Zheng Lu’s ongoing solo exhibition brings into focus the changes his art has undergone in the past years – from simple sculptures to more dynamic outcomes by combining sculptures with videos, music and high-tech presentations.

Titled “Transition”, the show, which is being held until June 11 on the rooftop of Parkview Green, a Beijing mall that displays artworks, features eight large-scale works. Among them, “Rain Drum” imitates the sound of rain falling on the building’s rooftop, and “Winter Solstice” visualises sunlight casting shadows on December 22, usually the year’s shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere.

“These tailor-made installations can’t be moved to other exhibitions. From now on, I want my works to have some connection to the spaces where they are shown,” says the 38-year-old artist.

Curator Huang Du says Zheng’s works on display are different from his past sculptures in the sense that they interact more with exhibition spaces and the visitors – “a challenging shift” for Zheng, from a sculptor to an artist of multimedia installations.

Zheng’s best-known previous work is a series of big stainless steel sculptures, with verses from ancient poems written in Chinese characters highlighting sculptures shaped like water droplets.

The artist says he is fond of trying new materials and including high-tech inputs in his artworks. So he has introduced music and videos in his latest pieces.

“Rain Drum”, he says, was inspired by watching Parkview Green washed in the rain during his many visits.

He uses small metal balls on a waterproof film to bring out his vision. When the metal balls drop on the film’s surface, they produce a rhythm that is similar to the beating of a drum. Audiences walking underneath the installation get the feeling of walking in the rain.

To create the installation, Zheng worked with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He started to prepare for the show three years ago.

“It’s hard to run such installations. It needs four machines and a computer to control the space,” he says.

His studio in suburban Beijing is like a factory, where a team of more than 40 people work.

Zheng says producing his works is similar to “doing experiments” in the lab.

“To get an idea is the easy part, but turning it into a piece is tougher. I have to experiment with an idea for a long time.”

In another work, “All Quiet Beyond the Heart”, he uses a linear spectrogram in a dark room, where visitors can see only a beam of light falling on a potted plant and music can be only heard from one direction due to the effects of light and sound.

Zheng has long wanted to bring music into his works. Since high school he dreamed of becoming a drummer, and the motivation for him to study hard was that his parents had promised to buy him a set of drums if only he got good marks.

“If I weren’t an artist, I would most probably be a drummer,” he says.

“I will continue to use music in future, too.”

Zheng also uses visual support to enhance the audiences’ experiences of his art. For example, his “Light Breeze at Dongting Lake” has a video projected onto a big metallic circle to show how lakes reflect sunlight.

Besides museums and art galleries, his works are also purchased by hotels and billionaires who want to decorate their houses. An Italian winemaker has just ordered two of his works for his villas.

“I don’t want to repeat myself, which is why I keep trying new materials and technologies to make new forms,” Zheng says.

His approach to sculptures has also evolved, and there are “no limitations” on an artist’s choice of a style of expression, he says.

Zheng’s ongoing show uses lights, video, music and sculptures together, a trend that is increasingly becoming popular in the art world and is employed by many famous artists.”Traditional sculptures can no longer meet the demand of today’s audiences. There will be more interactive shows that offer people such experiences,” Zheng says.

 

An Australian artist behind a larger-than-life mural of American rap star Kanye West embracing himself has offered to paint over it – for a sizeable fee.

The 6.1-metre painting dubbed “Kanye Loves Kanye” features a black-suited image of the singer kissing another version of himself wearing a glittering pantsuit.

Artist Scott Marsh said he decided to paint the image after a friend did a mural of a nude Kim Kardashian selfie at one end of the wall and he wanted to create an artistic “link”.

He said he was inspired by the internet meme which followed the infamous red carpet photograph of Kanye embracing Kim Kardashian in which the rapper’s head was superimposed on his wife’s body.

“It was pretty light-hearted,” he says of the mural made on March 19. “I suspect when you paint something big on a wall people tend to take notice of it.”

He said he was contacted by someone claiming to represent West, asking him to remove the image, although he was not convinced it was genuine.

Marsh, who has been painting on the wall in the Sydney suburb of Chippendale for several years, said he was open to whitewashing the mural for US$100,000. Whoever pays the fee will receive a one-off large print of the amorous embrace, in which the image is mostly whited out, an offer Marsh said was open to anyone but may appeal to the global superstar. “If you pay that I will also paint over the wall,” he said.

The mural on Wednesday drew a number of onlookers to the quiet lane, with 22-year-old Stephanie Brown saying she took a short detour to snap the image she said was “a reflection of society”.

Quintin Fawcett, a 20-year-old axe and saw maker from New Zealand, said he’d heard about the mural and thought “I might as well come and have a look”.

“It highlights how crazy people are for the cult of celebrity that I can paint a six-metre mural in Chippendale and it’s global news,” said Marsh.

As Japan marked the fifth anniversary last Friday of the devastating Tohuku earthquake – which with the tsunami it triggered left 18,500 people dead or missing – the Bangkok art community paused to reflect at the opening of the exhibition “Contour”.

The show, continuing into next month at the Numthong Gallery, is the fruit of Angkrit Ajchariyasophon and Tawatchai Pattanaporn’s residency at Rikuzentakata in Japan, which had the support of the Japan Foundation’s Thai office.

That town, whose current population is just 20,000, was “wiped off the map” by the tsunami.

The “contour” of the exhibition’s title refers to both the geological vectors on a map and the rough outline an artist makes to set the scale for an undertaking.

Just as important in the context of the exhibition, Angkrit, in his abstract paintings, and Tawatchai, in his photographs, map out “spiritual” contours that echo a landscape – of geography and of the soul – that was irrevocably changed by the 2011 disaster.

Angkrit, 45 and based in Chiang Rai, spent his time in Rikuzentakata last year working with local counterparts on a project called “1000 Rainbows”, which had at its core a message of hope for those who’d lost so much in the catastrophe.

Back home, he noted the way colours has been commandeered to represent political ideals and turned in the opposite direction. His next set of abstracts was inspired, he says, by Russian Kazimir Malevich painting “White on White”, but there were also the rainbow hues of American Ellsworth Kelly’s “Spectrum V”.

Angkrit says his intent was to record incidents and changes occurring in Thailand during that crucial time.

Tawatchai’s images from Rikuzentakata similarly record changes, in this case the stirring transformation from utter ruin and abandonment to rebuilding and resettlement. He first visited the town in 2012, not long after the earthquake and tsunami, and then returned in 2014 for his residence and again last year, marvelling at its rebirth.

His photos show how nature supplied the materials for reconstruction, from the surrounding forests and mountains.

On his second and third visits Thawatchai “felt like a stranger”, having to familiarise himself with all the sights again. Even the people who’d lived there a long time would probably feel the same, he suspected. In his pictures he’s attempted to reconstruct his memories – and theirs.

Some of the photos from this series were exhibited at Cloud Space last September, as part of the Photo Bangkok Festival. At least that much might be familiar.

HORROR AND HOPE

– “Contours” runs until April 9 at the Numthong Gallery, 72/3 Soi Aree 5 North, off Phahonyothin Road (BTS Aree, Exit 3).

– For details, call (02) 617 2794 or check http://www.Facebook.com/NumthongGalleryAtAree.

 

The man in the bulky bomb disposal suit waved at a gaggle of awed children as he walked down a Baghdad street and sat outside a small cafe to drink tea.

But there was no bomb to defuse on Rasheed Street that day, and no armour inside the black suit to protect him from explosives.

Iraqi artist Hussein Adil designed the mock bomb suit – complete with huge helmet and visor – himself for this performance.

“We had to make this one because there aren’t many bomb suits in Iraq,” he says. “We have to be one of the countries in the world that needs them the most.”

Adil, a wispy 20-year-old with a wild head of tight curly hair, is one of an ever growing number of Iraqi artists looking for new ways of tackling the violence they grew up with.

The inspiration for his “bomb suit happening” was the death last year in a suicide car bombing of his close friend Ammar al-Shahbander, a much-loved journalist.

Adil, Shahbander and two other friends were heading to a cafe to drink tea in Baghdad’s Karrada district when an important call came in on his mobile phone.

“I told them to go ahead, that I would follow them in five minutes,” Adil says.

He heard an explosion moments later. After se arching for them for hours, he found one of his friends with a head injury in hospital and was told that Shahbander had been killed.

Two weeks later, he dreamt that a bomb would go off near a square in central Baghdad and, after waking up, immediately called his friends and his father to tell them.

An explosion rocked the exact spot later that day.

“My friends called me to ask me how I knew, it was a very strange thing,” he says, adding it was then that he started looking for ways to express his angst through art.

Baghdad has been rocked by hundreds of car bombs over the years, sometimes several in a day during periods when violence peaked.

Those blasts and other attacks have killed tens of thousands of civilians and left many residents with deep trauma that remains when violence ebbs, as is the case now in the city.

Adil thought of a simple performance, during which his friend Muslim would go about normal daily activities in Baghdad wearing a bomb suit.

“I thought, why isn’t there some kind of outfit that can protect us? Other approaches produced no results so I looked at individual solutions,” Adil says.

The decrepit charm of the once glorious Rasheed Street’s ornate arcades and derelict theatres provides an odd backdrop for the dark figure casually walking in full mock ordnance disposal gear.

As they see Muslim trudging along, arms asway and head ensconced in a massive ballistic collar, some passers-by seem alarmed or amused.

Others barely turn their heads to look.

“I suppose they have their reasons for doing this kind of art, but personally I don’t see what it’s going to change about what our country is going through,” comments Abu Ibrahim, a local shop owner.

Followed by his friend Adil, Muslim walks into buildings to chat with people, orders tea at a cafe and enquires about prices at a tailor’s shop.

After two people help him out of his bomb suit, Muslim speaks of the many thoughts that rushed through his mind.

“I knew it wasn’t a real suit… but at one point I actually felt it was protecting me and started imagining all the things I could do,” he says.

“I could feel people looking at me. Some were laughing, some were perplexed and others looked like they wanted to try it on.”

Adil will repeat the performance in various locations of the capital and wrap up his experiment with a photo exhibit.

“I want to show the public what we have come to… and plant this question in their heads: what if we all looked like this?”

 

His legs dangle at a dizzying height from the roof’s edge, the lights of New York’s Times Square spread out below him.

Edward R, alias “Wanted Visual”, is a “rooftopper”; a person who illegally climbs to the top of tall buildings to take spectacular photographs they then share on the Internet.

It’s a dangerous trend and one that has already ended in death for some.

But it’s spread around the world, from New York to Hong Kong, from Toronto to London and Moscow.

What attracts most is the adrenaline rush and a love of photography, says Edward.

“It’s dangerous and completely illegal,” he says.

Because of that, he, like most rooftoppers, uses a pseudonym.

“You can get caught by the police. You can be seriously injured or even die if you don’t know what you’re doing or you’re not careful enough,” he says.

Websites like Instagram and YouTube have fed the trend in recent years.

The most well-known rooftoppers have tens of thousands of followers in social media.

They travel around the world, always on the look-out for new skyscrapers, challenges and thrills.

Many see themselves as extreme athletes as well as photographers.

“Not everybody can do it,” says Edward. “A lot of people are afraid of heights and others aren’t fit enough to climb dozens of staircases. Others are too scared of being caught.”

James McNally, alias Jamakiss, is also always on the look out for new ways to access New York’s highest buildings.

In Midtown Manhattan he dresses up like a banker, in other skyscrapers he puts on a helmet to try and blend in with other workers as a builder.

“I always want to try things that I’m afraid of or that I have respect for,” says the 34-year-old.

With its many skyscrapers and varied architecture, New York, he says, is the perfect place for his “sport”.

He estimates he’s climbed around 80 of the city’s buildings, including some of its most iconic, the Woolworth Building for example and One57.

Because rooftoppers mostly access the buildings at night, they often have to take the stairs, slipping past guards unnoticed.

McNally was arrested in Hong Kong when he tried to climb a skyscraper. He spent four days in jail.

Not that it put him off: “As soon as I’m allowed back into Hong Kong, I’m going to climb more skyscrapers there.”

The Ukrainian Vitaliy Raskalov and the Russian Vadim Makhorov are regarded as pioneers of the trend. The two have already climbed to the tops of the Shanghai Towers, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and Cologne Cathedral in Germany.

Critics of the trend include Neil Ta, a photographer from Toronto, who was himself a rooftoppers for years.

“Danger sells,” he wrote on a recent blog. “Feet dangling and ‘I’m in danger!’ photos are nothing but a cry for attention.”

The photos are “devoid of real emotion”, he adds, superficial and unoriginal.

Because of the competition, most rooftoppers are now just looking to find who can take the most dangerous photos, and few appreciate the real beauty of the images.

And of course, some pay the highest price for their art. One 20-year-old fell 52 storeys from a hotel in New York on New Year’s Eve.

He had climbed up to the roof with a friend to take night time panoramas of the city.

On the Web:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpPWtoCdnKY

instagram.com/wantedvisual

 

It has been more than a month since Christmas lights were stripped-down from buildings, reducing the city blocks once again to their default cold, bleak and grey.

In Seoul, however, media art installations and exhibitions have replaced the sparkling Christmas decorations, illuminating the city’s bleak midwinter and offering people the opportunity to enjoy some contemporary art.

At the grand front entrance of the Sejong Centre for the Performing Arts in Gwanghwamun, a huge screen has been set up to run media art pieces by Lee Yong-baek, whose works were featured in the Korean Pavilion exhibition at the 2011 Venice Biennale, and Matt Pyke, founder of the art studio Universal Everything.

Dynamic images of “The Collection for I” by Lee and “We Are All Unique,” “Running Man,” “Made by Humans” series by Pyke are playing on the 23-metre-wide screen for about four hours at night. The show begins 30 minutes after sunset and runs through 11pm nightly.

Hyundai, which is sponsoring the outdoor media art show, plans to showcase these works at Times Square in New York and Piccadilly Circus in London.

The former Seoul Station, which now houses the Culture Station Seoul 284, has been transformed into a giant canvas for some 400 masterpieces by impressionist masters such as Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The paintings have been transformed into moving images and are projected through full HD projectors onto the dome, ceilings, floors and walls of the historic train station that was built in 1925.

“This is the biggest media art exhibition in Korea that covers the entire space of the 1,652-square-metre former train station,” says Ji Seong-wook, head of Media N Art, the exhibition organiser.

The four main zones follow the artistic footsteps of Van Gogh, displaying images of paintings made during his critical artistic periods in Paris, Arles, Saint-Remy, Auvers-sur-Oise and other places. Works of other impressionist painters are displayed in the lobby.

The viewing experience is intensified with instrumental background music that is composed for the show to enhance the soothing and calming mood of impressionist landscape paintings. Each show lasts for about eight to 12 minutes.

The exhibition also offers an immersive experience for visitors. They can revisit Van Gogh’s “The Night Cafe” through virtual reality. Wearing virtual reality gear, they enter a space with tables and chairs and walk around, travelling back in time to the 19th century French cafe.

 

For the first time in its 30-year history, London’s influential Saatchi Gallery is holding a female-only exhibition, showcasing 14 of the brightest stars in the art world.

Exhibits at the “Champagne Life” show include stuffed animals, giant portraits, abstract sculptures and a giant wall of saucepans.

The show’s organisers say the works highlight the diversity among female art, and its value to art lovers of both genders.

“We’re not bringing them together as some kind of needy group. This really is about celebrating women’s contemporary art and being quite deliberate in saying these women don’t have anything in common,” says Saatchi Gallery chief executive Nigel Hurst.

The gallery has established a reputation for supporting female artists, helping launch the career of Tracey Emin, among others, and hopes the exhibition will contribute to redressing disparities within the industry.

“The art world has a glass ceiling. If you look at the number of people going to art college it pretty much splits 50/50. If you look at the top 50 auction lots in 2015, only three of them were by women artists,” Hurst points out.

Wider exposure would boost the price of female artwork, he adds, urging gallery bosses to modernise.

“The art industry is like every other industry, if you take a break from what you are doing, you are perceived as less focused, less professional, less serious than you should be,” he says.

“Even though it’s getting much better, a huge amount of work remains.”

The exhibition takes up two floors of the grand gallery in Chelsea, southwest London, and comprises works from all corners of the globe.

Standout exhibits include Anglo/Swedish artist Sigrid Holmwood’s paintings – which recall the Dutch peasant scenes of Pieter Bruegel and the lighting of Impressionist master Rembrandt – taken to psychedelic extremes with the use of fluorescent paint.

Another room is dominated by Serbian artist Jelena Bulajic’s hyperreal portraits of elderly women fashioned from marble dust, granite, limestone and graphite.

Next door, Saudi Arabia artist Maha Malluh’s wall of saucepans looks down on Iranian-born Soheila Sokhanvari’s stuffed horse, which straddles a Jeff Koons-style balloon sculpture.

French-born sculptor Virgile Ittah, whose wax sculpture of two mirrored figures laying on hospital beds is on display, says that female artists are now being taken more seriously.

“We are at a turning point in our society where the issue of gender is not so important any more, it’s important that it’s no longer important,” she says.

“I grew up with my dad alone, so the vision of a mother staying at home and taking care of her children and the kitchen has completely disappeared.

“As artists we are a reflection of society,” she adds. “It’s not a male club any more.”

The show runs until March 6.

 

Westminster Abbey was lit up like multi-coloured confectionery and a giant flame loomed over the capital’s premier shopping drag last week, part of the city’s first festival of light.

Crowds flocked to dazzling sculptures puncturing the cold winter night, including ghostly fish swooping through the air in Piccadilly and an enormous animated elephant near Regent Street’s upmarket shops.

“It’s contemporary culture which engages the emotions rather than the cerebral, that is designed for a mass audience to share public space,” said Helen Marriage of Artichoke, a charity that works with artists to create large-scale, popular events.

Organisers of “Lumiere London”, a venture backed by Mayor Boris Johnson, say it is the biggest light festival to hit the capital, and its 30 works are distributed among some of the city’s most famous landmarks.

The spectacle has its origins in Durham, in England’s northeast, where it has been held every two years since 2009.

“I like it, it’s quite impressive, it’s a well-made work”, said Tuwung, 24, student, from South Korea, looking at an image of an elephant lumbering through a cloud of dust.

The installation is titled “Elephantastic” and aims to juxtapose an animal of the plains with an urban landscape, said the art agency behind the work, Topla.

A little further up Regent Street, fluorescent tubes came to life as dancing stick men performing stunts on the thoroughfare’s ornate facade.

“It’s great, I love it,” smiled David Anica, 24, before pointing his finger at a net lit up to look like a giant flame over nearby Oxford Circus: “It changes colour, it’s beautiful.”

At Leicester Square, whose many cinemas often host world premieres, French art collective TILT invited spectators to walk around a garden of illuminated plant sculptures, including reeds and a giant peony.

The festival is a boon for London tourism, adding to its cultural draw, and shops and restaurants near the installations stayed open later to cash in.

“We’re very proud of our cultural life. Culture is to London what the sun is to Spain. It’s a major driver for our tourism,” said Munira Mirza, the London mayor’s director of arts and culture.

A million visitors are expected during the festival’s four days, timed to boost tourism during the capital’s quietist weekend, Mirza said.

Underscoring the scale of the event, central London’s Piccadilly Circus, famous for its neon advertising and its statue of Eros, was closed to traffic for only the third time in the last 100 years.

Artichoke’s Marriage was coy on whether there would be another light festival the city. “We’ll see,” she said.