I decided to go and have a look at Simon Birch’s (one of Hong Kong’s leading contemporary artists) new multimedia installation project.

This from the programme notes referring to that old chestnut Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero’s Journey’: “In Simon Birch’s intricate, labyrinthine installation project, Hope & Glory, [the] first step of the hero’s journey …. is enacted on myriad levels, across time and space. It is enacted when we step into the immersive environment of the installation; in the memories of wonder and fear that flash through us; in the spectacular collisions of history and imagination that implode around us; and in the multi-sensory pathways that lead us precariously towards the artist’s vision.”

I am so glad I didn’t read the programme before going around the space otherwise I would have had the raging hump (a technical term). As it was, my initial reaction was: “This is what would happen if a 13 year-old could graduate from art school.” Then something happened.

I started to have a reaction to everything I came across. In no particular order: uh?, ooh, bollocks (I inexplicably become foul-mouthed and indignant in contemporary art exhibitions), nonsense, great, shite (told you), cheeky, teenage bedroom, she’s nice, so’s that horse, awwww. Not deep insights, I’ll grant you. But reactions none the less.

More from the programme: “The paradox is that (like any circus) the physical materials from which this experience is created are mundane, of the present world: wood and paint, plastic and metal, computers and holograms. What this means, of course, is that the tools to transport ourselves are already here with us. We only need to understand and assemble them in a new way.” So …. there you have it: apparently you can make interesting things from stuff.

Back in the darkness, a fleet of Star Wars spacecraft was flying from a screen where a couple of blokes were amusing themselves in Halo over a skateboard half-pipe towards a white pile of rubbish surrounded by videos of people covered in balloons and foam blocks.

Many of the works (or “cells” as the programme would have it) were disarmingly personal about their influences – Star Wars, Superman, Halo. So I was surprised when I heard Birch talk about some of the thinking behind the work being a reflection on the hopes and eventual negativity of imperial dreams: Simon Birch talks about Hope and Glory.

In fact, there are supposedly three layers of inspiration – the Hero’s Journey, the hopes and negative impact of Empire, and Circuses (‘cos they were Victorian too). Sorry, I got the circus bit but the rest passed me by. Maybe I’m thick. Or maybe that’s the sort of thing you need to write in proposals to get a government grant for contemporary art these days.

Apart from the exhibits, what’s really interesting about the whole thing was the collaborative process involving around 100 people that it took to put it together. Birch gives you a blow-by-blow account of this at monkeymodified.blogspot.com

This is certainly a major art event for Hong Kong and deserves your support. And it’s not-for-profit. Go and have your own reactions.

It runs at Artistree, 1/F Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, Island East until 30th May. Open 10am to 8pm. Entry is free.

Despite the somewhat tacky entrance sign, The Goldfish Pavilion is a quite elegant addition to the Giant Panda Adventure – forming as it does one side of the fictional mountain village into which visitors emerge after seeing the pandas and other animals.

First of all a disclosure: I worked on the interpretive concept with Hypsos Leisure Asia and I’m glad to say that the final product is very close to our original idea – finely detailed by Hanson Roberts. We wanted to present the goldfish story in three parts – Wild, Treasured and Celebrated.

In ‘Wild’, we tell the story of how natural mutations were first noticed in captive  carp.

At the heart of the attraction is the Chinese Treasure Box – a visual and environmental metaphor for the esteem in which the scholarly pursuit of breeding and admiring the wide varieties of goldfish is held.

The way in which goldfish have been viewed as objets d’art is underlined by their display alongside artefacts in curio cabinets.

The final Celebrated area looks at the significance of goldfish in Chinese cultural life – especially around festivals such as New Year.

All-in-all a very enjoyable little jewel of an exhibit.

Soon after it opening, we got along to the Giant Panda Adventure. First a disclosure – I worked on the interpretive planning throughout the public areas of the attraction with Hypsos Leisure Asia. So, I was keen to see the finished result.

We wanted messages about how precious the key endangered species that had been selected for housing through the attraction integrated into the environment. Here, as part of the Chinese Alligator enclosure, a message about the role that these “national treasures” play in inspiring art and enriching our lives is carved into a column supporting the viewing canopy.

The concept behind the Giant Panda Adventure is to raise awareness about a number of species that are endangered in China using Ocean Park’s Giant Panda as the draw. The first animals that visitors encounter is the impressive Chinese Alligator.

Kids can collect brass rubbings of the treasures as they journey through the adventure.

Soon you enter a mountain pass as you ascend to a hidden valley where the pandas live. You get glimpses of the elusive creature through a bamboo grove and then …

… you arrive at a kind of panda shangri-la designed by Hanson Roberts. They have taken great care to make the enclosure naturalistic and varied enough to keep its inhabitants interested. There are plenty of places to climb, roll and recline.

Along the way, information is conveyed through signage that we wanted to make feel part of the setting – as if they were clues left by park rangers or villagers along the path until …

… you reach the Research Camp where …

… helpful rangers introduce you to unique aspects of Giant Panda physiology, diet and behaviour. And then we saw the star attraction ambling by ….

… before settling down to have lunch. This was close to the glass dividing the public from the enclosure so we could only think that the pandas are quite at home already.

One problem we spotted was that a laptop with an interactive program for the public had been placed in direct sunlight making it difficult to view.

But at the end of the day, the animals were the real attraction … especially the endearing and active Red Pandas. The Asian Small-clawed Otters that were due to be at the attraction had not arrived yet but when they do they will be even more competition for the Giant Pandas in the cuteness stakes.

Your journey ends at a mountain village …

dedicated to conservation.

Based in the converted century-old Lei Yue Mun Fort, this Museum complex consists of two main areas – the Redoubt and the Historical Trail.

The Redoubt, built by the British in 1887, was one of the largest fortifications of its kind in the Territory. It now forms the core display area of the Museum and the open courtyard that was at its heart has been covered by a specially designed tensile structure.

This houses the permanent exhibition  which traces the 600-year history of coastal defence in Hong Kong from the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to the present-day Hong Kong Garrison of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

The Historical Trail allows visitors to wander amongst the conserved underground magazines and batteries on the promontory around the Redoubt.

On a hot day this can be quite strenuous, but you will be rewarded with some great views across to Lei Yue Mun on Kowloonside.

Reviewing the Hong Kong Museum of Coastal Defence from a purely museum design perspective it would be easy to be dismissive of the conventional display techniques …

… the tired audiovisual displays in need of an upgrade …

… the sometimes outmoded interior design …

… or the, frankly, less than convincing dioramas …

But this would be missing the point. The fact is, it works. Designed over ten years ago (by John Dangerfield?) it was opened to the public in July 2000. It stands out amongst museums in Hong Kong in combining a museum experience with an exterior heritage experience – making it ideal for kids. It is also distinguished by being one of the few places in Hong Kong where you can find out about the brave members of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps who were involved in some of the bitterest fighting during the Japanese invasion in 1941.

Like the fort itself, the concept behind the museum has stood the test of time. All-in-all a highly recommended place to visit.

Admission costs HK$10. Open 10am – 5pm daily except Thursdays.

These four galleries on the subjects of Fashion, Film, Food and Photography are a delight. Each take a very different interpretive direction but share a commonly refreshing and visually stimulating approach.

‘Fashion – Shopping for Identity’ is characterised by colourful swathes of cloth as a backdrop to exploring the shifting identities of Singaporean women from the 1950s to 1970s. You can touch the fabrics and admire the intricacies of embroidery on a Kebaya.

Walking into the ‘Film & Wayang – Scripting a New Life’ you feel like you have wandered into your new favourite cinema. Comfortable sofas allow you to enjoy some iconic early films choreographed across three screens.

Beyond this area you can explore the connections with the development of Chinese opera and cinema as popular entertainment in Singapore.

Without resorting to pastiche or unrealistic recreations of street food stalls, ‘Food – Eating on the Street’ makes exploring Singaporean food fun. Working with the colonial interior, a series of large plinths carry mixed media about some of the favourite dishes of the city state and how to make them.

In the next room, you can explore the individual ingredients and spices that make Singapore cooking so special.

You can even sniff them.

The last of the four galleries – ‘Photography – Framing the Family’ – is by far the most emotive and once again proves the power of ordinary people’s stories.

A series of portraits greet you as you enter a stately room whose windows are draped with muslin – as if the owners of a country house have left for the winter. But you need to look behind the portraits (literally) to find out more.

Here, one screen per portrait focusses on a social aspect of Singapore’s social history. For instance, there is a lovely account of the challenges of an early interracial relationship between an Australian woman and a Singaporean man.

Another screen focusses on the ‘Black and White Amahs’ and one British man’s touching recollections of the woman who looked after him when he was a boy.

In the next room, you can explore the development of photography in Singapore and how it helped record family life.

All in all, the Singapore Living Galleries in themselves make visiting the National Museum of Singapore worthwhile and rewarding … and that’s even before you get to the cafe in the bright, expansive atrium, the museum shop and the Singapore History Gallery.

The National Museum of Singapore is at 93 Stanford Rd and is open 10am – 8pm daily. Admission is S$10 for adults and S$5 for seniors, children and students.

MuseumDesign.Asia was invited along to the opening of the Victoria & Albert Museum’s (V&A) Vivienne Westwood exhibition, A Life In Fashion (thanks to Fred of Sugar Design). Sponsored by Swire Properties the V&A (one of the world’s foremost art and design museums), the exhibition brings more than 140 dress and clothing designs of the high priestess of Punk, and 70 objects from the V&A collection, as well as Westwood’s personal archive.

According to Mr Stephan Spurr, Director and General Manager of Swire Properties, “This is the first time in Hong Kong that an exhibition has been dedicated to a globally influential fashion designer and in the hope that the general public will embrace this showcase of the lively, thought-provoking, unconventional and outrageously elegant, we are offering admission to the exhibition free of charge.”

Re-engineered into the exhibition space by Marc & Chantal Design, the exhibition is broadly divided into 2 zones – ‘The Early Years’ and ‘Maturity’ – organised under 26 themes, encompassing the designer’s works from the 1970’s to the 21st century. Artifacts include the iconic ‘Destroy’ T-shirt and the famous blue mock-croc platform shoes which Naomi Campbell wore when she fell on the catwalk in 1993.

It was great to see such a world-class showcase of design come to Hong Kong. Any fashion student could get a lifetime’s inspiration from this collection.

Almost as exciting was to see the ArtisTree space in Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, for the first time. It’s a space that deserves this calibre of event.

The V&A website has an excellent overview of the exhibition including 360 degree views. The exhibition continues until 31st January 2009 at ArtisTree, 3/F Cornwall House, Taikoo Place, Island East.

Subtitled ‘160 years of Hong Kong-French common heritage & perspectives’, this temporary exhibition at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre looks primarily at the influence of French architectural style on the city’s built heritage.

Designed by Marc & Chantal Design, the exhibition is divided chronologically into three sections – 1840-90s (Arrival), 1900-45 (Expansion) and 1945-2008 (Renewal) – and is physically arranged using rectangular plinths. These carry graphics panels, architectural models and object showcases.

At high level, a rectangular tensile structure delineates the three periods below and acts as a projection surface for historic images.

The rear wall of the exhibition acts as a backdrop, with a series of graphic images and a map showing the urban spread of Hong Kong through the eras, and the concurrent expansion of French architectural influence.

At this point I must confess an interest as I edited the exhibition text based on the research done by Professor Ho of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

If I were to have one criticism of the exhibition it is that, whilst it does a good job in tracing the existence of French-influenced buildings in Hong Kong, it feels like a missed opportunity to give a sense of how the two communities interacted. In other words, it gives a good survey of French bricks and mortar in Hong Kong, but not of what is surely the real cement of that relationship – the way French and Hong Kong people worked and socialised together.

The exhibition continues until the 1st January 2009 at the Hong Kong Heritage Discovery Centre, Kowloon Park. Admission is free.

China’s achievement in conducting its first walk in space is a milestone in the nation’s manned space programme. So it was with high expectations that I lined up with other members of the public to visit the special exhibition on the event at the Hong Kong Science Museum.

First impressions were disappointing. Walls upon walls of photographs promised a didactic, flag-waving experience. If these photographs had been treated as a proper photographic exhibition with images selected for their aesthetic quality that would have been one thing. But wall to ceiling images of average artistic merit told a blow-by-blow account of the mission. An introductory film telling this story would have been so much more engaging.

Then came the objects, poorly displayed in drab showcases.

But then things started to pick up. I defy anyone (or any male, anyway) not to be excited by a real space suit – however it is displayed.

The re-entry capsule acted as a centrepiece for the final area which included the parachute.

Seeing a real object that has been key to a major event always produces the thrill of authenticity which is hard to replicate.

In the end, the low-key nature of the displays was actually rather endearing. I came away feeling like I had been transported back to an exhibition on the 1970s Apollo mission. And it was none the worse for all that. The exhibition continues until the 15th December.