Headlines: Hong Kong, Witchcraft and Rocks
Designer Turns a Mondrian Painting into a Game of Pong
It’s Friday! Why not enjoy a fun art-based diversion with this playable Pong game, modeled after the form of a Piet Mondrian painting. The artistic community website B3ta originally set out a challenge for creators to turn famous artworks into videogames. After a user submitted a .GIF fittingly titled “Pongdrian,” designer Kristiana Hansen decided to make the game a reality. “MondriPong” is playable online through Kristiana’s website, here. Users can play by themselves or against a friend using up and down controls on a keyboard.
A Vast Hong Kong Exhibition Showcases the Emotional and Political Artwork of China
La Liberte guidant le peuple, Yu Minjun
For some more serious reading, this two-part review of the retrospective group exhibition M+ Sigg Collection: Four Decades of Chinese Contemporary Art at ArtisTree in Hong Kong touches on numerous important and groundbreaking concepts being explored by Chinese artists over the last forty years. Many of the artworks described within are difficult, even disturbing, but all express a very distinct desire to challenge the way China is seen both by its own citizens and by the rest of the world. The extensive exhibition continues until April 5th, 2016.
Doreen Valiente's Collection of Pagan Spiritual Objects Goes on Display
The English poet and author Doreen Valiente was known to many as the “mother of modern witchcraft.” Following the lifting of the U.K.’s centuries-long ban on witchcraft in 1951, Valiente became a highly influential figure in the resurgence of paganism and the evolution of Wicca, as it is known today. Valiente died in 1999 and in 2013, her home in a Brighton apartment complex was declared an English heritage site. On April 1st, the author’s vast collection of pagan spiritual objects, tools and books will go on display in Preston Manor at the Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and Hove. The organizers of the exhibit intend for the experience to be educational, and are hopeful it may shed light and help dispel some lingering nervousness about the practices of Wicca.
Tracey Emin Marries a Rock
British Artist Tracey Emin has a new show opening in Hong Kong, dealing with love and human relationships in many forms. The artist recently revealed that over the summer she married an ancient stone that currently sits on a hill somewhere in France. While it may seem absurd at first, Emin’s explanation of both the marriage and her continuing practice puts it into interesting perspective. The artist has been fascinated with the renaissance tradition of loving, passionate but celibate relationships between artists, poets, religious figures and many others. Emin’s works explore the variety of forms that love can take and her marriage to the stone expresses a desire for love that goes beyond physical pleasures and limitations. As Emin says, “[the stone is] not going anywhere. It will be there, waiting for me.”