Art Radar speaks with Para/Site curator, director Fominaya on November auction event

ART AUCTION FUNDRAISER HONG KONG CURATOR INTERVIEW

Para/Site Art Space, a non-profit organisation located in Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, will hold its annual Para/Site Fundraising Auction in early November this year. It will take place in the Kee Club, who also support the event, and is one of the most important fund-generators for the space. Para/Site is devoted to the exhibition of local and international contemporary art. It is also a space where seminars, talks and workshops take place regularly.

We had the opportunity to talk with the Para/Site Director and Curator Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya who has been working for the space for one-and-a-half-years, half of his contracted commitment. We wanted to know more about him, Para/Site Art Space and what special surprises the upcoming auction will have for attendees.

Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya, director and curator of Hong Kong's non-profit Para/Site Art Space. Image courtesy of Para/Site Art Space.

Fominaya and Para/Site: small scale projects with international interaction

How long has Para/Site Art Space been running for?

Para/Site was founded in 1996. It was one of the first organisations of its kind to be created in Hong Kong. In 1997, other organisations like 1Artspace were created. Para/Site started as an artists’ collective, providing a space for member artists to exhibit. Very soon it became a space for other artists coming from abroad to show their work. Para/Site started an international programme and this has continued until now. Para/Site, in a way, was a pioneer in inviting curators to work full time. I am the second curator who has joined the space. (Editor’s note: Before Fominaya, Para/Site employed Tobias Berger, a German curator who worked for the space for three years from 2006 to 2008.)

Why did you decide to join Para/Site Art Space?

Several reasons made me want to join this space: I wanted to distance myself somewhat from the European gallery/art space model. I wanted also to be able to curate all major parts of a project. In Europe, the scale of the projects I was working on was very different. I was used to working on big projects within a large team. I wanted to experiment with small scale projects, as they give me a much closer relationship with the artist. But, we also have a minor budget here! It is very challenging (smiles). The logic of culture working in a large scale organisation or in a small one is very different. I have to say that it was very shocking for me at first! I had to adapt to a different scale of project and to a different culture.

What has changed since you first joined Para/Site Art Space?

We have worked harder to develop our facilities for our Hong Kong artists and also to increase our public programme by developing some workshops…. [We are] promoting local art abroad and making dialogue between the art and artists possible in and outside Hong Kong. An example of a workshop has been the participation of the director of education at MoMA, Philip Yenawine, who talked about museums and education. [Past] workshops weren’t that much focused on artists but more on art administrators, curators, etc..

Zhang Dali, 'AK-47 (V.7)', 2010, acrylic on canvas, 102 x 82 cm, unique edition. Image courtesy of Para/Site Art Space.

What have you been doing before you joined Para/Site Art Space?

Before coming to Para/Site I worked in a very different type of environment. I was working as a curator in a contemporary and modern art museum in Spain for six years. It was a different type of organisation; it was much larger and we covered all the twentieth century. At Para/Site Art Space … it’s a totally different type of environment, being a micro non-profit organisation with only four people working on our projects. Most of those projects are commissioned works that the artists develop for us. We have a very active international programme, which is very different from [the programme we had in] my previous job. That’s one of the challenges.

How is it funded?

The money raised in the auction covers almost half of our annual budget. That’s why it’s a very important event for us. We want to fundraise approximately HKD1,000,000 during this event. [We have organised] this kind of event for almost ten years now and we always had a very successful response. The rest of the budget is covered by the government, a French petrol group and smaller sponsors like corporate entities.

Rem Koolhaas, 'Lagos', 2007, photographic paper, 112 x 84 cm, special edition for Para/Site Art Space. Image courtesy of Para/Site Art Space.

Para/Site Fundraising Auction to sell one-off and special edition works

Can you explain the fundraising event to me in a few words. How do you get the artwork? What happens on the night? How did you select the artists?

The event is basically a fundraising auction. We are very cheeky and we ask the artists to donate their work to Para/Site. Some of the participating artists have worked with us and the others just want to support us in a generous way. During the event, the idea is to sell all the works in a pleasant atmosphere. From the 28 artists that participate in the events, around ten of them will attend the event. Those ten artists are based in Hong Kong. Unfortunately we don’t have the budget to fly all the artist here but we’ll have a very good representation of the selection we made. This night is very special, because it gathers different kinds of personalities together: curators, art gallery owners, artists and art lovers. Make sure to RSVP to attend to the auction as the event, with 100 people expected, will have limited places.

For this fundraising auction, 28 artists will participate. This selection of artists is a good representation of what we do. It is a mix of local Chinese, Asian and international artists. Some are very established and others not so. We’ll have secured the participation of a very established artist, Rem Koolhaas, who is donating a photograph titled Lagos. He has never sold his work before. You know what to do if you want to get it: Come to the Kee Club and it’s yours! We also have Ai Weiwei, a very interesting artist who we already exhibited last April and May. [We have] Zhang Dali, one of the pioneers of the Chinese avant-guarde and a very established artist. We have also a good representation of artists from Hong Kong. This event is a great opportunity to get artworks of a very good quality. I want to highlight also the big support from some galleries and foundations that have donated works to Para/Site, such as Cat Street Gallery. All the works that will be part of the auction will be shown here in Para/Site space.

It’s a big challenge as we curate a large number of art works and deal with artists from all over the world,… almost thirty artists, most of whom do not live in Hong Kong. The process is really like curating a show, the only difference is that the artists donate their work instead of selling it. Surprisingly, most of the artists we approached, even those who didn’t have any past relationship with Para/Site, had heard about this space and wanted to help and support us. It is a big responsibility; it has to go well for us, but it is at the same time a celebration.

Ai Weiwei, 'Swatter', 2007, brass gilded, 0.5 x 50 x 7cm.

Fominaya on running a non-profit art organisation

How do you choose which artists to represent Para/Site Art Space’s regular exhibition?

For the most part I invite the artists I want to work with. I do review the portfolios that we receive but the process I follow is mostly by invitation. I generally focus in the region, working with Hong Kong artists on international projects as a mission. I’m really focussing on Chinese, Asian and South Asian artists. We use the fact that Hong Kong is a door between the West, China and the south of Asia to get our inspiration for creating our programme. We want to show what Hong Kong means in a political, geographical and economic sense. At the same time, I try to  stay away from what you can find in a commercial gallery. Actually, that’s one of the reasons why we don’t work that much with painters. Most of the work [we show] is installation and moving image. Personally, I’m very interested in moving image art.

Has the mission of Para/Site Art Space changed over time?

We continue with the same philosophy as before my arrival. In these two years, we have been developing more international projects with Hong Kong artists. We have also done a few projects with artists from outside Hong Kong, creating a dialogue between all of them. An example is the exhibition we curated with Joseph Kosuth and Tsang Kin Wah in 2009.

Has Para/Site Art Space always been in Po Yan Street? Or has the gallery been in another location before?

In April 1997, Para/Site Art Space was located in Kennedy Town before moving to its present location in Sheung Wan District, but it looks like we will have to emigrate. Sheung Wan is an area of Hong Kong that is getting very expensive. Next door, a luxurious apartment building is being built. The prices in the area are getting as expensive as the Peak. I think we need to move to a larger space to develop different types of projects with different scales. For the moment, the space that Para/Site has suits the type of exhibitions shown, but also the human resources and the budget we have available.

Sometimes you can find very famous artists in Para/Site. They don’t do the same kind of work they usually do in big museums as they have to adapt their work to the space. They also don’t have so much pressure and they tend to use this space to experiment, trying out different types of work.

How would you like to see Para/Site Art Space grow?

The artist community in Hong Kong is very active and developed. There are many commercial galleries but most of them are small and Hong Kong needs powerful galleries that can support its artists. What we would need in Hong Kong would be a larger number of non-commercial art spaces. A bit like Para/Site but on an even larger scale in order to allow the local art community to develop their projects.

The desire we have for Para/Site is to have a larger budget and a bigger venue that will help us achieve our larger goals. We want to make possible more dialogue with other art spaces around the world in order to develop projects. But this is not a short-term idea. This needs to be done over time to assure its sustainability.

SB/KN/HH

Related Topics: non-profit, art spaces, events, curators, Hong Kong venues

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Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more on non-profit art spaces in Hong Kong and elsewhere

Sotheby’s London offers four short courses in Asian contemporary art for autumn

CONTEMPORARY ART EDUCATION

This autumn, Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London is offering four courses focussing on modern and contemporary art in the Asian region, mostly Russia, India and China.

Changing Dynamics in the Art Market, 12 and 26 October/2 and 9 November (night course)
Examines stakeholders, values and trade issues, focusing particularly on the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) countries and their respective art markets.

Russian Art: 1890 to Today, 12 and 26 October/2 and 9 November (night course)
Introduces participants to the major artists and artistic movements in Russia from the late 19th century until the present day.

Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes: Art, Revolution and Revelation, 12 and 26 October/ 2 and 9 November (day course)
Gives a panoramic overview of the extraordinary life and achievements of Sergei Diaghilev and the artists and artistes who came under his spell in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Contemporary Chinese Art: 1960 to Today, 11 November (day course)
Explores Chinese art, the evolution of artists’ careers and the unprecedented performance of recent Contemporary Chinese art at auction.

For those based in Asia, look to the art business and history short courses available at Sotheby’s Singapore throughout autumn and into winter, although none focus solely on Asian contemporary art.

KN/KCE

Related Topics: resources, collectors, business of art

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Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more on Asian art education opportunities

MoMA Asia Art Archive collaborate, launch Chinese art projects with public programmes

CONTEMPORARY CHINESE ART PUBLICATION

Asia Art Archive (AAA) and The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) celebrate the completion of two documentary projects that are essential to a deeper understanding of the history of contemporary Chinese art: AAA’s Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 and MoMA’s publication of Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents. These milestone projects focus on the dramatic development and growth of Chinese contemporary art over the last three decades by documenting, collecting and translating critical discussions, primary materials and key texts.

Left: AAA's archiving project, 'Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990'. Right: MoMA's publication, 'Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents'. Image courtesy of AAA and MoMA.

From the press release:

Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990

The 1980s was a seminal period in China’s recent art history. During this time, many of China’s most celebrated artists attended art academies, held their first exhibitions, and developed the intellectual foundation for the art practices that have contributed to their present success. In order to foster research into this transformative moment in Chinese history, AAA has undertaken a four year focused archiving project; collecting, indexing and preserving rare documentary and primary source materials.

AAA’s largest and most systematically organised archive of documentary material on the period will be freely accessible and open to the public from AAA’s physical premises. It will also be available through a dedicated web portal www.china1980s.org starting this month.

Contemporary Chinese Art: Primary Documents

Despite the liveliness and creativity of avant-garde Chinese art in the post-Mao era and its prominence in the world of international contemporary art, a systematic introduction to this important work in any Western language is still lacking… Arranged in chronological order, the texts guide readers through the development of avant-garde Chinese art from 1976 until 2006.

It is edited by Wu Hung, Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago. The book will be available at MoMA Stores and online at http://www.MoMAStore.org starting this month.

Public Programme

The co-launch will be accompanied by a series of discussion forums with artists, curators and scholars:

PAST Hong Kong, 7 September, 6.30 pm, Hong Kong Arts Centre

Speakers include: Chen Tong (Artist), Doryun Chong (Associate Curator of Painting & Sculpture at MoMA), Jane DeBevoise (Chair of Board of Directors of AAA), Wang Aihe (Associate Professor, School of Chinese, The University of Hong Kong), Wu Hung (Director of the Center for the Art of East Asia, and Consulting Curator at the Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago) and Xu Tan (Artist)

Beijing, 9 September, 6.30 pm, The Central Academy of Fine Arts

Speakers include: Doryun Chong, Jane DeBevoise, Song Dong (Artist), Huang Rui (Artist), Wu Hung and Xu Bing (Artist)

Shanghai, 11 September, 4 pm, MadeIn Company (formerly BizArt)

Speakers include: Doryun Chong, Jane DeBevoise, Wu Shanzhuan (Artist), Shi Yong (Artist), Wu Hung and Yu Youhan (Artist)

New York, 15 October, 6:30 pm, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

This program presents Jane DeBevoise, Sarah Suzuki (Assistant Curator of Prints & Illustrated Books at MoMA) and Wu Hung in conversation with leading artists and critics. The event will be followed by a reception, where the book will be available for purchase.

Organisers of co-launch: ArtHub Asia (Shanghai), Asia Art Archive (Hong Kong), The Central Academy of Fine Arts (Beijing), and The Museum of Modern Art (New York)

SXB/KN

Related Topics: books, events, resources

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• Young Chinese Artists The Next Generation – book review – June 2009 – a 300 page long introduction (the book not the post) to thirty artists born in mainland China between 1975 and 1981
• Bookmark this – Asia Art Archive Biennial Calendar – September 2008 – a link to the calendar and a brief overview

Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more news on important contemporary Asian art events

Your interpretation or mine? Hong Kong artist Chow Chun Fai reflects in video interview

HONG KONG FOTANIAN ARTIST VIDEO INTERVIEW

In the four-minute video, Chow Chun Fai [art]attack 6, Hong Kong-born artist Chow Chun Fai shares his views on the ever-evolving interpretation of art and his own role as an artist.

A graduate of the Chinese University of Hong Kong‘s Department of Fine Arts, Chow is currently an active member of the Fotan art community, working primarily in Hong Kong and Beijing.

His works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Manchester, Munich, Salzburg, Vienna, Palermo, and Verona.

In his “Painting on Movie” series, Chow appropriates stills from popular cinema. Through the remaking process, the artist explores the differences between his own understanding and the audience’s interpretation.

…everyone has his or her own interpretation of things. Sometimes even the artist’s interpretation of his or her own artwork can change over time.

Chow Chun Fai, 'Infernal Affairs, “I want my identity back”', 2007, enamel paint on canvas.

While everyone’s interpretations may not be exactly the same, Chow believes the messages of culture and identity can easily transcend borders. On his first movie painting depicting a scene from the film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, he remarks:

There are many scenes in this movie that cannot be translated, but you would still understand the movie regardless of your cultural background.

Despite being a well-established artist and winning multiple awards such as the Hong Kong Arts Centre 30th Anniversary Award Grand Prize and the Sovereign Asian Art Prize, Chow says being a Hong Kong artist remains a considerable challenge:

…your work needs to involve more than just creativity. You might also need to be your own agent and writer, etc.

The road of creativity can make for a bumpy ride, but Chow maintains a firm belief in himself:

Sometimes you can love what you do. Sometimes you get confused… I believe in everything I do.

Watch the video on the ChooChooTV show [art]attack (length of video, 4:09 mins).

VL/KN

Related Topics: Hong Kong artists, Fotanian artists, videos

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Ai Weiwei and Vito Acconci wrap up major collaboration at Hong Kong’s Para/Site art space

AI WEIWEI CHINESE ART HONG KONG ART SPACES ARTIST COLLABORATIONS

With a new project, Chinese art all-rounder Ai Weiwei, in cooperation with American artist Vito Acconci, has brought fresh dialogues between the East and West to Hong Kong, a monumental event in Ai Weiwei’s career and for the Hong Kong and the Asian art scenes.

A view of "Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project", an installation work recently shown at Para/Site art space in Hong Kong.

“Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project“, held at Hong Kong’s Para/Site art space, has provided the opportunity for Ai Weiwei to meet and work for the first time with Vito Acconci, an American artist whom he admires.

Vito Acconci

Like Ai Weiwei, Acconci shifts between performance art and architecture, and has gained a global reputation for his bold art stunts.

In his 1971 performance entitled Seedbed, Acconci engaged his visitors in restrained sexual intimacy by masturbating continuously under a wooden platform in a gallery.

A recent article published on Time Out Hong Kong describes the artist as someone who “works not as a singular artist but as an architect and ‘collaborator’ for Acconci Studios. The controversial questioning of his earlier career has been replaced with an intellegent whimsy in design. Structures roam, twist and fold within their sites. Each edifice constantly contemplating the function of space and the understanding of linear time and form.”

Ai Weiwei

Having been involved in design, architecture, curating, writing and publishing, Ai Weiwei is one of the most controversial contemporary artists of his generation. Asked to describe his art by the Financial Times, Ai Weiwei gave the following reply:

“That question makes me almost speechless, because I wonder how much do I know about it, even though it was me that did it? What part is conscious and is that consciousness important? And what part has come out only because of the public’s sentiment? And is that important?”

An article recently published in the Guardian noted that Ai Weiwei’s work “has become overtly political, blurring the boundary between art and activism”, referring to the artist’s Remembering installation. This artwork was comprised of 9,000 children’s backpacks, in reminiscence of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake casualties.

In recollection of Ai Weiwei’s past performances, an article published in the Financial Times discussed both Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), “a triptych of photographs in which he is seen casually dropping a 2,000-year-old vase to shatter on the ground”, and an exhibition of 46 avant-garde artists including himself called Fuck Off (2000), which was closed down by authorities. The artwork’s Chinese title was the milder Uncooperative Approach. Despite his strong defiance against the Beijing government, Ai Weiwei was the designer of the Bird’s Nest at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Vito Acconci and Ai Weiwei in discussion regarding "Acconti Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project", an installation work recently shown at Para/Site art space in Hong Kong.

Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project

For “Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project”, Para/Site was transformed into a three-dimensional grid where Ai and Acconci developed their work “in constant mutation and accumulation during the two months that it [was] open to the public.” The end product was an unorthodox, multilayered installation with an accumulated collection of new works, models, drawings and various materials that were accumulated as a result of ongoing discussions between Ai Weiwei, Vito Acconci and their studios.

“The collaboration with Vito Acconci at Para/Site art space is an effort in figuring out ways to collaborate, ways [of] defining the actual process of working together. Through the development of a gallery project we are to think [of] the formation of a city.” Ai Weiwei (as quoted on the Para/Site website)

“I would never have imagined that today I could become active in art and have a chance to meet Vito…I was a young man just come from China. I was trying to be part of art history, but then it was impossible…Neither of us have any nostalgia towards the past, but we are both ready to think about today. That is our common ground.” Ai Weiwei (as quoted by the Financial Times)

The project is not just an interesting addition to Ai’s collection of stunning works. As Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya, the Executive Director and Curator of Para/Site, told Art Radar Asia, it has also created a platform for dialogues about the arts in Hong Kong and, on a larger scale, throughout Asia.

“This project reflects the complex production system that surrounds the creation of new works of art/projects in the 21st century. Dialogue is an important element of this project, which is as much about exchange of ideas as it is about production. Until now most exhibitions in this part of Asia focused on exhibiting a relevant Western artist or showcasing a leading artist from Asia. But the dialogue between what is happening in different parts of the world is lacking. This conversation is conducive to new ideas and it opens new paths of research. Then, there is also the challenge to put together practitioners from different generations, that also operate within different studio cultures. It proves Hong Kong can be a platform for leading international projects, and positions this city as a destination for art lovers, and not just a stopover. It is also a picture of what Hong Kong could be in the international scene if we had some rigorous planning and more opportunities to engage with current discourses around the world. This project is about taking curatorial risks, to start a journey without knowing the final destination.”

According to the art space’s website, Para/Site was chosen as the base for the project because of its autonomy from large organisations, enabling it to accommodate the innovativeness of the project.

CBKM/KN

Related topics: Ai Weiwei, collaborative art, venues – Hong Kong, Chinese artists

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Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more reports on Asian art events

Young Chinese artist Lu Yang brings anti-humanist elements to the Hong Kong art scene

CHINESE ART HONG KONG ART GALLERIES BIOLOGICAL ART

Chinese artist Lu Yang has shocked and electrified the Hong Kong art scene with her recent solo new media exhibition, “A Torturous Vision“, held at Input/Output (I/O).

Lu Yang's exhibition "A Torturous Vision" was presented by Input/Output in Hong Kong from April to June this year.

Showcasing her latest music video work Dictator, Lu Yang takes the audience onto a mind-boggling journey that aesthetically explores the biology of control systems in living frogs and amphibians. Progressing from her previous work Happy Tree, which shows living animals being treated with a centrally controlled pulse of electricity in a small tank, Lu Yang extracts some footage from the work and transforms them into highly aesthetical and technical forms that are presented with the accompaniment of sound composed by Wang Changcun.

Lu Yang’s ‘Dictator’ and ‘Happy Tree’ in I/O gallery’s latest bio art show.

“This work was created after I determined Happy Tree would not be exhibited again, and I had to find another way to complete the work besides including living animals. At that time Happy Tree remained incomplete in my mind, and I felt there were a number of possibilities related to the work that still needed to be pursued. I also felt there was a need to complete the work, so I chose to create a music video, but I must say apologetically, that I used the same electrical current to create the video track.” Lu Yang, quoted taken from an interview with Robin Peckham.

Despite Lu Yang’s vow to never again exhibit Happy Tree, she has been persuaded by I/O to show it again alongside Dictator and another video showing the process of applying electricity to frogs. On top of the three video installations, the exhibition also presents canvases showing two of the four projects with which Yang cooperated with science teams, including Zombie Music Box – Underwater Frog Leg Ballet and Ultimate Energy Conversion – Instruman.

Lu Yang is a graduate from the China Academy of Art in the Master of Arts New Media department. Although she is not the first to exhibit bio (biological) art in Hong Kong, nor the first to explore bio art in China, where the art form is growing among young graduates, she has radically challenged the boundaries of art set by Chinese philosophy with her anti-humanistic approach.

The artist expressed to Art Radar Asia that there are certainly boundaries that she sets for her art, but that these boundaries cannot be marked with tapes or frames. Asked how she draws the line between science exploration and science exploitation, Lu Yang made the following reply:

“Since I have not had another professional background for science, I just understand it through self-learning and I create works in between arts and science by combining them. However, my arts are not always in this format; I still have many other different works. My limited abilities in science prevent me from investigating it professionally, but the ultimate goal of science is to serve and explore for mankind, while art challenges certain questions.”

Lu Yang's canvas work 'Ultimate Energy Conversion – Instruman'.

In Hong Kong, where new media art is marginalized and considered quirky, the gallery was established a year ago to become the only art space in in the region that is primarily focused on the genre.

“The only way to raise it [new media art] out of it [the state of being marginalized and considered as quirky] is to engage in dialogues about it.” Rachel Connelly, Assistant Creative Director of I/O

Asked why the gallery decided to show Lu Yang’s work despite its ethical controversy, Connelly says that since the work inspires people to reconsider their identity and know more about themselves, the topic is rich and interesting enough to make the ethical concerns relatively less important.

“A Torturous Vision” has attracted a great range of visitors from tourists and interested individuals to students, architects and engineers. It has provoked conversations and discussions among visitors, – just what Rachel Connelly wanted and expected – while exploring different topics such as the definition of new media art and bio art versus science.

CBKM/KN

Related Topics: Chinese artists, gallery shows, venues – Hong Kong

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Subscribe to Art Radar Asia for more on new media and bio art

Is text writing or image? Bloomberg prize-winner Phoebe Hui examines – video interview

HONG KONG ARTISTS VIDEO ARTIST INTERVIEW

In a short five minute interview on ChooChooTV’s weekly show [art]attack, emerging Hong Kong artist Phoebe Hui gives viewers a peek at her creative process.

In the interview, Hui expresses a strong interest in the transformation of text from one medium to another.  To her, such transformations serve as a way of linking text to other concepts.

Artist Phoebe Hui at work in her studio.

“The way I view text is not just a form of communication but also as an image.”

By removing the meaning of written words, Hui transforms them into more than just a method of verbal expression. In an early piece titled Doublets Doublets Doublets, Hui bases her process on a game by author Lewis Carroll.

“I will remove one alphabet letter in a word…and gradually change other letters too. These are still text that we are familiar with but once we change it our focus is no longer on the meaning of the text but simply on the relation of the symbols.”

After graduating from the School of Creative Media at the City University of Hong Kong, the artist travelled to England where she studied for a masters degree at the University of the Arts London. Following graduation she decided to move back to Hong Kong.

Although Hui has achieved considerable success as a young artist, it has not come without disappointments. On her move to London from Hong Kong Hui states:

“For me, my path from attaining the scholarship from HKADC [Hong Kong Arts and Development Council], I thought I would have a very successful year in London, but it was not as good as I thought it would be.”

In spite of this setback, Hui went on to win the Bloomberg Emerging Artist award in 2008 after her return to Hong Kong, an accomplishment she is “very satifisfied with.”

While she expresses concern about support for artists’ programs from both organisations and Hong Kong audiences, she remains positive and driven.

“It seems like a very successful road, but I’m still not where I want to be.”

Watch the video here (length of video, 5:22 mins).

EH/KN

Related Topics: Hong Kong artists, emerging artists, installation art, conceptual art

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Xu Zhen takes on Middle Eastern identities and cultures as the new artists’ collective alias Madeln at the Ikon Gallery, UK

MADEIN ARTIST COLLECTIVE CHINESE ART UK GALLERY SHOW

“Seeing One’s Own Eyes“ is the first European exhibition by MadeIn, a new artists’ collective founded in 2009 in Shanghai by Xu Zhen (b. 1977, Shanghai), often heralded as one of the most important and renowned conceptual artists to have emerged from China since the 1990s.

While the work is all made in China, Madeln impersonates a fictional group of Middle Eastern artists, creating a kind of exhibition in disguise, “an exhibition of an exhibition.”  The use of this technique enables Xu to play down his personal identity.

Derived from “Made In”, two words that refer to manufacturing (with country of origin not specified), the name Madeln also phonetically translates into Chinese for “without a roof ” (‘méi d˘ı∙ng’), suggesting an openness to the collective’s work.

Through a range of media including sculpture, video and mixed-media installation, Madeln presents clichéd images of the Middle East, as a war-torn part of the world, associated with the oil industry, death, violence, human suffering and religious conflict. By raising issues of cultural perception, the exhibition encourages us to take a clearer view of current affairs in that region of the world.

The most recent work titled Hey, are you ready? (2009–2010) comprises of three large white sculptures made from polystyrene, one of the many by-products derived from the distillation of oil. These objects form neat, crisp packaging for the protection of loaded symbols including mosques, crescents, oil barrels and Kalashnikov rifles, revealed by negative space.

Spread (2009), a series of wall hangings covered with cartoon imagery, deal explicitly with the geographical politics of Israel, Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, China, Europe and the USA. Key political figures and scenarios are starkly drawn and exaggerated to billboard proportions, provoking and highlighting the often unconstructive and negative debates that are encountered in this area.

'Spread' by Madeln (2009), mixed media on canvas. Courtesy the artist and ShanghART Gallery.

In Perfect Volume (2009) the toe-ends of combat desert boots create a circle on the floor representing a row of absent soldiers as imagined casualties. This references the eternity and infinity of the circle, and is further depicted in the piece Machine for Perpetual Motion (2009), a model of an oil pump, constructed meccano-style but made from razor wire. The energy needed for its movement is blatantly taken from an electrical socket.

The illusionary installation Calm (2009) is made of building debris, a carpet of bits of brick and rubble that is still at first glance. Slowly it reveals itself as animated, gently moving up and down as if it were breathing like the survivor of a bomb blast, trapped and awaiting rescue. This notion of destructive power also features in the low-level floor-based installationThe Colour of Heaven (2009), where mushroom clouds from atomic bomb explosions are placed under assorted glasses.

'The Colour of Heaven' by Madeln (2009), glasses, painting. Courtesy the artist and ShanghART Gallery.

The title of this exhibition refers to a verse in the Koran, “My way, and that of my followers, is to call you to God, on evidence as clear as seeing with one’s own eyes” (Sura 12, verse 108). Freely translated it is an opportunity for to reflect, a consideration of how we see – by “seeing one’s own eyes” – as much as what we see.

“Seeing One’s Own Eyes” is a collaboration with S.M.A.K. (Belgium) and is on display at the Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK, until 11 July, 2010.

Two other articles regarding Xu Zhen’s Madeln and “Seeing One’s Own Eyes”, when the show was on display in other international locations, are:

• Traveling Without Moving by Xhingyu Chen, ArtAsiaPacific Magazine, March/April 2010
• Chris Moore on Madeln at ShanghART, Shanghai by Chris Moore, Saatchi Gallery website, 8 October 2009
  

RM/KN

Related Topics: Chinese artists, venues – UK, gallery shows

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Is globalisation of the art market slowing down? The Economist reports

GLOBALISATION CHRISTIE’S ART AUCTIONS

Globalisation in the art market may be slowing down according to an article published recently in The Economist. In spite of the growing numbers of artists and buyers from locales ranging from Africa to Asia, May sales in New York were dominated by American artists.

The article states:

“At the Christie’s sale, the first of the two main evening auctions, three-quarters of the buyers were American”.

With the prices of work by top Asian artists still lagging behind big-name American contemporaries, it may not come as a surprise that Asian artists are sometimes underrepresented in main and evening sales abroad. That is not to say that Asian artists do not fair well in Asian markets. In Artprice’s Top 100 Hammer Price List, only seven Asian artists crack the top 50. Not surprisingly, all were Chinese artists with sales in Beijing or Hong Kong. Numbers such as these suggest that there is still some preference for homegrown artists.

The Beijing sale of Chen Yifei's 'Thinking of History at My Space', 1979 landed him at #69 on Artprice's Hammer Price List

Even so, the unusual dominance of American artists at Christie’s New York sales this past spring did not go unnoticed.

“This is the most significant post-war and contemporary art collection ever sold at auction,” Christie’s Amy Cappellazzo said afterwards. “It was a quintessential American sale.”

We at Art Radar Asia wonder if this is really so surprising? There are few Post War Asian artists represented in these sales because Asian artists have only received attention in the last twenty years. For contemporary artists it is a different matter. While there is no doubt that some Asian artists, and those from other emerging countries, are now well known, their prices still lag behind those of top contemporary American artists. And, of course, main sales, and evening sales in particular, feature only the very best, usually most expensive, works.

Read the full article here.

EH/KN

Related Topics: business of art, collectors, market watch – auctions, market watch – globalisation

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Mark your diary – Chinese art seminar April 2010 London

ART COURSE CHINESE ART

A half day seminar “State of the Art – China 2010: Trends and Developments in Chinese Contemporary Art” will be hosted by ArtInsight and the University of Westminster – Asian Studies department on 12 April 2010. 

State of the Art - China 2010

This symposium includes leading figures in the Chinese art scene, like Simon Kirby, director of Chambers Fine Art, Beijing, artist Sheng Qi, and other well-known industry professionals who will analyse the future of Chinese contemporary art. It will consider the development of art spaces, the fluctuating art market, and Asia’s growing importance in the international art scene.

Though the seminar fee is £95 for attendees, there is a student rate of £25. It will be held in Central London at the University of Westminster.

AL/KCE

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