Artist/activist Ai Weiwei has produced an eight-part documentary about his last trip to Chengdu in August 2009 to testify on behalf of imprisoned acti

From http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2010/04/ai-weiwei-艾未未-laoma-tihua-老妈蹄花-video/

Ai Weiwei (艾未未): Laoma Tihua (老妈蹄花) (Video) (Updated)
Artist/activist Ai Weiwei has produced an eight-part documentary about his last trip to Chengdu in August 2009 to testify on behalf of imprisoned activist Tan Zuoren. The video includes footage of the incident in which Ai was beaten by security guards. Ai later underwent emergency brain surgery while traveling in Germany due to injuries sustained during the beating.

On Twitter, Ai Weiwei said today that he returned to the Xi’an Road police station in Chengdu, together with lawyer Xia Lin, Professor Ai Xiaoming, and three documentary filmmakers to file a report about the beating. He spent four hours filling out forms. The police brought one video camera and Ai’s crew had four, so the two sides videotaped each other throughout the process.

The video below has English subtitles. Thanks to Diane Gatterdam for providing the links.

The video below has English subtitles. Thanks to Diane Gatterdam for providing the links.

Update: ChinaGeeks summarizes the key moments of the film, and gives an update on Ai’s recent activities, here.

Update: ChinaGeeks summarizes the key moments of the film, and gives an update on Ai’s recent activities, here.

Glossy Book by Tinari out

with a review in FT.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/18696e54-cbb2-11dc-97ff-000077b07658.html

The coffee-table revolution

By Susan Moore

Published: January 26 2008 02:00 | Last updated: January 26 2008 02:00

No contemporary art collector likes to think of themselves as a mere tourist. They prefer to negotiate the travelling circus that is the international art market by way of the concierge service, the museum group and the VIP programme. Theirs is a world of museum private views and private house visits, of well-connected professionals opening all the doors. They are used to being on the inside.

In China, however, the westerner is very much on the outside. Buying art offers a glimpse in. It is probably true to say that the west's new-found passion for contemporary Chinese art - which, for the most favoured, has driven prices up from next to nothing to millions in the past few years - has been fanned by a kind of modish cultural tourism. It is partly to do with how art is bought in China. If anyone wanted to acquire - or even see - the work of avant-garde artists who demonstrated for political democracy and freedom of expression in 1979, they had to visit them at home, where they worked.

Even now, with growing numbers of dealers operating in the country, the Chinese dislike of the middleman has ensured that much of the business of selling has remained in the control of the artist and in the home or, latterly, the studio. Deals tend to be concluded traditionally by an invitation to share a meal. For many of the early western collectors, and for plenty of those buying now, part of the pleasure was forging a relationship with the artists (and coming away with a wealth of anecdotes to impress their friends). The generation of idealistic young artists who challenged the system seemed infinitely romantic. They might not be starving in garrets (the long-handled rice bowl of the state ensured that) but life was tough with food and materials in short supply. So, as prices for Chinese contemporary art have soared, so has interest in those who make it. A perfect record of the phenomenon is the recently published, large-format book Artists in China: Inside the Contemporary Studio (Thames & Hudson) , which features 500 photographs of 50 or so artists in their homes and studios. There is a glossary of informed thumbnail biographies by Philip Tinari. Chinese artists have hit the coffee table.

Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this book is that it should exist at all. A decade ago most of these artists were obliged to work at home and the industrial-scale studios and chic interiors photographed here would have been unimaginable. None is more exquisite than the airy, well-proportioned working and living space of Ai Weiwei, one of the most significant conceptual and performance artists to have emerged in China. Designed by him in 1998 and built in what was then a rural village on the periphery of Beijing, it has became the basis for a booming architectural practice, Fake Design. Here and elsewhere, the combination of old and new China seems entirely natural.

There is no doubting the new wealth of market darlings such as Yue Minjun - he of the ubiquitous "shark's smile" self-portraits - whose "Execution" was sold at Sotheby's London last October for £2.9m, a record for any work of Chinese contemporary art sold at auction. His eerily empty new house is huge and sprawling in its walled-off suburban Beijing compound.

The great strength of Tinari's book, however, is that it reflects the huge diversity of creative output in China, not least among conceptual, performance, film and video artists - encouragement for us all to look beyond the formulaic productions favoured by the market.

There is no sign of China-mania abating, especially since the Chinese government has come to recognise the potential of its cultural heritage. Events such as this year's British "China Now" festival will play their part. And, these days, visits to Beijing's famous 798 art district have become as much a part of the tourist trail as the Forbidden Palace and the Great Wall.

No doubt some collectors will continue to rush blindly to China to buy specifically Chinese contemporary (one French artist working in Beijing only started selling his work when he began signing his name in Chinese characters).

Perhaps only when China begins to lose its exoticism in the eyes of the west will its art be appreciated precisely for what it is.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008

Building the Future - China's New Cities

The Shanghai Foreign Correspondents' Club Presents:

Building the Future - China's New Cities

Albert Speer, Managing Partner, AS & P
James Brearley, BAU
Sun Le & Yang Cai, Urban China magazine, Tongji University

Mesa/Manifesto
7p.m., Monday, January 21 (talk starts at 7.30 p.m.)

China is urbanizing at unprecedented pace - some estimates say the
urban population will grow by 300 million people in the next fifteen
- twenty years. But as cities around the country build vast new
areas, and redesign existing neighbourhoods, what kind of urban
environment is being created? Our panel of respected experts will
look at the future of the Chinese city - and whether there is any
alternative to the model of grandiose official buildings, vast
squares, car-focused CBDs, giant shopping centres and enormous
gated communities.

Venue details: Function room at Mesa/Manifesto,
748 Julu Lu, near Fumin Lu (6289 9108)

Admission: Members free; Non-members 50 RMB,

RSVP: fcc.sfcc@gmail.com by Friday January 18

About the Speaker:
Albert Speer Jnr heads one of Europe's leading architecture and urban
planning practices. Based in Frankfurt, Albert Speer and Partners has
designed urban areas around the world - the firm works widely in
Africa, and is currently involved in the regeneration of Frankfurt's
'Europa district'. It also devised the masterplan for the 2000
Hannover World Expo. In recent years AS & P has become increasingly
focused on China - it designed the original, environmentally
friendly, plans for Shanghai's Anting new town, and is currently
working on an 'auto city' project in Changchun. Professor Speer is
also a respected academic, who has shaken off the legacy of his
father's grandiose plans for the Third Reich to formulate his own
vision of the need for human-focused, sustainable planning, as
highlighted in his 1992 book The Intelligent City.

James Brearley is an Australian architect and planner whose company
BAU - Brearley Architects and Urbanists - which he runs in
partnership with his wife Fang Qun - has been working on urban design
in China since 2001. BAU has designed masterplans for new areas in
a number of large and medium-size Chinese cities, including a 12
square kilometre zone in Chengdu, and a new centre for the city of
Jiangyin. James Brearley is also an Adjunct Professor of RMIT
University of Melbourne, and co-author of the book Networks Cities,
which outlines BAU's vision for functional and sustainable urban
development. He also organises regular discussions on architecture at
BAU's office.

Sun Le and Yang Cai are editors of Urban China magazine, which
provides some of the most thoughtful analysis of China's breakneck
urbanization, and has covered a wide range of social issues since it
was launched by academics at Tongji University in 2005. The
magazine aims both to reflect the problems raised by rapid urban
development - and to educate Chinese citizens to 'understand and care
about urban planning,' and the cities in which they live.

Samsung accused of $64m art fraud

might pertain China one day...
www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=7345
Samsung accused of $64m art fraud

The conglomerate's former house attorney alleges that the chairman
set up a slush fund which his wife used to buy art

Lucian Harris | 2.1.08 | Issue 187

Contact writerEmail writer Printable versionPrint Add
commentComment Send article

LONDON. Over $64m from a slush fund set up by Lee Kun-hee, chairman
of Samsung, was allegedly used to buy art for his wife Ra Hee Hong
Lee who is director-general of the Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art,
according to the Korean corporation's former house attorney. None of
the art has been exhibited in Korea and its whereabouts is presently
unknown. Samsung denies the allegations.

The National Assembly has now approved an independent investigation
into the affair. With Samsung's huge financial sponsorship of the
arts under scrutiny, many other Korean corporations have ceased
buying art until the waters settle, causing confidence in the
country's art market to plummet.

In a series of press conferences starting on 29 October, Kim Yong-
chul, head of the legal department of the Samsung Group Restructuring
Office from 1997 to 2004, unleashed a slew of allegations concerning
a $225m slush fund which he claims was kept in the accounts of
various Samsung executives and administered by the Restructuring Office.

In addition to the currying of influence in political and legal
circles, Kim alleges that the slush fund was used to purchase
millions of dollars worth of art for the chairman's wife Ra Hee Hong
Lee and other members of his family.

Kim Yong-chul's allegations focused particularly on the acquisition
of Roy Lichtenstein's Happy Tears, 1964, which sold at Christie's New
York in 2002 for $7,159,500, a record price for the artist at the time.

He said that the painting was bought at the auction on behalf of the
chairman's wife by Hong Seong-won, director of the Seoul-based Seomi
Gallery, who is believed to have handled art purchases on behalf of
the Samsung group since the 1990s. He said that Mrs Hong Lee would
regularly call the Restructuring Office to ask for funds to be wired
to the Seomi Gallery for the buying of art.

To further back his claims, on 26 November Kim Yong-chul released a
full list of the art alleged to have been bought with money from the
Samsung slush fund as well as details of payments made to Christie's.
This list, seen by The Art Newspaper, details purchases of 30
paintings and photographs allegedly made at five different sales at
Christie's, New York between 2002 and 2003 with money from the slush
fund. According to this list, in one sale alone—the post-war and
contemporary art auction on 13 November 2002—over $20m was spent on
ten works including Lichtenstein's Happy Tears ($7,159,500); Barnett
Newman's, White Fire I, 1954 ($3,859,500); David Hockney's, Portrait
of Nick Wilder, 1966 ($2,869,500); Ed Ruscha's, Desire, 1969
($1,769,500); Donald Judd's, Untitled (Ten Units), 1969 ($1,439,500);
Agnes Martin's, Untitled #4, 1980 ($1,054,500); and Gerhard
Richter's, Abstract, 1992 ($1,054,500). When the sale continued the
following morning a further $1.3m was spent on seven more paintings.

The document also details a series of 57 staggered payments made by
15 different companies between January 2002 and December 2003. Of
these, 33 were made by Seomi Gallery through banks in Seoul and New
York, while other payments were made by finance and property
companies through banks in Seoul, Hong Kong, Singapore and London.
Between 3 and 10 December 2002, over $6m was paid from ANNC Co Ltd
through two different Korean banks.

Samsung categorically denies the allegations. In a statement to The
Art Newspaper the company said: "These allegations are completely
groundless. We are cooperating fully with the current investigation."

"We understand the document that Mr Kim disclosed is a list of works
of art purchased by Seomi Gallery. Neither Mrs Hong Lee nor Samsung
Museum of Art purchased Roy Lichtenstein's Happy Tears."

"Mrs Hong Lee was invited to view the work but she decided not to
purchase it. Mrs Hong Lee has never misappropriated funds. When she
purchases works of art, she does so with her own funds. When Samsung
Museum of Art purchases works of art, it uses its own funds. The 30
works of art included on the list were not purchased by Samsung, nor
Mrs Hong Lee."

Seomi Gallery did not respond to our emails asking for comment but
according to the Chosun Ilbo newspaper, when initially questioned on
26 November it said that it had sold Happy Tears to a private collector.

However the following day, Hong Seong-won, director of Seomi Gallery,
told Korean reporters that the work was still in her possession. "I
bought it to sell in Korea but I could not find a buyer," she said.
"So I kept it and I will show it after sorting out shipping,
insurance and security." She admitted buying other works on the list
and said that she had sold them to various Korean collectors.

She also said that four works by Japanese photographer Hiroshi
Sugimoto were bought for herself.

The affair has affected confidence in the Korean art market to such
an extent that within weeks of the scandal breaking the country's two
main auction houses were reporting a 20% drop in sales.

As The Art Newspaper went to press the whereabouts of almost all of
the works on Kim's list remain a mystery.

Top

Some Olympic Imagery

at http://olympic-spirit.blogspot.com/

Mathieu Borysevicz at a Zhao Bandi fashion show

where art met fashion in shanghai. keep reading!

http://artforum.com/diary/id=19304#readon19304

"That was the first time I sat next to people who were actually
interesting at an event like this," a Shanghai fashion agent quipped
as he exited ShanghART Night, Zhao Bandi's Panda Couture fashion
extravaganza staged on a two-hour cruise up and down the neon-
splashed Huangpu River on Tuesday night. "I think it was all a little
over the top" a jaded socialite muttered as she swished coffee around
her champagne glass. As the yacht docked, the evening's VIP guests
filed slowly off into the freezing night.

Art in Propaganda or Propaganda in Art- the ultimate egg

here

Blog It: New Wave of New Wave

Dates: Jan 19 – Mar 1, 2008
Venue: Chambers Fine Art Beijing
( Red No.1-D, Caochangdi, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100015, China)

Artists: Guo Hongwei, Tang Yi, Shi Jing, Zhang Jungang
Curator: Leo Xu





Blog it firstly appeared as a tiny button on Google’s toolbar for internet browsers. Once you click on it, you then get redirected to the editing page where what you were reading on the browser can be blogged and shared online with many others—that’s one of basic approaches of blog writing. Stemming from the private online diaries and grass-root journalism writing of the early days, blogging or blog writing has been generalized into each single aspect of individual expression in the era of Web 2.0. And in China blog—initially a western import enjoyed only by some IT elites and within quite a small circuit of netizens—has been boosted overnight by domestic portals like sina.com and in a mere couple of years has been adopted by an ever growing population ranging from celebrities, artists, and business moguls to a wider public, as an open platform to communicate with everybody else. The current function of blog involves more than news coverage, personal diary, an individual’s emotional outlet, celebrities’ online PR campaigns, tourist’s journals, and gossip, etc. Hence, blogging has been forging a new genre of writing and visual language through its worldwide participants and the off-beat presentation of text, picture, sound and video. Since blog and its Web 2.0 followers such as youtube, myspace, flickr become omnipresent either in the virtual world or in real life, those of us who are probably both bloggers and readers have to update our previous way of reading, perceiving, understanding and expression in order to catch up. And the spirit of blogging, if there is such a thing, is to define your own way of observing facts, receiving information, speaking out rather than merely running a blog.

For artists, even those not working with new media and net-art, blogging can still be inspiring and encouraging in creating a new aesthetic and narrative. The flood of online posts and updates on one single social happening can be far more mind-boggling than any complex narrative by Jorge Luis Borges. The never predictable use and manipulation of images expands the definition of kitsch and deadpan aesthetics. Today from the Internet community to ordinary citizens, it is not only language that finds itself drastically revolutionized by the spawning abbreviations and acronyms as well as Internet slang and rhetoric, but also the diversity of art and culture which is made possible with the efforts of this blogging community throughout the world. Living through this Web 2.0 age, a younger generation of Chinese artists, whether they blog or just read blogs, are thrilled to be able to speak in their own voices, whilst they may still keep learning to survive amidst tides of the refreshing aesthetics and concepts which were and probably are not shared by their precursors. Created in such a context their work seems to drop those stereotypical images anticipated or favored by the West, presumed radical symbols of a New China, big-eyed eye-candies of a short-lived cartoon-inspired generation.

To examine the art of this generation riding the Web 2.0 wave, Blog It: New Wave of New Wave chooses to showcase the latest output by emerging artists working in three traditional disciplines: photography, painting and drawing.




1. Blogger-photographer
Soon after the international art-world discovered New Chinese Photography more than ten years ago, the internet community is witnessing the undercurrent steered by many art students, non-artists or more exactly bloggers. Harbing-based blogger Zhang Jungang takes photos that look alien to the New Chinese Photography which largely serves as documentation of artists’ performance and conceptual installations. As a self-taught photographer, Zhang studied photography from the Internet, from well-informed blogs like Conscientious and artist’s blogs like Alex Soth’s. Back then around 2000, online posting of photos became quite a fashion among netizens, and many western contemporary photographers’ work happened to knock open China’s door on the net. Wolfgang Tillmans’ novelistic account of youngsters’ lifestyles, Thomas Struth’s deadpan portraits and landscapes, and Daido Moriyama’s loosely composed candid shots were all widely blogged and influenced those who later refused to follow the simple-click photoshop approach or the shooting-the-performance school, but returned instead to the very root of photography per se—release the shutter and shoot what you see. Probably without ever having seen any exhibitions by these western artists, Zhang picked up a similar lexicon through online reading and directed his lens at his hometown Harbing and China’s cosmopolitan city Shanghai where he had briefly lived. What emerged from his cameras are episodes of coming-of-age stories beautifully depicted but told in a nostalgic tone. Those photographs compensate for the void of recognizable human content in much of the prior New Photography movement and bring back to the foreground topics that had been overlooked, for example youth culture.



2. Blog on canvas/paper
Since its inception Blogging has played a supportive role in encouraging individuals to document their personal experience, if not necessarily to give a journalistic view or critique. As a result, a number of diaries and autobiographical blogs emerged and became quite a phenomenon by gaining a cult following. Nourished by this kind of blog-esque narrative, some 20ish artists started to blog on canvas, so to speak. They employ what they may encounter on the net —text or images—to assist their painterly paraphrases of their memories. Guo Hongwei is among this generation. Guo paints his found images—especially boys and girls dressed in the fashion of 1980s, the decade that coincided with his boyhood—in black and white, and then blurs some of the strokes with drops of water and oil to achieve effects reminiscent of timeworn family albums; or for many netizens, it echoes the make-it-old trend of Photoshop manipulation recurrent in many photo-blogs, a kind of internet nostalgia popular among youngsters. Unlike his paintings with a yesterday-once-more effect, Guo’s hilarious drawings are more in tune with works by his global contemporaries, be they artists or non-artists (sometimes designers and bloggers not working in art). Humorous depictions of daily objects and cartoon-like portraits of teenagers become another reincarnation of the bloggers’ life.



3. Post-cartoon generation
No one will doubt that Tang Yi could start her second career as a youtube–era video maker or animator if she chose to leave canvas and brushes for a while as her paintings draw on online images/videos and have a remarkable cinematic quality. It is easy to see how in a time when there is free access to the formerly downloading service and now new products like youtube－a full click-and-view archives of films and videos, including artists’ works, TV commercials, music videos, fans’ parodies and family videos, it might be nearly impossible to escape the influence of the deluge of images. If underground copies of manga in the 1990s gave rise to the Cartoon Generation in the early years of this decade, then today the peers of this Cartoon Generation benefit from resources in the cyber world. This generation indulges itself in seas of video clips or podcasts, with which they not only entertain themselves but also, unintentionally perhaps, achieve their own visual language. That may explain why Tang works like a contemporary Zelig, first adopting the eerie storytelling of David Lynch, then shifting to mimicking the style of Discovery and later winding up painting a Japanese animation scene.



4. Informative labyrinth
The over-saturation of information in the Web 2.0 age complicates people’s reading. A happening can end up with millions of interpretations. The blogger covers the event from his own perspective while the reader chooses his own way to see it—actually both of them are trying to find an angle to study the truth. Following the centuries long exploration of the painter-viewer relationship and ways of seeing headed by artists like Velazquez, Shi Jing goes a bit further to address the modern way of perceiving information—similar to but not necessarily affected by the Web 2.0—rather than practicing a painterly methodology. Shi paints and yet conceals images on the canvas. Su Shi (1037-1101) described how a mountain looked from differently angles as Horizontally a peak and vertically a range. Likewise, the hidden information on Shi Jing’s canvas can be only revealed if it is observed from a specific angle; otherwise, his work looks like a blank canvas covered with abstract strokes. When Shi’s version of a Rembrandt self-portrait plays peek-a-boo with viewers, the latter are involved in the identical issue raised by Web 2.0 phenomenon on studying the truth—to detect the sources of real information within the informational labyrinth.


The new wave of new wave emerging from the Chinese art scene, though not technically related to the blog, parallels the Web 2.0 trend as the latter has created a more relaxed atmosphere for young Chinese and leads to an attitude that can be properly described as blog it. In this sense, blog is a means to synchronize (a jargon in blogging) with the ever-changing world and to express yourself and make your own point.




For more information, please contact: info@chambersfineart.com.cn

Or call Tel: +86-(0)10-51273298



Is this the first entry of Beijing Art Chase? ;)

The Metamorphosing Female

Press Release
The Metamorphosing Female
----Seven Female Artists Exhibition

Osage Gallery Shanghai will hold a seven female artists exhibition "The
Metamorphosing Female" from February 29th to March 28th 2008. The
artists include Cai Jin, Cui Xiuwen, Chen Xiaodan, Sun Guojuan, Xia
jing, Geng Xue.

De Beauvoir described women as the "Second Sex", indicating that
throughout history, they have been discriminated against, persecuted,
unfairly treated, and placed by men in the relative, subordinate
category of "Other". The "female sex" is a synonym of vulnerability,
tolerance, subservience and submissiveness; however, only females can
bring warmth to the cruel world we live in, allowing our history to
move forward. It is only with their wisdom that we manage to establish
and enrich a healthy society.

As time changes, the Chinese economy develops quickly and the society
gradually matures. Females are now creating enormous amount of social
wealth, demonstrating their wisdom and ability that are just as
powerful as their male counterparts'. The change to female status means
that women no longer need to seek balance in the battle against men.
Indeed, more and more of them are starting to focus on expressions and
social stances that are based on their brand new experience as females.
As the "Second Sex" theory fades into history, female artists start to
contemplate on their own metamorphosis, their natural differences from
men, and their roles in the modern society.

People have always believed that women are creatures of emotion,
whereas men are creatures of action. This explains why men are often
portrayed as hunters, builders and soldiers, whereas women's thoughts
are said to be more closely linked to their bodies. These thoughts
might not be as abstract as men's, but are usually more relevant and
focused. Similarly, female artists have purer creative motivations,
freer imagination and more direct expressions. They have invented a
special artistic language that is different from men's: gentle,
maternal and resilient, but also with craziness and soaring energy.
This energy comes from the memory of their own metamorphosis, their
inherited responsibilities and maternal nature, as well as their
instinctive but tangled emotions. By presenting the works of these
seven female artists, we hope that The Metamorphosing Female exhibition
will bring you their personal female perspectives on, and their unique
interpretations of, reality and memory, body and spirit, and the self
and the other.

Artists: Cai Jin, Cui Xiuwen, Chen Xiaodan, Sun Guojuan, Xia jing, Geng
Xue
Curator: Yang Li
Assistant Curator: Ella Liao, Emily Cheng

Opening Party：February 29th, 2008
Exhibition Date：February 29th � March 28th 2008
Address：Osage Contemporary Art and Ideas
93 Duolun Road, Hongkou District, Shanghai
Telephone：021-56713605 Contact Person: Emily Cheng, Lucia Liu
E-mail：emilycheng@osagegallery.com
　　　 lucialiu@osagegallery.com

www.osagegallery.com

Osage Shanghai Introduction
Osage Shanghai is an elegant space located in a beautiful 1920s
mansion adjacent to the Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art, in a
precinct which is set to become Shanghai's contemporary cultural hub.

Osage was established in Hong Kong in 2004 and is dedicated to the
exhibition, promotion and development of contemporary artists, art and
ideas. Osage represents some of the most outstanding artists in Asia
and works closely with a variety of internationally respected curators,
critics and art historians to present and promote exhibitions that
address fundamental global issues. The Osage exhibition spaces include
a sensational 15000 ft" warehouse space at Osage Kwun Tong, an
intimate shop-front space at Osage Soho, an innovative experimental
space at Osage Atelier Kwun Tong, a spectacular 8800 ft" space at Osage
Singapore (opening October 2007) and a versatile white-cube space at
Osage Chaoyang District. With the opening of Osage Shanghai, Asia's
largest gallery group has just grown even bigger.

Osage aims to bring to the art world new voices, new vision, new ideas
and new styles; to present art that spurs the imagination; to present
work that addresses local issues, national concerns, and universal
themes and work that celebrates diversity and difference. We aim to
celebrate the achievements of humanity together with its limitations
and failures.

FOTOFEST2008-CHINA

http://www.fotofest.org

FotoFest’s 12th edition of the International Biennial of Photography and Photo-related Art, presents work by 34 Chinese artists, March 7- April 20, 2008 in Houston, Texas. Photography from China 1934-2008 features ten newly commissioned and curated exhibitions, including two recently recovered archives from the 1930s and 1940s. The China programs are a cornerstone of FOTOFEST2008, the six-week. city-wide celebration of photo-based art.

In addition to these exhibitions, FOTOFEST2008 presents a symposium on twentieth century Chinese Photography with Chinese scholars GU Zheng, (Fudan University, Shanghai) and CAO Tai, (Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou) as well as a film program, New Cinema in China, with the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Forty Chinese artists and curators will attend FOTOFEST2008, its acclaimed portfolio review for artists; the Fine Print Auction; professional workshops; and the special presentation by Hewlett-Packard (HP) of new printing technology for
art work.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, the Menil Collection, Houston Center for Photography and the Holocaust Museum Houston are among 100 other organizations presenting exhibitions as part of FOTOFEST2008. Many of their exhibitions continue the China focus and the ancillary subject of Transformations as well as their own independent themes.

Photography from China 1934-2008, FotoFest’s exhibition program for FOTOFEST2008, reveals the diversity of roles and styles that have shaped photographic art over the past 74 years in China.

ETHNOGRAPHY, PHOTOJOURNALISM AND PROPAGANDA, 1934-1975
Reflecting a growing interest by the Chinese in the peoples and politics of China’s western border regions near Tibet, ZHUANG Xueben (1909-1984) began traveling to China’s far-western border regions in 1934. His work from 1934-1939 is one of the earliest and most serious photographic examinations of ethnic minorities in these regions. FOTOFEST2008 is the first time this work is being shown outside of China.

In 1937, at the age of 25, Sha Fei (1912-1950) had himself assigned to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) 8th Route Army during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945). Sha Fei photographed combat and training with the Chinese forces allied with CHIANG Kai-shek, against the Japanese. He set up pictorial magazines to publicize the 8th Route Army and its work in rural villages, and he organized a mass media system that became a principal part of the CCP’s propaganda system for the next 20 years, through the 1970s. After Sha Fei’s controversial execution in 1950, his work was blacklisted until the late l980s when his family and colleagues succeeded in rehabilitating his name. FOTOFEST2008 exhibits the newly recovered work of Sha Fei for the first time outside of China.

Editors and photographers trained by Sha Fei during the war became leaders of major CCP pictorial news media and propaganda agencies, using photography as one of the primary media promoting Chairman MAO Zedong’s agenda during The Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). The exhibition curated by James and Vicky Chen, founders of 798 Gallery, one of Beijing’s most respected photography galleries, shows how photography was choreographed to promote the message of collective solidarity. The exhibit, commissioned by FotoFest, features three photographers working for news publications during The Cultural Revolution: WENG Nai Qiang, XIAO Zuang, and WANG Shi Long.

INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY, 1985-2000
In the mid-1980s, a new generation of Chinese photographers began to produce strong personal bodies of photo-documentary work outside official media and news agencies. The first to gain international prominence was WU Jialin with his work on Yunnan province. A chance discovery of this work by FotoFest co-founder Frederick Baldwin at Marc Riboud’s Paris apartment led to his first exhibition in Western art world at FOTOFEST1996.

Two subsequent generations of photographers continue to develop independent approaches to documentary work. LU Nan’s, interest in the ethics of social interaction, led him to photograph the institutionalization of the mentally ill and underground Catholic communities in China. LI Lang’s early poetic work with the Yi People in central-western China has led to his current work exploring the human imprint on China’s landscape.

CONCEPTUAL AND STAGED WORK - NEW PHOTO, 1993-1998
In 1996, two Beijing artists, RongRong and LIU Zheng founded the influential New Photo magazine, an independent, underground publication that circulated in Beijing’s art circles. The magazine signaled a burgeoning Chinese interest in photography as a medium of contemporary art and marked an important turning point in the development of contemporary photography in China. FOTOFEST2008 presents this new exhibition for the first time outside of China, with 15 artists published in New Photo magazine. The exhibit is curated by ZHANG Li and organized by Three Shadows Photography Art Centre
in Beijing.

CONCEPTUAL AND STAGED WORK - CURRENT PERSPECTIVES, 1998-2008
Individual shows of 11 current, multi-disciplinary Chinese artists address issues of identity, memory, spirituality, gender, urbanism, and the complex relationships between the present and the past in contemporary China. Designed as a series of one-person exhibitions, these shows feature BAI Yiluo, CANG Xin, CHENG Lingyang, XING Danwen, LIU Lijie, LIU Ren, SUN Guojuan, WANG Chuan, WU Gaozhong, YAO Lu, and ZENG Han.

For more details on FOTOFEST2008 exhibitions and other programs please visit http://www.fotofest.org

Press contacts:
Vinod Hopson – 713.223.5522 x26, press3@fotofest.org
Janice Van Dyke Walden – 713.223.5522 x12, janice@vandykewalden.com

I am eternally optimistic; I am Chinese”

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=7408

I am eternally optimistic; I am Chinese"

On the eve of a retrospective at the Guggenheim, Cai Guo-Qiang
discusses his materials and his potentially explosive new book

Cristina Carrilo de Albornoz | 15.1.08 | Issue 187

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commentComment Send article
Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune: Stage One, 2004, originally shown at
Mass MoCA in North Adams, was acquired by the Seattle Art Museum in
2006 for its new building. Another edition of the work will be
installed in the artist's retrospective at the Guggenheim next month

Cai Guo-Qiang's Inopportune: Stage One, 2004, originally shown at
Mass MoCA in North Adams, was acquired by the Seattle Art Museum in
2006 for its new building. Another edition of the work will be
installed in the artist's retrospective at the Guggenheim next month

Cai Guo-Qiang is one of the most prominent living Chinese artists.
Trained in theatre design, in 1999 he won the International Prize at
the 48th Venice Biennale. He is best known for his firework-based set-
piece installations and for drawings made using ink and gunpowder. In
November, a set of 14 untitled drawings by the artist sold at
Christie's, Hong Kong, for £9.5m ($19.1m)—setting a new record for a
Chinese contemporary artist at auction. Next month the Guggenheim in
New York, will host Cai's first major retrospective, "I Want to
Believe". The show will coincide with the publication of a limited
edition, potentially

self-combusting book (nine copies only) entitled Danger Book: Suicide
Fireworks, published by Ivory Press and personally annotated by the
artist. Cai is currently also serving as artistic director of visual
and special effects for the Beijing Olympics this summer alongside
film-makers Steven Spielberg and Zhang Yimou who are artistic
consultants. His compatriot, artist Ai Weiwei who collaborated on the
design of the Olympic "bird's nest" stadium in Beijing with Swiss
architects Herzog & de Meuron, has now disassociated himself from the
event, referring to China's "disgusting" political conditions. Cai
declined to answer our questions about Ai Weiwei's statement or the
growing international lobby for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics

in protest at the human rights abuses within China and the regime's
support for the

Sudanese government.

The Art Newspaper: Your retrospective at the Guggenheim is called "I
Want to Believe". What does it refer to?

Cai Guo-Qiang: The title is based on my childhood curiosity. I
doubted everything,

but underneath I had a sort of expectation

and aspiration.

TAN: Your father was a historian and landscape painter who also
practised calligraphy. Did you emulate him in your youth?

CG-Q: I was more of a rebellious type. As a teenager I was immersed
in martial arts and even starred in some kung fu films. At the same
time my father introduced me to 5,000 years of Chinese poetry,
paintings and literature at a time when the [Communist] Party forbade
it. I understood quickly the value of the underground. I was always
very unwilling to align myself to any particular group. My peers were
producing politically pointed Pop paintings and installations. I
refused western influences and hiked to northwest China near Tibet,
visiting archaeological sites, studying nature and painting portraits
of people I met.

TAN: What was your idea of an artist?

CG-Q: When I was a child, the Chinese government did not allow
citizens to buy flowers because it was a very bourgeois thing, but
since my hometown of Guangzhou was far from the capital, I could buy
flowers from farmers and go home and paint them. I associated this
bourgeois act with being an artist. I didn't want a nine-to-five job.
I wanted to live freely.

TAN: In China you started experimenting with gunpowder in the making
of art. Was this a way of expressing yourself with no fears or limits?

CG-Q: Gunpowder is a spontaneous, unpredictable and uncontrollable
medium. The more you learn to control it, the more obsessed you
become with the material. It is like making love with your husband or
wife. The outcome is unpredictable and the same results are never
guaranteed. Furthermore, in using gunpowder

I can explore all my concerns: the relation to notions of
spirituality as well as an interest in spectacle and entertainment,
and the transformation of certain energies—such as violent explosions—
into beauty and a kind of poetry. An artist should be like an
alchemist using poison against poison, which is very much a
philosophy from Chinese medicine. Turning something bad into
something good…countering the force. It's the whole idea of the
alchemist, using dirt, dust, and getting gold out of it. From
gunpowder, from its very essence, you can see so much of the power of
the universe—how we came to be. You can express these grand ideas
about the cosmos.

TAN: Did using gunpowder allow you more creative freedom?

CG-Q: Initially I began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity
and confront the controlled artistic traditions and social climate in
China at the time. Using gunpowder and making burn drawings were an
extension of my childhood dream of being a painter. Also from my
childhood I remember the sound of fireworks going off. In my
hometown, every significant social occasion of any kind, good or bad—
weddings, funerals, the birth of a baby, a new home—is marked by the
use of fireworks. They even use fireworks when they elect Communist
party officials, or after someone delivers a speech. Fireworks are
like the town crier, announcing whatever's going on. I also remember
the sound of artillery fire from a nearby army base directed at
Taiwan. Gunpowder in Chinese means "fire-medicine", it's potentially
therapeutic.

TAN: In 1986 you moved to Japan. Did you find greater artistic
freedom there?

CG-Q: In Japan I did find and enjoy artistic freedom, but the catch
is that you still need to be given the opportunity to do so. The
contrast between China and Japan is that in China, it was easy to
access materials—such as gunpowder—but there was less artistic
freedom. In Japan, there was more freedom, but the materials were
harder to find.

TAN: Since 1995 you have lived mainly in New York. What have you
learned in that city? You still do not speak much English after all
this time. Would it not help you to integrate?

CG-Q: New York is like a global square where I have the possibility
of running into my friends from all corners of the world at any time.
Not being able to speak English has been one of the biggest
frustrations of my life.

TAN: Why did you move there?

CG-Q: The opportunity that brought me to New York was a grant from
the Asian Cultural Council to participate in a year-long residency at
PS1 Contemporary Art Centre, as a representative

of Japan.

TAN: Your Guggenheim exhibition will travel to Beijing to coincide
with the Olympic Games, where you are in charge of visual and special
effects. What themes will be presented in the opening ceremony and
how do you define the role of an artist in the Olympic Games? What
are your priorities?

CG-Q: It's not an easy undertaking, but it's absolutely necessary.
The Olympics combine the entire country's efforts, and can do a lot
of previously unimaginable things. You can display your work in front
of an audience of billions, but at the same time it can feel like
you're making the work for yourself. Through this event, one can
contemplate and better understand what "Chinese culture" is. One
needs to think about the past, present, and future of China and its
relationship with the world. You can use this platform to tackle the
topics of ritual and ceremony. In brief, it can be an opportunity for
self-growth.

TAN: How tolerant and supportive are the authorities towards the new
cultural and artistic boom?

CG-Q: The higher the level of the official, the broader their vision
becomes. They tend to pursue newer things and are more ambitious and
tolerant to new culture than their subordinates. The Chinese
government has changed more drastically than it appears to the
outside world.

TAN: Do you recognise the so-called new China that everybody is
taking about, where changes are taking place at such great speed?

CG-Q: This new China is not changing that fast, and it's not that
serious a problem.

TAN: You are a consummate experimentalist who has combined
traditional materials and methods from the east (from the historical
and living cultural traditions of both China and Japan) with
strategies from western art history. How important are these Chinese
traditions for you?

CG-Q: Just like western art is important to westerners, Chinese
traditions are important to me. However, while they are my origins
and foundation, they are not my main purpose in making contemporary
art. The main purpose in making art is to have fun and to redefine
the nature of objects. Where are the limits when an object becomes a
work of art? Making contemporary art can throw up obstacles but it
does not worry me. I am eternally optimistic;

I am Chinese.

TAN: Your new book, published by Ivory Press, is called Danger Book:
Suicide Fireworks. Why?

CG-Q: It goes beyond what is traditionally regarded as a book. It's
more an art object containing drawings and gunpowder paintings. It
will be on display at the Guggenheim in a special chapel. It is a
book that fuses the opponents, life and death, with the ephemeral
value of beauty.

TAN: But a danger to what?

CG-Q: I used gunpowder to draw pretty images of fireworks, but
included in the design is the possibility of committing suicide. If
the owner pulls the string that is attached to a bundle of matches,
it ignites the gunpowder on the pages and explodes the book. Even if
the owner does not pull the string, there will always be the
potential for danger and thus he or she will always have a dangerous
relationship with

the book.

TAN: What was your biggest concern at the making of it ?

CG-Q: I wanted to make something that was hard to possess permanently.

TAN: Is discipline the foundation of your life?

CG-Q: Perhaps it's because I am disciplined that I chose gunpowder as
a medium.

TAN: In your work, you deal constantly with the ephemeral. One year
of work can disappear in 15 seconds. Do you ever feel frustrated by
this?

CG-Q: I feel good with the volatile nature

of gunpowder; I am looking for the unchanging through the always
changing. Nature always changes but the fact of change—or evolution—
never does. I also associate it with the discipline and spontaneity
of calligraphy, that most honoured Chinese art form. In calligraphy
the artist is a "perpetual amateur". This is the model

I identify with as an artist. n

Translation by Alicia Lu and Anni Lin

Biography

Born: Guangzhou, China, 1957. Lives in New York

Education: Shanghai Drama Institute

Selected solo shows. 2006: Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin 2005:
Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh 2004: Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art 2003: Asia Society, New York

Coming up: "I Want to Believe" retrospective, Guggenheim Museum, New
York, February-May

ShContemporary director may have to step down

http://www.theartnewspaper.com/article.asp?id=7431

Organisers of Chinese fair are discussing Pierre Huber's future

Georgina Adam | 15.1.08 | Issue 187

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LONDON. According to a source close to the fair organisers, the
Geneva dealer Pierre Huber may be forced to resign as artistic
director of ShContemporary, which launched in Shanghai in September
with 120 dealers.

Mr Huber is involved in a legal dispute with the Parisian dealer
Enrico Navarra (The Art Newspaper, November 2007, p69), who has
accused Mr Huber of numerous conflicts of interest. Mr Navarra cites
the ShContemporary catalogue cover which features a work of art from
Mr Huber's own gallery. He also says Mr Huber accompanied VIPs to
artists' studios in Shanghai and then suggested purchases should be
made through him.

Mr Huber's lawyer says Mr Navarra "owes Mr Huber money", which
accounts for the allegations.

Mr Navarra acknowledges he is in dispute with Mr Huber over the
purchase of around 30 works of art by Chinese artists, in which he
invested around $1.5m. Both men have filed lawsuits against each other.

Lorenzo Rudolf, co-founder of the ShContemporary fair and a previous
director of Art Basel, says: "We cannot have a situation where the
artistic director of a fair has a conflict of interest." But he
denies that Mr Huber will be asked to step down. "No decision has
been taken, but we are in discussions to resolve this matter," he says.

"I think it is important to keep ethical in this business. There
should be boundaries between the commercial and the artistic at the
major fairs. Pierre Huber is a great person but there is a line you
should never cross," says Olivier Bélot of Yvon Lambert, which
exhibited in Shanghai.

However, others agree with Mr Huber's lawyers. "This would never have
happened without the Navarra affair," says Lorenzo Fiaschi, director
of Galleria Continua, which also exhibited at ShContemporary.

"If Pierre Huber leaves, I'm not sure if I will go back there and I
think others won't either. He has in-depth specialist knowledge of
the Chinese market, and he is a guarantee of the high artistic
quality of the fair," said Ursula Krinzinger of Krinzinger, another
ShContemporary exhibitor. "It will only benefit the Beijing fair [Art
Beijing takes place from 6 to 9 September 2008]. All the major fairs
are set up by dealers," says Ms Krinzinger. At the time of going to
press, Mr Huber had not responded to repeated requests for a comment.

Top

Students show is up at China Academy of Arts, New Media Art Department

In the 1980s, the Zhejiang Academy of Fine Arts boasted the most extensive reference room on international contemporary art in all of China. Its elite student body and literati tradition congealed to make it the birthplace of a number of the avant-garde collectives and movements that we now refer to collectively as the '85 New Wave. Now renamed the China Academy of Art, this Hangzhou school—alma mater to many of China's notable artists and a creative reservoir for the nearby Shanghai art scene—recently presented Shall See, an exhibition of works by senior students from its New Media Art Department. Curated in four different parts by guest faculty members and artists Yang Zhenzhong and Chen Shaoxiong, the showcase was on view January 16-18 at various locations in Hangzhou.

Not unlike the satellite fairs one sees in Miami hotels during Art Basel Miami Beach, the exhibition titled.....click here to see more.

Best teacher award (from the students) still goes to Zhang Peili- as always.

《Shall See》exhibition of contamporary art

Host: China Academy of Arts, New Media Art Department

Acknowledgements: HongMenJu#1, AiJia hotel chain

Instructor: Chen Shaoxiong, Yang Zhenzhong

Red

Time: January 16, 2008, Jan. on the 18th

Opening: at 3:30 p.m. on January 16, 2008

Location: Hangzhou HongMenJu #1 basement

(West Lake Street & DingAn Road)

Tricycles

Time: January 16, 2008 14:00 - 17:00

Location: Hangzhou City on wavering

(Nanshan Road, Wushan Square, Hubin, etc.)

Search Room

Time: Jan 16th 2008-Jan 18th

Opening: 17:00. on January 16, 2008

Location: West Lake Street in Hangzhou No. 148

AiJia International Youth Hostels

sI Experimental Theater

Show time: at 7:00 p.m. on January 16, 2008

Location: Hangzhou Nanshan Road 208

(Academy of Arts backdoor) seafood oysters Restrause

OLD/NEW ROUTES - A Selection of Video Art From Central Asia

OLD/NEW ROUTES

A Selection of Video Art From Central Asia

Participating Artists: Abilsait Atabekov, Erbolsin Meldibekov and
Alexandr Ugay from Kazakhstan, Veaceslav Ahunov, Serghei Ticina from
Uzbekistan, Ulan Djaparov, Gulnara Kasmalieva & Muratbek Djumaliev
from Kyrgyzstan

Curated by Stefan Rusu

Opening: January 11th, 2008, Friday 18:30

Exhibition dates: January 12th - 20th, 2008 (11:00 - 18:00)

Lecture: January 14, 11 am

Venue: BizArt Art Center

4/f, Bldg 7, 50 Moganshan Road, 200060 Shanghai

Tel: 86 21 62775358

www.biz-art.com, www.arthub.org.cn

Li Xuehui: xuehui@biz-art.com

Alexia Dehaene: guanchaoqun@yahoo.com.cn

Old/New Routes is an exhibition and publication that explores the
nomad specificity of the Islamic states after the collapse of Soviet
Union. An overview of the present situation of the Central Asian
context by an external viewer becomes imperative; this visual material
compiled by a guest curator creates a retrospective look at the
internal and evolving processes of the socio-political and cultural
background.

Overlapping networks and the relationship between the archaic-nomadic
and the present-day post-industrial traditions provide a synthetic
equation and an extraordinary cultural load. The re-use of tradition
in these artists' practices become the necessary tool for articulation
of contemporary art discourse to establish the nods of resistance
against inertia, apathy and historical amnesia.

The project's first edition that took place in Croatia, Poland, and
Germany promoted the positions of Asian artists and enabled cultural
exchange between the contemporary art practitioners from Europe and
Central Asia. The project's current version as presented in
Shanghai, China at BizArt Center intends to open up the process of
cultural exchange between China and Central Asia and show a number of
diverse positions on the Asian identity, with a special focus on video
production from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan

About the Curator:

Stefan Rusu is artist and freelance curator based in Chisinau, Moldova
currently he is the projects coordinator at the Center for
Contemporary Art/Chisinau. In 2005/2006 he attended the Curatorial
Training Program at Shtichting De Appel from Amsterdam where he
co-curated Mercury in Retrograde (www.mercuryinretrograde.com)

About ArtHub

ArtHub Foundation not-for-profit organization that supports
contemporary art creation

in China and the rest of Asia

Organized under the auspices of Defne Ayas as part off the partnership between Arthub and Prince Claus Fund, the Netherlands Network partners 2008-2010

Zhao Bandi having fun

His fashionshow was tonight on a boat, open only to VIP access.
http://www.shanghartgallery.com/galleryarchive/image.htm?id=10158

A Spatio-temporal Tunnel/ A solo exhibition by Lin Yilin

外滩三号沪申画廊诚邀阁下莅临林一林个展 " 时空
隧道 " 开幕式
We request the honour of your presence for the opening of A Spatio-
temporal Tunnel,
a solo exhibition by Lin Yilin

开幕 Opening：2008.01.13 星期日 （Sunday） 5pm
地址：上海市中山东一路三号三楼
Address：No.3 The Bund, 3rd Floor, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Road, Shanghai
Tel: +(86) 21 6321 5757
SGA@on-the-bund.com
www.shanghaigalleryofart.com

时空隧道/ 林一林个展
A Spatio-temporal Tunnel/ A solo exhibition by Lin Yilin
2008.1.13-2008.2.25

作为从中国90年代初成立于广州较有影响力的艺术家

As the founder of one of the most influential artist groups the Big
Elephant Tail group in Guangzhou from the 1990's in China, Lin Yilin
(born 1964) is a performance/installation artist currently based in
Guangzhou and New York.
Spatio-temporal tunnel presents Lin's work during the past 2 years,
which include a video documenting a public art project commissioned
by Documenta 12 held at Kassel, Germany, a series of collaborative
performances with Norwegian students in Oslo and Guangzhou, a new
video looking at the nightlife of the Bund's pedestrian underground
tunnels, and a sculpture of the 1930's comic figure San mao. This
exhibition investigates how an artist negotiates with time and space
relative to his own diaspora.

Shanghai this month

Artists: Ma Lina, Li Wei, Zhang Shanshan
Curator: Ding Yi
Academic Director: Zhao Li
Exhibition Period: Nov 30- December 30, 2007
Venue: South ShanXi Road,Shanghai
Thanks!
Cetus Gallery
Address: No.165 South Shanxi Road, Shanghai, China
Tel: 86-021-54653655
Fax: 86-021-54650675
www.cetusgallery.com

---------------------------
Zhang Xian

As the director of the Downstream Garage (Xiahe Micang), which hosts
the annual Ideas Festival and the Downstream Garage Fringe Festival,
Zhang Xian is a key actor in the development of Shanghai's independent
theater scene. Zhang has received several fellowships abroad and has
sat on the judge's panel of the Zurich Festival and Cairo International
Experimental Arts Festival. He's worked as a director and a playwright
in the fields of dance, drama and film and has written and directed 19
works which have been shown in Shanghai, Beijing and abroad. His
physical theater work, Tongue's Memory of Home, won the grand prize at
the Zurich Festival.
-------------
Exhibition: Soft Power: Asian Attutude
Organized by: Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art
Chief Curator: Shen Qibin
Co-Curators: Binghui Huangfu Biljana Ciric
Dates: 17 November - 28 December 2007
Opening Reception: 17 November 2007, 4pm
Venue: Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art (No.28, Lane 199 Fangdian
Road, Shanghai, China)
Artist: Lida Abdul, Chen Chiehjen, Heri Dono, Shilpa Gupta, Ho Tzu
Nyen, Jin Feng, Jitish Kallat, Reena Kallat, Gulnara Kasmalieva &
Muratbek Djumaliev, Will Kwan, Lee Changwon, Owen Leong, leung Mee
Ping, Liu Guangyun, Yukinori Maeda & Yuki Kimura, Qiu Zhijie, Khaled
Sabsabi, Shen Shaomin, Vasan Sitthiket, Song Dong, Manit Sriwanichpoom,
Su Xinping, Kai Syng Tan, Nan See Tan, Chandraguptha Thenuwara, Tseng
Yuchin, Wu Gaozhong, Mahmoud Yekta

【Special Event】Shadow Play from Thai artist Vasan Sitthiket

Event time: During the opening, November 17, 2007
Event Venue: Shanghai Zendai Museum of Modern Art

The work itself takes a form of shadow puppets that are
representations of major political proponents in the world, which shows
an active political context. South East Asian countries are struggling
to find balance in its cultural identity. Like any theatrical
performance there is the surface interpretation and underlying message.
The audience is presented with an entertaining show, however, what they
walk away with is an interpretation of truth, which is difficult to
forget. Vasan Sitthiket combines aspects of traditional shadow puppet
culture with the contemporary cultural commentary of today. In reality
Vasan Sitthiket is using a long tradition of theater production to
comment on the human condition.

People's November Update

Asian Art Standing Apart

Asian Art Standing Apart
Auctions

By MARION MANEKER
September 20, 2007

"Everywhere I go, dinner parties, benefits, the Hamptons, people only ask me about Chinese contemporary art," an art adviser, Kim Heirston, said. In what feels like a blink of an eye, Chinese painters have become a focal point in the art world: Just last year, Sotheby's started holding its main sale of Chinese, Korean, and Japanese contemporary art in New York. Today, Sotheby's will sell 275 works estimated at between $19 million and nearly $28 million. Two weeks ago, Pierre Huber, the influential Geneva-based dealer and Lorenzo Rudolf, the former director of Art Basel, held their inaugural Contemporary art fair in Shanghai, which was widely judged to be a whopping success. And next month, Phillips will sell the Farber collection of Chinese contemporary art in a single sale of 44 works of contemporary Chinese art that were acquired from the seminal exhibitions and gallery shows mounted since 1986 that introduced these painters to the West.

What is so fascinating about Chinese contemporary art is that much of it was produced under the radar in the past 20 years — and it is now bursting into view as a newly rich society supports its own artists with high prices and museums. Over the summer, it was announced that Sichuan province offered personal museums to eight of the biggest names in Chinese contemporary art — including Yue Minjun, Zhang Xiaogang, and Wang Guangyi. The Chinese contemporary collector, Baron Ullens, announced his own art space in Beijing that would house Chinese and foreign art.

Though these developments point to the emergence of a domestic market for living Chinese painters, until now the bulk of the sales have been overseas. Last year, Sotheby's sold $70 million worth of Asian contemporary art. Also, 2006 was the first year the auction house brought Chinese contemporary painting to New York as its own sale. They broke 20 artists' records in the process. Sotheby's and the houses haven't suffered for including Chinese painters in their Contemporary art sales here in New York and London. In June, Yue Minjun's "The Pope" (1997), a clever allusion to both Francis Bacon and Velázquez, was sold for an astonishing $4.2 million.

This week's sale also features a Yue Minjun after Velázquez. "Infanta" (1997) is estimated at between $1.8 million and $2.5 million. The other Chinese superstar Zhang Xiaogang is represented by several works, but the most significant is "Chapter of a New Century — Birth of the People's Republic of China" (1992), which is estimated at between $1.5 million and $2.5 million.

"It's so exciting to see great works," Sotheby's expert Xiaoming Zhang, who put the sale together, said. Working in the Chinese contemporary field is still a journey of discovery because so many of the painters were previously working in obscurity to avoid the interference of censors. Others were simply overlooked until increasing value brought the work to market. "You don't know these paintings existed," Ms. Zhang said.

Chen Yifei is a prime example of the kind of painter and painting that one never knew existed. His numerous landscapes and city scenes painted in a misty realism are incomparable. But "The Cellist" (1983), estimated at between $800,000 and $1 million will be the star of his lots.

Other works not to be missed include Liu Dan's monumental "Dictionary" (1991), estimated at between $250,000 and $350,000, which depicts in massive photorealist splendor the open pages of a dictionary. Ai Weiwei's "Chandelier (2002)," estimated at between $400,000 and $600,000, is just that — a massive crystal and metal chandelier that seems suited in size, scale and opulence to a European opera house. A more whimsical work comes from Liu Ye: "The Little Mermaid" (2004), estimated at between $1 million and $1.5 million, is childlike in the way that Yoshitomo Nara's work represents children with wide eyes and expansive foreheads.

Don't let the bigger names distract you from the depth of the show. There is something in almost every style of contemporary painting from abstraction to graffiti-inspired work such as Wu Shanzhuan's "Today No Water–Chapter 29" (2007), estimated at between $30,000 and $50,000. There's even the Mark Tansey-like paintings of Shi Xinning, especially "Pride and Prejudice" (2004), estimated at between $40,000 and $60,000.

This sale makes a very good case that contemporary Chinese painting is better seen separately from the marquee sales in November where the biggest names jostle with their European and American counterparts. If nothing else, this sale will impress you with the variety and vibrancy of Chinese painters and surely justify the accelerating prices.

Bank Buys Contemporary Chinese Art for L.A. MOCA

Bank Buys Contemporary Chinese Art for L.A. MOCA
Published: August 29, 2007
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LOS ANGELES—In an unusual agreement, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has acquired a $2 million collection of Chinese contemporary art, purchased for the institution by East West Bank, the Los Angeles Times reports. Under the unorthodox arrangement, MOCA curators selected 11 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and photographs by six artists, including leading figures such as Xu Bing and Cai Guo-Qiang, and the bank paid for them. Starting Thursday, the works will be on public display at the bank, but they will also be available for exhibition at the museum and will become part of its permanent collection in 2026. MOCA director Jeremy Strick called the gift "a remarkably enlightened gesture.