Another holiday is just around the corner.
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The Chinese New Year starts next week for the year of the rat.
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Here's a photo of a Cai Guo-qiang firework to help celebrate.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Tuesday, January 29, 2008
CIA as Arts Patron
Here's an interesting lede from the Washington Post:
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"What do Richard Wright, Gloria Steinem, Henry Kissinger, George Meany, Nina Simone and Arthur Schlesinger Jr. have in common?
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Answer: Directly or indirectly, they all took money from the Central Intelligence Agency during the early years of the Cold War."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402369_pf.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/01/24/AR2008012402369_pf.html
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Click the link for the article "Dancing to the CIA's Tune - The secret funding of American artists and intellectuals in the '50s and '60s" which is a book review of The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America" by Hugh Wilford.
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The book explains the many front organizations the CIA set up such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom and the Independent Research Service in an effort to get artists to fight communist efforts in the realm of culture.
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Thursday, January 24, 2008
The FBI as Art Consumer
Ever since the FBI tracked 'subversive' artists such as Andy Warhol, it seems their unflagging interest for art-but for all the very wrong reasons- still continues.
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Artist Hasan Elahi who is featured in the New Frontier on Main at Sundance created a project with the FBI as unwitting collaborator.
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Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project, 2007 came about when the feds were trailing Elahi for months as a suspected terrorist. He created a network device that tracks his whereabouts and he can be trailed online.
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Check out the websites for more info.
Tracking Transience: The Orwell Project Website: http:/trackingtransience.net
Artist Website: http://elahi.rutgers.edu/
Artist Website: http://elahi.rutgers.edu/
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
New Frontier on Main, Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival currently taking place in Utah has a section titled New Frontier on Main featuring films from contemporary experimental artists.
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The impressive roster includes:
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Doug Aitken, Jennifer Steinkamp, Yang Fudong, Hasan Elahi, Jim Campbell, Graffiti Research Lab, Eddo Stern, Cause Collective, Daniel Rozin, Robert Boyd, Marina Zurkow, Stephanie Rothenburg & Jeff Crouse, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, Paper Rad Art Collective in collaboration with Cory Arcangel, Califone and the Animated Films of Brent Green, The Composers Lab Experiment: Braden King and Shahzad Ismaily.
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Doug Aitken, Jennifer Steinkamp, Yang Fudong, Hasan Elahi, Jim Campbell, Graffiti Research Lab, Eddo Stern, Cause Collective, Daniel Rozin, Robert Boyd, Marina Zurkow, Stephanie Rothenburg & Jeff Crouse, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid, Paper Rad Art Collective in collaboration with Cory Arcangel, Califone and the Animated Films of Brent Green, The Composers Lab Experiment: Braden King and Shahzad Ismaily.
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http://www.sundance.org/festival/film_events/new_frontier_on_main.asp The website has detailed program descriptions of the work.
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The photo is Graffiti Research Lab's L.A.S.E.R. tag project, what they call a WMD - weapon of mass defacement.
Saturday, January 19, 2008
Life is Fine by Langston Hughes
I went down to the river,
I set down on the bank.
I tried to think but couldn't,
So I jumped in and sank.
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I came up once and hollered!
I came up twice and cried!
If that water hadn't a-been so cold
I might've sunk and died.
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But it was Cold in that water! It was cold!
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I took the elevator
Sixteen floors above the ground.
I thought about my baby
And thought I would jump down.
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I stood there and I hollered!
I stood there and I cried!
If it hadn't a-been so high
I might've jumped and died.
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But it was High up there! It was high!
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So since I'm still here livin',
I guess I will live on.
I could've died for love--
But for livin' I was born
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Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry--
I'll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.
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Life is fine! Fine as wine! Life is fine!
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Art AsiaPacific's Almanac 2008
Did you know that North Korea has an art university and a museum that shows contemporary art? Are you aware of the art happening in war-torn places such as Afghanistan and Iraq?
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Check out Art AsiaPacific's Almanac 2008 with the austere October magazine inspired cover to read detailed compelling reports about 67 countries in that huge misunderstood area called Asia.
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This will enlighten you with a deep understanding of the cultural scene(s) of a major part of the globe.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Lin Chuan-chu's Rice for Thoughts
Lin Chuan-chu's performance and land art project finished last month after a 5 month planting and harvesting of a 3,305 square meter rice field.
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His 2 story posh studio sat smack in the middle of the rice paddies. On rainy days, he contemplated life by reading or painting, while on sunny days, he worked the fields mimicking the ways of farmers centuries before him.
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The rice field was located in a rapidly urbanizing area of a Taipei suburb. The elderly in the neighborhood felt comfortable strolling through the paddies as that was how Taipei was about 30 years ago.
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The photo looks out from the second floor onto the rice field that is just starting to be cut down. In the background is intensely rapid building construction.
Friday, January 11, 2008
da Vinci's mirror images
Discovery News reports on a recent book claiming the figures in Da Vinci's paintings and drawings point to the spot where the viewer should place a mirror.
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The mirror will then reveal secret images for the viewer to discover. For example, this famous work on the left seems to be about a Christian topic, but the mirror image seems to celebrate a pagan belief instead. The eerie rocks appear like an earth mother. Maybe he was alluding to the pagan meaning of the Holy Grail as womb worship.
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Click on the above link to see the mirrored images. You'll never look at a da Vinci in the same way.
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Anyways, this makes looking at art fun and compelling. I also like that this news was published in a scientific site.
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Roman Signer at The Fruitmarket Gallery
Good, now I have the perfect opportunity to write about one of my favorite artists, Roman Signer.
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He's currently having an exhibition at The Fruitmarket Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland.
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The photo comes from www.eflux.com, also a fave of mine (the website that is.) Titled Office Chair, this film shows the artist spinning around in the chair solely by the force of the fireworks that he's holding.
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Often humorous at first glance, his work pushes the boundaries of the expectations of art and the functions of cotidian objects while scientically and aesthetically exploring the laws of physics, and ultimately the role that our body plays in the much larger scheme of the universe.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
You say ‘toh-mah-toe’ or Re-production; I say Plagiarism
An exhibition currently on view at Taiwan’s National Palace Museum explores the fifth century idea of Chinese painting, that copying a master’s work was a noble pursuit and was one of the Six Principles of Painting.
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http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/visiting/exhibit/exhibit_08.htm?docno=369
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This helps me to understand cultural differences and that what is called “transmitting by copying” is not and should not be regarded negatively.
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I should then feel flattered by this:
1. An essay I wrote for a gallery (posted below)
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http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/visiting/exhibit/exhibit_08.htm?docno=369
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This helps me to understand cultural differences and that what is called “transmitting by copying” is not and should not be regarded negatively.
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I should then feel flattered by this:
1. An essay I wrote for a gallery (posted below)
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Followed by,
Followed by,
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2. A newspaper article that was ‘transmitted by copying’:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2006/08/10/2003322676
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2. A newspaper article that was ‘transmitted by copying’:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2006/08/10/2003322676
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Peng Hung-chih and Tsui Kuang-yu by Susan Kendzulak, June 22, 2006
Shoe bombers. Tsunamis. Bird flu. High-cholesterol. Whew, these days we have a lot of things to worry about; it’s enough to make you want to stay home with your head under the pillow. Of course ignoring these troubles does not make them go away. So how do we cope in our daily lives amidst this onslaught of fear and loathing?
For artists Peng Hung-chih and Tsui Kuang-yu, who have grown up in Taiwan with the ever-pervasive scare that China’s missiles were ready to strike at any moment, their strategies are not outright neurotic, though they have internalized the feelings of uncertainty, malaise and paranoia with cynical humor which they then reflect back to the viewer.
Even though both artists work in video their approaches vastly differ. Peng’s dog becomes the obliging actor who is filmed in a controlled documentary style with the stationary camera acting as a neutral observer to capture events as they unfold, while Tsui works like the silent film cinematographers (such as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) letting the camera roll to catch the director/actor’s ongoing spontaneous non-verbal performance of himself.
Peng’s three videos show his dog unveiling religious texts from the Christian, Buddhist and Taoist canon. In Qingjing Jing a white dog reveals ancient Taoist truths by hungrily licking a blank white wall making reddish Chinese characters of a traditional Taoist text suddenly appear on the wall. The ancient texts tell its followers to accept the universal truths about life. So what better model is there than a dog, who is basically Taoist in temperament, to reveal the Doctrine of the Principle of Nature?Yet, things aren’t as truthful as they appear to be. To make the video, Peng applied an earth-colored paste of dog food in the shape of the Chinese characters onto the white wall, which the dog then accommodatingly laps up. The image is then speeded up and played backwards making it appear that the animal is licking the empty wall, and thus exposing the text by his magic saliva and paintbrush tongue.
Shoe bombers. Tsunamis. Bird flu. High-cholesterol. Whew, these days we have a lot of things to worry about; it’s enough to make you want to stay home with your head under the pillow. Of course ignoring these troubles does not make them go away. So how do we cope in our daily lives amidst this onslaught of fear and loathing?
For artists Peng Hung-chih and Tsui Kuang-yu, who have grown up in Taiwan with the ever-pervasive scare that China’s missiles were ready to strike at any moment, their strategies are not outright neurotic, though they have internalized the feelings of uncertainty, malaise and paranoia with cynical humor which they then reflect back to the viewer.
Even though both artists work in video their approaches vastly differ. Peng’s dog becomes the obliging actor who is filmed in a controlled documentary style with the stationary camera acting as a neutral observer to capture events as they unfold, while Tsui works like the silent film cinematographers (such as Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd) letting the camera roll to catch the director/actor’s ongoing spontaneous non-verbal performance of himself.
Peng’s three videos show his dog unveiling religious texts from the Christian, Buddhist and Taoist canon. In Qingjing Jing a white dog reveals ancient Taoist truths by hungrily licking a blank white wall making reddish Chinese characters of a traditional Taoist text suddenly appear on the wall. The ancient texts tell its followers to accept the universal truths about life. So what better model is there than a dog, who is basically Taoist in temperament, to reveal the Doctrine of the Principle of Nature?Yet, things aren’t as truthful as they appear to be. To make the video, Peng applied an earth-colored paste of dog food in the shape of the Chinese characters onto the white wall, which the dog then accommodatingly laps up. The image is then speeded up and played backwards making it appear that the animal is licking the empty wall, and thus exposing the text by his magic saliva and paintbrush tongue.
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In another work, starting off with the powerful statement from Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image,” the dog continues to lick out biblical texts such as “for there is not a word in my tongue” and “my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness.” These texts that refer to teaching, tongue, the mouth, blood, revenge and death hint at the importance of the word while commenting on the origins of life itself: is the answer Darwinian evolution or the oxymoronic-termed intelligent design?
In another work, starting off with the powerful statement from Genesis 1:26 “And God said, Let us make man in our image,” the dog continues to lick out biblical texts such as “for there is not a word in my tongue” and “my tongue shall speak of thy righteousness.” These texts that refer to teaching, tongue, the mouth, blood, revenge and death hint at the importance of the word while commenting on the origins of life itself: is the answer Darwinian evolution or the oxymoronic-termed intelligent design?
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So Peng’s videos at first seem to be about divulging ancient spiritual secrets, but it is also a cannibalistic consumption, the self-conscious eating of one’s words. In Peng’s inverted world, words have power. The reversal in the video also puts the spiritual sense of order into upheaval, confusing artifice with reality, and thus providing us with a topsy-turvy redefinition of the world. Peng asks us if we believe in faith or terrorism as religious faith is promoted worldwide but taken too far veers into fanaticism. Peng also says this circular unceasing cycle of revenge needs to stop once and for all and suggests that these eternal truths for peace and harmony is immanent and could even be released by a dog.
So Peng’s videos at first seem to be about divulging ancient spiritual secrets, but it is also a cannibalistic consumption, the self-conscious eating of one’s words. In Peng’s inverted world, words have power. The reversal in the video also puts the spiritual sense of order into upheaval, confusing artifice with reality, and thus providing us with a topsy-turvy redefinition of the world. Peng asks us if we believe in faith or terrorism as religious faith is promoted worldwide but taken too far veers into fanaticism. Peng also says this circular unceasing cycle of revenge needs to stop once and for all and suggests that these eternal truths for peace and harmony is immanent and could even be released by a dog.
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Tsui Kuang-yu gained immediate recognition for his single-channel performative videos in which he, as both director and filmed subject, showed the absurdity of contemporary life humorously without the use of spoken language. These slapstick moments allude to the social misfit trying to adapt to society, much like a creature using mimicry to blend into its surroundings. Here, blending in is not a form of surrender, but a subtle form of resistance to the status quo.
In The Shortcut to the Systematic Life: City Spirits (2005), shot in London and Taipei, the artist turns the urban environment into a sports arena. Like the silent film moviemakers who cleverly used their lunchtime banana peels as movie props for pratfalls, Tsui too works spontaneously allowing form and content, and art and life to merge seamlessly together.
In one scene, a flock of pigeons gathered in a plaza really do seem arranged like a set of ninepins and the artist then gets on one knee into appropriate bowling form and swiftly rolls a ball at them making the birds instantly scatter. It is as if the city suddenly has become a Situationist-like arcade where all of its elements such as the pigeons, street lights, curbs and traffic become pieces of the bigger game.
While Peng’s work hints at a master plan, Tsui takes the absurdist approach of randomness. He is not urging one to play by the rules or to even break them, but rather to overthrow the game plan.
Tsui Kuang-yu gained immediate recognition for his single-channel performative videos in which he, as both director and filmed subject, showed the absurdity of contemporary life humorously without the use of spoken language. These slapstick moments allude to the social misfit trying to adapt to society, much like a creature using mimicry to blend into its surroundings. Here, blending in is not a form of surrender, but a subtle form of resistance to the status quo.
In The Shortcut to the Systematic Life: City Spirits (2005), shot in London and Taipei, the artist turns the urban environment into a sports arena. Like the silent film moviemakers who cleverly used their lunchtime banana peels as movie props for pratfalls, Tsui too works spontaneously allowing form and content, and art and life to merge seamlessly together.
In one scene, a flock of pigeons gathered in a plaza really do seem arranged like a set of ninepins and the artist then gets on one knee into appropriate bowling form and swiftly rolls a ball at them making the birds instantly scatter. It is as if the city suddenly has become a Situationist-like arcade where all of its elements such as the pigeons, street lights, curbs and traffic become pieces of the bigger game.
While Peng’s work hints at a master plan, Tsui takes the absurdist approach of randomness. He is not urging one to play by the rules or to even break them, but rather to overthrow the game plan.
Saturday, January 5, 2008
The journalist vs. the critic
In this corner, the arts journalist.
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Pugilisticly brash, sharp-tongued and often quick witted, the arts journalist is a favorite with editors.
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Providing snappy copy with tantalizing quotes, the article often lacks the one thing that is fundamental to good art writing: an understanding about art!
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These articles play well to the novice public, but to arts specialists, it is obvious that there is a void of background knowledge about the subject. How can this be?
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Let's compare this to sports writing. In a sports article there is implicit feeling that the writer knows the rules and the in/outs and history of the game he or she is covering. But oftentimes in arts journalism, it is painful to read such glaring errors and well-meaning, but misguided words. The reader walks away from the article having only been momentarily entertained but certainly not enlightened.
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Now in this corner, the art critic.
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The art critic does not need to quote heavily from the artist or museum director to make a point about the art. The critic is confident enough in his or her subjectivity and can provide readers with an interpretation or a reading of the art. Journalists lack that type of insight and criticality.
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And to get back to sports writing. One reason why I prefer it to arts journalism, not only due to its intelligence - as it doesn't dumb itself down to the reader like arts journalism tends to do - it also consistently discusses ethical issues. So as a reader I feel I have also gained some insight about the world I live in. Now why can't arts journalism step up to the plate? (oops, mixed metaphors here: jump into the ring? throw down its gloves?)
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Some Art Trends of 2007
Pre-2007 photo of Hermann Nitsch performance courtesy of http://www.slought.org/img/archive1/1264+press1.jpg
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1. International biennials are still going strong. And why not? It makes strong business sense as it is good for civic enterprises and local tourism. It also presents a muy simpatico face to the world, in the case of countries whose politics are a bit messy.
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2. The art market dominates the media. Most western journalism covers the auctions and the high rollers. Have you read a mainstream piece that purely discusses the work of art and its philosophical ideas and metaphors the artist wishes to convey to the public? I highly doubt it. Editors and readers prefer sensationalism over profound thought. This is one reason why I read the sports pages rather than the arts, as the sports pages seem to comment on society at large (making me ponder about the world I live in) while, in general, arts writing tends to have its head stuck up its arse.
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3. Chinese art from China is still hot in the US and Europe. But has the western world really gained a deeper understanding about Chinese culture or is this just a form of post-colonial acquisition on one side and frenzied selling out on the other?
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4. Political messages in art were the exception rather than the norm. Collectively we all know that war, poverty, genocide are terrible things and maybe we’re inure to hearing/ seeing/ receiving such messages in art. Perhaps politics in art aren’t so sexy, unless Angelina Jolie is involved, and maybe which is why we don’t see such outrage in the art world like there was in the ‘60s. In 2007, there were some feminist retrospectives in the US. I didn’t see them, but wasn’t it saying feminism is safely tucked away in the past and we can look at it historically as it is no longer a menace?
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5. Performance art is stronger than ever. It taps into the audience’s memory of parties and festive occasions. It hints that something significant may happen so that you want to be there in person to witness it. Celebrities may also attend it, but it is art at the same time, so it is a bit cerebral, and enlightening too, isn’t it? Have you noticed that some of the big art moments for 2007 were getting infected with the dust of celebrity-ism?
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Taiwan's Top 5 Art Moments for 2007
My article of Taiwan's top 5 art moments was published in the local newspaper.
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The photo is Kuo I-chen's installation Wilson. The video in the back shows Tom Hank's Castaway character franctically searching in the sea for the Wilson volleyball. Kuo too is metaphorically searching for his Wilson. Here, Wilson is Kuo's Rosebud.
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It’s the end of the year and the Taipei Times fondly looks back at some great art moments and holds its crystal ball to predict 5 up-and-coming artists/trends for the future. In keeping with the festive occasion, we’ll count down just like it’s New Year’s Eve:
5. Tseng Yu-chin曾御欽recently had his video work displayed at Germany’s prestigious Documenta exhibition this summer. What was noteworthy was that he was not filling any quotas or participating in a national presentation. Rather he was included because he’s an exceptional artist ready to participate at an international level. Recently, he went to New York for a 6 month art residency.
4. Sean Hu Chao-sheng胡朝聖. Okay, he’s not an artist. He’s a curator. His first experience was with land art and he’s curated some notable exhibitions this year such as Lin Chuan-Chu’s林銓居rice field/painting studio in Dazhi, Fashion Accidentally at Taipei MOCA and Very Fun Park in Taipei’s eastern district. What is remarkable about Hu’s curatorship is his inclusiveness. He does not only invite ethnic Taiwanese for his exhibitions which most Taiwanese curators tend to do. He includes artists and designers of various ethnicities, gender identification and art practices to participate. Other curators, please take note.
3. One of the best works created this year was by Yao Jui-chung 姚瑞中. Now Yao is no novice as he’s already exhibited in the Venice Biennale, plus numerous other exhibitions. He’s also known for curating shows and authoring several books. But the video he made where he’s slowly goosestepping about the CKS statuary park in Taoyuan hits the zeitgeist right between the eyes. In this age of ‘de-sinicization’, Yao’s mockery of idol statuary is timely, comical and a tad visionary.
2. Number two is not an artist, nor a curator, but rather the notable status of equality of women in Taiwan’s art institutions. Lin Munlee is director to the National Palace Museum, Lai Hsiang-ling finishes her 2 year contract with Taipei MOCA, Hsieh Hsiou-yun is director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Ava Hsueh is director of the National Taiwan Museum in Taichung.
1. Hands down ! Our big winner for the year undoubtedly is Kuo I-chen郭奕臣. Kuo seamlessly merges high-tech gadgetry with profound metaphysical concerns making him stand apart in Taiwan’s contemporary art field. He was off to a running start when he first exhibited in a Taipei Biennial in 2004 when he was just a student, well, a grad student. This summer his participation in Thermocline : New Asian Waves at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany brought him acclaim, plus the Centre Pompidou bought his work for their collection. In October, he had four simultaneous exhibitions that featured work showing a destroyed earth but which provided humanity’s hope for survival. Meanwhile, international curators are flocking to his studio, but the art world will have to wait as Kuo just started his obligatory one-year military duty.
5. Tseng Yu-chin曾御欽recently had his video work displayed at Germany’s prestigious Documenta exhibition this summer. What was noteworthy was that he was not filling any quotas or participating in a national presentation. Rather he was included because he’s an exceptional artist ready to participate at an international level. Recently, he went to New York for a 6 month art residency.
4. Sean Hu Chao-sheng胡朝聖. Okay, he’s not an artist. He’s a curator. His first experience was with land art and he’s curated some notable exhibitions this year such as Lin Chuan-Chu’s林銓居rice field/painting studio in Dazhi, Fashion Accidentally at Taipei MOCA and Very Fun Park in Taipei’s eastern district. What is remarkable about Hu’s curatorship is his inclusiveness. He does not only invite ethnic Taiwanese for his exhibitions which most Taiwanese curators tend to do. He includes artists and designers of various ethnicities, gender identification and art practices to participate. Other curators, please take note.
3. One of the best works created this year was by Yao Jui-chung 姚瑞中. Now Yao is no novice as he’s already exhibited in the Venice Biennale, plus numerous other exhibitions. He’s also known for curating shows and authoring several books. But the video he made where he’s slowly goosestepping about the CKS statuary park in Taoyuan hits the zeitgeist right between the eyes. In this age of ‘de-sinicization’, Yao’s mockery of idol statuary is timely, comical and a tad visionary.
2. Number two is not an artist, nor a curator, but rather the notable status of equality of women in Taiwan’s art institutions. Lin Munlee is director to the National Palace Museum, Lai Hsiang-ling finishes her 2 year contract with Taipei MOCA, Hsieh Hsiou-yun is director of the Taipei Fine Arts Museum and Ava Hsueh is director of the National Taiwan Museum in Taichung.
1. Hands down ! Our big winner for the year undoubtedly is Kuo I-chen郭奕臣. Kuo seamlessly merges high-tech gadgetry with profound metaphysical concerns making him stand apart in Taiwan’s contemporary art field. He was off to a running start when he first exhibited in a Taipei Biennial in 2004 when he was just a student, well, a grad student. This summer his participation in Thermocline : New Asian Waves at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany brought him acclaim, plus the Centre Pompidou bought his work for their collection. In October, he had four simultaneous exhibitions that featured work showing a destroyed earth but which provided humanity’s hope for survival. Meanwhile, international curators are flocking to his studio, but the art world will have to wait as Kuo just started his obligatory one-year military duty.
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