Boobs and more

The e-ARTS festival was an interesting sight to see. It allowed me to see that great difference between what was traditional and what is the potential new style of art for the future. Using technology and creating art is...different. I did not quite understand the art but it was definitely different. The first piece I saw was Q2008. I actually did not get it until the end, until Kevin and Griffen explained what actually went on, such as the fact that the DJ affected the art by clicking as the music progressed. I also was a participant where 40 people went up and clicked a button. I had no idea what the button was for until the end where the DJ showed 40 clips of Q2008. Apparently, we really did have an affect on the art but this piece did not entirely resonate with me. The whole time I was watching the effects, I continuously wondered what was going on, what the button was for, and what the naked girl was doing. I think what I left with was most important though. At the end of the piece, Defnye explained how she was shocked how the piece should have been censored because of the girl's nipples. I won't lie. I was thinking that while watching; how are they not censoring the naked girl. I mean, her nipples were quite distinct. It was just surprising to see how Defnye was just as surprised. It just goes to show how censorship is a constant restraint for China art, and how, perhaps, it is relaxing a bit. I really how no idea all the struggles artists go through and how problematic it is for commercialization; artist's art vs. artist's need to make money and sell to what the public wants. After the midterm project, I really did learn alot about art in China, how difficult and controversial it is. It is not only about making art. There are so many factors behind it all that affects it. I really did not understand the art I saw at E-arts, whether it be on the screen in the park or on the screen on the malls. But it is interesting to see that process of showing art here in China, how at any moment, the piece you have been working on can be censored. Going to the e-ARTS made it easier for me to understand and compare what I saw at all the other exhibits I visited like the Biennial and M50.

eArts: turning over a new leaf?

I went to the eArts festival in Xujiahui on a cool October evening. As I briskly strolled through the park, the lights beckoned me forward. I saw a large screen with brightly displayed colors and a DJ parked on the side of the stage. The white seats immediately surrounding the area were quickly getting filled and the eArts worker turned my classmates and I away due to our lack of VIP tickets. Luckily, Prof was there and she led us in as the show was about to begin.

The screen itself looked like something out of a video game, so the idea of audience interaction was not far from my head and was only confirmed as workers gave out slips of papers with numbers on them. The show began with a vibrant multitude of colors splashing across the screen. A notably silver colored nude young woman floated around the 3 screens, iphone in hand. Roses and tubes spewed out onto the screens as well as seemingly arbitrary online emoticons and swirls. The numbers started being called as one by one each person presses a button which in turn takes a screenshot of the three screens. In the end, all 40 pictures are combined, creating a piece of work in which the audience played a key role-- they became the artist!

This audience involvement was something that I had never experienced before, and one that I learned is growing in Shanghai today. When we visited M50 Prof. pointed out a screen on a brick wall that displayed a slide show of photographs that the public turned in themselves. While the government were pondering over whether to show this artwork or not, in the end they decided to let it go. This is a major step in freeing up censorship in the sense that the public was allowed to showcase their own pieces of art! I believe that the increase in public interaction and decrease in censorship have a distinct correlation. As involvement is increasing, the public has found a new outlet for their opinions, feelings, and emotions through artwork. Government has aided in that by allowing these manifestations to occur with little or no censorship. It gives me the feeling, and burst of confidence, that even a person with close to none creativity bone in her body can be a contribute to a piece of art. It is a two pronged situation in that it also in essence spreads art out to the public, which is something that the government is aiming to do. Thus, they are pushing art out to the masses through allowing public involvement by which they must decrease censorship to some lesser degree. Oh what an interesting web this creates...

M50: Shanghai's Artist Community

I was really excited to go to M50 as it was one of the very first things listed in the "places to go" sheet we received during the first day of classes. My first impressions of M50 was that it was a very quaint neighborhood with soothing water rolling as I strolled inside. To the left were trendy cafes where one would take a break from popping in and out of the different varieties of art exhibits. In 2003, M50 itself was specially administered in this area by the government as a community for artists. And so while it felt a little out of place amidst the towering apartments in its surrounding area, it gave a visitor a feeling of being amongst where true artists work.

I remember Prof. taking, or rather, trying to take us to one of her favorite M50 artists only to find it closed. She mentioned how the artist was just waiting for someone to buy the space and he'd be gone, and it finally happened. It reminded me of what was discussed in some of the Midterm presentations about the commercialization of art and the amount of capital brought in by art is sometimes a greater influence for the artists than any other form of inspiration. Just seeing the empty studio, once filled with grand pictures of Buddha's, manifested the growing commercialization of art. It had the overtones of the BizArt presenter and his showing of "art for sale," which reminded me of United States' infamous Black Friday after Thanksgiving sales in which people go insane abusing their purchasing power on the sole basis of cost. These customers didn't go to the exhibits knowing what the products' use are, they simply know the products are "good value for the money" and that they are "good looking." Some only wanted the pieces of art as "home decorations." Most of the customers did not understand the art at all. Rather, it seems as if owning the piece of art would give them an air of superiority--of an elite taste.

On the topic of censorship, the BizArt presenter mentioned that art is commericialized also to avoid censorship by the government. Artists try to find ways to work around the censorship--both political and aesthetic. Obviously, this limits the artists in many ways to design artwork that is catered to the government's liking. The presenter noted that this censorship was good for healthy production of artowrk. I took this to mean that it gives artist's a sense of what kind of art they should be producing. Instead of laboring over something that was inspired by passion, they find themselves in a one way street. With a narrow and limited sense of inspiration, artists can do nothing more than regularly grind out pieces of eerily similar artwork. It is quite disheartening to hear about the true reality of art in Shanghai and the true extent of censorship that occurs. However, as the future is rapidly upon us it will be interesting to see how relaxed the leash on Shanghai artwork will unravel.

dingyi studio visit

calendar November

So here is a calendar of shows for your weekly blog entries for the month of November.
 
//Under Lu Xun Banner (email afore sent)

//Yoko Ono (Nov 22) (email afore sent)

// October 31 ― December 5, 2008
INVOLVED
Artist: Knut Asdam, Stefan Brüggemann, Shi Yong, Zhang Enli
ShanghART H-Space
Opening Reception: October 11, 16:00
50 Moganshan Rd., Bldg 18 Shanghai
www.shanghartgallery.com
More Info: 86 21-6276 2818


//November 1 ― November 20, 2008
Afterlife
Artist: Xie Caomin
Gallery 55
Opening Reception: November 1, 14:00
Bldg.4A, 50 MoGanShan Rd. Shanghai
www.gallery55s.com
More Info: 86 21 6266 4108

// November 1 ― December 18, 2008
EXQUISITE CORPSE: China Surreal
Artists：BAI Yiluo, DONG Wensheng, FANG Er, HAN Lei etc.
m97 Gallery
Opening Reception: November 1，17:00
97 Moganshan Road 2F Shanghai , China
www.m97gallery.com
More Info: 86 21 6266 1597

//October 18 ― November 10, 2008
Urbanized Landscape
Curator: Richard Castelli
Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art
Opening wine: October 18, 17:30
No. 28, Lane 199, Fangdian Road, Shanghai, China
www.shearts.org
More Info: 86 21 5033 9803


// October 18 ― November 26, 2008
Wonderland
Artist: Lee Lee Nan, Hiraki Sawa
Bund 18 Creative Center
Opening Reception: October 18, 18:00
4F,18 Zhongshan East Road(E1), Shanghai
www.bund18.com
More Info: 86 21 6323 7066

// September 9 ― December 9, 2008
We are the world
Artist: Qiu Anxiong
Contrasts Gallery
Opening Reception: September 9, 19:00
2Floor, 39 Building, 702 Lingshi Road,Shanghai
www.contrastsgallery.com
More Info: 86 21 6323 1989


// September 7 ― November 6, 2008
Tu Long JI
Artist: Yang Yongliang
FQ Projects
Opening Reception: September 6, 16:00
No.76, Lane 927, Huaihai Rd., Shanghai
www.fqprojects.com
More Info: 86 21 6466 2940

Yoko Ono in Shanghai

http://shanghaichase.blogspot.com/search/label/yoko%20ono%20in%20shanghai
Reviews are all here for Yoko Ono's first Chinese solo exhibition at Shanghai's Ke Center.

under luxun banner

Hi everyone, For your weekly blog entries, pick a night or two to attend.

 

Under Lu Xun Banner: body experience in East Asia

Performing and performance at under-construction new site of ddmwarehouse

Huai Hai Xi Road Shanghai, China

30th October - 3rd November 2008 

Solo Creations  (free)

Produce: Grass Stage Theatre (Shanghai)

30th Oct (Thursday) 19:30

Playwright & performing: Hou Qinghui, Wu Meng, Yu Kai, Qu Han, Fan Haoru, Lin Chen, Bao Wenlu, Leng Yu, Tan Yueming

Artistic director: Zhao Chuan

 

Lu Xun 2008 (50 yuan)

31st Oct (Friday) and 1st Nov (Saturday) 19:30

Co-produce: Grass Stage (Shanghai), Clash Theatre (Hong Kong), Body Phase Studio (Taipei), DA-M Theatre (Tokyo)

Director: Hiroshi Ohashi (Artistic Director), Wang Molin, Tong Sze Hong, Zhao Chuan

Performing: Takumi Harada，Lee Chi Man, Cheng Chih Chung, Chen Cheng

 

East Asia Body Presentation Series  (free)

2nd Nov (Sunday) 16:30

Performing by: Takumi Harada (Tokyo), Li NingNa(Jinan), Changjin(Seoul), Watan Wuma (Taipei), Chu Sua Man (Hong Kong), Fengzi(Shanghai), Jiangnan Liguo / Lin Xia (Hangzhou)

 

Showtime (free)

3rd Nov (Monday)  Only for night starting at 20:00

Organized by:Biljana Ciric

Participants: Huang Kui, Jin Feng, Song Tao, Hu Yun, Lu Jiawei, Gao Mingyan,Tang Dixin, Li Mu, Feng Zi

 

*****************

Culture Outpost: Rebellion Youth under the Illusion Light

Nov (Saturday) 16:30 �17:30

Speaker: Li Chun Nei  (Hong Kong)

 

Forum: Theatre and Social Space � inspired by Lu Xun 2008

2nd Nov (Sunday) 14:00至16:00

Guest speakers: Wang Molin, Paik Wondam, Wang Xiao Ming, Zhang Xian and Tao Qing mei

Chaired by: Zhao Chuan

**************

Booking is recommended for all activities.

Email booking: grassstage@gmail.com or Miss Leng 13916285188 (Chinese only)

For more information: www.grassstage .com or http://blog.sina.com.cn/grassstage

 

Project organized by Zhao Chuan and Biljana Ciric

Project supported by Down Stream Garage/ Arthub Foundation/ Anlian Taohuayuan Youth theatre Found/ Zendai MoMa Intrude Art Project/ Ruixue Art Community

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雅虎邮箱，您的终生邮箱！

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雅虎邮箱，您的终生邮箱！

2008 Shanghai Biennale

This third time to visit shanghai biennale. The first one is 2000 “shanghai”“上海 海上”and the second is “techniques of the visible”. Compared to these two exhibitions, biennale of this year is more interactive and easier approachable to the pubic, especially average people without so much knowledge about contemporary art. I noticed that in the entrance of the exhibition, there is opinion box written in Chinese that all visitors can vote for their favorite exhibits. It is the first time I see things like opinion box which used to appeared in Chinese “spring festival evening show” showed up in biennale.
My favorite exhibit is Liu Ming’s Buddha series. Every picture is about Buddha statuses located in Chinese supermarkets and restaurants in Paris and covered with a film of dedicate dark color by screen roller which produces a sense of distance and faint sadness.

Where Is Everybody?

After having visited 798 Art District in Beijing a month ago, I was excited to travel to Moganshan 50 to see what I perceived to be a hotbed for cutting edge contemporary Shanghainese art.  What struck me most about M50 were two things: firstly, that some of the galleries here were some of the best I'd seen in Shanghai, particularly the Biz Art gallery, which was featuring a show around the theme of insomnia.  The flow of the space was quite unorthodox: the gallery space was broken up by diagonal walls that forces the viewer through the space in a disorienting zig zag pattern.  It was a dynamic way to view the art, and seemed to suggest the dizzying effects of insomnia.  

What was somewhat jarring, however, about M50 was the relative desolation of the district.  To be fair, we were there on a Thursday afternoon (not exactly prime time for art districts), but aside from our group and the occasional tourist, we really did not see any other people who were not working there.  

This was a disturbing observation for me.  If M50 is a vital center for the Shanghai art scene, where are the patrons?  It points, somewhat, to the question of who is really driving the art scene in Shanghai.  While shows like the Biennale have been extremely well attended, where is the enthusiasm for the more grassroots galleries featured at M50?  

What is so tragic about this is M50 really provides some great work in some dynamic gallery space.  Where shows like the Biennale feel contrived and pasted together sloppily, there seems to be a much more intimate and genuine feel to this area.  Ding Yi's gallery space at M50 was, to me, the most promising group of works I had seen in Shanghai, pieces that I feel surpassed almost all the works of the Biennale in quality.  More people need to discover it.

Trip to M50

I will have to admit, I feel that I have been quite ignorant when it comes to contemporary art in Shanghai. After having talk to my group mates about the art in China, I realized that censorship and commercialization has really played a part in how art is in China. When I went to the Biennial, I thought it was quite interesting and organized. I thought it was simply safe. But after talking about it, I realized that it was like because of all the censorship. It makes you really wonder if what the artists put up is what they wanted to create and convey or was it simply to please the government. Visiting Bizart and talking with Zhou Ying, it was interesting to see how risky it is to push the borders when it comes to censorship. Also, because artists here need to make a living and survive and be allowed to create some type of art, they have to abide by the rules of the government. At first it seemed to be all about the art but beneath the surface, I have also realized it is about meeting requirements, pleasing the government. It is commercialization of the art. With such restrictions, how else can one make money and be allowed to still create. It was interesting to hear from the artists point of view regarding the biennial, how it is greatly commercialized, targeted towards the Chinese people to understand and see how "great" China is: a facade.
Coming with no background in regards to art, I feel completely lost at times because I really know nothing of the situation nor am I able to compare how different it is in America. I never understood the struggles Chinese artists, Chinese people dealt because I took granted the freedoms I had. It is just eye-opening to me. As Laura had said, I believe, it has a chance to be great and real with all that is developing in China, especially with the E-arts, but restricted freedoms will not allow for such potential greatness.

First impression of the Biennal

For people living in Shanghai, the Biennal seems more like an entertaining event rather than a serious art exhibition. I do remember two years ago, I went to see the Biennal with my friend
who regarded the festival as a process of making fun. We saw interesting installations and abstract (or may be we shall say, "creative" paintings) without further exloring their inside meaning. When walked outside the gallery, I just felt like watching a relaxing movie.

This year, before the Biennal was opened to the public, I've already heard most of my friends planning to have a look (no matter they are real artists or not). Even some of my relatives kept asking my questions about how much was the price or was it convnient to go there by subway. I felt even more amused when entering the exhibit hall, seeing people of all ages wandering aroung and taking photos with the artists works. But as students of the "Comtenparory Chinese Art and New Media" class, every groups had their own assignment. So I, together with Sally and Valeria decided to search this show according to the list of artists given to us before the class. The gallery is too big, which made it difficult to locate the specific artist and his works. We took
some time exploring from the 1st floor to the 3rd floor and this process gave me the general idea of the Biennal this year. This year's topic is "immigration" which is perfectly suitable for this city. People come, people go. Some spend their whole life here, some just pass it in a hurry. The train outside the gallery caught lots of attention, for it is the symbol of immigration and old days. But if we consider it as a art work, it appears to be less powerful and less imressive. And this is the problem exist in many exhibits, which seem to be interesting but I am afraid the only aim is to amused the public rather than express the own philosophy of the artist.

The work I like best is made by Mieke Van De Voort from Nitherland. The
work's name is "Travellogue". A specific interest in the failure of utopian cities and ideals characterizes Mieke Van de Voort's work. It looks at how the early 20th-century ideal of human migration as a possibility for a dynamic exchange of ideas - poetically portrayed in ultimate metaphors of traveling with transcontinental trains and the construction of a universal language - has resulted a century later in its radical antithesis of anonymous static housing projects placed in urban-cartographic zones where gathering is forbidden and where every citizen has to show proof of identity on demand.



(sorry because of the problem with my camera, I can ont put photos right now. If you are interested in our group's artists, feel free to get some information in Valieria's article. She put a lot of pics and her own insight! I will make up for it as soon as possible.)

Unity and Clarity (or Lack Thereof)

To me, the Biennial show was not exactly a show that was going to change the world--while there was certainly art of intrigue and value there, the show seemed to lack a raw power that can make an art show truly memorable.  Fundamentally, its ideas were good.  I think it's focus on the immigrant to Shanghai was a generally accessible theme, and it really showed in the diversity of the patronage.  As a representative overview of the Shanghai art scene, however, it seemed to fall short.  The video art was generally somewhat obtuse and difficult to follow, the sculpture was generally lacking in true connectivity with the viewer, and the paintings generally failed to establish a common thread or aesthetic to the theme of the show.

Mariana Castillo Deball's had two video exhibits in the same gallery at the show.  She is described by the curators as an artist who focuses her research on the archive of historical geography, where she creates a representation of the future by looking at representational systems of the past.  Her videos celebrated machinery and its role with man, but the films left me unmoved, as they were too long and visually unremarkable.  Neither video was given an isolated space in the gallery, and in the shadow of some visually striking sculpture beside them, the videos struggled to hold my interest.  

Rainer Ganahl's video art was, though somewhat one-dimensional, certainly a more successful piece.  His representation of crossing a Shanghai bridge on his bicycle before it opened to the public with two parallel videos of his journey from the rider's point of view created an interesting narrative, but the work was almost too abstract in concept, leaving it almost uncomfortably open to interpretation.  The government initially read the piece as a political commentary, though denied any political intentions to the piece.  Such a misunderstanding fundamentally illustrates the downfall of much of the art at the Biennial--a lack of clarity and focus.

Ricardo Basbaum's work was perhaps the most successful individual piece at the Biennial, as it successfully moved its viewers through space and illustrated the blurred relationship between self and others.  His work focused on creating awareness of potential forms of social awareness, which made for a dynamic piece that was far more clear and well conceived than many of the other pieces at the show.  By utilizing space and motion, the artist created a dynamic environment for the viewer.

Overall, I would say that the Biennial really strove to be accessible to the general public, outside of the literati and the common art circles.  I think it succeeded to some degree, as it did seem to attract a patronage that drew from many sects of society and has been phenomenally successful in terms of ticket sales.  But fundamentally, as a unified show, something was lacking.  I did not feel space flowed well from gallery to gallery, and individual works were not arranged in a way that was conducive to the theme or highlighted the strengths of each piece.  Certainly, based on some of the other shows and galleries I have seen in Shanghai, I left the show with a sense of disappointment and a distinct desire to have been left with something more memorable and powerful.

Birdhead opening tonight- new space of Shanghart in the city

ShanghART Gallery 香格纳画廊

Landscape—— Birdhead Solo Exhibition

 Solo Exhibition  BIRD HEAD  ShanghART at Huaihai Rd 796, Shanghai

Date: Oct 19, 2008 - Nov 19, 2008 

"Garden" consists of a series of extraordinary light-box installations. Five boxes feature Birdhaed, a garden and their toys. The light-boxes picture these scenarios from dusk till down, and the work can be seen more as a rite de passage than merely an image of childhood games.

'Landscape' consists of 5 different platforms that are dedicated to the imagery of Shanghai: Here, the city is captured photographically in a both poetic and realistic form of aesthetic. The show consists of tableaus that each tells a different story about contemporary life in this fast changing urban environment. The artists themselves call this approach 'memory creation'. The images of the city come to symbolize the characters that inhabit it.

In one picture in the series titled "Zhongshan Park", a-wide-angle-shot captures kites, kids, parents, and old men on the green meadow, and among those a common girl was taking a portrait shot of herself. In the world of the girl, she herself was the center, she was the landscape. But from the perspective of Birdhead, she was just the periphery.

 The video installation 'Landscape' was conceived in Britain while Birdhead was traveling there as tourists. Here, they attempted to switch the identities around, and actually photograph the natives portrayed as tourists. In front of a tricky white board with only the Chinese characters "feng jing", i.e. "landscape" written on it, people posed with pleasure as if situated in a real landscape.

Ji Weiyu (1980) and Song Tao (1979) were both born in Shanghai where the artists today also reside and work. The artists graduated from the Shanghai Arts and Carafts School (2000). Recent exhibitions include The World of Other's, Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2008), China Power Station II, Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway (2007), Bird Head 2006-2007 Photography Show, BizArt Art Center, Shanghai, China (2007), and Individual Position II, ShanghART H-Space, Shanghai, China (2007).

Dinosuars, Violence, Dancing Buildings oh my!

Another exhibit, another hit, another "fun" experience (fun as in good)
After the initial low budget, drab, hot locations, we have finally started to arrive at the pinnacle of shanghai [commercial] art. But lets not make comparisons to the art at Comfort, or the art at Ke Art Center, we'll keep our review as positive as possible. I found that Biennial Exhibit, for all it's cash flow and uniformity, to be still full of creativity and innovation. Perhaps it is my own limited exposure to modern art but the Shanghai Biennial seems to bring the best of both worlds.

A grand building, it's a shame I didn't take any pictures of the entrance, or the outside of the building. On the outside you are greeted by two of the largest pieces of artwork in the exhibit. Multicolored massive ants crawling up the wall of the exhibition, and a large rusting antique train. It sends a clear message, the theme is translocomotion, and that this is a legitimate art exhibit. Not a lot of subtly, it's an eye catcher through and through.

And perhaps reflecting on our experience, the Shanghai Biennial is a people magnet because that is it's purpose. Similar to a national history museum, or a science museum they are as much there to educate and display information as to entertain. The question is then, does big budget, big pockets, and ultimately ulterior motives distort the art?

No, I don't think so, or at least not yet. The following are several superb pieces that I feel display both theme (an old theme granted) and display ingenuity.
Aptly named Colorful Running Dinosaurs, these pieces definitely fit the bill for entertainment. Lots of Asian tourists (me included) are ogling at the beasts, posing in front and making peace signs or another cute gesture to take pictures. The dino-men are simply a wonder to look at in terms of size, color, and number. I wanted to take a picture in front the dinosaur, but alas I was too embarrassed. But it's really ironic that people would smile and take a picture with the hulking beasts. Their smiles, laughing faces are send a sad message to me. More then the circus or automobiles, this exhibit reminds me of lemmings, of to the slaughter. The people that are taking pictures, forced to stand close because of the width of the hall, seem also to be dumbfound, smiling away. Translocomotion, all lined up ready to go meet or extinction, happily doing it all the while. Yue MinJun, the creator of this exhibit, manges to deliver his subtle message in this audacious piece of art.Next is the also aptly named violent cartoon Savage Growth. It reminds me of the Itchy and Scratchy show, except not funny. As part of the attention-less, ADD generation (ironic translocomotion?) I have always had a soft heart for moving pictures. That said I am not usually a fan of the movie style pieces. They are in my personal opinion unprofessional, boring, and displayed poorly. Savage Growth was most definitely displayed poorly, in a dark little corner, with a single seat in the middle of the room with a mid-quality projector. But even as I was walking by, I couldn't help myself, I peeked in. The music, the artwork, and the engrossing violence all capture me, sink line and hook. Michelle my partner, seems sort of antsy, and leaves prematurely (a difference in taste), but I there to stay, eyes glued to the screen. I watch the entire sequence two times through. This piece is glaringly obvious in it's message. Two headless persons representing nations building weapons, urbanizing, competing in every fashion. Planes clash, and workers mechanically pave the foundation for gigantic high-rises. Like red lettering on the wall it's message is loud and clear, and it's bold rough strokes, and violent animation depict those red characters to the letter. Urbanization can one day be the death of us. The enemy of my enemy is ambition.

As usual, we save the best for last, and as for the my theme of creatively entertaining this most certainly fits the bill.
It's not pretty, it color choice is sort of drab. It's not "important", it's located at the wing of the exhibit. But it is fun to play with. I walk in to the semi-circular room. Wait... Why are the walls moving. Like the "slow" person I am, I don't get it... I see others in the exhibit moving up and down and think, weird, but nothing strikes me as odd about the exhibit. It seems like another prerecorded video, blah. But to my surprise, Michelle, who has been putting up with me this entire time, explains the exhibit to me. If you dance, the pictures dance with you. (above) So that's me, in building form. But again, this isn't just entertainment, isn't just Hollywood. This is the Biennial, an art exhibition at it's heart. And this exhibit I feel has the modern, most relevant message of all. Called Shanghai, shall we dance?, this piece reflects the growing involvement of the population in urbanization. Increasingly, Chinese people, Shanghainese are supporting and resisting change in the city. With three images in total, together the Chinese will shape their own future. It's a complex message delivered in a simple manner that is almost instantaneously understood (for me slightly slower).

And on that positive note, China, modern art in Shanghai, urbanization is all on the rise, whether for the good or for the bad, this exhibit has shown that they/we are in it together. My verdict? The Biennial is not Hollywood, and that's a good thing, but it's just nearly as entertaining.
Oh, and this is my museum partner Michelle, whom put up with me, and whose pictures I stole! Thank you Michelle.

Once again, the 2008 Shanghai Biennial managed to stray far from my expectations. For a biennial show, I felt that the curators could have done a better job. The space had a horrible flow, and I felt a strong disconnect between each of the three major areas of the museum that were used. Possibly a function of seeing art in China, each area was loud and the echoes of endless chattering made it incredibly difficult to hear anything emanating from videos and installations. To me, these gaps in the curatorial work were a harsh reminder that while we might be seeing work from a wide range of work from international artists on contemporary issues, we are still in China, not Berlin or New York. Shanghai’s inexperience holding such an event showed, despite the presence of international curators as well as Chinese. In the third section of the show, somewhat cryptically entitled “Context”, viewers were supposed to get a feel for the global context of the work in previous two sections. However, by throwing a global, non-Shanghainese theme into the mix, it seems that the ideas behind the works themselves were completely forgotten in the organization of this floor. This is actually the section in which I found the work most appealing, but I felt like the international work was simply interspersed with Chinese artists in order to create an instant “international” feel. Many issues the works dealt with were incredibly seriously and I felt they only scratched the surface (thematically), when thinking of how to organize.
I found the topic of the Biennial to be rather unremarkable. It seemed, as a few have suggested, very convenient for China to present an exhibition about globalization and urbanization in the wake of the recent Olympic games and just as the Shanghai Expo 2010 is starting to pick up steam. I got the impression that the Biennial was simply a cultural attempt on China’s part to make a late entrance into the art world. Much of it, thematically, seemed desperate yet poorly conceived. Naturally, globalization, urbanization, and migration are hot topics in today’s world, but I felt it would have been better to have a less heavy-handed approach to the curation of the exhibition. Many of the works, notably of Western artists, spoke form themselves, and the sloppy curation was, as I previously mentioned, distracting. The result, unfortunately, of this smoke and mirrors attempt at interest in global issues, was not only the emphasis of China’s own cultural immaturity but the self-interest that has begun to pervade everything Chinese. The exhibition screamed “Not only are we fantastic gymnasts and athletes and musicians, but we’re just as cultured as Europe!” Not the case.
China would be better served, it seems, to admit its novice in this field and not overestimate its abilities. Culture of this sort cannot be created overnight, and I feel that unsuccessful attempts are more destructive to its image than they are positive. I have begun to discover that the concept of image and reputation in China is not only important but omnipresent, and this Biennial was no exception. China is aware that the world is watching, and somewhat like a child, is overly desperate to be praised and adored (and to reap the benefits of said adoration). This is also visible to me in the innumerable rip-offs of internationally renowned Chinese artists I have seen, even at galleries in Shanghai’s famous Moganshan. Sadly, the current domestic popularity of contemporary Chinese art stems from the Western acclaim and demand for this work. The market completely depends on the orientalist tendencies of Western buyers. Sadly, it is because of the western notion of exotic indulgence when buying or viewing Chinese art that the work and exhibitions are allowed to be sub par.

Shanghai Trans locomotion

The success of Shanghai's 7th biennal was visible the day we visited it. This year's biennal theme focused on Translocomotion and I personally cannot think of another better theme for Shanghai city. The diversity of this city is created by the constant arrival and departure of new and former residents. What existed a year ago may not necessarily exist today. Each one of us and everyone we see on the streets has a small role in turning this city alive. Yet as an individual person we may not bring any major impact but collectively as residents we turn Shanghai into the city that we love and hate.
Dutch artist Jeanne Van Heeswijk had a wonderful depiction of Shanghai's anonymous residents.


Each of the resident or migrant worker that he interviewed were located on a map of Shanghai and linked to a small piece of written work or article. Each article was related to these interviewee's story or background, then each little article would be linked through a thread to t-shirts with two phrases, one signifying their dreams and hope and the other signifying their disillusionment. As an example, one t-shirt had "American Dream=Day Dream". Shanghai in the eyes of outsiders is the pearl of China and symbolizes hope. However, many come to discover the harshness of this city and become jaded from their experiences. Shanghai is a city of opportunities but those who fail to grasp onto it will soon find themselves lost in this metropolis.


Yin Xiuzhen's massive art piece of weaving together a plane, car and tractor was also a piece of work that depicted the melting pot aspect of Shanghai city. Her works are famous for weaving cloth together and one of her most notable works are weaving portable cities into a small suitcases. This work of hers is impressive in its technical aspects (she weaved together a plane, car and tractor) but I thought her work to be a bit too forceful and superficial. Industrialization has created a variety of socio-economic classes in Communist China but the complexity of this society cannot be depicted by three physical objects. I just thought the work was not subtle enough but I do like Yin's previous artworks.

Another simple but compelling artpiece was the one of various suitcases, I believe by Wang QingSong (correct me if I'm wrong). I personally experienced, once again, the transient nature of this city when a close friend of mine told me that she was moving to HK. My friends in Shanghai are the people that make me feel at home and during my 8 months here, a handful of friends have already moved away. Some came back but some will probably not. Living in Shanghai, I constantly feel on the move. Whether its a leisure trip or family visit, I spent at least 2 weekends out of the city per month. It's the same with many people here, SH residents are constantly on the move. Which is why I thought Wang's piece to be so suitable for the biennale, thought there is nothing aethestic about it, it is close to many people's heart.

I accidently came across a poignant piece of art while I was at the biennal. On the second floor of the museum was a whole area dedicated to the history of Shanghai and the art museum. Among the crowd there, I noticed many senior citizens lingering in this area. One room was showing a documentary of Shanghai these two grandfather figures were there watching the documentary over and over again. It was beautiful seeing two figures of the past juxtaposed in a contemporary art scene. What did all this biennal mean to them? Did it offer them a visit into the past or remind them how far along they have gone? The scene was touching and many of them walked away red-eyed, and it was then that I was reminded of how much this city has gone through. The speed of change here cannot be understood by people who have only lived here temporarily.

Overall, the biennal was a success but I feel like to many visitors, the biennal just offered another venue with "cool" backgrounds and props for people to take photos. The reality of Shanghai's migrant workers, its poor residents and industrialization was only covered by colorful paint and creative installations. It was temporary haven from reality, a bit too overwhelming for me. I realized that I became uncomfortable observing Shanghai. The moment I walked out and was greeted by Uighur street vendors, I felt more at ease. I understood then that it is more comfortable to be part of this complicated city and play my role than observing it from afar. This city has so much to offer and so much to change that our perspectives change everyday and nothing can be fixed into a canvas.

Shanghai Biennale

I think the 7th Shanghai biennale is an example of contemporary propaganda. The art world seems to be just another vehicle for the government to put on a modern face, leaving the biennale feeling more like a façade than a truly revolutionary example of new art. It seems as if people try so hard to show how different things are, post-cultural revolution, and how free and open times are- and of course this is true in many ways comparatively- but I think it is actually more modernism rather than soviet realism being used to get the same goals, to make people –the world- see and believe what the state wants them to; to believe in a specific, calculated, China.
The title of the show is “Trans local motion”, focusing on the migration of people to –and the relationship between- villages, cities, and the larger international world. The Theme in general was a very safe choice that, manipulated correctly, could show the brilliant achievements and steps forward taken by China, and particularly Shanghai, while pretending to, slightly, acknowledge some of the more negative aspects. Pieces tried to be controversial and provocative but upon further examination, failed to accomplish this. I am not saying that the artists aren’t capable of expressing these ideas, but that there is still a great deal of censorship going on, and that really this exhibit wasn’t a showcase for radical art but one to show the world how cultured China is, how capable it is to compete in the realm of high art. To comply with the government, the sponsors of the show, the artists probably had to make their work more commercially accessible and less controversial to even get the opportunity to be shown. Yue Minjun’s Colorful Running Dinosaurs feels like such a work to me. Visitors are impressed by the overwhelming scale of his pieces and their shiny, colorful paint jobs. They then are too distracted and concerned with taking photographs with the dinosaurs to really consider a deeper meaning to the work. While the accompanying information goes on about how this relates to industrialization and how we must be careful, the impression I got was a little more superficial then that. But of course, at the end of the day, all those people will go and tell their friends how cool and massive the installation was, and the show will get more and more visitors – and more money and international recognition.
I was interested in Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Haan’s work Monument of Sugar. Blocks of sugar laid out on the floor of the gallery where there to provoke the questioning of borders and regulations. European exported sugar can’t cross back into Europe and through different borders but by labeling the bricks as ‘art’ they were permitted. This brings about the idea of border control between nations and areas within nations as well as the effects of labeling. Like transporting sugar, migration within China from rural areas into cities is technically illegal but because rural people are so determined to make a better life for them and their families and the people in the cities are happy to employ someone other than themselves to do menial work, it happens all the time. Even this inclusion was safe because while recognizing that migration exists, it doesn’t comment much beyond that. It is an observation of the flow and regulation of populations and goods without delving in deeper towards potentially subversive messages.
All in all, many people seem to buy into the show and its theme. The works either seem deep and poignant, or the viewers don’t even care and are more concerned with taking pictures to show they were there. To me, it is yet another piece of propaganda posing as a Shanghai’s art scene. I would like to see these artist’s full potential acted out in a place where there truly is freedom of expression, to see what they actually think and feel away from the watchful eyes of the communist party.

Shanghai Biennale's Take on "Better City, Better Life"

Contemporary Art. It is still a form of expression that I frankly have not gotten a clear grasp of. In fact, I see it as an Avant-garde form of art that challenges the closed-mindedness in people with its bold, experimental, and innovate mediums. However, the “translocalmotion” theme of the Shanghai Biennale alleviated much personal pressures of trying to understand it, because this Biennale provided a recurring theme basis that I actually understood—China’s urbanization and its social-political implications.

One of the most striking artworks that left a great impression in my mind was Jeanne van Heeswijk’s Shanghai Dreaming-Holding an Urban Gold Card. Her mediums really brought the Shanghai urban residents and rural migrants to life, especially with the use of actual photographs of the people she met through real one-on-one interviews with them, regarding their dreams and goals in the city. Holding this “Urban Gold Card” as her title says seemed to represent how achieving city life was the golden key to their dreams, reflecting the deeply engraved social and political history (still present in modern day) that urban hukou holders received the most benefits—especially career opportunities, wealth, and social mobility. The extravagance, the wealth, the better life was something the rural hukou holders could not even dream of in the past. Heeswijk’s tophography had goals embedded randomly in all places throughout the city, reflecting the fading of this huge urban and rural social gap towards a life of shared progress in the city. I especially loved how these dreams, like fortune, were printed on t-shirts, expressed in the form of newspapers, gold symbols, etc. This eclectic expression of their identities and dreams connected to all these different places and people by string, hangers, etc. seemed to represent how identity is taking on a new definition as China’s political and economic reforms progress throughout the days. How I interpret this is that people’s identity is no longer chained down to their native hukou-bound residences, but are free to tread into urban life with hopes and dreams of improvement. The eclectic and miscellaneous forms of media also communicated to me the complications, uncertainty, and clash of social tensions that seems to be brewing underneath this rapid urbanization growth.

Yin Xiuzhen’s Flying Machine mixed material piece was interesting, because the more I thought about it and the more I observed its details, the more meaning I could find in its every aspect. When I first saw the air plane meshed with the tractor and the car, my first impression was, “this is too obvious, it almost loses its meaning.” Obviously these methods of transportation represented migration to different parts of China’s landscape and to the outside world. These transportation methods clearly represented rural migrants moving into the cities, urban residents moving to more prospective parts of cities such as the economically booming coastal cities, and even Chinese people flying internationally or foreign investors moving into China with China’s progression towards privatization and marketization. However, there was more than this I realized. To my surprise, the airplane was made of all different types of white clothing. I saw plane white tees, wife-beaters, more fancy white shirts, etc. This to me suggested many social implications. First, the different shirts worn for different occasions and occupations symbolized the different social structures and jobs of the city migrants, rural migrants, and international migrants. For instance, the rural migrants rushed into the cities during Deng’s socialist market and competition-based economy reform, to meet the cheap labor demands of the urban city building, a reform that was practically redeveloping huge skyscrapers and service industries overnight. These rural migrants ended up doing menial labor in the “Three D’s” working conditions—dangerous, dirty, and difficult. The fancier white tops seemed to represent the urban and international migrants who were wealthier and enjoyed more luxuries and benefits. The interesting twist to this was how these clothes were neatly mixed and stitched together in harmony, possibly showing the necessary combination of all their hard work and sweat towards the same goal: urbanization and its prospects for a better life. The plane, also being the biggest, dominating structure of the art piece, could be the artist’s way of saying that foreign investors and powers were the most powerful force, at least financially, that made urban growth and re-development possible in the first place. And even the stairs within the plane. That could be Xiuzhen communicating the migrants’ unanimous goal of upward progress, no matter what this progress may be for each type of migrant—rural, urban, or international. Overall, I found a lot of meaning in Yin Xiuzhen’s piece.

Shanghai Biennale 2008 and its theme of trans-local-motion had the most personal impact on me. Its recurring urbanization theme provided a fundamental basis that I actually understood, which gave me a comfortable start in my analysis of contemporary art, which is such a new territory for me still. But what I liked most about the exhibition was that the theme’s historical implications created a very unique and ironic balance with the bold, experimental, ahead-of-its-time mediums of contemporary art that expressed them. I also loved seeing the Biennale’s diverse embracement of so many art forms: visual arts, media, architecture, etc.

Other Pictures by Other Artists:
(Wang QingSong, Thomas Ruff, Mike Kelley, Tang Maohong, and Lu Hao, in this order)

Imaginary City, Imaginary Life

At first glance, the theme of the 2008 Shanghai Biennale, "Translocalmotion", seems to have a hidden agenda. Basing its curatorial discourse on the development of the urban city and its cultural implications on the local and global level, the exhibition could be seen in light of China's rise as a world power, and could be attached to the same propaganda campaign as the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. In fact, the introductory curatorial statement simply reverts the World Expo's Slogan, "Better City, Better Life", instead asking "can cities make our life better?" Taking such biases into account, it would follow that the exhibition would view urban growth and modernization in a positive light and would omit conflicting critiques. Yet, in the 2008 Shanghai Biennale there is also a substantial body of work that reflects on the consequences, albeit negative or simply an inevitable fact of urban development, which would go against this seeming advertisement of the great city of Shanghai. In fact, some of the works contradict the very notion of Shanghai itself and what it aims to represent.

            Mike Kelley's installation, entitled Kander-Con 2000, takes as its starting point the fantasy of the futurist city and highlights its inevitable fallacies. Basing the work on the portrayal of the city in the original Superman comics, Kelley incorporates video, projections, architectural models, publicity banners, and collage to create an environment that represents a convention for fans of a fictitious comic hero. Kander-Con 2000 marks a dissolution with the fantastical imaginary city and modernism's aspirations, the very paradigm that contemporary Shanghai is built on. In 1990, Shanghai was earmarked by the Chinese government as the economic hope for China, and in the subsequent decades the architecture of Shanghai has increasingly embedded a futuristic, space-age aesthetic. With the upcoming World Expo, the city of Shanghai will be spotlighted as a model city. Shanghai will try to fulfill its role as the model futurist city, even as critics such as Mike Kelley stress the futility of their goal. Kelley describes the work as "evok[ing] the picture of a time that never existed: the utopian city of the future, that never materialized'.  Kelley's Kander-Con 2000 essentially mocks the nature of contemporary Shanghai, suggesting that it is an impossible ideal.

            Thomas Ruff's Jpgs series views the notion the urbanized city in a similar critical realm. Ruff takes the quintessential tourist snapshot, the image of the Pudong Skyline, and decontextualizes it to show the influence of tourism on shaping the definitions of a city. Ruff downloads low-resolution images from the Internet and manipulates them to highlight their pixelization and nature as "digital images". The result is an image that is instantly recognizable as "Shanghai", yet that is blurry, where details are undecipherable. Ruff comments on the tourist experience in a world that is increasingly understood through images. For the tourist, the image of the Pearl Tower is the signifier for the city of Shanghai. The Pearl Tower was built to give the city a landmark that could be easily recognized. While it has accomplished its goal, the tourist is bound to be disappointed when encountering the Pearl Tower in person. The image of the Pearl Tower, or a souvenir trinket for that matter, is more real in the tourist's mind than the Pearl Tower itself. Like Kelley, Ruff critiques the difference between the imagined city and the city itself. Both exist as separate entities and must be considered as such.