AAA presents talks by Eve Armstrong, Michelle Brand, Sandra Nakamura, Alwin Reamillo, Chan Yuk-keung, Kurt, Paul Chu, Sara Tse, Adrian Wong as part of AiR.

After the first artist talk in March, the AAA is pleased to present the second 8-artist talk, as a program of the Hong Kong International Artists' Workshop 2008: 4X4, an exchange programme taking place in Sham Shui Po, Hong Kong, organized by AiR*. The program invites 4 overseas artists to Hong Kong to work and interact with 4 local artists through workshops in April. The talk will be not only a chance for the public to learn about their work but also a good opportunity for the artists to interact and communicate with one another.

Visiting artists
Eve Armstrong
 (Auckland, New Zealand) is a conceptual artist whose work emphasizes transactional and functional processes, and falls between the formal, the relational and the environmental. Armstrong’s focus is on taking an otherwise unwanted surpluses of urban environments and adapting it – extending or adding to its physical as well as formal functionality.

Michelle Brand
 (Manchester, UK) is an eco designer maker. On one level, her designs promote the aesthetic life of mass produced objects and give them a second use, but it is her designer maker practice which feeds her interest in future sustainable waste management systems and service design. Michelle supports the philosophy of slow design, which is the counter balance for today’s fast consumer society. 

Sandra Nakamura
 (Lima, Peru) works with everyday materials and situations to create temporary interventions, many of a participatory nature, which explore the way we relate to our surroundings. She started since 2006 a series of interrelated projects, 1m2 in Some Corner of The World, reflecting on the meaning -- both real and symbolic -- of property in relation to housing, market, urban gentrification, and the increasing privatization of public space. 

Alwin Reamillo
 (Fremantle, Western Australia) is a cross-media artist born in Manila, Philippines. His work in recent years involved various collaborative projects, which often incorporate relational/social processes, developed with individuals and communities that often examine the intertwined themes of globalization, cultural diaspora and migration.

Participating Hong Kong artists:
Chan Yuk-keung,
 Kurt had received his art education in The Chinese University of Hong Kong and Cranbrook Academy of Art in Michigan, U.S.A. He is now the Associate Professor of Department of Fine Arts, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has taken part in the 51st Venice Biennale. Chan has been engaging in mixed-media creation. In the recent years, his interest has extended to public art.

Paul Chu
 is a Hong Kong Registered Architect and Head and Associate Professor in the Department of Architecture of Chu Hai College. He has been combining architecture and urbanism research with design. Chu believes that “informal architecture” forms an important basis of Asian culture. He was intrigued by the diversity of Hong Kong cityscape, and the dilemma of the co-existence of both planned and spontaneous urbanism.

Sara Tse
 utilizes the slip method in ceramics to create installations of fragile and visually haunting objects. They challenge the reverence for objects made from porcelain, contrasting it with the throwaway culture of fashion and trends in Hong Kong. What once seems to be personal affect now acquires an aura of cultural artefact.

Adrian Wong
 was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, USA, and is now based in Hong Kong. Originally trained in research psychology, he continued his post-graduate studies on Fine Arts. His first solo exhibition in Hong Kong, A Fear Is This, offered a darkly humorous view into the taboos of Chinese custom and perceived risks of urban living. Presently, Adrian is teaching sculpture at the Hong Kong Art School and preparing for various exhibitions in Hong Kong and abroad.

* Hong Kong International Artists' Workshop and The AiR Association
Hong Kong International Artists' Workshop 2008: 4X4 continues the spirit of Re:Wanchai, AiR's pilot programme in 2005, as both a cultural exchange project as well as an experiment in community development. The Workshop is part of a worldwide network of workshops developed by Triangle Arts Trust.

Workshop supported by: Hong Kong Arts Development Council, Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation, Poon Sau Kuen, Asian Cultural Council, Asia New Zealand Foundation, Goethe-Institut Hong Kong, The Art Council England.