THE LOVE ART DINNER AT THE PENINSULA

Man, Music and Machine

A dancing robot was the guest of honour at the dinner celebrating Love Art, the annual collaboration between The Peninsula and London’s Royal Academy of the Arts. Created by British artist Conrad Shawcross and titled The Ada Project, the mechanical masterpiece gracefully moved its light-laden limbs to the dulcet tones of Hong Kong soprano Joyce Wong, who sang a Mira Calix-composed piece titled If Then While For. The dinner was staged in the hotel lobby and after dessert, numerous art-world luminaries gathered to admire the kinetic sculpture.

The most memorable speech of the evening was given by renowned arts journalist Jan Dalley, a good friend of the 39-year-old artist, who shared some amusing memories from his childhood. “Conrad was an experimental young boy,” she said, “although not in the way you might think. I remember coming to his family home once and seeing him boiling a piece of wood to see if he could make the material bend.”