Controversial Art Taken Down at M+

Comparison of Leung's photo with Wang's work

Still jet lagged and haven't thought of a new blog yet so we will continue on here!

Two disappointing things have happened recently that demonstrate the ongoing deteriorating situation in Hong Kong.

Vidler's firm stops operations on June 3 this year

First is that well known law firm Vidler & Co which handled many human rights cases as well as the 2019 protests, will cease operations from June 3. The announcement was made by the Law Society of Hong Kong, notifying its members of the firm's imminent closure after 19 years.

Senior partner Michael Vidler has not commented publicly about the announcement.

The firm has represented such activists as Joshua Wong Chi-fung, and worked on cases like Indonesian journalist Veby Mega Indah, who lost an eye after a police projectile allegedly hit her on September 29, 2019. While Vidler & Co filed an application in the High Court in December that year to reveal the identity of the shooter, Vidler told Ming Pao in February the following year that the firm did not represent her anymore.

Vidler represented Veby Mega Indah in 2019

Another case the firm worked on was a woman who was allegedly raped in the Tsuen Wan Police Station. Then police chief Chris Tang Ping-keung claimed the case was an attempt to "mislead the police", alleging the claim was not consistent with the video evidence.

Legal representatives of Vidler & Co hit back, claiming Tang was trying to "publicly discredit" the woman.  

The firm is also known for being involved in LGBTQ cases.

Interesting to note Vidler & Co will be closing the day before the 33rd anniversary of June 4... coincidence?

Also along the same vein, contemporary art museum M+ has reopened, months after the fifth wave began in late December. The new head of M+, Bernard Chan toured the museum on April 21 and notably three works were replaced that were related to Tiananmen.

Wang Guangyi's portrait of Mao

One is Wang Xingwei's New Beijing, painted in 2001 showing two injured penguins on the back of a makeshift tricycle flatbed. It is a riff off of photographer Leung Heung-shing's photograph of a man trying to cycle as fast as he can to take two victims to the hospital.

Another piece is Wang Guangyi's Mao Zedong: Red Grid No. 2 (1989), showing a painted portrait of the Great Helmsman, though with a red grid painted on top as if the leader is in a cage.

Finally, Zhou Tie-hai's Press Conference III (1996) refers to the Cold War. These works are now probably stuck in the museum's gulag, never to be seen in person again, though they can be found online on the M+ website.

M+ response?

"It has always been M+'s plan to rotate over 200 artworks in the first year after its opening," a statement read. "Nine out of over 200 have been rotated before reopening, in particular those which are in greater need for conservation."

Controversial artist Ai Weiwei's work Whitewash, featuring old jars that have been repainted is still there, though the black and white photograph of him giving the middle finger to the Gate of Heavenly Peace across from Tiananmen Square is not available...

This Ai Weiwei photo is not shown at M+

In any event, we can't help but be amused that pro-Beijing stalwarts who are staunchly behind chief executive candidate John Lee Ka-chiu, are angry that their star nominee cannot post his campaign videos on the YouTube video-sharing platform because the company needs to comply with US sanctions against him.

Lee called the sanctions "unreasonable",  a "bullying act" and a means to "exert pressure to make him have hesitations" regarding the upcoming election.

"Any country's official should strive for the best to defend their country's national security," he said. "Their unreasonable act will just strengthen my belief that what I am doing is right."

We hope Lee knows what he is doing because he is also getting a lot of ridicule for the copywriting on his campaign materials. A social media group has criticised the choice of words and grammar in Chinese and English, pointing them out much like a teacher does with a nasty red pen.

Perhaps even more entertaining is that Lee's campaign team actually follow many of these correction suggestions.

All for the greater good, right?

HK Protest Documentary Wins Golden Horse

A still from Chow's Revolution of Our Times documentary

Tonight the Golden Horse Awards, the Chinese-speaking world's equivalent of the Oscars was held tonight and the Hong Kong documentary on the 2019 protests was named Best Documentary.

When the film Revolution of Our Times was announced as the winner, it prompted a long round of applause and shouts of support for Hong Kong from the audience in Taipei.

Director Kiwi Chow sent a pre-recorded message from Hong Kong. He expressed thanks for the award, dedicated the film to Hong Kong people, saying he hoped it would bring them some comfort.

Chow speaking via a recorded message in HK

"I cried a lot when I produced this film; several times I comforted myself with this film, to express my anger, hatred, to face my fear and trauma," he said, his voice cracking with emotion.

The 152-minute documentary follows several protesters and documents their clashes with police in the 2019 anti-government protests. 

Revolution of Our Times was a last-minute addition to the Cannes Film Festival lineup in July, but it will never be shown in Hong Kong because of the national security law which prohibits any hint of secession, subversion, terrorism or collusion with foreign forces.

As a result those in the arts and culture fields are worried about work being misconstrued as contravening the national security law. Most recently the opening of M+ contemporary art museum resulted in photographs by dissident artist Ai Weiwei not being displayed even though they are part of a collection donated by well-known Swiss collector Uli Sigg.

This big win for the documentary comes days after the second anniversary of the District Council elections where 71 percent of registered voters turned the city's electoral map yellow except for one district. It was an unprecedented win for the pro-democrats, but the victory was short lived, again because of the national security law.

A poster of the documentary

Since then the city's institutions are being dismantled from the district councillors themselves to grassroots organisations and unions, as well as a pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily.

Chow's film is a reminder of what happened and to never forget.

M+ Finally but Cautiously Opens

M+ is designed by Herzog & de Meuron, at least HK$760M

A few days ago M+ finally opened on Friday, though with cautious fanfare.

First some impressive stats. The Museum of visual culture is designed like an upside down T, nearly twice the size of the Tate Modern with 17,000 square metres (183,000 sq ft) of space in which to display 1,500 works from its 6,413 pieces. M+ cost at least HK$760 million to build, and several years behind schedule, which resulted in bad timing.

Before M+ opened its doors, the national security law was implemented, coupled with numerous pro-democracy activists thrown in jail, a liberal newspaper shut down, and the city's electoral system completely revamped so that only "patriots" can run. As a result the contemporary art museum is treading on dangerous territory.

Tang said the art must comply with the law

Art is supposed to be an extension of freedom of expression... is it not?

"We will uphold and encourage the freedom of artistic expression and creativity. But on the other hand, our dedicated curatorial team will ensure the exhibitions comply with the law, including the Basic Law, the national security law, and all other laws in Hong Kong. The opening of M+ does not mean artistic expression is above the law. It is not," said West Kowloon Cultural District chairman Henry Tang Ying-yen.

So yes, by all means be expressive with art -- as long as it complies with the law.

Passive aggressive with legal characteristics.

Ai's Whitewash is displayed prominently

In March, pro-Beijing lawmaker Eunice Yung Hoi-yan tried to score patriotic brownie points by accusing the M+ collection of spreading "hatred" against China, using the example of Ai Weiwei's photograph of him raising his middle finger at Tiananmen Square.

However, did she realize that Ai also has a series of photographs called Studies of Perspectives, pointing his middle finger at other government buildings and famous landmarks around the world too, including the Eiffel Tower, Hong Kong island, St Mark's Square, the Sydney Opera House, and the White House?

Nevertheless, M+ removed Ai's photograph from its online archive, citing a legal review, though his other work called Whitewash (1995-2000) is on show, featuring 126 ancient jars neatly arranged some painted in white, as if to whitewash history.

Wang's painting refers to Tiananmen Square

And then there is a reference to June 4, 1989 with Wang Xinwei's New Beijing. It's a painting of a photograph reminiscent of a man pushing his bicycle with a makeshift board that should be carrying two bloodied people but instead there is a pair of penguins wounded in the chest.

It's also interesting it has featured the works of local artist Kacey Wong, including photographs and sculpture, including his floating apartment idea as a way to tackle Hong Kong's housing crisis. Wong recently went into self-imposed exile to Taiwan, worried about continuing to live in Hong Kong. He wrote on Twitter how cool it was to be able to see his work in the museum through smartphone technology.

Wong's floating home is on show at M+

Many people I know have already had a preview of M+, posting pictures all over social media so I feel like I've already seen half the museum already. But of course it's not the same as being there and interacting with the art in person which I hope to do soon.

But the hopes that M+ was going to display art that couldn't be in China are dashed. Going forward it's going to be a perilous journey for the museum when it comes to art and politics,
whether it likes it or not.

Does HK Still have Artistic Freedom?

M+ in West Kowloon is completed, and will open end of 2021

 

Hong Kong's premier contemporary art museum, M+ is finally completed. Last week the media were taken around to have a look and one big question was now that the national security law has been implemented, will that affect what is shown at M+?

The museum's director, Suhanya Raffel, said there would be "no problem" in showing dissident artist Ai Weiwei's works and other pieces included in the M+ permanent collection, because their inclusion was based on research developed from "historical facts".

M+ director Raffel says collection "no problem"

"We have always had a robust curator-led approach to everything we do and that is underpinned by research and academic rigour," she said. "Like any global museum, it is our role to present art in a relevant and appropriate manner and stimulate debate, knowledge and pleasure. A city can only be a welcoming arts hub if it offers an open environment for artists and for different views."

Raffel may have to re-think her words after Eunice Yung Hoi-yan from the New People's Party raised concerns on Wednesday that Ai's work may violate the national security law by "spreading hatred against China".

She cited the example of a black and white picture of Ai holding up his middle finger in Tiananmen Square.

"If you point your middle finger towards Tiananmen Square, it means you want to show your anger against it, or you want to subvert the government with your artwork," she told RTHK.

Yung wonders if Ai's works are subversive

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the government will protect freedom of expression, but added she was confident the museum's curators would be capable of distinguishing works that constituted artistic expression from those endangering national security.

Of the 33 galleries in M+, 12 will be dedicated to the 1,000-piece collection of contemporary Chinese art from Swiss businessman Uli Sigg. Some of the pieces were shown in an exhibition in 2016 and some of those works would definitely not be shown in mainland China.

These include the above mentioned Ai piece called A Study Perspective: Tian'anmen, and photojournalist Liu Heung-shing's picture of the June 4 crackdown where a tricycle cart driver peddling two men with gunshot wounds to hospital.

Today Ai hit back at Yung's suggestion that his work was subversive.

Is this photograph subversive or is it art?

"All artworks, if they are of value, raise questions and challenges. Challenging authority is one of the core values of art," he told RTHK.

"If she thinks artworks are just ornaments, then I'd say she doesn't understand art," Ai said.

He added if his works cannot be exhibited in the museum, this would be a signal that Hong Kong is moving further away from universal values and is becoming part of authoritarianism.

This puts M+ curators in a tough spot -- will they stand their ground in the name of artistic freedom?

 

Review: Coronation by Ai Weiwei

Ai Weiwei's documentary is about the pandemic in Wuhan

 

Let's face it -- 2020 has been completely shot -- thanks to the coronavirus pandemic and we still haven't tamed the virus thanks to people in parts of the world refusing to wear masks, or governments that didn't take it seriously in the beginning.

Over 1.29 million people have died since the pandemic began December 1, 2019, when the first case emerged in Wuhan, China.

Since then it spread to over 200 countries and now there are over 52.3 million cases.

Ai and his team edited 500 hours of footage

Artist and activist Ai Weiwei documented what happened in Wuhan with the help of intrepid volunteers who managed to get unprecedented access into hospitals to record first hand what was happening on the ground months after the pandemic gripped the Chinese city.

Called Coronation, the almost two-hour documentary is a series of vignettes and interviews with Wuhan citizens who had to come to grips with the reality of the virus and the decisions local and central governments made.

I saw the documentary last night with my friend YTSL, and also in the audience was former chief secretary Anson Chan Fong On-sang, Eric Wishart of the Foreign Correspondents' Club, and lawyer and author Antony Dapiran. We were in good company.

The opening image of Coronation is stark, viewers overlooking the high-speed rail lines in Wuhan that were paralyzed by the virus, completely empty, and the dreariness of the city. Three videographers record themselves driving back to the city and encounter a lot of police checks and frozen gas pumps.

A nurse helps an elderly patient with Covid-19

There are scenes in hospital patient rooms, watching an elderly patient in critical condition because one of the machines he is hooked up to is malfunctioning, others have faces as white as a sheet and are gasping for breath while breathing in oxygen. 

One gets access to the construction site of Huoshenshan Hospital, the emergency field hospital that was built within days to house 1,000 patients. Once it's completed, one of the doctors goes inside to report to work and he walks and walks along corridors until finally he reaches his locker.

Then there is the tedious task of putting on layers of personal protective equipment. He grabs a rubber glove with air in it to make sure there are no holes before putting it on. Very smart. Another person writes with a felt tip marker on his hazmat suit that he is a doctor and what his name is.

No wonder doctors couldn't go to the bathroom with all that stuff on.

A construction worker talks to his niece

Taking the PPE off too was another routine carefully monitored by someone in another room, instructing him what to do to avoid getting the virus on his own clothes and skin. Talk about an intense and stressful procedure.

One wishes the doctor would talk to the camera, but perhaps he was too hungry, as we watch him eat. Maybe we are already lucky to have such close access that we shouldn't demand much more.

However there are other stories, like the construction worker who helped build the hospital but is stranded in Wuhan and can't get out. He is stuck living in his car and charges his phone in a car park. He calls his young niece who reminds him to disinfect himself before they see each other.

It's light moments like these that keep Coronation not too sombre.

Perhaps one of the funniest vignettes is when a videographer stays with his mother, who is a die-hard revolutionary. She insists as long as you do what you are told, you will be looked after and shows off she has won many awards. 

Her son eggs her on to show them to him and she gathers a stack of red fabric books and dumps them unceremoniously on the table. There are certificates too that are rolled up like scrolls, though one is ripped and he jokes it's because it has Lin Biao's name on it.

A videographer (right) with his mother

Then there are people angry at the government regulations for not allowing them to be with their loved ones before they passed. This was not just happening in Wuhan, but around the world. Here, people openly complain in front of the camera, telling the world that they could not say good bye, or hold their hand as they lay dying.

One middle-aged son believed the government when it said there was no proof of human-to-human spreading of the virus and brought his elderly father back to Wuhan. He was soon infected and died; his son regretful, but wishes to do his duty to give his father a proper burial.

However, his father's danwei, or work unit refuses to allow him to retrieve his father's ashes alone; he must be accompanied by minders and he is adamant that this not happen. The danwei people realize they have not handled this carefully, but at the same time the son knows they are only doing their job, but he respectfully insists that he must not be accompanied by strangers who did not know his father at all.

The government tries to "disinfect" Wuhan

It's like a cat-and-mouse game that must have been infuriating for the son to deal with, let alone his regrets and mourning. He says that the government is so big there is no way one person can beat the system.

In a way Coronation is a warning for Hong Kong. We may laugh at the ridiculousness of the bureaucracy mainlanders have to deal with, but the reality is that Hongkongers will have to face this in real life very soon. In fact things are changing so fast that it is happening now, with Beijing destroying the veneer of "one country, two systems".

The mainlanders deal with authoritarian rule everyday, and some in the film know very clearly what is going on, others blindly following along. For some the pandemic has revealed the authorities' inability to humanize the situation, that everything is for the good of the state, even though it insists it is ruled by the people.

Coronation was remotely directed by Ai; the access the videographers got was impressive, though at times the camera is blurry and there are no second takes. It is a gritty film, though not as well produced as his previous work, Human Flow, about the refugees from Syria, Lebanon and Iraq who make their way to Europe.

Nevertheless, Coronation is an excellent record of what it was like in Wuhan, something the Chinese government cannot completely whitewash.

Coronation

Directed by Ai Weiwei

1hr 53 minutes

Two Hongkongers Are Refugees in Germany

Ray Wong (left) and Alan Li (right) at the German Parliament in Berlin

Yesterday it was reported two pro-independence activists involved with the localist group Hong Kong Indigenous have been granted asylum in Germany. The Hong Kong government has yet to react to the news.

That's because Ray Wong Toi-yeung and Alan Li Tung-sing were facing criminal charges for their alleged role in the Mongkok riot in 2016, and they fled Hong Kong in November 2017 before their trial. They were granted refugee status in Germany last May.

Police detain Wong (second left) during the Mongkok riots

The German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) said it received two asylum applications from Hong Kong in 2017.

According to Germany policy, the government would have to consider whether the pair faced persecution back home based on their political opinion or a disproportionate or discriminatory judicial proceeding when granting them asylum and subsequently a settlement permit equivalent to citizenship.
 
Wong, 25, said he decided to go public with his asylum status because the Hong Kong government was trying to push ahead with the extradition bill, which would allow the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China, a law that some critics fear could be used for political purposes.

He and Li, 27, will speak at the German Parliament on June 4, the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown. The event is hosted by the Green Party, where academic Kristin Shi-Kupfer and writer Zhou Qing will speak as well.

We're intrigued and impressed how Wong and Li managed to get asylum in Germany, but how will they fare there? Hope they've been learning German... would they change their political stance of mainlanders now that they can count Ai Weiwei and Liu Xia as their fellow dissidents?

Hongkongers Protest Extradition

Some 130,000 came out today to protest plans for controversial extradition bill

Heartened to see over 100,000 people turn out to protest against the Hong Kong government's plan to push through the extradition bill that would have suspects sent to countries the city had agreements with, including China, Taiwan and Macau.

Critics fear it gives Beijing more authority over Hong Kong, that it could target political activists, lead to forced confessions and arbitrary detentions, and if someone is extradited to the mainland, many of us know China's "rule of law" is different from what it is in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

This afternoon some 130,000 showed up -- the largest since the estimated 510,000 during the annual July 1 protest in 2014. The police claimed otherwise, saying 22,800 were in the march.

Many fear what the government has in mind for extradition

This is ridiculous from the pictures taken by the media, especially overhead. People who arrived late at Causeway Bay had to wait two hours before they could start the 2.2km march and the did so patiently.

The march was timed just before the sentencing of Chan Tong-kai, who brutally murdered his girlfriend in Taiwan last year, but because there is no extradition agreement between Hong Kong and Taiwan, he cannot be tried there.

The Hong Kong government used this horrific crime as an argument for the extradition bill and get the public on side, but today showed people thought otherwise.

Some who spoke to the media felt the government has become more like a dictatorship and not listening to the people, calling for Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to step down, while others felt it was important to voice their opinion about the matter for the sake of their children's futures.

The march also protested the jailing of four Occupy leaders

Many of the protesters also carried yellow umbrellas, symbolic of the Occupy protest leaders who were sent to jail earlier this week: Benny Tai Yiu-ting, Dr Chan Kin-man, lawmaker Shiu Ka-chun and League of Social Democrats vice-chairman Raphael Wong Ho-ming.

It's disappointing to see acting chief executive Matthew Cheung Kin-chung dismiss today's protest march, basically saying the government would not be swayed by the turnout.

He said people enjoyed freedom of speech and assembly and the right to stage protests.

"But it has to be conducted in a lawful manner. Whether the turnout is big or small is not the main concern," he said.

A mock jailing with batons was acted out by at the march

Cheung dismissed concerns about the possible abuse of the proposed extradition bill, saying it would not apply to cases involving human rights, politics or capital punishment.

The government has promised it would consider each case carefully, saying the executive authority and the court would perform their respective gatekeeping roles in handling all surrender requests. It said it would reject any surrender request that did not meet legal requirements.

May we remind the government how Beijing punished dissident artist Ai Weiwei, claiming he did not pay his taxes? And then felt it had the right to just destroy his studio in Bejiing without warning?

And the same could be said for Liu Xia, the wife of Liu Xiaobo; her brother was convicted on trumped up charges of fraud and sentenced to 11 years in jail and was later released.

How can we trust the Hong Kong government will not do the same?

Impressions of Art Basel

Japanese installation artist Chiharu Shiota's Where Are We Going?

March is such a busy month with the Hong Kong Arts Festival, Asia's 50 Best Restaurants, Hong Kong International Film Festival, Art Basel Hong Kong and Art Central. Oh and did you know the artist Kaws' Companion is out floating in Victoria Harbour? Wish I could be like him and just relax but there's too much to see!

Photographer Liu Heung Shing

Today was the start of Art Basel and I took a taxi to get there. The drive decided to take the Central-Wan Chai bypass and before we got out of the exit for Wan Chai North, there was a traffic jam with cars going to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.

The first day is usually reserved for the media and VVIP, but by the time I got there around 3.30pm (it had started around 2pm), the bottom floor of the massive art show was already crawling with people.

And there were lots of beautiful people or people trying to dress arty farty. And lots of Mandarin was being spoken by lots of young women wearing Chanel boucle jackets and dresses, and men in Louis Vuitton shirts and even a crazy white vest with lots of pockets embossed with the LV logo. Do people actually wear this stuff?

Detail of pink swirls of Park Seo-Bo's Ecriture No. 160208

We didn't spot many celebrities, or wasn't paying enough attention, but saw Uli Sigg, the art buyer and philanthropist who is a big supporter of Ai Weiwei. We also saw Hong Kong-born photographer Liu Heung Shing who has come out with a new book comparing and contrasting the Soviet Union and Communist China.

The man himself embodies history, having seen China become a Communist country and watched it transform into a capitalist country with Chinese characteristics. I heard him speak about 10 years ago in Beijing and he has so many anecdotes he can still produce even more books.

But on with the art. My colleague noticed there were fewer large art pieces on show this year, perhaps galleries were worried about having big price tags that would scare off potential buyers and only brought out smaller ones instead.

What is she doing? Dan Colen's Rabbit and the Moon

For example some Francis Bacon prints were going for US$40,000. Wonder if they were snapped up right away.

As usual there was a lot of strange art that wasn't executed very well, and some that were visually arresting, which is what you need at an art fair where it can get mind numbing going by every stall. I did see a few pieces that I had seen at previous Art Basel shows. Perhaps they were hoping to catch buyers who were first timers at the art fair?

One of the large installation pieces was beautiful and airy. It's called Where Are We Going? by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota. It's actually composed of lots of strings to make up a series of boats that seem to be floating in the air, making it very dreamy and light.

Rivane Neuenschwander's detail of garlic peel on fabric

A pretty piece in shades of pink is called Ecriture No. 160208 by Korean artist Park Seo-Bo. It's a series of acrylic swirls of paint that seem to be applied with a piping bag and different shaped nozzles. It's so pretty and pastel-y, like a giant vertical cake with tons of pink icing on top.

There were also some sculptures that made us do a double-take. One had a naked woman playing with a rabbit on her chest. New York-based artist Dan Colen created Rabbit and the Moon and it's a weird piece. Who would put that in their living room?

Another has a woman wearing a T-shirt and shorts, reading the paper with miscellaneous goods around her. And then we read the caption and it says: Flea Market Lady by Duane Hanson. A security guard had to be posted next to this statue in case people would touch her!

Chinese artist Zhang Yu performing Tea Feeding

Meanwhile Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Le presented some quietly strong pieces featuring embroidery on cloth. And the embroidery is white thread on white cloth. One is called Texture of Memory #7 2000-1 and it's a portrait of three people together in a line drawing by embroidery. The lines look simple, but up close involve a lot of work and skill to execute well. Utterly beautiful to me.

This other work was white too. It's three-dimensional and at first it looked like bulbs from flowers, but up close they are actually garlic skins. How did the artist, Rivane Neuenschwander extract these thin skins off of the garlic in one piece? She had to do several hundred for this untitled piece.

Vic Muniz's Letter Rack Hong Kong (Yellow)

I find Brazilian artist Vic Muniz's work fun to look at and so I purposely made sure I swung by Ben Brown to take a look. This time it's more like a random collection of items one might find in someone's memory box or time capsule of Hong Kong. There's postcards and ticket stubs, name cards, coins, maps and stamps. I miss his visually-arresting collages. Or maybe he didn't have much time because Ruinart champagne had recruited him to do a special collection creating collages using the actual bark and leaves from the vineyards. Yawn.

The Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija had some pieces shown this year that are new, but using 2014 copies of the South China Morning Post as his canvas. One was untitled and strangely featured two giant circles on newsprint. Usually he has a message written on them. Another exhibited by another gallery had Chinese characters written in red on top of the paper, saying something like, "We are together under one sky making dreams". I prefer his previous piece that said: "Freedom cannot be simulated".

Oh and one final performance art piece. We saw Chinese artist Zhang Yu pouring red tea in giant bowls that were sitting on top of paper. He kept pouring the tea until it slightly overflowed. Then we could see why -- on the walls were uniform circular blotches from previous pourings. We don't know the significance of it, but they kind of looked like fuzzy ancient Chinese coins. The performance art is called Tea Feeding...

SCMP newspaper used by Rirkrit Tivavanija

After about two and a half hours of going through pretty much the entire fair, it was time to call it a day. I like seeing what's out there, the artistic zeitgeist. It was more whimsical pieces than serious political statements. Another Art Basel done and dusted!

Justice for Wang Quanzhang?

Wang Quanzhang, his son and wife Li Wenzu before he was detained in 2015

While the rest of us celebrate Christmas -- from the birth of Jesus to Santa Claus getting you exactly what you want, to gathering with loved ones -- China uses that day to convict and jail people it deems a threat.

Most famously it was pro-democracy activist and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo who was sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, 2009, and two years before that well-known Aids and environmental activist Hu Jia was arrested on Christmas Day and later sentenced to three-and-a-half years in jail.

Liu Xiaobo (right) was jailed on December 25, 2009

In 2015 Pu Zhiqiang, a lawyer who had represented artist Ai Weiwei was handed a three-year prison sentence just before Christmas, and in 2011, writers Chen Xi and Chen Wei were sentenced to 10 years and nine years in prison respectively on December 25. 

This year it was human rights lawyer Wang Quanzhang's turn.

He was held incommunicado since July 2015 and only yesterday was tried in a secret trial that neither his wife nor his supporters could attend.

His wife was prevented from leaving her apartment in Beijing to go to the trial that was held in nearby Tianjin. Before his trial, she and other lawyers were prevented from visiting him to see how he was doing.

However, It seems Wang is still in strong spirits -- it was somehow leaked that he fired his lawyer in the courtroom which may have caused a delay in the proceedings.

What has he done wrong?

Li shaves her head in protest of Wang's detention

He is accused of "stirring up trouble", representing the banned group Falun Gong, colluding with a foreign-funded group to "propagate methods and tricks for resisting the government", and was one of the many lawyers who was rounded up in 2015 in a crackdown against human rights lawyers for "subversion of state power".

Meanwhile his wife, Li Wenzu is doing her best from the outside to draw attention to her husband's situation. She and other supporters have tried to go to the detention centre where Wang was being held, and this month they shaved their heads to protest what they said was the judges' failure to enforce Wang's rights under Chinese law.

The mandarin word for hair sounds similar to law.

"In Chinese, having no hair sounds like having no law," Li said. "We meant that we can do without our hair, but we can't do without law."

The fact that Wang has been held so long is a violation of China's own laws, as well as international ones.

She is denied access to her husband in detention

Michael Caster, a human rights advocate who previously worked with Wang in Beijing believes Wang's stubbornness "kept him going through years of abusive, incommunicado detention and given him the strength to refuse a forced confession. He was never one to be intimidated by threats from judges or by the physical abuse of police."

If there are angels, we hope they are watching over Wang. His story is being spread around the world.

Sichuan Earthquake 10 Years On

Many buildings collapsed during the magnitude 8 earthquake in 2008

Today is the 10th anniversary of the Sichuan earthquake that killed at least 87,000 and injured 370,000

I distinctly remember that day. I was in Beijing working in the office on the sixth floor of a low-rise building and at 2.28pm, I suddenly felt woozy, like I had drank something strong and was feeling the effects in my head.

Except I wasn't getting drunk, but feeling the powerful reverberations of the earthquake that was magnitude 8 on the Richter scale, the epicenter in Wenchuan county, in Sichuan province.

A memorial clock perpetually stops at 2.28pm

The following days and nights were constant updates of the horrific scenes of utter devastation, with many buildings leveled to the ground. It was discovered 7,444 schools were destroyed in the quake, while other buildings nearby were still standing.

Many of the dead were children (over 5,400), which led many grieving parents to ask about the construction of these institutions -- to them they seemed like "tofu schools", buildings that were shoddily built.

Premier at the time Wen Jiabao promised to launch an investigation to find out the truth, but 10 years on parents are still waiting. They are angry and disappointed not much has been revealed, let alone not much compensation, which probably makes them feel there's some kind of cover up.

Ai Weiwei began his activism with the Sichuan earthquake

The tragedy also sparked citizen reporting -- as many victims were not named at first, some people like Tang Zuoren and artist Ai Weiwei created their own activism with an army of volunteers by trying to find out all the names of those who died.

At first a large number of names were missing, but thanks to the efforts of volunteer       activists, as many people they could find were accounted for. I remember years later seeing a piece of work where Ai set up a small room and inside the walls were covered with computer-generated charts of the student's name, age, and sex.

It was a stark and factual reminder of a tragedy.

This marked the beginning of Ai's activism in China, that later led him to have a brain hemorrhage thanks to Chinese police beating his head because Ai dared to try to find the truth.

Shoes still lying around 10 years later.

Also this was the last time that reporters in China could go outside their city, county, province to report on a major story. Perhaps because there were so many negatives -- the roads were blocked and hard to get heavy equipment there, the chances of finding people alive were less apparent with each passing day.

As a result, since then, when tragedies occur, all domestic media outlets must use official state media, particularly Xinhua stories. No one can do independent reporting anymore.

Meanwhile the government quickly turned this into a national tragedy for propaganda -- with official days of mourning, and there was so much money donated. Did it really go to the victims? We don't know.

The government can't stop people from remembering this incident, But what happens from now on? Will the authorities finally tell the truth of what happened to the people who seemed to have died unnecessarily? What comfort can leaders give them?

Review: Human Flow

Ai Weiwei follows the plight of refugees in 23 countries

Refugees are all over the world, but have you ever met one?

Leaving their home is their last resort -- it is not a decision they take lightly. Uprooting themselves, carrying their belongings and traveling to a place by foot or boat or train without knowing what the conditions will be like, how much it will cost -- if they will make it alive -- is very scary.

But this is what has happened to millions of people who fled Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in 2015 to Europe and Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei was there to document it.

He was moved by these refugees and wanted to document their lives and their deplorable situation in Human Flow. For two hours and 20 minutes, he goes to 23 countries and greets, walks and talks to refugees to learn more about their plight.

They include the Rohingyas, Eritreans, Sudanese, Palestinians, Afghanis, Syrians, Iraqis, Kurds. We see them up close, staring into the camera looking frightened and at other times up from above, looking like ants.

They walk for days to get to the border to find it closed

Mixed in between are "talking heads", people from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), political leaders, doctors, volunteers, even a Jordanian princess, explaining how they deal with refugees. Some try to show their compassion, others criticize governments for not doing enough.

I've seen footage of refugees in camps on the TV news, but this is watching them as they walk for hours, carrying all their items with them, or having to try to keep warm and relatively dry in a tent when it's pouring rain, or living in a giant hangar with subdivided compounds filled with bunk beds. Many struggle just to get clean water, let alone food and decent shelter.

You quickly empathize with them and wonder if you could survive such a terrible situation where no government wants to accept them and leaves them to fend for themselves in the middle of nowhere. The refugees feel they have come so far that they can't go back to where they came from.

Living conditions in makeshift tents are hardly clean

Interspersed between the different scenes are facts like the average time someone is a refugee is 26 years. Palestinians have been refugees for over 60 years. Again I would read about their struggle in news stories, but actually seeing their living environment really brings it home.

They can be in the middle of making bread in a factory and suddenly the electricity is shut off. The water is less clean and there is garbage everywhere. How do they endure this for so long?

Some of the images terrifyingly beautiful -- oil refineries in Afghanistan are set on fire as Islamic State retreats. A man with a mask calmly walks in his robes towards the raging fire with billowing black smoke. Or people in Kenya walking along the desert in a dust storm.

Periodically you see Ai in the shot, walking along or taking pictures or videos on his phone (some of it is used). Sometimes it seems odd to see him there, but at other times he offers comic relief, such as exchanging his Chinese passport for a Pakistani one with a refugee, or making chuar, or meat skewers over charcoal.

Refugees from climate change in Kenya cross the desert

But he wants viewers to see that he was there on the ground, unlike political leaders who don't seem to know or care about what is going on, and would rather close borders than receive these people who have suffered so much.

More people need to watch Human Flow to understand what refugees have gone through, and have a better appreciation for their own situations. Having to physically and mentally endure so much and be treated like less than human beings is shocking and sad.

Ai Weiwei's Modern Take of Hansel & Gretel

Visitors being tracked by cameras up on the ceiling of the armory

We managed to catch Ai Weiwei's intriguing interactive installation on surveillance called Hansel & Gretel, in collaboration with Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, who you may remember designed the Bird's Nest in Beijing.

At the time Ai also worked with them on that Olympic stadium, but later pulled out, stating that he didn't want to be a puppet of the Chinese government in its coming out party in 2008.

Called the "thinking person's 'Rain Room'"

So it's interesting to see this prominent collaboration again -- maybe Herzog and de Meuron want to repent for what they did? Or they now understand why Ai didn't want any part of the Bird's Nest project? Or perhaps they sympathize with what he went through when he was held for 81 days without any official charges, though later it was for "economic crimes".

In any event, we went to the site of the show, the Park Avenue Armory, and were promptly instructed by one of the staff to go to the back of the building to purchase tickets and enter from there.

We were led to a door into a very dark space and told the exit was where the blue light was. At this point we didn't know what to expect.

Why were we in such a dark room where the floor seemed curved? And what was happening on the floor?

Soon we realized there were images of us taken from above and projected on the floor, and we looked up and saw a bunch of lights lined up systematically across the ceiling of the 55,000-square foot armory, but we couldn't exactly see what they were. They were drones that were recording our movements, literally following us around with photographic evidence of their surveillance.

Being tracked is simultaneously cool and disconcerting

At first it seemed like a novelty, having machines tracking and taking picture of us. How did they do that? Infra-red cameras attached to 56 computers. But why were they doing this to us? What had we done to deserve that?

It also dawned on us that this is how Ai probably felt when he was under surveillance in Beijing, when he returned home from his unofficial incarceration to find cameras all over his home to track his movements, which is unsettling and scary how easily one can be followed at all times.

There were also at least two drones that wandered around ceiling hovering over people that gave an uneasy feeling.

After a while we emerged from the giant space and back into the sunlight, where we were instructed to go back to the front entrance of the Armory.

When we entered the doors, we were told to look at a series of red lights, which we later found had taken a picture of us that was projected onto screens in the hallway. We looked like zombies, our pupils were blank, making them haunting images.

A peephole view of the installation from a distance

Here there wasn't much to see except a kind of library space where people could sit down and browse through the Hansel & Gretel website that chronicles the history of surveillance over the centuries.

You can also take a picture of yourself on the iPad and then it will try to find the earlier picture of you when you walked through the entrance. In my case it was a successful (and creepy) match.

There was also an area where you could look through a peephole back at the armory space to have a more bird's eye view of the project, though you still couldn't clearly see what was going on.

What to do about it?

In the gift shop you can buy special foil bags or plastic case to put your smartphones in to stop others from tracking you, or buy a giant magnet that says #resist, as well as giant tomes of Ai's body of work.

There's also a phone case that says "The NSA has all your selfies" -- which pretty much hits the nail on the head.

The title of the show is a reference to the Brothers Grimm fairytale of two children tempted by sweets by an old woman who holds them hostage. Some critics have surmised from the show that the more you post online, the more Big Brother knows about you and your friends.

Will that stop you from posting on social media? Probably not, but don't say you haven't been warned.

Hansel & Gretel

Until August 6, 2017

Thompson Arts Center at Park Avenue Armory

643 Park Avenue

New York

www.armoryonpark.org