Mark Wu : Design & Art Direction for Digital Media
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London Chinatown’s Major Public Art Commissions

Friday, 25 April, 2008

Chinatown Arts Space - an organisation that supports East Asian visual and performing arts (and who are also one of my clients), have just opened up online voting for two new public art commissions for London's Chinatown.

One commission is to be a mural placed in Horse & Dolphin Yard and the other a sculpture to be housed in Wardour Street.

What I find interesting about this, aside from the cultural awareness benefits that may result for the UK's Chinese culture, is the nature of the entries. I think they would provide a snapshot of where we are cultural, particularly in the level of quality of the entries.

Overall, I find that there is a touch of obvious cultural references and style. Bright colours or muted traditional scrolls. And of course, Bruce Lee. I'm not too impress with the murals, athough I like the idea of Wing Kei Wong's bowl of rice made up of hundreds of photographs of Chinatown, past and present. The visual composition idea isn't new, but I hope its a cheeky nod to those automatically composed digital posters made up of frames from Star Wars for example, to form a giant Yoda portrait.

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Sculpture-wise, Hsiao-Chi Tsai and Kimiya Yoshikawa's Lion seems like a re-interpretation of lion statues seen guarding doors and gateways of oriental streets and buildings. This caught my eye because its colourful bulk is intended to arise from perspex shapes. I'd love to see it created in real life to capture what little sun we get in the UK.

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The fact that such an arts commission exists so openly in Chinatown I think is a first? I don't remember anything like this happening in recent years, although of course, there are Chinese artist commissions, which I suspect happen behind closed doors with the results appearing in intimate, less populated galleries.

I believe its a positive thing and I delight in the thought of old school, cash oriented Chinese, who misunderstand art and design, believing its all a waste of time. Thanks CAS for organising and if you're reading this before the 11th May, 2008, then get voting!

More on ChinatownArtsSpace.com.


This entry posted in : Events. Living in London. East Asian Culture.

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Quick intro :

British Chinese, Digital Design Consultant. Professional experience spans over 9 years working on digital design projects for both small and large clients. Read more...

Events attending :
  
28/04/08 :House of Commons :
Barry Gardiner MP Reception
13/04/08 :The BC Project :
Get Active UK - Register to Vote (Chinatown 12 - 4pm)
27/02/08 :The British Chinese Project :
Political Seminar
Hosted by Cllr Thomas Chan
21/02/08 :Five Circles Arts Festival :
Gala Reception
14/02/08 :Cirque Du Soleil - Varekai
10/02/08 :Chinese New Year celebrations in London Chinatown
16/01/08 :The British Chinese Project :
Working Group Meeting
  
Website updates :
  
27/01/08 :Games and Digiquaria wallpaper now added to the Downloads section
  
01/01/08 :Initial version of MarkWu.Info finally live. Lots of refining and adding to do though, so its live, but not really, if you know what I mean...
To Do :
  
Visit China Design Now at the V & A
Sign petition to stop BIA raids on Chinese catering businesses
Absorb The History of Visual Communication
Listen to the Five East Asian Music Acts to watch in 2008
Revisit my childhood
Wildlife Photographer of the Year
  

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