Stephanie Hsu
Contemporary Art and New Media in China
10/7/10
Photography at “Useful Life 2010”
ShanghART H-Space at 50 Moganshan Road in Shanghai is currently presenting “Useful Life 2010,” a mixed media exhibition by Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong, and MadeIn, an art collaborative founded by Xu Zhen. Following up “Useful Life 2000,” the exhibition that launched the three artists’ careers a decade ago, “Useful Life 2010” claims to be “more a challenge rather than a continuation,” as stated by the text on the introductory wall panel. The text continues: “The art environment, artists’ creative concepts, their ways of expression, even their identities, all changed. How to face a new context, how to find one’s place?” During my time in the gallery space, I felt most engaged with these questions while viewing the exhibition’s two photography series, “International Hotel” by Yang Fudong and an untitled work by Yang Zhenzhong.
As I looked at “International Hotel,” the series of five photographs by Yang Fudong, I thought about the exhibition’s concern with the process of re-contextualizing identity over the course of time. To me, the black and white photographs of young Chinese women posing by a swimming pool were reminiscent of the “modeng nüxing,” or “modern girl” of the pre-World War II era, whose stylish, sexualized image in cigarette advertisements and film posters came to represent the liberation of women from long-standing social and cultural customs. The photographs strongly conveyed the strong male gaze of the photographer, with the bright flash capturing the women smiling and seeming to respond coyishly to an unseen subject behind the camera.
Yang Zhenzhong’s untitled series of 25 portraits also implicated the strong presence of the photographer. The portraits depicted 25 subjects, who all seemed to be of Chinese descent, but varying in age and gender. The subjects were all smiling widely and appearing to be inspired or amused by their interaction with someone behind the camera. While most of the subjects seemed genuine in their expression when I observed them individually, I found that as I scanned the portraits one after another, the series quickly revealed its artificiality. The bright flash of the camera, the studio setting, the hardened expressions of a few subjects, and the sheer intensity of having 25 of these 100 x 100 cm portraits placed in succession all pointed towards the series’ attempt to contrive feeling and sentiment through performance. A large, plastic red star, resting flimsily in the corner opposite of the portraits, seemed to give context to the series as a sardonic commentary on the artificiality and constructed-ness of nationalistic feeling during the Cultural Revolution. Thinking about propaganda and performance, I was reminded of film stills of the Yang Ban Xi, many of which depict the staged, exaggerated expressions of the opera’s protagonists. Like Yang Fudong’s “International Hotel,” Yang Zhenzhong’s series seemed to grapple with historical memory by contextualizing the past in the present.
Showing posts with label Useful life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Useful life. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Useful Life 2010
Below and attached is a copy of my blog.
Thanks,
Cori
M50 Art District: “Useful Life” Exhibit
The exhibition “Useful Life” at the Shanghai Art Gallery H Space displayed the photographs, film, and sculpture pieces by the artists Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong and Xu Zhen. In the large, warehouse-like space of the gallery, Yang Zhenzhong's series of photographs called Extras displayed meter tall faces of people smiling. Their faces gleam and the crows feet and creases around their mouths are accentuated by their smooth skin. The faces are all beautiful, but after looking at more than twenty photographs of lovely, smiling faces they begin to look very plastic. Similarly Yang Fudong's series of photographs, called International Hotel also uses beautiful, smiling people as subjects. The ladies in the series are all beautiful; they remind me of the Shanghai Lady posters from the 1930s. In Yang Fudong's “The Fifth Night” video installation, it is another beautiful scene shown in black and white from seven different camera angles. At first, I was pulled in by all the different shots, It was like being a security guard watching multiple screens. However, after several minutes I still wasn't sure if I understood what was going on.
The show dealt a lot with beauty, particularly beautiful people, and created an almost surreal atmosphere in the space. However, it was also, as many descriptions mention, the artists “revalidating” the exhibition from ten years ago. This exhibit certainly brings their show back to the limelight, though I am not sure how successful the exhibit is this time.
Thanks,
Cori
M50 Art District: “Useful Life” Exhibit
The exhibition “Useful Life” at the Shanghai Art Gallery H Space displayed the photographs, film, and sculpture pieces by the artists Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong and Xu Zhen. In the large, warehouse-like space of the gallery, Yang Zhenzhong's series of photographs called Extras displayed meter tall faces of people smiling. Their faces gleam and the crows feet and creases around their mouths are accentuated by their smooth skin. The faces are all beautiful, but after looking at more than twenty photographs of lovely, smiling faces they begin to look very plastic. Similarly Yang Fudong's series of photographs, called International Hotel also uses beautiful, smiling people as subjects. The ladies in the series are all beautiful; they remind me of the Shanghai Lady posters from the 1930s. In Yang Fudong's “The Fifth Night” video installation, it is another beautiful scene shown in black and white from seven different camera angles. At first, I was pulled in by all the different shots, It was like being a security guard watching multiple screens. However, after several minutes I still wasn't sure if I understood what was going on.
The show dealt a lot with beauty, particularly beautiful people, and created an almost surreal atmosphere in the space. However, it was also, as many descriptions mention, the artists “revalidating” the exhibition from ten years ago. This exhibit certainly brings their show back to the limelight, though I am not sure how successful the exhibit is this time.
M50
Joon Nam
Week 4
M50 Shanghai
The visit to M50 last week on September 30, 2010 took me by surprise since I was expecting to visit a temple instead. Located little to the north west of Shanghai, M50 is an art community that perhaps symbolizes the rapid growth of China’s (and the East Asia’s as a whole) contemporary art scene together with 798 of Beijing. The visit to Shanghai Contemporary fair earlier in September gave me a good outlook of the today’s art scene in China, and I was able to spot some familiar works that I saw at SH Contemporary when we were walking around in M50.
The first gallery we walked into was Aike Gallery, which was holding an exhibition called “There is nothing you can measure anymore”. It was a short stop before the main gallery we went to, but “Retired Pillar” by Jin Shan proved to be a quite interesting piece. It was a deflated rubber sculpture in the shape of a pillar, which represented the Western culture that is present in Shanghai but heavily modified to be localized.
The main exhibition that we visited, “Useful Life 2010” at ShanghART, proved to be a bit of a disappointment, however. Most of the works that I saw was uninspiring, especially “Iternational Hotel” by Yang Fudong, which to me was just a series of photographs of pretty Chinese girls with no artistic meanings. His other exhibition, a film work called “The Fifth Night” was a bit more interesting, yet I did not see any direction in the film and came to be disappointed as well.
Week 4
M50 Shanghai
The visit to M50 last week on September 30, 2010 took me by surprise since I was expecting to visit a temple instead. Located little to the north west of Shanghai, M50 is an art community that perhaps symbolizes the rapid growth of China’s (and the East Asia’s as a whole) contemporary art scene together with 798 of Beijing. The visit to Shanghai Contemporary fair earlier in September gave me a good outlook of the today’s art scene in China, and I was able to spot some familiar works that I saw at SH Contemporary when we were walking around in M50.
The first gallery we walked into was Aike Gallery, which was holding an exhibition called “There is nothing you can measure anymore”. It was a short stop before the main gallery we went to, but “Retired Pillar” by Jin Shan proved to be a quite interesting piece. It was a deflated rubber sculpture in the shape of a pillar, which represented the Western culture that is present in Shanghai but heavily modified to be localized.
The main exhibition that we visited, “Useful Life 2010” at ShanghART, proved to be a bit of a disappointment, however. Most of the works that I saw was uninspiring, especially “Iternational Hotel” by Yang Fudong, which to me was just a series of photographs of pretty Chinese girls with no artistic meanings. His other exhibition, a film work called “The Fifth Night” was a bit more interesting, yet I did not see any direction in the film and came to be disappointed as well.
M50 “Useful Life”
Nina Boys
Contemporary Art and New Media in China
M50 “Useful Life”
10.06.2010
The exhibition “Useful Life 2010” featured in the artsy area “M50” in Shanghai featured the three prominent Chinese artists; Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong and Xu Chen. It was a reprisal of an exhibition that went by the same name ten years ago featuring the same artists. While I had not had the opportunity to visit “Useful Life” in 2000, I could still sense the diversity of inspiration among the different works, and in a sense, the evolutionary thread that tied the exhibition together. From hyper-realistic portraits of various citizens by Zhenzhong entitled “Extras” to Fudong’s multi-perspective black and white feature called “Fifth Night” to Zhen’s “Spread”; a rainbow printed forest that stood majestically in the center of the room, the very title “Useful Life” both referencing and satirizing the artist’s life, career and spectrum of work. Upon doing further reading on the artists’ take on the exhibition it is interesting to note that while ten years have passed, and certainly with that time came changes in technique, inspiration and material, all of them reflect on the fact that that which should not have changed, hasn’t. The artist’s core identity is still reflected in the way in which he perceives the world around him. While this is not necessarily a quantifiable change, I can imagine that the exhibition that premiered a decade ago would reflect what I saw in the present-day, with the changes more in the artist’s style and the fundamental changes that have occurred in our world over the past decade, with the artists’ core character still shining through strong as ever.
Contemporary Art and New Media in China
M50 “Useful Life”
10.06.2010
The exhibition “Useful Life 2010” featured in the artsy area “M50” in Shanghai featured the three prominent Chinese artists; Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong and Xu Chen. It was a reprisal of an exhibition that went by the same name ten years ago featuring the same artists. While I had not had the opportunity to visit “Useful Life” in 2000, I could still sense the diversity of inspiration among the different works, and in a sense, the evolutionary thread that tied the exhibition together. From hyper-realistic portraits of various citizens by Zhenzhong entitled “Extras” to Fudong’s multi-perspective black and white feature called “Fifth Night” to Zhen’s “Spread”; a rainbow printed forest that stood majestically in the center of the room, the very title “Useful Life” both referencing and satirizing the artist’s life, career and spectrum of work. Upon doing further reading on the artists’ take on the exhibition it is interesting to note that while ten years have passed, and certainly with that time came changes in technique, inspiration and material, all of them reflect on the fact that that which should not have changed, hasn’t. The artist’s core identity is still reflected in the way in which he perceives the world around him. While this is not necessarily a quantifiable change, I can imagine that the exhibition that premiered a decade ago would reflect what I saw in the present-day, with the changes more in the artist’s style and the fundamental changes that have occurred in our world over the past decade, with the artists’ core character still shining through strong as ever.
Useful Life 2010
Beginning September 9th and lasting until November 5th, ShanghART Gallery presents an exhibit curated around the theme “Useful Life.” Featured artists are Yang Fudong, Yang Zhenzhong, and Xu Zhen. I found Yang Fudong’s film “The Fifth Night” to be especially memorable. Upon entering “The Fifth Night” exhibition space, I was instantly struck by the presentation: seven large screens simultaneously played black and white film. Yang refers to this technique as “multiple eyes film” as it allows the viewer to experience one scene from seven vantage points. At first glance, this was disorienting as it was impossible to follow the film’s plot. This loss in comprehension was replaced though with heightened senses that drew awareness to individual movements and expressions. Even the most mundane actions became nearly monumental, examined carefully and followed slowly. The “multiple eyes film” technique is in part a result of Yang finding beauty in randomness. Since true randomness cannot be created, Yang found it in the cameramen’s subtle adjustments, and the actors’ slight reactions to the multiple lenses. As I continued to observe the film, I attempted further to dissect the theme, but found myself enthralled with the drama of pending moments. Even the smallest steps gave way to a near ominous feeling. This mood forces the viewer to slow down, to observe the drama of time. Finding perfection is randomness and change is indeed a characteristic of a “useful life;” however, the over-plasticity of the actors counteracted this. By reducing the human element, the viewer was distanced from the scene. The overall effect brought attention to time and movement, but in a near surreal world.
Meredith Rankin
Meredith Rankin
Useful life 2010
Here is my blog entry: Mikael Larsson
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Useful life 2010
Duration: 2010-09-11 to 2010-11-05
The exhibit useful life being shown at ShanghArt H-Space at M50 Art district
In Shanghai is not necessarily a retrospective of the three now established contemporary artists, MadeIn, Yang Fudong & Yang Zhenzhong. Instead it seems to be a display of what their current art and possibly future direction will be. We see to where they have evolved to since their first exhibit with the same name “Useful Life” was put up 10 years ago. Unfortunately I was not here to see the first show, but looking at their early works you see the stronger presence of a carved out style and the difference in the use of material and production that before must have been unobtainable for them.
I was especially drawn to Yang Zhengzhong’s discarded star sculpture.
Maybe for its underlying social message craftsmanship and beauty, but most likely for the same reason the entire exhibit is attractive; due to its high level of commercial appeal.
Red is after all the best color: at least according to this ehow guide on abstract art.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5710588_pick-colors-great-abstract-art.html
The overly commercial tone that is seen through out the show is especially obvious
in Yang Fudong’s movie installation where it seems most effort has been put in to expensive equipment and production.
But who can blame them, success and commercialism seem to go hand in hand these
days in art. The more you can sell and the more recognizable you are the better. I suppose I really see nothing bad with it. But sometimes true innovation and magnetic pull to a work is missed. To always have the same overly used mental buttons pressed gets dull after a while.
I for one know! that the color red always gets me.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Useful life 2010
Duration: 2010-09-11 to 2010-11-05
The exhibit useful life being shown at ShanghArt H-Space at M50 Art district
In Shanghai is not necessarily a retrospective of the three now established contemporary artists, MadeIn, Yang Fudong & Yang Zhenzhong. Instead it seems to be a display of what their current art and possibly future direction will be. We see to where they have evolved to since their first exhibit with the same name “Useful Life” was put up 10 years ago. Unfortunately I was not here to see the first show, but looking at their early works you see the stronger presence of a carved out style and the difference in the use of material and production that before must have been unobtainable for them.
I was especially drawn to Yang Zhengzhong’s discarded star sculpture.
Maybe for its underlying social message craftsmanship and beauty, but most likely for the same reason the entire exhibit is attractive; due to its high level of commercial appeal.
Red is after all the best color: at least according to this ehow guide on abstract art.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5710588_pick-colors-great-abstract-art.html
The overly commercial tone that is seen through out the show is especially obvious
in Yang Fudong’s movie installation where it seems most effort has been put in to expensive equipment and production.
But who can blame them, success and commercialism seem to go hand in hand these
days in art. The more you can sell and the more recognizable you are the better. I suppose I really see nothing bad with it. But sometimes true innovation and magnetic pull to a work is missed. To always have the same overly used mental buttons pressed gets dull after a while.
I for one know! that the color red always gets me.
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