Innholdsfortegnelse for Mar/Apr 2017 i ArtAsiaPacific

JEHANGIR SABAVALA THE CITY–II 1999 Oil on canvas, 114.5 x 152.5 cm. Courtesy Sotheby’s New York. After a rocky start to the year with Donald J. Trump stepping into the Oval Office to assume the United States presidency in January, political disarray continues to materialize in the US and abroad. His aggressive 90-day travel ban, which denies the nationals of seven Muslim-majority countries entry into the United States, has affected an estimated one million people— including artists—and impacted cultural projects in institutions across the US. In such times of uncertainty, it remains to be seen if the Trump administration’s broad policy sweeps will trickle down and disrupt global art exchange. Telling signs of a lackluster art market were already spotted in 2016 due to growing political instability. Leading international auction…

In September 1981, an 18-year-old pregnant woman and her husband were arrested in Pakistan after they had eloped. The woman’s parents filed a case against the newlyweds, Fahmida and Allah Baksh, stating that their marriage was illegal. Under the newly implemented “Islamicized” laws—called the Hudood Ordinances—of general-turned-president Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, the couple’s supposedly adulterous union was deemed to be a criminal offense. Fahmida was sentenced to 100 lashes and Allah to death by stoning. Against a worrying backdrop of increasing restrictions on women’s rights, this was the galvanizing incident that prompted a spate of emergency meetings to take place in Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, resulting in the formation of the Women’s Action Forum (WAF). According to a Human Rights Watch report in 1999, the WAF was the first nationwide women’s movement…

Navigational instructions were scant at the 11th Shanghai Biennale, leaving viewers to plot their own alternative itineraries. Perhaps you brushed past a pimped-up car installation by Lantian Xie parked on the outdoor pavilion, before entering through the main doors of the Power Station of Art (PSA) to find two forklifts engaged in a Sisyphean tug-of-war dreamt up by Sun Yuan and Peng Yu. Or you snuck in through the back, facing off with Yin Yi’s grid of 49 fans that produced gentle, purring sounds, although the expected breeze was strangely absent. Maybe you heard whispers about an installation by Vishal K. Dar in an area of the building that is hard to access, and you zoomed up the staircases and out onto the narrow bridge to reach the PSA’s disused,…

Sungkok Art Museum TECHNOBODY RETROSPECTIVE French artist Orlan has dedicated 51 years to self-reinvention, oftentimes using her own body as a medium to attack the myths of femininity and prescribed beauty. It was particularly extraordinary that the first artist to employ plastic surgery in her practice landed in Seoul for a retrospective exhibition. After all, the Korean nation has normalized the cosmetic procedure, sculpting a singular vision of beauty that ensnares women in the peninsula. The hosting of Orlan, who explores female sexuality’s role in political and personal liberation from predominantly oppressive social conventions, ensured an exhibition at Seoul’s Sungkok Art Museum that was ironic, witty and thought-provoking. “Orlan Technobody Retrospective” featured more than 40 selected works, including videos, photographs, augmented reality and video games that fortified the artist’s personal…

Sheung Wan Civic Centre ARIADNE’S THREAD In the video-art exhibition “Techstyle Series 1.0: Ariadne’s Thread,” the mythological allusion to the Greek goddess of the labyrinth extended beyond its reference to women in textiles. Through the lens of technology, nine female artists wove varied narratives of gendered realities in transformation. Organized by nonprofits institution Mill6 Foundation and held at the offsite location of Sheung Wan Civic Centre, the show opened with Dara Birnbaum’s Technology/Transformation: Wonder Woman (1978–79), which featured re-edited footage of the buxom titular character, spinning repeatedly to assume superhero form. As she whirls, Wonder Woman’s clothing is reduced to the iconic red-white-and-blue leotard, prompting us to consider whether her powers derive from her revealing costume. A sing-along track—looping the lyric “shake thy wonder maker”—conflates sex and power by suggestively…

Various locations FORMING IN THE PUPIL OF AN EYE In the historic Fort Kochi district of Kerala—on the southwestern coastline of the Indian subcontinent—old warehouses from the era of a historic spice trade came alive under the curatorial direction of Sudarshan Shetty, who devised a highly nuanced third Kochi-Muziris Biennale with a disparate collection of 97 artists from 35 countries. Titled “Forming in the Pupil of an Eye,” Shetty’s exhibition, like his own practice, was deeply influenced by poetry, music, dance and theater. It encompassed a host of media with the intention of creating a contemplative space that resonated with the ancient Greek concept of the “active eye”—that is, our eyes have “fire within”—and the Hindu notion of a third eye that perceives beyond ordinary sight. In this regard, some…

Pirelli HangarBicocca SITUATIONS Japanese artist Kishio Suga’s 2016 exhibition at Pirelli HangarBicocca in Milan marked the first time that a retrospective of his work was held outside of Japan. For the show, which was entitled “Situations,” curators Yuko Hasegawa and Vicente Todolí brought together 23 installations, mostly re-creations of earlier works that Suga reinterpreted for the architecture and mood of the industrial HangarBicocca. Suga began his career as a founding member of Mono-ha—literally, “school of things” in Japanese—an avant-garde group active in Japan in the late-1960s and early ’70s. Mono-ha centered on works that used simple, mostly unprocessed materials, such as wood, concrete, rocks and metal, with artistic intervention reduced to a minimum. The group rejected the idea that art is a form of subjective expression, and instead presented materials…

Lu Xun (1881–1936) was not the first writer to pen tales in vernacular Chinese, but he spurred the literary form in ways that were unseen before his time. Under his pen (or brush), nothing was sacrosanct, and nobody was untouchable. A group exhibition at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, “Tales of Our Time,” took its title from Lu’s last collection of short stories, Old Tales Retold (1936), in which the celebrated author riffed off eight folk myths to critique early 20th-century Chinese society. The show introduced new commissions by seven artists and artist groups from mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. With an accompanying catalog that emulated Lu’s prose style, curators Xiaoyu Weng and Hou Hanru paid literary tribute to the father of modern Chinese literature—and made a notable attempt…

On the cover of No Chaos No Party: 28 Artists in Metro Manila, Filipino artist Romeo Lee is seen tipping his hat in a way that is reminiscent of a jester. Behind him is a stylized map of Metro Manila, the National Capital Region of the Philippines, which is, according to the book, “considered one of the most densely populated, polluted and traffic-ridden cities in the world.” The map’s congested grid of streets and alleys morphs into contorted dendrites while the main roads are crooked, simulating varicose veins. The resulting image pulses with color and is prismatic and iridescent. Similarly, the 218-page hardcover book alludes to the rich and vibrant history as well the present of Metro Manila, an area populated by 11.8 million people as of 2016. The region…

For tourists, the small country of Georgia offers an inexpensive summer vacation. Getting to some of its prime locations, such as the beaches along the Black Sea or its ski slopes in the winter, is not easy. However, the country’s hospitality and cuisine culture is outstanding; you can find everywhere traditional cheese-filled khachapuri bread, Georgian wine and chacha, a strong pomace brandy. Geographically, Georgia lies between Russia and Turkey and is therefore a meeting ground for Christianity and Islam. The capital Tbilisi, once known as Tiflis, was also a vital nexus for the early 20th-century international avant-garde, who usually visited or lived in the city after stints in Paris, Moscow or St. Petersburg. However, by the 1930s Georgia had become part of the Soviet empire, and in the ’90s the…

In times of global uncertainty, the art world retreats to what it knows, seeking refuge in the familiar roster of events that brings the community together. While there may be chaos and anxiety “out there,” in the art world bubble, it’s business as usual. Singapore Activity at Southeast Asia’s leading art fair, Art Stage Singapore (ASS), has peaked in recent years. This sentiment is reflected in the declining number of exhibitors: the 197 participating galleries in 2015 shrunk to 173 in 2016, and the roster of 2017’s 7th edition (1/12–15) further contracted by roughly 25 percent, with 131 galleries from 27 countries, most of which hailed from Asia. Attendance numbers have also waned this year—a reported 33,200 visitors streamed through the doors of the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention…

It is said that strong economic times breed white-collar crimes, and the ostentatious transactions associated with the art market would seem a plausible, fertile host for turbid agendas. On a recent trip to Hong Kong, I was invited to meet with a group of investors with mysterious intent. After a decade or so in the auction business, I have learned that those who clothe themselves in mirrors only want to lead you astray—or possibly don’t know what they themselves want—but I had agreed to give them an hour as a favor to a colleague. I was greeted in a hotel lobby and escorted to a private boardroom, where a handful of venture capitalists and one scientist with a laptop awaited me. I was the only woman present. The awkwardness of…

Kingsley Ng orchestrates delicate moments wherever his feet fall. In Sun Over the Placid World (2013) at the Land Art Biennial in Mongolia, a gentle placement of stones charted the sun’s path as well as the swelling melody of a traditional song, binding both to a land where nomadic customs are fading into obsolescence. In Echigo-Tsumari, Japan, the artist observed the aftermath of a devastating earthquake that fractured homes, as well as the wear on hands marked raw by decades of hard farm labor; he saw music in those clefts, and translated their forms into kinked chimes for the wind to strum and sound, every note rooted in destruction, every chord a song of nature. When aged textile workers were retired due to devitalized industry in France’s Nord-Pas-de-Calais region, Ng…

Museum of Contemporary Art Australia CONNECT WITH EVERYTHING For Tatsuo Miyajima, numbers hold the key to the universe. The Japanese artist believes the digits one through nine embody the Buddhist philosophy of change and renewal, while zero represents sleep, the void, a momentary pause between life and death. In Miyajima’s most recent survey exhibition, “Connect with Everything,” at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (MCA), this numerical life cycle was seen both ascending and descending, though zero was always absent. By omitting this deathly pause, the cycle of numbers could endlessly rise and fall. Miyajima created performance works in the 1980s; however, he sees the art form as ungenerous to the audience due to its short-lived nature. He now refers to his sculptures and installations as “performing objects,” intended to…

A lively crowd gathered at Byeokcheon Square to celebrate the opening day of the 5th Anyang Public Art Project (APAP 5) in October 2016. Taking center stage were local participants assembled by Eunji Cho, including young students and transportation workers, who danced to the beats of the Ta Harang drum group’s traditional performance. The cheery performance paid tribute to the diversity of the history and close-knit community of Anyang, a satellite city of Seoul. Steered by artistic director Eungie Joo, APAP 5 featured newly commissioned, imaginative works by 20 artists and collectives who directly engaged with Anyang’s natural landscape and long-standing histories. Upon entering the pristine Anyang Pavilion, where the tour of Anyang Art Park began, visitors found Rock Pillow Garden (2016), a welcoming installation of pillows—some large and square,…

Arndt GAZING ON IDENTITY Contemporary artists are among today’s thought leaders. Their ingenuity alerts us to pertinent societal issues. FX Harsono, with his progressive conceptualism, is one such artist and a prominent figure in Indonesian contemporary art. Harsono is a versatile artist who was classically trained in painting and drawing, but has adopted a more experimental practice. His sophisticated, complex installations fluidly communicate politically charged ideas, and his belief that artists carry the responsibility to challenge sensitive and contentious affairs. Since the 1970s, he has been doing precisely that, producing artworks that confront sociopolitical injustices and controversies in Indonesia. In recent years, however, he has shifted from overt critiques of the Indonesian government to art-making that focuses on matters of identity—particularly that of his Chinese ancestry and the place of…

Yarat Contemporary Art Space N? VAR, ODUR (IT IS WHAT IT IS) Faig Ahmed, one of the best-known contemporary artists in Azerbaijan, has gained international acclaim for his take on the traditional Azerbaijani carpet as a metaphor for the tension between tradition and modernity. His most recognizable artworks are conceived as handwoven carpets that meld traditional motifs with pixilation and eye-bending designs, which often extend beyond their boundaries or are cast as sculptural forms. However, his most recent work marks an evolution of the carpet as his medium—it is no longer the focal point, but instead an element in a larger narrative of temporal friction and cultural mutability. This is where Ahmed’s voice is most prescient; if the carpet was the instigator of his practice, his current installations allow the…

Timothy Taylor KALIMPONG Kalimpong, a town nestled in a mountain ridge by the Teesta River in West Bengal, India, has found an unofficial ambassador in Shezad Dawood. Those who saw the artist’s solo show at Timothy Taylor gallery last year should want to visit this Indian hill station—preferably with Dawood, who clearly has more to say about it than the gallery’s dimensions allowed. The artist is intrigued by Kalimpong’s complex past and present. The place is a borderland, an ideological battleground where many call for a separate state, a former trading gateway along the Silk Road, a refuge for post-Partition Hindus (also purportedly for CIA spies during the 1962 Sino-Indian War), and an apparent base for Yeti expeditions. As his exhibition contended, this region has had a history of attracting…

Asia Society Museum NO LIMITS “No Limits” was the first retrospective of Zao Wou-Ki (1921–2013) to take place in the United States. It was therefore remarkable in both curatorial restraint and ambition. Held at New York’s Asia Society Museum, in partnership with the Colby College Museum of Art in Maine, it brought together a concise selection of paintings, prints and drawings from collections across three continents. The title of the exhibition, “No Limits,” was derived from the English translation of the artist’s name, Wou-Ki, as well as from Zao’s career-long practice of seeking inspiration beyond national borders. One small gallery highlighted Zao’s material and thematic investigations of European modernism, including a period of “visual research” he undertook from 1941 to 1947 while teaching at the China Academy of Art in…

Shortly after her arrest in January, South Korea’s minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Cho Yoon-sun resigned from her post, becoming the first sitting minister in Korea to be taken into custody. The arrests came after Korean officials began investigations in December, probing the blacklisting of artists who criticized or opposed impeached president Park Geun-hye’s administration. On February 7, both Cho and Kim were formally charged with abuse of power and coercion. The controversial roster reportedly included more than 9,000 members of the country’s arts community—musicians, visual artists, filmmakers, actors, writers and other cultural figures—such as acclaimed film director Park Chan-wook, who directed the acclaimed neo-noir film Oldboy (2003), and author Han Kang, who won last year’s Man Booker International Prize for The Vegetarian (2007). In an effort to systematically…

It was his first video. There is no sound. A man sits indoors on a white plastic garden chair, framed from the knees up. He wears a ruby T-shirt and streaked jeans. Black-rimmed eyeglasses hover over a broom-like mustache. To his right, a mound of cotton stuffing and a plate of glue lie on a table. The ensuing 8 minutes and 26 seconds of Cotton (2013) record Emirati artist Hassan Sharif grabbing handfuls of the fluffy fiber, dipping it in glue and reconstructing another mound on his lap. Throughout, he is absorbed by his task—mouth slightly open, eyes lowered. At the end of the film, Sharif leans into the freshly glued clump, clasping his hand to his forearm in a protective embrace. He stares, for the first time, directly into…

“A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the ‘Universe’” Albert Einstein 18 Ho Siu Kee (b. 1964) is a well-known conceptual artist in Hong Kong. He sculpts, creates installations and enacts performances, often integrating all three activities with large-scale constructions, readymade objects, sound and light. In his artistic presentation, he frequently adopts the mediums of photography and video. In the early 1990s, Ho sculpted under Cheung Yee (b. 1936), who was then the chairman of the Department of Fine Arts at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and one of the pioneers of contemporary art in the city. After absorbing Cheung’s artistic vision and sculptural technique, Ho continued his studies abroad, acquiring an MFA in the United States and then a DFA in Australia. Ho’s…

Art Front Gallery MOONY TUNES Su-Mei Tse’s exhibition “Moony Tunes,” held at the Art Front Gallery in Tokyo’s Daikanyama district, featured the series “Moons,” realized in collaboration with her partner Jean-Lou Majerus, and “Nested” (both works 2016). “Moons” consists of five round slabs of marble, each partially coated with bright-red resin. The organic patterns in the marble are reminiscent of the moon’s surface, while the contrasting bands of red, different in width in each piece, allude to the waxing and waning of the moon and the rising and falling of ocean tides caused by the satellite’s gravitational pull on the earth. The contrast culminated with one entire wall of the gallery painted bright red, halting an otherwise seamless visual experience. All of these elements merged in a consummate balance of…

Shanghai Center of Photography MOVING MOUNTAINS Ancient tales pervade our lives and the best stay with us, even shaping or redefining our values. Such is the case with Yang Fudong’s Moving Mountains, a 46-minute black-and-white film commissioned for the 2016 Rolls-Royce Art Programme that premiered at the Shanghai Center of Photography in the city’s West Bund art district. The story that inspired Moving Mountains is a cherished Chinese classic about an old man who wanted to do the impossible: level two mountains that blocked his path. It first appeared as a Taoist fable in China’s Spring and Autumn period (771–476 BCE), and was later adapted and retold by Confucian scholars, and even quoted by Mao Zedong in 1945 to inspire heroic revolutionary ideals. Yang also took inspiration from a celebrated…

Bangkok University Gallery ALLERGIC REALITIES Kosit Juntaratip’s “Allergic Realities” included reproductions of 20 iconic photographs capturing historic incidents of violence, ranging from World War I to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Some images depicted the moments before the violence erupted, while others portrayed the aftermath. An underlying thread that connected these selections was the extent of their dissemination in global media, especially on the internet. The artist’s chosen time frame reflected the media’s transition from film to digital photography. These were familiar images that still shape our perception and understanding of our place in modern history. Though true to the original photographs in composition, these images were reproduced on canvas with a rosewood tint and heavy film grain. Big patches of visceral texture indicate that Kosit’s productions are not sepia halftone…

Al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art BEFORE AND AFTER ORIGINS Histories of colonialism have more commonalities than differences. That implicit proposal was the genesis of Jerusalem Show VIII, “Before and After Origins,” curated by Vivian Ziherl at the al-Ma’mal Foundation for Contemporary Art in the Old City of Jerusalem. With artworks by 30 artists and groups, as well as objects from historical collections, Ziherl’s two-part exhibition linked Palestinian perspectives with those from indigenous Australia, Congo, Myanmar’s Shan state and elsewhere, looking first at the mythologies that undergird—or undermine—the legitimacy of “settler colonies,” and then at the effects of displacement and enforced isolation on colonized populations. As Ziherl’s show braided global histories, it also proposed itself as a platform for international solidarity. With stylistic echoes of an archaeological dig, the “Before” chapter…