Our neighbours, 99 Arts Center, at the M50 joint opening

In the spirit of true community we decided to play our hand and get involved. Our Shanghai Garden was transformed into a Beer Garden, where lovers of the fine weather could lounge about drinking Bofferding beer. Our sponsors, Bofferding, did a wonderful job of keeping the masses watered.

Over at the island6 headquarters, Li Kai kept the crowds entertained with the heavenly sounds of the Gu Zheng  and art lovers had a chance to preview our work before it gets shipped off to Hong Kong for “Urban Operandi” and “Modus Operandi”. Spring time is well and truly underway and our many projects and plans are coming into fruition. But we’re never too busy to have a bit of fun….

But we wouldn’t be so silly as to forget our Shanghai roots and we wanted to up our game to please the crowd at home. Well needless to say, we refused to disappoint. After kicking off the night with a fantastic wine tasting event sponsored by Pieroth Wines, whilst the sounds of the delectable Li Kai Gu on the Gu Zheng delighted  (Oh yes, it was very classy affair indeed).

Our pièce de résistance was unveiled, a nearly naked man covered in the nights nibbles: freshly made sushi made before your very eyes by a showman of a chef.

All in all, we had a great time and we hope our trusty islanders did too… For more pictures, check out our Facebook page or have a closer look at our video documentation about this fantastic night. At any rate, this should prove to be the first of many events at our Shanghai Garden. If you weren’t there at the opening, then do pop by and pay us a visit. Body-City-Mechanism is on until June 27^th.

Then BAM! Thousands of art walkers took to Hong Kong’s streets and despite the April showers and the elements being in full force, we still had a great turnout at the annual HK Artwalk 2013.

What once started in 2001 as a routed walk of 15 galleries in Soho with a few bottles of house wine and tooth-picked cheese cubes, has now turned into a huge event which attracts the masses. This year saw 70 galleries all over the isle of Hong Kong participate in this annual charity event, which has so far raised HKD$5.4 million for charities.

This was island6 HK’s debut at the famed Art Walk and thanks to Abbelio Wines sponsoring us, we were able to ensure that our thirsty visitors were satisfied.

Eventually, the the heavens showed some mercy and eased up on the rain, allowing for a very pleasant spring evening…

If you missed this years Art Walk, no need for sorrow, our current exhibition Need. Want. Hunt will be at island6 HK until May 19th. Our next exhibition Urban Operandi will open on May 20th, which will coincide with the opening of a second exhibition in Hong Kong at 10 Design entitled Modus Operandi. Exciting times are afoot for the island6 collective… (Quite literally)

Well... I told you we were excited

Cecilia yelling at lazy workers - despite having a cold

Yan directing sickly "office guy" Andy

hot chicks driving against cold winds

Following this prescription, our heads have been spinning for weeks to prepare an unforgettable opening party, and of course some of the newest masterpieces of Liu Dao. We are shooting, painting, conceptualizing, sound designing and posing nude, whatever it takes to enable a multimedia show that examines issues surrounding metropolitan identity through our typically techy artworks and installations. Therefore a lot of talent walk through island6’s doors, such as painter and graphic designer Nick who flew in from England to grace the studio with his creative output. Sound-designer David is meanwhile fiddling about the right tunes, and our homeys Cecilia, Margaret and Andy have shown divers talents the last couple of weeks.

Another performer who blew us away was acrobatic artist Amanda who just so happened to be a death defying aerial hooper with the kind of skills that would impress and enchant you. The lovely lady brought a very busy gallery to a complete stand still when she started her aerial hoop act and executed a phenomenal array of hoop tricks during a lengthy 5 hour shoot. But not only Amanda dumbfounded the island6 members, sweetly gifted Eva also left a remarkable impression with her performances. She was tiptoeing on the edge of a vase, watering imaginary trees and slowly getting rid of her office girl clothes…

No need to say that the latter especially pleased our manly colleagues!

We know that you guys will kick your heels for our newest exhibition coming up in 2 weeks. Thus, there is no time to lose. The early bird catches the worm and you can be more than excited about the opening night on April 25. In the city where the lights never go out, the music never stops and the body never rests, we invite you for a special night when we will free the birds from the cage and keep flickering like the blinks on an LED screen.

SAVE THE DATE:  April 25, 7 pm – 9 pm 

Eva, our live office girl

With body...

... and soul!

Fabrice being true blue

On March 28^th, island6 Hong Kong opened its 3^rd in house exhibition, featuring acrobatic artworks, smoking beauties, some hot and heavy Hong Kong rain and one delicious roasted pig’s head. Need.Want.Hunt was a fantastic celebration of desire, impulse and good old-fashioned sex appeal of digital meets instinctual charm. The show featured Liu Dao’s signature LED animations, Jian Zhi, seductive paintings and several interactive video artworks.

Like our party favors?

Our newest piece was debued, City Cult, in which a climbing acrobat scales up a dangling rope that hangs over the dense Hong Kong skyline.

CityCult

By the time the show was finally installed, promptly at 5:59 pm, everyone was covered in a delightful film of sweat and grease. Thankfully some delicious alcoholic nourishment brought everyone back to life just in time for the guests to arrive, which they did in stylish Hong Kong hoardes at 6 pm. The party went well into the evening, thanks to our sponsors, Abbelio Wines, more than generous supply of bubbly prosecco, fruity pinot grigio and smooth cabernet.

mmmmmm...

Madam Soloha Peering Over The Remnants

 Island6 and Liu Dao would like to thank everyone who came by to celebrate our 3^rd Hong Kong opening! If you missed the show, worry not, it will be up until the 19^th of May.

Also, stay tuned-we are currently in the midst of planning and creating artworks for our next 3 shows- Body-City-Mechanism in Shanghai, Urban Operandi in Hong Kong and Metropolis Rises in Beijing at the fantastic Red Gate Gallery.

Being super busy preparing the artworks for the upcoming exhibitions, we’ve spent the last couple of days shooting like crazy. And they were definitely crazy, our beloved visitors and contributors Nick, Nino & Wang Yang amazed the entire island with their tricks, twists and hippety hops.

Great fun watching

This is gonna be brilliant!

Groovy moves by Nino

The guys are all professional acrobatics and/or dancers, their physically rigorous workout routines were evident on their body shapes. You can imagine that the girls on set were not too blue about spending the day encircled by half-naked boys performing daring feats to groovy tunes over the loudspeaker.

Being on the ball, they were constantly coming up with new funny moves that not only spread laughter and happiness, but also led to a very inspiring and creative shooting process. Even the hibernal temperatures in the gallery space did not seem to bother them. As soon as the guys started their performances, we started to swing our hips humming “It´s gettin hot in here, so take off all your clothes, I am gettin´ so hot, I wanna take my clothes off…”

Doing Arts I

Doing Arts II

The guys transforming the gallery into a dance studio

Fabrice demonstrating his ideas OR chilling out?!

Text & Photos: Melani Murkovic

Ever since watching Hitchcock’s 1963 classic, ‘The Birds’ I have never been able to look at birds in the same way. And I image I am not alone in this. Something about their reptilian eyes and dextrous talons just puts me on edge. The Chinese do not seem to share this, if not quite fear, then irrational distrust. Caged birds are one of the most common domestic animals in China, and they can be seen hanging in balconies of apartments, and for sale in local markets.

This unease was soon put to bed – these were two of our more compliant guests and they sat, content, upon their custom designed perch as Fabrice did the business with the camera. Far from shy of the bright lights and responsibility the large white parrot showed off its scarlet streaked plumage and eyed up the lens eagerly. His yellow companion bobbed and weaved and sat, rather begrudgingly, to have his portrait taken.

Stay tuned to see what artworks we create with the photographs and video footage!

 Writer: Nick Mithen

Photographer: Cecilia Garcia

‘Liquid Modernity’ is the brainchild of the Polish-born sociologist Zygmunt Bauman. Towards the end of the twentieth century Bauman was one of a number of scholars who had became frustrated and wary of the ambiguities and misconceptions which surround the term ‘post-modernity’. Thus in ‘Liquid Modernity’ published portentously in the year 2000, he presented an alternative concept, one which stressed the continuity, and the differences, between the traditional ‘solid’ modernity of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, and the socio-cultural atmosphere which became manifest in the latter twentieth and twenty-first century. ‘Liquid modernity’ is understood as emerging from ‘high modernity’ but, unlike that earlier period, contemporary modernity is no longer governed and structured according to the various fixed and quasi-permanent institutions, of politics, finance and society. As a result of social change and, importantly, technological developments, late twentieth and twenty-first century society is devoid of the certainty and predictability which mankind has come to expect. Instead it is a fluidity and transience which typifies human interaction and lived experience – it as a liquid existence.

Scholars, including Bauman himself, tend to emphasise the negative implications of this transition. Traditional notions of ‘family’ and ‘career’, as well as more ideas of tradition and religion begin to lose their significance in a globalised world populated by atomised selves. The narratives of life we construct, weave and attempt to realise become almost meaningless in a cityscape which is in an endless process of transformation and change. Life is whittled down to an amalgamation of isolated and individually insignificant decisions, which enable us to navigate society with competence, but not skill. This late modernity has been termed by Ulrich Beck as the ‘Risk Society’.  Unease becomes pervasive.

But liquid modernity has its positive aspects as well. Throughout much of global history, and especially over the past two hundred years or so, it has been above all else the ideals of freedom and liberation which has driven man to act, to think, and to live. With the dissolution of the constraining and culturally defining institutions and forces of the earlier twentieth century, man is finally able to float, freely, in the metropolitan ether. Where some see nihilism, others find absolute self-determination. Rather than the collapse of all traditions, they can trace the merging and inner transformation of traditions, the formation of a myriad of new cultures from the ashes of yesterday. The literary deconstruction of narrative dreamed up by Joyce, Woolf, Stein et. al., in the 20s and 30s can be realised in the life of the twenty-first century city. The yearning for the collapse of time and the seizure of immediacy which obsessed early twentieth century art is upon us. The fluidity of the modern city becomes the ideal playground for the atomised self – that is the contemplative, self-conscious, independent ‘ego’.

The dawn of ‘liquid modernity’ has perhaps a heightened significance in the cities of China. For sure, it would be Confucius’ worst nightmare; the bastions of filial piety and communal ritual are corroded beyond recognition. But the philosophical dimensions of China’s two other major intellectual systems, Daoism and Buddhism, share much with Bauman’s prescription of fluidity and transience. Buddhism depicts itself as a response to the omnipresence of dhukka, existential suffering originating in the impermanence of worldly reality. The Buddhist response is the solitary contemplative path to an enlightenment which will enables one to understand this condition, and then live without struggling against it. The Daoist tradition also envisages a self who strives to live in accordance with nature and align himself to the ever-changing Dao. It is through spontaneity and the ultimate non-substantial doctrine of non-action, that this can be realized.  The historical tension between these two tendencies of Chinese philosophy, Confucian traditionalism and the self-oriented philosophies of Daoism and Buddhism is intensified within the context of modernity; their debate recaptures its relevance.

island6’s artworks emerge as both an organic product of, as well as a considered and self-conscious response to, this phenomenon of ‘liquid modernity’. As such, each piece poses the viewer with a fundamental question: are they for or against this concurrently thrilling and unsettling condition? Inevitably each of us is torn, non-committal and hovering. And this too is a symptom of Bauman’s prescription. As a prophet of today, there are few more adept at explaining oneself to oneself.

All round it was a great evening – the champagne flowed freely and all present were well fed on caviar and appetizers. The gallery constitutes a fantastic new addition to the Hong Kong art scene, and an expansion of Opera Gallery’s international profile. Drop by to check it out, along with island6′s Hong Kong space around the corner at No. 1 New Street, Sheung Wan where you can catch “The Cat that Eats Diodes” until the 24th March. We’re busily preparing for the Hong Kong opening of “Need. Want. Hunt.” on the 28th. Make sure you’re there for the opening event between 18:00 and 21:00 on that date so that we can throw our own party!

The artwork has arrived!

Hugo and Richard, Installation Masters

Installing "How Much is the Doggy in the Mirror"

In the hustle and bustle of a mega-city such as Shanghai, we can often forget or overlook the simpler, more natural aspects of our surroundings. The motorbikes and honking horns can drown out the sound of chirping birds, the rush home from the office can push us to walk past the park instead of wandering through it, the list can go on and on. “The Garden Beneath the Streetlights” is our way of reconnecting to our living earth, and once again, we can’t think of a better place to showcase this than warm, green, lovely and WARM (totally not jealous) Auckland. Although the exhibition has had its fair share of setbacks (shipping delays and damages), it is finally up and ready to seen by the eager crowd at Auckland Arts Festival. So if you are in the area or looking for a nice trip to a more ‘pleasant’ climate, stop by the Bath Street Gallery anytime from March 4^th to the 30^th!

After a long days work for Georgina and Bridget, it's finally wine time!

Ready to go!

ALL DONE