2010MOMMY基金方案征集

Mommy Foundation after two projects in 2009 continues its work
presenting following projects:

Project supported by Mommy Foundation:

Exhibition: Hai Bao is coming- Young artists of Shanghai subject
photograph exhibition

Time: April 17th-June 30th, 2010

Address: Red One Art Area,Caochangdi, JiChangFu Road,Chaoyang District,Beijing.

Exhibition: "The Youth Sale Store"

Time: June26th-30thSeptember,2010

Address: Pekin Fine Arts, Beijing

“Women on Women” at the Hong Miao Gallery

Christina Xiong

Artist names: Yan Zheng'an, Chen Xiaodan, Gao Qian, Li Geye, Barbara Edelstein, Virginie Lerouge Knight, Christin Kalweit and Zane Mellupe

Experiencing art involves connecting history and one's environment to
the artist's own perspective. When I first walked into the gallery, I
did not know the history of the Hong Miao temple. However, I was
familiar with the "Guan Yin Pu Sha" from folklore; her presence on
altars in the temple created a feminine ambience, one of unconditional
love, compassion and kindness. Of course, this personification of the
"patron of mothers" is one way of viewing what an ideal woman should
be. However, the roles of women seem to change with time and our
cultural environment. As I have observed from the artwork, even women
themselves, have different reflections on how their own identities fit
into society. Among the 8 female artists, there are two distinct
groups; 4 of them are Shanghainese, the other 4, Westerners. I am
curious about this grouping based on nationality. How do Chinese and
Western artists' perspectives differ?

The Western artists featured at Women on Women seem to be more vibrant
and assertive with their opinions. For example, Christin Kalweit's
prints on canvas express discontent with the domestic life commonly
associated with women and encourage women to unite and liberate
themselves, especially since "my hands are of your color". "Cycle"
resembles a month of 30 days on a calendar, symbolizing stages in life
or what is expected, especially motherhood, of a woman. Barbara's Tree
of Life notes the importance of the "life-giving and life-sustaining"
abilities of a woman. Like the roots of a tree, women give birth and
provide sustenance for diverse civilizations (leaves) and it is
because of this, women should be even more confident about their
roles. I feel that this concept of empowering women is somewhat
lacking in a few pieces by the Chinese artists. Li Ge Ye, in
"Floating", certainly portrays the challenging environment that women,
as an underrepresented group, face. Whereas the women are just
"floating", struggling to navigate the waters, men seem to be moving
forward. Although this piece certainly brings to point a female's life
difficulties, I feel that the tone is less liberal than Kalweit's
pieces. Personally, it serves less as a motivating force for me to
take initiative, because there is less of a connection. Then again,
perhaps this is Li Ge Ye's objective. This more conservative
perspective can very well be associated with the cultural norms that
she grew up with.

“Make Over Exhibition” at the Oriental Vista Gallery

Christina Xiong

Artist names: Bird Head, Chen Hangfeng, Jutta Friedrichs, Gao Mingyan,
Ben Houge, Jiang Hongqing,

 Ji Wenyu, Jin Feng, Maya Kramer, Lu Jiawei, Ning Zuohong, Qiu
Anxiong, Christina Shmigel, Su Chang, Wu Ding

The entrance and appearance of the gallery itself is a piece of art.
From its barbed wire, camouflage print, goldfish, and sacks forming a
barricade around the automatic front door, I expected the Make Over
exhibition to be unique, modern and an artist's innovative approach to
expression. Unlike the Propaganda Poster Art Collection, the pieces at
Make Over invited a lot more interaction with guests. Whereas the
slogans and pictures portrayed on the Propaganda posters were blatant
and obvious with respect to Chinese history and the major events
occurring during the same time period.

A Review on Dingyi’s Artwork after studio visit

On the first sight of Dingyi’s artwork ,it stroke on me the name of a linguist---Ferdinand de Saussure. He holds the idea that language is nothing but linguistic signs, which is composed of signifier and the signified, and possibly has a referent. That seems to be the same with Ding’s work, which express no specific meaning from the surface. His series artworks of cross-tens are fill with these elements of all colors , thus making irregular patterns at random. Ding said that he wanted to return to the simplest way of expressing and what truly conveyed by these artworks were hard to define. He tried his best to avoid traditional way of expressing emotionally but to be logically by giving of figures (yixiang in Chinese) striving for signs. Surly, it turned out to be a big success in Ding’s work People of different culture and civilization can be deeply impressed by the considerable quantities of glorious and shining cross-tens at first sight. Taking a close look ,all the cross-tens are delicately painted .As if you turn a distant view of the artwork, ignoring all the small components ,you’ll find bigger cross-tens mixed up with numerous and uncountable small cross-tens.

But to me ,I wonder what’s the different inherent among all these cross-tens series. It was really frustrating .So I asked Ding .He said that kind of meaningless was the symbol of contemporary art. But to different audience .You could make sense from them through your own experience. For example ,from these shining cross-tens ,you can get a feeling of vigor of the city and modern life. It all depends.

That may be true.But it’s still hard for me to figure out the meaning of these artworks .I guess maybe they are just signs depicting the irregular life of modern society and people’s hazy of the life and choice while confronting crossroads

“Desserts” at Moca Shanghai

Christina Xiong

Title of Exhibition: “Desserts” at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA)
Artist names: Zhou Tiehai

When I think of France, I think of not only its lavish and yet violent political history, but also its fashion, luxury and beauty, all of which are aspects its language and food – as the title of this exhibition suggests. The collection hosts about 400 pieces, all of which carry the deep-rooted cultural and historical past associated with the names of 12 desserts: “diplomat, juge, ministre, prof, commissaire, sycophante, caroleuse, blancheresse, financier, bouffon, chiffonnier and sabotajnik”. When I had first entered the museum, I was confused, struggling to find a connection between the chocolate tart and a courtroom of judges, or a strawberry mousse cake and bargirl. However, it soon made sense because Zhou, with his ironic approach and amusing displays, is stimulating our “intellectual appetite” by offering us a different perspective on the character of French culture.

I was interested in the way women were portrayed at various points in time, from a replica of Marie Antoinette, to a ballet dancer, bargirl at a nightclub, or a professional model. Although the pieces were not arranged in chronological order, I did notice that each new generation had a more “sophisticated” connotation. Traditionally, whereas men were the breadwinners of the family, women were used for marriage negotiations, selling their beauty for a climb up the social ladder. Marie Antoinette, who once said, “Let them eat cake”, is very much like the cakes next to her. She is covered up with make-up and “decorated” with extravagant dresses. Ultimately, her sex appeal is what upholds or what has become, her status. As a woman strives to create her own career, an attempt to free herself from the binding social norms, she, like the dancer spreading her arms out, may succeed. Nevertheless, it is still difficult to permanently escape from the perception of inferiority. Even the successful models (seen on next page), coated with vibrant and florid designs, are like edible desserts.

on National Grand Theatre of China

From: Alexa Haas

The geomancer of the Ming Dynasty who designed the city of Beijing,
"traced the body of Nezha, a young God credited with taming the waters
of the Beijing plain." His Eight-armed body became the structure of
Beijing's layout. Originally, a landmark in the city represents each
of his organs and ligaments: Zhengyang Gate at the South of Tian'anmen
are his eyes (Mao must have known, since he preserved them).
Tian'anmen Square is his brain. The road on the North-South axis into
the Forbidden City is his esophagus. (Ian Johnson, Wild Grass) Now
with the new egg-building 'National Grand Theatre of China' just 500
meters from Tian'anmen, Nezha will turn to his left and wonder "Whose
egg is this?!" Little does he realize there is an Olympic bird's nest
in the city beside his feet.

"The decision to build the Grand National Theatre in a place of such
historical and symbolic import clearly testifies to the importance
given to culture in its relationship with history and the contemporary
world. In such a context, it was out of the question to make an
obscure, less prominent building of lesser importance. But neither
could it pretend to be an isolated structure onto itself. For this
reason, we strove to create a building that shows respect for the
buildings around it…"

(http://www.archdaily.com/1218/national-grand-theater-of-china-paul-andreu/)

I wonder had Paul Andreu and other developers had researched the
architecture and symbols of Beijing? Old Beijing followed the
principle: Earth is square, and heaven is round. Is there a deeper
meaning to this opera house being round? It then becomes a physical
representation of the break in the link from the past and now.
Beijing, though, was a masterpiece.

Beijing was a perfect representation of primitive human thought,
solely based on our five senses and the mystery that lie beyond that.
Before science, before world maps, before the future. This was the
center of the Earth. The entire city was a shrine to the heavens, a
home for heaven's son. "They said that this Beijing was the earthly
termination of the axis of the universe…" (Jeffrey F. Meyer, The
Dragon's of Tiananmen) It was, I cannot stress, perfect. Every detail.
Perfect. It had to be. This is the heavens we are talking about! Does
society no longer ponder the mystery of the heavens? Even NASA still
has questions. Maybe the ancient Chinese were wrong about it being the
center of the Earth, why must we no longer honor their conviction? I
cannot help but mourn the old layout of Beijing. Why can't we just add
to it! This egg to me is foolish really ~ he sits next to Nezha like a
true bastard, saying "You were wrong, you old and dying man ~ I am the
new baby, I represent the truth."

--

798 Dashanzi Art District

Amy Chou
798 Dashanzi Art District

When my taxi cab driver dropped me off across the street from, what I now believe is, the main entrance to the art district, I questioned if my taxi cab driver understood the address I gave him. I had heard that
Dashanzi Art District used to be a factory zone, but nothing looked very factory-like. However, I was reassured when I saw the big red numbers "798" next to the gate, as if they were welcoming me to a mysterious place.
The first few minutes of walking into the district
made me wonder where all of the art was, but then I saw a strange
statue of a man and I knew I was walking in the right direction. The
farther I walked into the district the stranger the atmosphere seemed
to become. I saw galleries camouflaged by old factory facades
complimented with graffiti and statues of disproportionate people or
strange creatures. Most of the statues sprawled throughout the
district were either white or red. They stood out from their
surroundings due to the clear contrast in age and style. Despite the
differences in visual elements, everything mixed well together, and
because of that, I knew that I was in a place of creativity.

Some of the galleries had redesigned their exteriors to look more
modern and they redesigned there interiors as well with new
whitewashed walls. However, many kept their original cement floors,
old wooden ceilings, worn windows, and roofs. Whether or not the
artists who rented out the spaces purposely incorporated parts of the
obsolete factories into their gallery designs, I do not know; but what
is left of the old factories adds a sense of deep history. Even though
798 Dashanzi Art District did not fully blossom until 2002, the
time-worn factories seem to act as symbols of the long history of art
and art's continuance into the future.

Make Over Exhibit, OV Gallery

The Make Over exhibit in the OV Gallery is very unique in that it responds to all of the changes taking place in the city of Shanghai for the World Expo. Before entering the gallery, I was confronted with a military base-like façade by Gao Mingyan and a surreal, blue display window of fish swimming in bags and a gigantic wine glass by Ning Zuohong. To get to the door and enter the gallery, I had to step over a pile of sandbags. Once inside, I felt like I was in a calmer world than what the outer appearance had me expecting. The only noise I could hear was the sound of the bubble machine making bubbles in “Bubble City Bubble Life” by Chen Hangfeng. The work “Paved Landscapes” by Jutta Friedrichs evoked happy thoughts from me because of the bright colored objects and the flowers, but I found out later that the work actually symbolized the destruction of self-sustaining vendors in exchange for a prettier image that requires constant maintenance. The work that seemed to pull the mood of the exhibit together was the “Tang Dynasty Poem” by Bird Head. Black and white photographs of single characters were taken from store signs to write the Tang Dynasty poem “On Mounting Youzhou Terrace” by Chen Zi-ang. All of the works in the Make Over exhibit deal with the controversies surrounding Shanghai’s rapid make over. Many of the changes that have taken place to fix the city’s image have happened away from public eyes, but the Make Over exhibit reveals a bit of what’s really happening to not only the city, but also to the people.

Make Over opening and Tour 外里面工程开幕式和导览

Make-Over

Opening and Curatorial Tour
OV Gallery PRESS RELEASE

We’ve all seen it – the warped bamboo scaffolding, the torn up streets, the walls dripping with fresh paint, the city is getting a face lift in time for the World Expo, similar to the process which befell Beijing in advance of the Olympics.
But what lies underneath that glossy white paint? What are we covering up and why? Who decides what will be the new face of Shanghai? This exhibition explores issues of history, idealism and image-making in the context of modern China.
“Make-over” features 15 newly-commissioned works, including cutting-edge video, installation and performance works, which employ materials as diverse as cake, barbed wire, live goldfish and a bubble-making machine.

Shanghai Expo-related: Double Infinity opens

Save the date Thursday, April 29, 4PM, for the opening of
Double Infinity, a collaborative encounter between a northwest
European museum, the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and
Arthub Asia in Shanghai.

The works exhibited are drawn in part from the Van Abbemuseum's
collection and in part responded to by artists at the invitation of
Arthub Asia. The dynamic contributions of these artists will be in
direct dialogue with a selection of the museum's permanent collection.
The performance and lecture programmes draws on a mix of issues on
architecture, urban planning, and cultural politics. Save your weekend
of May 15th and 16th for a weekend of intense public programming.

Participating artists include: Surasi Kusolwong, Zhou Xiaohu, Dick El
Demasiado, Johanna Billing, Stanley Brouwn, El Lissitzky, David
Maljkovic, Lara Almacergui, Job Koelewijn, John Körmeling, Julika
Rudelius, Alicia Framis, Cao Fei, Xijing Men Collective (Chen
Shaoxiong, Gimhongsok, Tsuyoshi Okazawa), Comfortable Collective, Liu
Gang, Speedism, Wang Zhenfei & Wang Luming (HHD_FUN), Xu Tan.

Double Infinity runs from the 29th of April 4PM, the time when Zhou
Xiaohu's performance kicks in, to the 23rd of May. More details will
follow.

ArtHub is a multi-disciplinary organization devoted to contemporary
art creation in China and rest of Asia. In collaboration with museums
and other public / private spaces and institutions, it initiates and
delivers ambitious art projects through a sustained dialogue with
visual, performance, and new media artists.