Ethnic minorities costumes

There’s a museum in Guangxi that features the costumes of various ethnic minority groups in the region. Guangxi itself has 1/3 of its population being from the Zhuang minority group, and it seems to do a fair bit in trying to showcase this group’s culture.

a display at the museum featuring an elaborate headdress:

the patterns on the material of their costumes are really intricate:

you hear so much about 绣球 from chinese shows, but it’s taken me nearly 25 years before i’ve actually seen a real example:

the museum also featured some really impressive traditional crafts.

lions and a dragon made out of reeds i think:

    

this is a type of bridge (built across rivers) that’s unique to this part of china. i’m not sure, but it might be a form of construction unique to the Zhuang group of pple:

and finally, some ladies decked out in ethnic costumes at the event i was at – the costumes are so pretty!

印象・刘三姐

Zhang Yimou has directed several outdoor folk musical/theatrical performances in China, and 印象・刘三姐 (“Impressions Liu Sanjie”) is one of them*.

I had the opportunity to watch 印象・刘三姐, set against the backdrop of Yangshuo’s impressive karst formations in Guilin. Most stunning was the opening scene, where karst outcrops were suddenly lit up.

The stage is a floating platform on the Li River (漓江) – in the darkness below lies the stage which extends out onto the river beyond:

for a sense of the scale of the performance’s backdrop – the bright spots of light in the foreground are actually flashes from cameras, while the lit structure is a pavillion used in one of the scenes. the setting was absolutely gorgeous:

Here’s what the performance area looks like in the day- the green things are the audience’s seats, while the stage is everything in front of it:

There are apparently about 600 cast members, all of whom are local fishermen. The opportunity to utilise such large amounts of manpower for a performance leads to stunning results – such a feat is only possible in China. This was just the first of several occasions where the sheer magnitude of China’s ‘people power’ was displayed.

A scene which featured the cast members carrying torches and running across the large stage. Beyond the left and right of this picture are also performance areas. I was quite impressed by how they were able to turn the flame on and off – i still haven’t figured out the trick behind the smoke-producing, switch-controlled torch.

This production is particularly known for its use of light i think, and it didn’t disappoint. The two streaks at the bottom-left are actually lengths of cloth:

Another example of the usage of cloth – all these people below were actually on a floating device that allowed them to glide over the water and the floating platform (that could be raised and lowered). Overheard in a conversation was that Singapore’s YOG opening ceremony might have borrowed some ideas from this performance, due to its usage of water – something which i quite liked actually!:

And here’s my favourite shot of that performance:

isnt it just spectacular?  All those tiny people – the white dots – are on their floating contraptions, getting ready to roll out the bolts of cloth.

Later in the performance, when the stage was completely dark, the performers walked out one by one in lit-up minority costumes and it just went on and on and on – i was totally stunned while trying to count exactly how many of them were involved in this section!

And then they did a whole series of things like this:

I really want to know how they did it! There was this particular segment where it was totally dark, then the costumes were lit up then turned off, one by one, at random areas on the stage. it was crazy, seeing this spot here illuminate then go off, then the next spot elsewhere on the stage, then over there, and over here, and so on.

I wonder if Singapore could pull off such a thing!

 

*: the others i know of are 印象・西湖 and  印象・丽江

Alive Gallery @ Downtown East

i wasnt back in singapore for long before i saw the advertisement for the Alive Gallery on TV. it was marketed as an interactive exhibition “where paintings come alive” and help you to understand and appreciate them better.

since i quite like looking at art (except modern or abstract art) and do wish i were able to appreciate them better, i headed down to check it out at Downtown East.

tickets are $17 for adults, and NTUC U card members get discounts, as well as students, senior citizens (above 55 years, $13), etc.

i think the tagline of the exhibition wasn’t inaccurate, as it featured many animated versions of paintings and even this short 3D clip that featured 4 famous classical Greek sculptures – Venus of Milo being one of them.

Unfortunately, the exhibition failed to impress.

While it did a good job of trying to make art more interesting and accessible, with one section even allowing you to talk to an animated Mona Lisa, the images were blurry and didn’t always provide enough background for the viewer to fully understand what’s going on in the painting and in the animation as well. One of the pieces – an Egyptian painting featuring a pond with animals – was animated such that there were ripples across the surface of the painting, but the end result was that you couldn’t see anything at all, not even to make out the shapes of the animals in the artwork.

Also, the organisers might have spent too much money and attention on the interactive element and neglected a significantly more important aspect – the art piece itself. For example, there was this long and frankly rather boring video clip featuring Michelangelo giving some explanation on his frescoes adorning the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel – yet the images in the clip were dark and blur, with the only other versions of the frescoes being tiny (and blurry as well) ones on the explanation panel. i mean, why bother telling a story of what a fresco is, how it was painted and the story behind its painting, when the only reference the viewer has to it is something at least this small?:

(The Last Judgement, Michelangelo)

The replicas of the paintings – actual, inanimate ones hanging on the wall – were also not very well made. I’ve seen some original versions in museums in Europe, and because I'm not very well versed in the technicalities of art appreciation, most of the time what hits me is the very bimbotic thought of, Oh these colours are so pretty – especially when looking at the pre-Renaissance (?) pieces depicting either war or holy figures, as the reds and blues used in them are quite stunning.

Sadly, the replicas here had none of the vibrancy of the originals and seemed – you’ve guessed it – slightly blurry too. Perhaps it was the dim lighting as well, but it was a bit disappointing to see paintings that i really like, such as Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (below) appear less pretty than they really are, especially when this exhibition is meant to stir up more interest in art – and beauty will always attract its admirers.

There were, however, two fun photo opportunities. here below, mum and i appear to have stepped right into a painting by an artist whose name i’ve unfortunately forgotten – he was hailed for his skill in the use of perspective, with the row of trees converging to a point in the distance:

and another scene from Van Gough’s Cafe Terrace at Night:

    

I think if you have children it might well be worth checking out this exhibit, but if you’re hoping to gain a lot more art education then perhaps you could give it a miss.