Director: Anton Corbijn Cast: Robert Pattinson, Dane DeHaan UK, 111 minutes Venue: General release By Elizabeth Kerr It might be an overused word, but some photographic images are undeniably iconic, whether for politically charged reasons (Nick Ut’s little girl running from napalm in Vietnam, anything by Diane Arbus) or purely artistic ones (Man Ray). So it’s no surprise that someone, in the person of rock star shooter Anton Corbijn, would eventually investigate the intersection between photography, art and celebrity. Photography dominates pop culture more than it ever has before, which is not to say it didn’t have a major role in the past. Though Life magazine claimed its mandate was in photojournalism, many of its most memorable snaps comprised photo essays about movie stars, the veteran Elizabeth Taylor, Sophia Loren and rising star James Dean among them. Burned into our collective consciousness nearly as indelibly as Ut’s Vietnam image is the endlessly reproduced photo of doomed young actor Dean strolling the streets of Times Square, coat bundled around him, cigarette balanced precariously on his lip. …

Director: Lukasz Ronduda, Maciej Sobieszczanski Cast: Oskar Dawicki, Agata Buzek, Andrzej Chyra Poland, 63 minutes Venue: 10 Chancery Lane Gallery By Elizabeth Kerr Performance art, even for the most dedicated among us, can be challenging. Fans call it confrontational and current; the unconvinced call it pretentious and plodding. Either way, in most cases a performance-art piece is experienced, to some degree, out of context. Anyone looking for an entry point into the art form would be well advised to start their exploration with Performer. Writer-directors Lukasz Ronduda and Maciej Sobieszczanski’s dual biopic and critique of the work of Polish performance and video artist Oskar Dawicki is a clever, innovative and enlightening peek behind the curtain: exhibition as accessible feature narrative. Since his emergence in the mid-1990s Dawicki has consistently explored the essences of language, reality, performance and existence. Those concepts are all central to film, so it’s surprising he hasn’t used the medium before. In Performer, Oskar (Dawicki) is an artist struggling equally with inspiration and finances. His mentor, Zbigniew Warpechowski played by Andrzej Chyra, …

Pékin Fine Arts in partnership with D3E Art Beijing Mar 12 – May 28, 2016 By Nooshfar Afnan The first show in Beijing by Hong Kong artist Wesley Tongson (1957-2012) is arranged chronologically, to give the viewer a sense of the artist’s oeuvre over the course of his prolific working life. The exhibition aims to introduce Tongson’s versatility, but is focused on works created during the last 20 years of his life. Works in the first room attest to Tongson’s classical training in both Chinese ink painting and calligraphy, and western art. A series of landscapes, in particular mountain views, combine traditional ink painting with patches of bright colour. These atmospheric additions of ink-splash colour create a meditative quality, as in Mountains of Heaven (no. 224) (2000). Tongson is perhaps best known for splashed-ink paintings, a technique he taught himself, although he was also influenced by its best-known 20th-century exponent Zhang Daqian (1899–1983). Whereas the master only used blues and greens, and traditionally ink painting is devoid of colour, Tongson’s western training resulted in a …

Social Fabric Mill6 Foundation Hong Kong Mar 22 – Apr 23, 2016 By Caroline Ha Thuc Mill6 Foundation’s dual exhibition Social Fabric, curated by David Elliott, which brings together German artist-in-residence Mariana Hahn (b.1985) and Hong Kong artist Kwan Sheung Chi (b.1980), aims to reflect Hong Kong’s “irrevocable loss of memories in the relentless march of progress, while questioning its future”. This statement assumes that the idea of a social fabric has already been lost: the exhibition leaves aside the complexity and diversity of Hong Kong’s population to focus on its confused identity and the loss of some very specific communities. The two artists’ works are clearly separated in the space, and do not respond to each other; instead they follow their own visions and languages. Kwan Sheung Chi has conceived his installations around the recurring concerns of his work, questioning the Hong Kong identity and the very status of contemporary art in a society led by materialism. A feeling of coldness and emptiness dominates the atmosphere. Every work stands like a provocative joke: Hong …

Tang Contemporary Art Hong Kong Mar 21 – Apr 24, 2016 By Nicolette Wong Beyond the much-discussed streak of provocation in his oeuvre, contemporary Chinese artist Zhao Zhao has consistently explored the subjects of oppression, violence and the dissidence and powerlessness of the individual in his homeland through various media. His latest works continue his engagement in these subjects, with subtle ruminations revolving around security that is shattered, voided or denied from those who seek it. The focal point of the exhibition, Fragments (2015), is an intricate installation, vulnerable to accidental disruption because its brass fragments are movable on the floor, embodying a sense of risk that invites the viewer to reflect on their relation to it. This lack of security – and its potential impact on the viewer – evokes the inspiration for the work, the deadly explosion that took place in Tianjin in August 2015, representing yet another failure of public safety in China. Where previous works from the Fragments (from 2007) and Constellations (from 2013) series reflect on the notion of violence …