22-08-19
What is an encounter? ‘In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit’.
Es Devlin is a world renowned stage designer, well-known for creating large-scale performance sculptures and installations that fuse media art, light and music. She was born in 1971 and studied in Central Saint Martins. During the past, she worked for Beyoncé, U2, Adele and Kanye West. Devlin has been awarded 3 Oliver Awards and was made OBE in 2015. Studio Es Devlin is designing the UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai.
‘Alone we can do so little, together we can do much’. 2019 is the 20th year that Joey Yung, a superstar in Hong Kong, has been in the singing business. She was born in 1980 and fond of music. She won in a singing contest and set sail on her journey to stardom. She wanted to find a concert collaborator who can inspire herself; and the co-operation can mark her career and become a tribute to the memory.
Joey is a very popular and influential singer in Hong Kong and won numberless music awards. Audience love her not only because of her talent, but also her fashion sense and feminine strength. She is a name on everyone’s lips.
Joey’s top interest is about the stage focus of her Pretty Crazy Concert Joey Yung in 2019. For her, the stage is not merely a display place of all arts. When she is on stage, she will have a ‘romance’ with ten thousand people for 3 hours. A stage has only one thing: something must happen and her audience will be stunned.
The concert producer Alex Fung and Joey came up with a really crazy idea. They want to work with the world’s best stage designer. From their past live concert experience, Es Devlin is the bravest designer that will emotionally endure. But, other questions followed: why should Devlin work with Joey in Hong Kong? Should they afford the production bill? They finally decided to fly to London to convince Devlin and the trip was filled with anxiety and worry. After an hour drive from London, they met their idol Devlin and cried out in excitement. Devlin was curious about Joey and the concert. She chatted with them and at the end, invited them to tea in a nearby garden café. Alex and Joey were relieved and knew that luck would visit them.
So, Hong Kong audience were eventually given the indelible memories of a great pop concert in the August of 2019. We were spoilt with the moments to enjoy something beautiful and rememberable during the 3 hours with Joey. Our fire was suddenly burst into flame―all because of the heart-warming encounter with Yung who did rekindle our inner spirit with her sincere sacrifice and faith.
Hong Kong got Joey Yung. We wish we could produce our own ‘Es Devlin’. It is not easy. The road to the enlightenment and accomplishment of media art installations is long and difficult, but we should encourage young people not to give up. One has to prove he can be finally the evidence of his talent and power. I can summarize some concerns. The technology in Hong Kong on this subject is behind. Applications of media art were seen but not as popular as they should be. As a result, most of the players were chosen from a relatively limited talent pool. Huge installations of media art cost a lot and it is hard to find an investor except very few land developers in Hong Kong. Maintenance of the art pieces is expensive too. Media art set ups in public or private open space are as scarce as hen’s teeth because land is sadly like or more than gold dust in Hong Kong.
The media art installation in the centre of Joey’s concert stage designed by Devlin was a grand spherical object that looked like a huge magic globe―could it be an orange, a ball or onion? The object could be transformed into different shapes and forms; and with different lights, colours and video walls. This assembly of digitized moving parts performed numerous mind-blowing and dazzling stage functions and effects. Joey sang and danced on the different levels and layers, inner or outer, of this complicated round mechanism. Devlin’s purpose of the globular installation was to capture all the audience’s attention onto Joey who performed inside and around the hi-tech spectacle as a supreme diva celebrating the 20th anniversary of her first date with the entertainment world.
Let us still believe in dreams and hopes. Human progress is born through the aspirations, decisions and actions of some people like Joey Yung and Alex Fung who bring kind breakthroughs to the small city of Hong Kong.
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