John Batten

Oct 20, 2024 | scmp.com | John Batten

Curator Helena Halim used to have a seashell collection that hung in a bag in her bedroom. It was left behind when her family moved away from Hong Kong but it had made an indelible impression on her, and came to symbolise her childhood growing up in the city. That was the story she told seven artists as she prompted them to create works for a group exhibition called “Fragments of Curiosities” at the Hart Haus art studio in Hong Kong’s Kennedy Town.

Aug 12, 2024 | gwinnettdailypost.com | John Batten

No matter the level of football, it’s always a luxury to return experienced players, especially at the quarterback position. kAmp=E9@F89 FA4@>:?8 D6?:@C BF2CE6C324< s:==@? |@92>>65 >2J ?@E 92G6 E2<6? 2D >2?J D?2AD 2D p]y] (2E<:?D 5:5 :? a_ab[ }@C4C@DD 9625 4@249 z6:E9 |2=@@7 H2D C6=F4E2?E E@ 42== 9:> 2 324<FA]k^AmkAm“x ?6G6C 4@?D:56C65 s:==@? 2 324<FA =2DE J62C[” |2=@@7 D2:5] “w6 5:5 D@>6 8C62E E9:?8D 2=@?8D:56 p]y] (6 ECF=J 925 2 5F2= E9C62E H:E9 E9@D6 EH@] rC65:E E@ s:==@?

Aug 3, 2024 | artomity.art | John Batten

The large retrospective exhibition devoted to the Chinese-American architect IM Pei (1917-2019) organised by Hong Kong’s M+ museum motivated me to look again at his Bank of China Tower in Central. Built on the site of Murray House, the former officers’ quarters of the British Army at Murray Barracks, its location, surrounded by major roads and on a sloping site, was described at the time of construction as “difficult”. If there were initial spatial restrictions, these are not obvious now.

May 16, 2024 | artomity.art | John Batten

A pile foundation is given its final preparation while a group of construction workers on the ground wait for the all-clear to lift a large concrete pourer (on the ground, middle of photograph), to begin the pour. The anticipation of the moment is captured, to be repeated again-and-again as a waiting line of concrete-mixers deliver more concrete.

May 16, 2024 | artomity.art | John Batten

Wong Yankwai: Half(s) & Halves of…Translated by Mak Suyin (in English & Chinese, 261pp)Published by Mount Zero Books, 2023Published to coincide with a comprehensive exhibition of his paintings at HKICC Lee Shau Kee School of Creativity in late 2023, Wong Yankwai’s book of 25 loosely connected short stories is part memoir and part simple observation.