their face by blowing into it.
Other methods included smearing coloured paste concealed in their hands over their faces. In the 1920s oiled paper or dried pig bladder were used to create masks. Skilled performers could peel off one mask after another in less than a second. Modern-day masters use full-face painted silk masks, which can be worn in layers of as many as twenty-four, and be pulled off one by one.
The performer pictured here is Wai Shui-kan (韋瑞群) and has perfected the art of Biàn Liǎn (face changing) over 20 years. Below is a video to show just how quick he can change.
here is another really quick clip of another performer;
Photo Source:
HKdigital
The World record for amount of people simultaneously performing Taichi was smashed last night, the anniversary of the Beijing Olympic opening ceremony. Almost 34 thousand people from all walks of life gathered at the bird's nest for a 6 minute taichi performance.
The 33 thousand, 9 hundred and 96 people performed taichi at the 'Bird's Nest' National Stadium. They successfully created a new Guinness World Record, breaking the record that was made by 30 thousand and 648 people in 2004 in Henan province.
A Chinese artist named Liu Bolin has taken street art to hidden depths. After having his studio pulled down, he decided to take his personal sculptures to the people. When performing often people do not notice him until he moves and is about to leave.
He said the inspiration behind his work was a sense of not fitting in to modern society and as a silent protest against the Government's persecution of artists.
Liu says this type of work takes a long time to perfect and often will study photos and pose for 10 hours at a time to get each scene just right.
Bolin graduated from the Sculpture dept of Central Academy of Fine Arts in Shanghai.
Similiar to David Blaine's infamous sit in, in London, an Artist at the Venice Biennale has locked himself in a box in protest of China's one child per family policy. The box is 6 1/2 feet long by 3 feet high and 3 feet wide and Xing Xin is staying there for 49 days. It features special contraptions to allow Xing to be fed and to relieve himself.
To take up his time he has decided to count the characters used in all 150 books used in China's nine year compulsory education system. There are cameras inside the box to track Xing's movements and two waterproof televeisions outside this box, so that passers-by can see Xing's movements.
He plans to redo this protest in a glass box next time, when director of the Spazio Berengo creates a new glass museum that is set to open in the autumn, on the site where Xing's iron box currently stands. With Berengo's continued sponsorship, the artist plans to repeat the demonstration in a second box made of glass.
As for how much this protest will affect China's Decision making, I would say, it's not the biggest protest or the most life changing, I've seen and would have to be repeated by by several hundred within China to make any true political waves.
News Source:
LA Times
Art Info
Picture Source:
http://www.ilgiornale.it/a.pic1?ID=367568
