HongKong Sunday Surprises

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HK is such a tiny spot on the map ... not even big enough to contain the name of its capitol although the capital is just oozing out of every crackin the concrete.

This Sunday I encountered some woundrous surprises.

1. Filipino Guest workers amassed on the walkways going towards Star Ferry Service.

2. I found a book ... a whole book ... about Isugouharu Foujita, a Japanese artist.

3. I was amazed by the HongKong Dance Company. no pics allowed - google Storm Cloud

4. The sparseness of the Museum of Art HK remains unexplained.

5. Toilet was filthy again at MacDonalds

6. Watercolourist had set up his collection of paintings in the foyer of theCultural Centre and was selling his book.

As I walked to the ferry wharf I encountered masses of women packing and unpacking goods and reinforcing cardboard box bottoms with oodles and meters of packing tape. There were so many boxes, so many women and no one to ask what it was all about. Just shot some pics and kept going. It was after 11:00 and I wanted to do justice to the art collection at the HKMuseum of Art before 15:00.

Had to visit the happy room at MacDonalds and also had to have my first meal of the day. Choosing #3, I was gratified with the good taste of the chicken filet burger. The french fries were the usual fatty strips. The coffee, coming only in one size, was also good. The happy room was filthy. Who do I call?

A Panda film was playing at the Science Globe but having seen the jewel of all Panda viewing ... the triplets at Chime Long ... I was not tempted to buy a ticket. Any way I had no idea when the dance performance would end.

Ascending the escalator and buying a ticket I was prepared to be impressed.

The first exhibit was from the Liverpool Biennial2012 and was a collection of three contemporary Chinese artists; Chow Chun Fai, Leung Mee-ping and the CoLAB and SLOW collaboration. Six screens following people in a crowd, oil paintings and a continuous digital showing of the same and friendly soap making at home were the topics for these installations.

On another floor the art of Tong King-sum, "Tempting Touch" was displayed. His wooden sculptures evoked the same feelings in me as the works of Henry Moore. The paintings, sketches, prints and jetink photographs inticed me much more. He was definitely a fine artist working on promotional material and bringing art to the everyday man. The studio recreation in one corner of the floor was well done. Photos of the tools were mounted on thick styrofoam to give them dimension. Stepping back one was made to believe the tools were real.

The section containing the Chinese Antiquities was closed and I think everything else was closed too because the only other section I visited had a display of ink on paper scrolls depicting The Four Gentlemen. These four are: The Chinese Plum representing unyielding loyalty , the Orchid standing for ethereal elegance, the Chrysantemum encouraging lofty reclusion and the Bamboo bringing noble humility.

With no other displays to be found, it was time for another trip, this time to an immaculatly(sic) clean happy room and then the Gift Shop. I was very tempted to buy a big long umbrella for $50HKD but it was too long and not yellow.

In the gift shop I perusalled the books and could hardly believe my eyes when I spotted a style I loved but a name I did not know on the cover of a book written in Mandarin. I saw a painting and took a shot of this man's work in Spain so many years ago but did not then record his name. This Sunday I FOUND Isugouharu Foujita.

I must immediately share his look, his book and his bio. (from the book description on Amazon)

"When we think of expatriates in Paris during the early decades of the twentieth century, certain names come to mind: Hemingway, Picasso, Modigliani--and Foujita, the Japanese artist whose distinctive works, bringing elements of Japanese art to Western oil painting, made him a major cultural figure in 1920s Montparnasse. Foujita was the only Japanese artist to be considered part of the "School of Paris," which also counted among its members such prominent artists as Picasso and Modigliani. Noteworthy, too, was Foujita's personal style, flamboyant even for those flamboyant times. He was best known for his drawings of female nudes and cats, and for his special white color upon which he could draw a masterful line--one that seemed to outline a woman's whole body in a single unbroken stroke.

With the advent of the Second World War, Foujita returned to Japan, where he allied himself with the ruling Japanese mili-tarists and painted canvases in support of the war effort. After Japan's defeat, he was scorned for his devotion to the military cause and returned to France, where he remained until his death in 1968. Acclaimed writer and translator Phyllis Birnbaum not only explores Foujita's fascinating, tumultuous life but also assesses the appeal of his paintings, which, in their mixture of Eastern and Western traditions, are memorable for their vibrancy of form and purity of line."

This has made my day!!! with more surprises to come.

In the Foyer of the Cultural Centre a watercolourist and ink sketch artist was selling his book. His helper was kind enough to give me a pack of his postcard sized sketches. I took some shots of his displayed paintings.

Finally at 15:00 the dance performance began. The musical score was stupendous but not for sale. The costumes were suitable for the comic book characters. The interpretation of water ... large green chiffon draped over the heads of the dancers ... made for a great visual effect. And when the heroine dies again the chiffon is used but this time in dark brown to depict earth. And when the hero wraps her dead body in the huge chiffon is gathered from the for corners of the stage ... AMAZING! Am now on the look out for the comic by the HK artist Ma Wing-shing called Storm River. The lighting was superb and the dancing outstanding. Loved it all! Received a free poster and was on my way looking for food.

Ran for the ferry and once on it hoped it was headed for Central. Spoke to two Singalese women who have been working here in HKfor the past10 to 15 years. Their families are in Sri Lanka. They do hard unrevieled jobs. Sunday is their day off.

Once crossing the walkway thousands of women were encountered. All Filipino. I inquired from a security guard why there were so many women here. He confirmed my suspicion ... foreign workers on their day off. Everybody meets everybody else here on Sunday ...AND ... Western Union has counters in this area. Lineups at these counters were made up of women sending money home! There was shopping for trinkets, cosmetics and food. I bought a filipino egg roll the size of a kolbasa sausage and some chicken and rice from th esame shop to bring back to the MINI room.

Reaching street level IMAGINE my surprise to find still more women sitting on steps, crouched over curbs and forming talking circles on large pices of discarded cardboard. The whole street was closed to traffic. There was paper and garbage everywhere. Cannot stay till next Sunday to see a repeat performance but according to the security guard the women come here on Sunday in the thousands. What would HK do without these hard working women??? Surely they do not lead glamorous lives the other six days of the week.

Proof being in the pudding or in the street as it is here in HK, without this huge numberof women, without the scaffold builders, without the cart pushers and cardboard recyclers how would the men in suits and women in high heels moving from bank to office to high rise be? It is amazing how much cardboard and how many pushcarts one sees in just a short walk. BecauseI walk down the same alley each morning to get to where I am going I see the the same pair recycling the debris from the night before.

Pushcart move magazines, flowers, tools, generators, baskets of drywall, cartons of t-shirts, foodstuffs for restaurant kitchens, and black bags of garbage.

Getting used to the Mid-Levels region took a while ... . I never know where I am but I always know where I am going ... down to the ferry or post office or laundry ... up to the hotel,some museum orthe Peak.

Back at the MINI room the shower with new towels was welcome and the Filipino food was good and salty. Good thing I had a pinapple juice and coffee in cans to drink. The boiled water also tasted good.

AND NOW I lay me down and watch some trashy movie on HK TV. It was a great day!! Pleasantly sunny and warm :-)

((Last nite it was The Life of Pi, tonite its a circus act with five tigers and a man in a cage on TV)) Circus acts with animals seem very popular?!?

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Photos

Star Ferry to Kowloon
It was beautiful day in HK.

Isugouharu Foujita
So happy to have found out his name. He often painted cats!

Thousands Trading and Wrapping
Could it be that this location isused because of the nearness of the Airport Express?

Miles of Packing Tape
Loud shouting voices, the crunch of cardboard, the stretch of tape amplified a thousand times is all that could be heard early on a Sunday morning.