A fitting image

In this paradoxical age of gluttony and financial strife, this image seems somehow a propos.

Asian Biennial Forum November 14-18

I will be the online moderator for the Asian Biennial Forum on
http://northeastwestsouth.net/site/node/211. So please join us this weekend!
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This is from their website:
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"Asian Biennials
Start: 2008-11-14 12:00
End: 2008-11-18 23:00
Timezone: Europe/Amsterdam
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Asian Biennial Forum at n.e.w.s. has been postponed until November 14th-18th!
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Asian Biennials this year have reached an all-time high, adding to the growing number of Biennials around the world. While many of the biennials focused on proportionally inviting western and 'non-western' artists, transnational interstitiality or using the respective cities as presentation spaces in a neo-liberalist capitalist economies, others addressed the specific terminology that is central to artistic discourse within a globalised world. Many of the contributors to n.e.w.s. have either visited the recent biennials or are themselves participants. Starting with the premise put forth by the Guangzhou Triennial curatorial team 'Farewell to Postcolonialism’, n.e.w.s. would like to contribute to this forward-looking discussion with an Asian Biennial forum where curators, artists and critics share their experiences of the past two months.
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Going beyond academic, institutionalized discourse, n.e.w.s. will be used as a tool bringing together voices from all over the world, those living in different time zones, but gathering virtually for one weekend around the 2008 phenomena of 9 Asian Biennials! Moderated by Susan Kendzulak, contributors will give brief essays about certain topics they find relevant, concomitantly they will comment on the uploaded essays. Trusted readers and subscribers, along with visitors to the site, are not only invited to sign-up as users but encouraged to join in the discussion with their comments and critiques.
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Invited contributors so far: Lee Weng Choy, Sebastian Lopez, Ingrid Commandeur, Rich Streitmatter-Tran, Phoebe Wong, Chantal Wong, Tiong Ang, Thomas Berghuis, Ruben de la Nuez. "

November 4, 2008

Jacob Lawrence "Play" 1999

Inspiring art quote

I came across this inspiring quote about art and artists that I'd like to share with you.

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Malaysian painter Ahmad Fuad Osman replied to this question:

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"What do you think is the role of a contemporary artist in society?

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My friend once told me that in France, they planted roses outside their grapes farm for wineries to attract insects so that their grapes will be good and healthy for wine making, and I like the idea even though I don’t know if it is true or not.

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To me, in a way, an artists should be ‘that roses’ to his society because they are among others, the one who is really ‘looking and listening’. "

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http://caisproject.blogspot.com/2008/08/artists-corner-ahmad-fuad-osman.html

Cultural Sensitivity: Chen Chieh-jen, AIT & Yu Cheng-ta, Taipei Biennial 2008

Lately Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-jen has been making local headlines due to his recent protest against AIT (American Institute Taiwan), the defacto embassy, whose official insulted Chen as he applied for a visa to attend the New Orleans Biennial in November as participating artist.
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After the incident, he decided to not follow through and get a visa, but rather make an artwork to protest the shabby treatment Taiwanese often receive at AIT.
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Here is Chen Chieh-jen’s blog in Chinese:
http://ccjonstrike.blogspot.com/
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Chen’s complaint is about the lack of cultural sensitivity of a US official towards a Taiwanese citizen.
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Now let’s switch to the north part of the city at the current Taipei Biennial 2008.
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Young Taiwanese artist Yu Cheng-ta is showing a series of several videos titled “Ventriloquist” in which he asks Europeans, North Americans, Filipinas, and Japanese to repeat what he says in Chinese.
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Since Chinese has 4 tones it is often impossible for the novice learner to speak them correctly. So in these videos, the foreigners are mispronouncing the Chinese words, thus creating different meanings. This is extremely hilarious for the Taiwanese audience, and completely meaningless for the non-Chinese audience.
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Personally, the piece offends me. Probably, because that’s my daily experience, getting laughed and mocked constantly (not only from children) when I say my elementary-level Mandarin which prompts me to quickly switch to English.
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Perhaps I am missing the meaning of Yu’s work and would welcome comments explaining it.
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Otherwise, I ‘read’ it as showing a complete lack of cultural sensitivity, something that Chen Chieh-jen is protesting.
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More details here:

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2008/10/01/2003424720

http://english.rti.org.tw/content/fwFContent.aspx?id=news&RealPath=http%3A%2F%2Fenglish.rti.org.tw%2FContent%2FGetSingleNews.aspx%3FContentID%3D65774%26BlockID%3D31

"The West Is the Best," says Taipei Biennial 2008

I recently watched Japanese TV news and saw footage from Vietnam and Burma. I then realized to my surprise in all my 13 years living in Taiwan that I never saw footage from Southeast Asia broadcast on the local news.
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Taiwan is really like an ostrich with its head stuck in the sand, with no interest in other nations or ethnicities except its own. This solipsism carries through from the public to the private domain; I don’t know if this stems from arrogance or ignorance though.

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Taiwan has tons of TV channels with around-the-clock news broadcasts which mainly focus on Taiwan. Occasionally there will be mention of the US, Europe, China and Japan, but rarely mention about the Philippines or Thailand.
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This solipsism or lack of curiosity for its regional neighbors can be seen in the Taipei Biennial 2008 that opens this weekend. Out of the 47 participating artists 70 percent are western, mainly European, while less than 20 percent are Asian from China, Korea, Malaysia and Taiwan.

please stay tuned

Hi faithful readers,

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I apologize for not blogging since August 21st. I'm working on a big research project with a tight deadline, so I can't really spare time to add new posts.

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Please check back after the 15th. Hopefully I can blog about the Asian biennials that are soon to open.