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‘Great art films can be shot in Hong Kong’: Chinese artist on M+ movie and the beauty of black and white

  • Chinese filmmaker and painter Yang Fudong explains the premise of his new film and why ‘abundant’ Hong Kong makes it ideal for shooting artistic movies

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A still from Sparrow on the Sea, by Chinese filmmaker and painter Yang Fudong. The new art film is currently showing on the big screen on the M+ facade in Hong Kong. Photo: Yang Fudong

“Architectural” may be a curious way to describe a film, but it is precisely the adjective that Chinese artist Yang Fudong uses when discussing his latest work, Sparrow on the Sea.

“An architectural film doesn’t only refer to what people can see – such as high-rise buildings and houses – it also refers to architecture that people cannot see,” says Yang. “This invisible architecture includes what you carry in your heart and mind.”

In his new black-and-white film – which was co-commissioned by Hong Kong’s M+ museum of visual culture and Art Basel, and is presented by the bank UBS – it’s the intangible that is arguably more important than the physical.

That makes perfect sense for Yang – after all, he is known around the world for his evocative and dreamlike films that transcend time and space.

Artist Yang Fudong. Photo: Yang Fudong
Artist Yang Fudong. Photo: Yang Fudong

Born in 1971 in Beijing, the artist didn’t grow up making films; rather, he dedicated his teenage years to painting. He went on to attend the China Academy of Art, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, and graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in oil painting, but it was while studying there that he gradually became drawn to other creative forms – including film and video.

“After graduating university, I floated around for about three years, but every day I thought about filmmaking,” he says.

Mabel Lui
Mabel is a reporter on the culture desk. She graduated from Scripps College in Claremont, California with a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies and Art. A bright-eyed kid at heart, she loves the feeling of discovering something new and finding underrated restaurants in her beloved home city of Hong Kong.
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