...more photo's about God ...

The Burning Bush

The Promised Land

In The Desert (40 Days and 40 Nights)

more walls

I'm still playing with this, not sure how good they are, any comments, feed back?

It's really obvious....

...but I had to do it

Welcome to whatever you want

life, love, living space, job, taste, experiance, town, country, sound, feeling.....

another meditation

I am still looking at ideas for my next exhibition, and this may, or may not make it. The theme is a progression from my last show on the Stations of the Cross. I am still playing with ideas.


This will probably be another of them, maybe. It is another that references the flight of the Jews from Eygpt.

World Interests

The other day I went walking around a part of Hong Kong with someone who knows it well. We started in an industrial area that is changing. There used to be a lot of clothing factories here. They have gone to the mainland.

In a way, this picture sums up that change, where once there would have been the names of businesses on this sign, now there are none.

While walking around we also saw this. The exterior of a large clothing factory. To get a better view we went up into the parking building that was built especialy for photographers wanting to get interesting views.

meditation on yellow

Well, the scan is not that crash hot and I can't match the colour, but this has been one that I have liked for a while now. What do you think?

... more street art ...

People seem to like these, and luckily for them so do I. If I didn't you wouldn't get to see them Anyway, here is another in a continuing series. There are some more but I am of to Para/Site's trial run of it's new space, why aren't you there?

Jack the Dripper

Another homage image, first person to tell me who this is a homage to gets a prize.

Ideas, I have 'em sometimes...

I have been thinking about a “homage” series for a while. A work I have always liked is Colin McCahon’s “Here I give thanks to Mondrian”. So this is the first in an occasional series. Keep coming back for more.

Oh, yes, this is called, to start the series, “Here I give thanks to McCahon”. And yes, it is a photograph.

Public Art and Private Views

All around Hong Kong are these house shaped symbols which are, I think for a variety of services (water, gas). They are often very interesting, especially if they have been on the wall for a while.

And sometimes there is street sculpture in one form...

...or another.

Tokyo revisited

You can’t go to Japan and not try a Zen cliché or three now can you? Let me know if you think it’s all crap oh yea my hard hearted critics….

And to satisfy the lovers of colour....

Suburbia...

Just found this while going through stuff. I don't think I will be doing to many like this here....

I went to Tokyo recently...

I spent just under two days there. It is an interesting city, and one that, obviously I can only make the broadest of generalizations about. It is big, we went to a bar high up a tower block one evening (the Park Hyatt, where parts of ‘Lost in Translation’ were filmed) and the city seemd to go on forever. But at street level, in most of the places I went to, it felt very human. Many of the buildings are ‘low rise’, four to six levels as opposed to the large number of towers in Hong Kong. This adds to the feeling of space. Tokyo is built like this for a reason I am told. Earthquakes.

During my time there I took surprisingly few photo’s. The three above are from a temple complex near our hotel. My understanding is that this temple was for stillborn and miscarried babies. It was a place that was both still and peaceful, yet also full of life. And therein lays a sweeping generalization based on 48 hours in a city.

And before I go, anyone who goes “Asian” in an attempt to lump a significant proportion of the world together as one homogeneous group should spend two days in Tokyo followed by two days in Hong Kong to understand the profound cultural differences. It’s like saying European, and expecting that to cover France and England as one group.

As some of you know I have a thing about water...

... I love, fear, admire and respect the sea. It has tried to kill me and it has given me great peace. My relationship with it is complicated, but then aren’t all relationships.

And on a more prosaic issue, some one reminded me this blog is fp4.blogspot, so where are the black and white images? OK, these are for you.

God It Is All Dark

The images above are installation shots from a show I had last year called “God It Is All Dark”. They represent my interpretation of the Stations of the Cross, and pay homage to one of New Zealand’s greatest artists, Colin McCahon. The images are gathered from the path that leads to Te Papa in Wellington, and are something that people walk over each day on there way to, from and past the gallery. (Another reference to McCahon, his work Walk).

I think like many of my generation there is a strong Judeo-Christian underpinning to my upbringing and therefore my spirituality. You can either fight it or use it.

As they say, "vanity, all is vanity", here (which you will have to copy and past into your browser, I can't make it work from within the post....) www.salient.org.nz/index.php?a=2018&c=28 is a review of the show from a local student publication. One correction, there are 14, not 12 stations.

I’m sorry about the quality of the images, I can not yet scan the negs, and the prints are way too large for my scanner.

It's been a wet day...

So I sit here and go through stuff planning for an exhibition later in the year.

I think my coming back to these old images is both a reaction to the landscape in Hong Kong and a continuation of the interest in religious imagery. Some stuff works, some does not.

Anyway, going out to meet friends and discuss things like food, books and movies. The sort of Friday night I like.

Going back through old negatives

While I wait for the Tokyo pictures to get back from the lab I thought I might just put these two up. These where taken some time ago when I was playing around with some ideas. I like them, even though there isn’t much that is particularly new or earth shattering about them. One comment at the time was “what a waste of a good camera”.

more eastern meditations...

From a role I shot recently, was feeling peaceful that day.

Something for the start of the day

I like the energy, and I need energy today.

Things change ...

There are in Hong Kong, but for not much longer, dai pai dong stands (apparently this means “big permit stall” for the size of the permits they where issued with originally) they came into their heyday in the 1960’s when the population of Hong Kong was growing rapidly. They are cooked food stalls where you can sit and get a bowl of noodles, a cup of tea or some congee. A few years back the Hong Kong govt. decided they where a menace to health and hygiene. Now, when the permit holder dies the permit can only be transferred to their spouse. As a result they are literally dying out.

This is the “memory” of one that has now been pulled down. Hey, maybe a Starbucks or Pizza Hutt will go in instead.

Some might read a sense of irony in my diptych, what can I say.

I have also found this series on the last day of a dai pai dong by a local photographer which is worth a view www.flickr.com/photos/ahorizon/42032336/in/set-921379/

A tourist image

OK, it's very predictable and kind of derivative but I like this one. And it's colourful which is always nice. This is the (slightly cropped) back of a street stall for those of you who need to know.

There is somthing about controlled nature ....

... that makes it interesting when they try to create parks in shopping malls.

Golden horses

A quick one for Andy. Continuing on your "Race Track" theme of recent posts. This one from a Hong Kong Jockey Club display at a local shopping mall.

The Promised Land

Another from the series I am working on. This references Exodus and the signs used to guide the Jews in their search for the Promised Land.

New/old/continuing work.

I have finally worked out how to post images. I am such a Luddite at times. Anyway I am playing with some ideas at the moment around spirituality and seeking hidden meaning in the everyday. This is the first of a few images I will be posting as time, skill and technology allows. The series is tentatively called “The Face of God”.

Been reading...

..a few good books.

Among them is One Hundred Photographs: A collection By Bruce Bernard. A great collection of images from some of the great names in photography, and, I feel, appropriately, a large number of anonymous ones as well. One of the 100 images in the collection is W.Eugene Smith, Tomoko with her mother beside the Bath. This image is iconic in its depiction of the effects of mercury pollution. In the book the photograph is not shown, in its place is a short essay on why the image is not published. It makes interesting reading regarding the use of images and their wider effect. I recommend it to any photographer who photographs people.

Another day

It’s been nice today. The rain and wind cleared the sky and the light was good, temperature was in the mid 20’s with comfortable humidity. So I stayed inside most of the day and worked. Shit happens.

I did get out in the end, had to get some stuff done and post some letters (you remember those, messages that you put on paper, stuff in an envelope, put in a box with a token on them and someone then gives them to the person you want to get them) and run some errands.

As one of the errands took me to Kowloon I went and had another look at the Rothko exhibition. It’s great, even in one of the worst art galleries I have ever been into the work just glowed and asked you to come closer and spend time with it.

So, if you are in Hong Kong, go to the glorified toilet on the Kowloon waterfront and see the Rothko’s. It’s worth the visit.

... as Chanchu passes to the south...

...the typhoon warning has been raised to level three, that means expect winds of up to (gasp) 46 km/hr. That's a still day in Wellington!

...and if you are at all interested...

Here is a web link http://www.weather.gov.hk/wxinfo/currwx/tc_pos.htm where you can track Typhoon Chanchu.

If it keeps to its current track it will most likely miss Hong Kong. Still, good bit of rain will clear the air and might well encourage more creative efforts on my part.

While I wait for the typhoon ...

The level one Typhoon warning has gone up. For those of us who come from Wellington that means it looks like we might experience some familiar weather.

T1 means that there is a Typhoon within 800 km of Hong Kong. If it gets here it will arrive on Thursday. Should be interesting.

What I saw today then

Boy from a small country comes to the big city, well Hong Kong, it is a big city after Wellington. I suppose it’s a big city after just about anywhere, except maybe Tokyo, New York, Jakarta, well you get the idea.

Today I had to go to the place where some of our stuff is stored out by one of the container terminals. This was rather an experience. This was a huge building. Until I got inside I didn’t realize how big. Got out of the lift on the 8^th floor of a 20 floor building and thought, “hmm, really high ceilings in here” walked around the corner and out a door into, well, hard to describe, imagine a parking building crossed with a loading bay, crossed with a warehouse. Except the parking building is for articulated trucks shifting 60 foot shipping containers. And there are about 20 floors of this. And it’s busy, and by busy I mean really, really busy. So busy it needs traffic lights and traffic control people.

End result, I now have a much better understanding of the Hong Kong economy, the amount of stuff that must go in and out of here is mind boggling. The manager of the shipping and storage people said that today was very quiet. Lots of people leaving early for the long weekend, (May Day on Monday). I would love to see it on a busy day!

Its hot

Just thought you might all like to know that. Temps in the high 20's to high 30's with high humidity...... yuck.

Makes doing anything fun. You learn to walk slow and drink a lot of water.

Just so you know.

Also, my new mantra, well for this week anyway:

The enemy of creativity is fear. In the long run, the enemy of fear is creativity.

OK, OK ,enough already

For those of you who have emailed me and said, when is the next post, well here it is.

We have been busy settling in and working (for money) and working (creatively). We have moved in to our apartment. The process of getting the contents of our house into a small apartment has been…. fun, challenging, downright frustrating.

Still, enjoying Hong Kong and all that it has to offer, and I promise this blog will not become one of those, “you can’t guess what I saw today blogs”. If you want links, I can supply them. There are enough expats here who run them. It is an interesting place, big, fast, and an interesting combination of east meets west. A cliché, but true.

Have been meeting people and getting to know some of the local artists. There is a small but active group of contemporary artists here, most associated with John Batten www.johnbattengallery.com and Para/Site www.para-site.org.hk/ John has, after running a gallery for a number of years, just closed his space and will be working as a guerilla curator having shows in interesting spaces.

Para/Site is great and is run by Tobias Berger who used to run Art Space in Auckland. They currently have a show running of New Zealand art. Come on over to have a look!

Anyway, enough for now, will start to make this regular, I promise.