IMMATERIAL ART BASEL
Talks, panels, and performances in Hong Kong, by Robin Peckham
The art fair in Hong Kong, now falling under the Art Basel umbrella, has succeeded for a number of reasons, perhaps chief among them the transparent market infrastructure of the city and the reputation for pragmatic mercantilism it has accumulated as a British entrepot. But as much as the rule of law has encouraged an internationally viable market structure, it has also made Hong Kong a rare hub for scholarship, particularly o... [more]
The art fair in Hong Kong, now falling under the Art Basel umbrella, has succeeded for a number of reasons, perhaps chief among them the transparent market infrastructure of the city and the reputation for pragmatic mercantilism it has accumulated as a British entrepot. But as much as the rule of law has encouraged an internationally viable market structure, it has also made Hong Kong a rare hub for scholarship, particularly of the Anglophone variety, for much of Asia. Long before the launch of ArtHK a... [more]
Wang Yuyang’s set of disparate sculptural constructions that make up “Liner,” at Tang Contemporary, betray their design by computer in their fantastically ornate, mathematical shapes, spurs and swoops of material. They seem to express an aesthetic typically seen in the virtual shapes produced by CAD software. In the gallery they become slightly unreal or impractical forms: large cubes of marble are juxtaposed with jointed lengths of the same material, inserted with lengths of gleaming aluminiu... [more]
Wandering through the colorfully gay labyrinths of 798 – by far, the foremost art district in Beijing – on a chilly January afternoon, I stumble onto a grey building, quite out of sync with its neighboring galleries and museums that shine in colourful resplendence. This, however, is it – my pilgrim spot – the Faurschou Foundation, Beijing. Inside its grim and non-glamorous exterior, it is housing an exhibition of Louise Bourgeois’s works – for the first time in China, curated by the... [more]
Whose Autonomy? by Edward Sanderson Rigo 23, Guy Ben-Ner, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Cao Fei, Claire Fontaine, Zheng Guogu, Yang Jiechang, Kimsooja, Cinthia Marcelle and Tiago Mata Machato, Xijing Men, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, HO TZU NYEN, Sriwhana Spong, Nasan Tur, Richard T. Walker, Lin Yilin at Times Museum
January 20th - March 17th
Posted
3/1/13
As one of the more visible providers of a critique of the centre/periphery model of cultural development in the early 2000’s, a new exhibition by curator Hou Hanru is highly anticipated. ZiZhiQu: Autonomous Regions at the Times Museum in Guangzhou can perhaps be seen to develop this model as it applies to the cultural self-formation of individuals and groups, placing that development in contrast to a globalised institutionalisation of culture. Autonomy, then, moves across all scales in its realisat... [more]
Five monumental structures are distributed around the gallery space, coated in slicks of pigment. These multi-coloured, yet muted, painted surfaces have taken on the turbulent patterns of weather systems, or of ink in water. Despite their geometric shapes, the surfaces have a plastic quality, giving an organic effect to the objects. On the floor on one side of each of these monuments stands a tripod, supporting a vertical, tubular arrangement of hard-edged gold or silver tubes, but with additions of... [more]
Moving and Still by Edward Sanderson Yang Fudong at OCT Contemporary Art Terminal (OCAT) - Shanghai
September 30th, 2012 - January 3rd
Posted
1/21/13
Yang Fudong’s solo show in Shanghai shifts the balance of his work away from the video installations onto his photographs, in the process proving the intimate connections but also the disparities between his moving and still images.
The collection of prints that form the bulk of this exhibition include still shots from Yang Fudong’s films as well as his stand-alone photographs from across his whole career. Yang’s photographic work has always been a counterpart to his films, in that it als... [more]
Perusing the last year’s contributions to ArtSlant China some clear themes come across, and provide us with a snapshot of the art scenes in Beijing, Hong Kong, and elsewhere in China. We see the prevalence of artist communities, collectives and relational art; the rise of performance work; blockbuster sculpture and installation exhibitions; and changing patterns in curatorial strategies. Here’s a look back at some of the most thought-provoking reviews from ArtSlant writers Edward Sanderson and Robi... [more]
SEE/SAW is billed as the prelude to the show ON/OFF, which will open at UCCA in January 2013. ON/OFF promises to be a rather exciting group show of young Chinese artists over the whole of UCCA’s spaces. SEE/SAW though occupies just a small part of this institution’s gallery spaces, to address the recent phenomenon of artist groups in China. While groupings of artists have always existed, not least in China, this way of working has become a very visible feature of artists’ practice here over the... [more]
The Meeting Room is a project hosted within Beijing’s Arrow Factory space, and organised by artists Rania Ho, one of the founders of that space, and Elaine W. Ho (no relation), founder of the HomeShop, a small creative community sited a few streets away. With this new project, the concerns of the two artists previously expressed through their work on their particular institutions, have come together to form a very interesting and socially productive use of the space – converting it into bookabl... [more]
In Beijing’s 798 Art Zone, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA) presents ‘Yung Ho Chang + FCJZ: Material-ism’, the first retrospective of the pioneer of contemporary Chinese architecture. UCCA shows over 6 installations, 40 models and 270 drawings charting the cross-disciplinary work of Yung Ho Chang and his practice Feichang Jianzhu (FCJZ). Chang and FCJZ transform the UCCA Great Hall into six courtyard-like modules inspired by the ‘hutong’, the traditional Chinese neighbourhoo... [more]
Peeking through the glazed and systematically inaccessible storefront of the Arrow Factory space (inaccessibility being a usual feature of this small non-profit space’s presentations), a scene reminiscent of a storage space or garage is visible. In amongst the detritus that litters the space—the construction tools, ladders, paint tins, sheets of wood, and bags of unidentifiable materials—a series of television monitors sit on chairs or boxes, and make up the deliberately make-shift presenta... [more]
Be Floored by Edward Sanderson Wang Wei at Magician Space
September 13th, 2012 - October 31st, 2012
Posted
10/1/12
The two pieces by artist Wang Wei currently on show at Magician Space address two aspects of constructed space—the wall and the floor—in one succinct installation. As the title makes clear, the pieces are literally a wall and a floor, but their structure, placement, and relationship to each other, as well as their existence within the gallery space, mark them out as out of place. This suggests, and is backed up by the text for the exhibition, that these pieces are from other places, reproduc... [more]
Long March Space presents a strong body of new works by Liu Wei, which seem to progressively build upon and develop various aspects of this artist’s works. The results suggest monumentality in their occupation of space while retaining an uncertainty in their inability to be defined and interpreted. This opacity of the pieces is apparently mirrored by the reticence of the artist to elaborate on them too specifically. The viewer is offered little aside from some general statements made by Liu a... [more]
Food for Thought by Edward Sanderson Li Bo, Qiu Jingtong, Dai Liang, Liang Shuo, Chen Xinpeng, Ma Yongfeng, Xiao Yu at PIFO New Art Gallery
August 11th, 2012 - August 20th, 2012
Posted
9/3/12
Food Art Exhibition at PIFO New Art Gallery, organised by the international charity Oxfam as part of their global “GROW” campaign, aims to raise awareness of poverty in relation to production and access to food, but the art exhibition on show raises issues concerning the effectiveness of this form of presentation.
Although art shows undertaken to promote charitable issues have worthy intentions that should in most cases be supported, there is a troublesome tendency for the art to be the leas... [more]
When Artinfo released the China-focused edition of an article featuring the most influential young players in the art world, the preponderance of Hong Kong-based figures, occupying twelve of thirty positions, was unexpected. Despite the meteoric growth of the art fair ArtHK as a pan-Asian platform, the success of international auction firms Christie’s and Sotheby’s in the city, and the evolution of the downtown financial district as a gallery hotspot, the Chinese art world largely continues to re... [more]
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