LAM WONG 王藝林
-----------------------------
+ work
+ text
+ info
+ video
+ press
-----------------------------
© All Rights Reserved.
.
Art's Birthday 2023
Art Performance GATHER (for Michael Morris), 2023 by Lam Wong
Western Front, Vancouver BC
January 17, 2023
The Western Front and ABC:V celebrate Art's Birthday 2023, the 1,000,060th Anniversary of Art.
Featuring Cake and Tea with artists:
Deanne Achong (in St. John's), Jim Andrews, Hank Bull, Don Chow (in Paris), Peter Courtemanche, Anna Friz, Igor Santizo, Sarah Shamash, Trolleybus, David Williams (in Portugal), and Lam Wong
Celebrating Art's Birthday is a tradition started by French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou who declared, on January 17th 1963, that Art had been born exactly 1,000,000 years ago when somebody dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water. Over many decades artists have continued to organize annual celebrations in the spirit of Filliou's "Eternal Network" or "La Fête permanente".
Lam Wong’s performance work ’GATHER (for Michael Morris)’ (2023) involved a sponge, a tea table, a tea ceremony using exclusively Puerh teas and a teapot by Michael Henry (the same teapot used by Robert Filliou during his 1979 Video Breakfasting performance), various teaware and art objects, background images projected on the wall featuring historical photos from the Western Front archive and Wong’s personal collection, and a tea painting with names of Western Front founders and associated artists scribed on the table alphabetically. Viewers were invited and encouraged to participate in co-creating the tea painting.
Background projection images:
-
French Fluxus artist and Art’s Birthday founder Robert Filliou performing Video Breakfasting at the Western Front, 1979. Courtesy of Western Front
-
The very last time the late Michael Morris visited Vancouver and Western Front before he passed away on November 18, 2022. Photographed in front of the Western Front building are (from left to right): Lam Wong, Vincent Trasov, Michael Morris, Bryan Mulvihill, and ‘Peanut for Mayor’ film director Andrew Muir. Photo: Alison Boulier
-
Hank Bull, Paul Wong, Fabio Mauri, Jane Ellison, Kate Craig, and Eric Metcalfe standing outside the Western Front's entrance (1979). Courtesy of Western Front, WFIM1339
-
Founders Glenn Lewis, Martin Bartlett, Peter Fraser, Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov, Kate Craig, and Mo van Nostrand (c. 1973). Courtesy of Western Front, WFIM 1606
-
Dana Atchley, Michael Brodie, Keith Donovan, and Michael Morris gathered in the office of Western Front (1974). Courtesy of Western Front, WFIM1644