What Qualifies?

  2-10-12

Recently my friend Debbie and I were chatting about planning charity events in Hong Kong. Debbie has been working furiously on her Black and White Ball. She was asking about whether we were going to use HKELD to promo charity events in Hong Kong. As much as I would love to give a highlight to all the wonderful things that people are doing in town for charity HKELD just doesn't have the database space for it. And as wonderful as Debbie's speaker is going to be at her event, rugby players don't count as performance art in my books..."But" said Debbie "it’s got dancing. And this great after-dinner speaker Rob Wainwright – he’s really funny – like a stand-up comedian.  And it’s such a good cause!" No matter how funny a rugby player is I don't think of public speaking at a charity event as an art form. But it could open up the doors to a discussion on what is an art?

As much as I would love to give a highlight to all the wonderful things that people are doing in town for charity, the people that make the rules at HKELD have decided that – for now at least – what gets listed must be a live arts performance of some kind.

‘Performance art’ is such a flexible term with negative feelings attached to it. I know American artists in general sigh and making groaning noises at even the mention of performance art due to the National Endowment scandal of '91. But HK is a melting pot of various cultures and maybe my vast hatred for performance art doesn't translate.

So I decided to do a blog posing a few questions and hopefully getting some answers from the public on what you think we should cover and what you consider art.

The guidelines for what qualifies are set out in the "about us" section of the site. Here’s what it says

"We’re interested in all kinds of live or multi-media shows: drama, music, dance, stand-up… in short, anything that entertains and considers itself artistic – and which an English speaker can ‘get’. (If it’s a bilingual show or a Cantonese show with English surtitling, that’s also fine by us.)...For the moment, we don't cover music concerts or visual arts exhibitions unless they have a substantial live drama performance component...We have limited resources and have to draw the line somewhere...Our driving ambition is to consistently cover all the shows in Hong Kong - no matter how big or small - to the benefit of all potential artists and audience alike."

Here's three examples of things people might consider as "performance art". Do you think they are or aren't? We know what we think but we want to know your opinions on what you think we should cover at HKELD. Which of the following do you consider art? All? None? Some? Leave comments below. Open dialogue from the peanut gallery is encouraged on our site!

  1. An art gallery stages a performing art exhibition lasting at least a week.  When you walk in, there’s nothing on the walls but at the end of the room there’s a string quartet playing improvised music.  On a TV screen you can watch (and later buy) a recording of yourself and others watching and responding to the performance.
     
  2. A one-off synchronized swimming and diving event in Hong Kong harbour, in which anyone is free to participate, choreographed by Zhang Yi Mo (or some other dude famous for doing mega-majestic opening and closing ceremonies)
     
  3. A charity ball with an auction whose winner – there and then – acts out on stage alongside the legendary Jackie Chan with multi-media special effects back-projected and filmed for a 5 minute short (to be edited at some later stage into a DVD and/or included in the great man’s next movie).

 


Comments

  • Guy
    04 October 2012

    None qualify. A and c are a/v art and b is sport related. Interested blog idea but dumb examples!!! Why not use famous examples where art was put on trial or that butter example you used a few days ago? Those are easier things to argue than these. None of these would be listed. I wouldn't even consider stand up an art form as you seem to as it has no meaning other than to entertain.

  • danceboy
    08 October 2012

    agree. interesting idea but stupid examples. i'd rather see hkeld cover cantones theatre, visual art and music befoe any of this.

  • Steven
    09 October 2012

    This is my first time at the site. I wish it had less words and more pictures. It's really wordy. Your short articles are best. Ones like this one- I just go NEXT! The examples just make me roll my eyes. Also, there is very little user interaction on it so it's boring

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