Tradition in Chinese contemporary art is transformed by individual experiences, contemporary challenges and present-day concerns. Unscrolled features three generations of Chinese artists who have been trained in both Western art history and Chinese tradition and who engage with their cultural past as a continuation into the contemporary. The exhibition moves from literal depictions of traditional culture to more ambiguous representations that are equally influenced by Chinese heritage. From new media forms such as digital animations to site-specific installations, it features work by artists Ai Weiwei, Chen Shaoxiong, Ji Yun Fei, Liu Jianhua, Jennifer Wen Ma, MadeIn Company, Qiu Shihua, Sun Xun, Xu Bing and Zhang Enli. Defining tradition as an evolving concept, Unscrolled examines and questions its influence on visual culture in present-day China.

This exhibition presents a diverse selection of Chinese contemporary artists whose practices are informed by their cultural heritage. Re-working traditional aesthetics in conceptual ways, featured artists use new forms and media–such as digital animations and site–specific installations–to provide a myriad of means to understand and examine tradition’s influence on visual culture in present–day China.

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated publication, co-published with Black Dog Publishing, that features new photography and essays by Dr. Thomas J. Berghuis and Zheng Shengtian, Yishu managing editor.

Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and co-curated by Diana Freundl, Assistant Curator, and Carol Lu, Beijing art critic.

On View: November 15, 2014 to April 6, 2015

Venue: Vancouver Art Gallery

Photo (top): Sun Xun, Ancient Film, 2012, installation at Liverpool Biennale, 2012, ink mural and video installation. Courtesy of the artist and ShanghART Gallery.

For more info, please visit: http://www.vanartgallery.bc.ca/the_exhibitions/exhibit_unscrolled.html

On November 8, 2014, Yishu managing editor Zheng Shengtian presented a lecture titled, “Exploring the Origins of Contemporary Chinese Art,” at the He Xiangning Art Museum. The lecture focused on the evolution of modern and contemporary Chinese art, examining different elements that have contributed to the current state of contemporary art scene, such as Western modernism, revolutionary realism, and socialist modernism. For more info, please visit: http://www.hxnart.com/main.aspx?ModuleNo=00&SubModuleNo=05

In 2013, the He Xiangning Art Museum proposed a program that would feature and support overseas Chinese artists and their work. The museum hoped to provide a space to present the work of overseas Chinese artists, as well as a platform for discussion and exchange regarding contemporary art creation and theory among Chinese artists living in mainland China and elsewhere. This project emphasized the work of young overseas Chinese artists, but was not limited to young artists. Through expert recommendations, a juried award, an exhibition, and a symposium, the Museum wanted to uncover experimental and creative art made by overseas Chinese people, encourage and promote this kind of artistic creation, and present the multiple dimensions of the overseas Chinese art ecosystem.

Following “Local Futures: The Culture China Young Overseas Chinese Invitational Exhibition,” He Xiangning Art Museum is pleased to show “Double Vision: The Culture China Overseas Chinese Women’s Invitational Exhibition,” curated by Feng Boyi, Fang Lihua, and Lin Fan, from November 8, 2014 to March 8, 2015.

This exhibition features Erika Tan, Lili Chin, Sophie Tianxin Chen, Duan Yingmei, Kok Siew-Wai, Hu Bing, Summer Mei Ling Lee, Pixy Yijun Liao, Lin Yan, Liu Chang, Lynn Loo, Ren Ding, Wang Yu, Wu Di, Zhang Ou, Zhang Ran and Zou Zhao. These 17 artists come from eight different countries, including the United States, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Malaysia, and Singapore. Their work covers installation, photography, video, performance, and interactive media.

Here, the phrase “double vision” actually refers to a very specific phenomenon: an eye with two pupils. The title has an extended meaning for female overseas Chinese artists, who have immigrated, migrated, or wandered to unfamiliar places. With the “double vision” of their double or multiple identities, they have the ability to see through these multiple mirror images. They use multi-media methods and visual languages to reconstruct cultural memories and personal feelings about the past, present, and future of their current homes. “Double vision” also implies self-examination within a global context, as these artists scrutinize both their native culture and the culture of the place in which they live. They consider their own cultural identities, the concept of “home,” and even the anxiety and unity that results from confronting issues as a female artist. He Xiangning Art Museum is pleased to present the work of these seventeen overseas Chinese artists currently living in a range of countries to a mainland Chinese audience.

Support: Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council

Shenzhen Fund for the Promotion of Cultural Heritage.

On View: November 8, 2014 to March 8, 2015.

For more info, please visit: http://www.hxnart.com

Yishu is delighted to be a media partner of Art Edition which opens from November 13 -16, 2014.

About the Fair

Art Edition is Korea’s only international edition art fair devoted to multiples art. Initiated by Korea Print Photography Promotion Association, the fair was launched in 1995 under the name of Seoul International Print Photo Art Fair. Since its inception, the event has been supporting professional development of printmakers and photographers. As the methods and media of art-making have evolved over the years with the use of digital technologies, so has the identity of the fair as a genre-specific art fair. In order to establish an art market that differs from other Korean art fairs and to let the audience understand multiple art in a modern context, the title of the fair changed to ART EDITION in 2010 encompassing wide range of edition art from prints to photos and 3D multiples to computer based art.

Returning for a fifth year, Art Edition 2014 is hosted by Hangaram Art Museum of Seoul Arts Center and sponsored by Ministry of Culture Sports and Tourism and Arts Council Korea. Art Edition 2014 showcases a great range of signed limited edition art under the motto, “Limited and Unique”.

Art Edition brings together leading galleries from across the world representing renowned and new artists. Total 51 exhibitors from 15 different countries including Greece, Sweden and Israel will participate in the art fair introducing over 2000 works by 300 artists. This event is expected to be the largest edition art market in Korea featuring works by internationally renowned artists such as, Nam June Paik, Robert Indiana, Robert Rauschenberg, Alain Clement, Joan Miro, Tchang-Yeul Kim, as well as contemporary artists that are well known in Korea, such as Zhou Chunya, Feng Zhengjie, Byungjin Kim, Jeonglok Lee. ART EDITION 2014 attempts to show interaction between diverse genres of art as well as intersection of art and enterprise through collaboration with one of the leading companies in Korea. The collaboration between KOTRA (Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency) and Jemma Han (Creative Director of KOTRA) to create innovative artistic products will show a new direction and endless possibilities of edition art.

ART EDITION 2014–Overview

Venue : Hangaram Art Museum of Seoul Arts Center

Period : 2014 Nov 13 (Thurs) – 16 (Sun)

Opening Reception : 2014 Nov 13 (Thurs) 6pm

*** VIP Preview – 11am / Press Preview – 2pm

Hours : 11am – 7pm everyday *Admission closes at 6pm

Initiated by : KPPPA (Korea Print Photography Promotion Association)

Organized by : ART EDITION 2014 COMMITTEE

Sponsored by : Ministry of Cultures, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Arts Council Korea, Seoul Metropolitan Government, Seoul Foundation for Arts and Culture, GKL Foundation

Media Sponsors: Art in Culture, Monthly Photo, Seoul Art Guide, Misulsegye, Photoart, Public Art, KH article, Artday, Artprice, Art&Deal, Artslant, Art in Print, Art Depot, ART MAP, a.m.post, Art In Asia, Yishu, Artports, Fine Art International, EAP Eastern Art Report, EAP Art Criticism Today, EAP East Asia Journal, Printed editions, Visual Arts calendar

Expected number of visitors: +20,000

For more info, please visit: http://www.artedition.kr/artedition/?page_id=517

Editor’s Note

Yishu 65 opens with a text that examines the relatively short history of public art in Shanghai and the challenges, on bureaucratic and financial levels, that such projects can face. Public art in Shanghai is realized through various sources—from government support for exhibitions, to shopping mall extravaganzas, and DIY collective projects that avoid the market system altogether. This text critiques some projects that are perhaps too ambitious and brings to light others that, while still having the public interest at heart, are more modest in their intentions.

This issue also offers features on artists Liu Ding, Wang Wo, and Zhang Dali, who work in very different ways, employ different media, and represent different generations. But there are threads that weave together aspects of their work. They each make reference to the idea of collectivity in mainland China, the reality of censorship, the politics of the art system, and the lack of independent thought; although none of them address any of those topics in overt or didactic ways. Instead, their work is subtle and evocative, reflective of the artist’s search for ways to plant these ideas in the mind of the viewer. Liu Ding and Zhang Dali are aware of the seduction of the art market, and are cautious about their relationship to it while, at the same time, participating in it. Both Wang Wo and Zhang Dali bring into their work allusions to how difficult it is, in a society that still seems to find comfort in collective thought, to express opinions that might not conform to what is considered the norm.

Also in this issue are texts on two other artists who embody different generations but who have pushed the idea of traditional ink and scroll painting into new realms. Huang Zhiyang, a Taiwanese artist now living in Beijing, and Fong Chung-ray, born in Henan province and now living in San Francisco, have found their own independent aesthetic voices, derived from very different sources and histories, yet are making strong contributions to a long evolving tradition.

In conclusion, we have a look at the Asia Art Archive’s ambitious project, Mapping Asia, presented in its Hong Kong research library. This is one among a series of ongoing events AAA organizes in an effort to dig deeper into the complexities that constitute Asia and to view the region from a contemporary perspective while respecting its histories. Projects such as this also expand upon the idea of what an archive is and how its vast repository of information and knowledge can be brought to life in provocative and engaging ways.

Keith Wallace

image (top): JR, The Wrinkles of the City, 2010, poster. Courtesy of Magda Danysz Gallery, Paris and Shanghai.

Our Editor-in-Chief Keith Wallace talked with CBC Radio’s Elaine Chau about the bringing of the Ai Weiwei exhibition to Vancouver. Here is the link to the interview. Courtesy of the Belkin Art Gallery and CBC Radio:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ai-weiwei-vancouver-exhibit-sheds-light-on-new-york-past-1.2754836

Photo: Ai Weiwei, Lower East Side Restaurant, 1988/2011. On the right: With poet Allen Ginsberg at a restaurant in New York’s Lower East Side. Courtesy of Ai Weiwei, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, and Chambers Fine Art.

Keith Wallace, Yishu Editor-in-Chief and Associate Director/Curator of Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, has collaborated with Three Shadows Photography Art Center and Chambers Fine Art to bring Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983–1993 to Vancouver.

Ai Weiwei: New York Photographs 1983–1993 consists of 227 black-and-white photographs taken by Ai Weiwei during the decade that he resided in New York City, his first time away from China. The photographs were personally selected by the artist from over 10,000 negatives that are housed at Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing and together represent a single work of art—no one image is more important than another.

Born in 1957, Ai Weiwei grew up in China during the Cultural Revolution. The New York photographs, presented in chronological order, form a layering of narratives that reflect a time when the artist was settling into a city and culture that was completely new to him. Subsequent narratives emerge through his interactions with friends and acquaintances arriving from China, the meeting of new friends in New York such as Allen Ginsberg, his observation of rampant poverty in the East Village neighbourhood where he lived, and his images of political demonstrations and celebratory festivals taking place in New York at the time. While Ai Weiwei’s intention was not to be a documentarian, this body of work nonetheless has become a personal and impressionistic diary that represents a specific historical moment in a city that was experiencing significant social change.

Ai Weiwei is among the most widely recognized artists in the world today. He is known not only for his artwork but also for his commitment to human rights and freedom of expression in China. The photographs in this exhibition represent a young artist exploring both personal relationships and a culture in which public demonstration is part of the social process, an experience that would serve as a precursor to his relationship with China following his return there in 1993.

This exhibition is organized in collaboration with Three Shadows Photography Art Center, Beijing, and Chambers Fine Art in New York and Beijing. It has been made possible with funding from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Belkin Curator’s Forum.

Open to Public: September 5-November 30, 2014 (Admission is free.)

Opening reception: Thursday, September 4, 8-10 pm

Venue: Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery

1825 Main Mall, Vancouver, BC Canada V6T 1Z2

For more info, please visit: http://www.belkin.ubc.ca/future/ai-weiwei-new-york-photographs

Image (top): Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei. Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 1983/2011, inkjet on paper, 50.8 x 61.0 cm. Courtesy of the artist, Three Shadows Photography Art Center, and Chambers Fine Art.

Editor’s Note

Yishu 64 explores the phenomenon of private museums in mainland China, propositions for new ways of thinking about exhibition-making, and two artists who were not born in China but who have worked within and around its contexts.

The museum system in China is distinct in that most art museums are privately initiated and owned. The discussion between collector Budi Tek and Wu Hung took place in the Fall of 2012, eighteen months before Tek’s Yuz Museum Shanghai opened, but it offers insights into the curatorial process of imagining the future exhibition space, how artworks will relate to each other, and what purpose the museum serves. This is followed by a discussion between Budi Tek and Qiu Jiahe that focuses more on the philosophical underpinnings of the Yuz Collection and the Yuz Foundation that has in consequence emerged. Julie Chun reports on another private museum in Shanghai, the Long Museum West Bund, that also opened in 2014. She acknowledges the worthy intentions of collectors to make their collection public, but is cautionary about the potential shortcomings of such ambitious projects. In the conversation between Zheng Shengtian and Yang Chao, Director of the Xi’an Art Museum, a candid overview of private museums in China makes transparent the undefined relationship between the developer, government, and the public.

Biljana Ciric’s Alternatives to Ritual and Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art and Spring Workshop’s collaboration, Moderation(s), are two exhibition projects that, in their exploration of inventive strategies that animate a program or space, challenge traditional museum exhibition practices. The artists in Ciric’s exhibition literally occupy the German Consular office space in Shanghai, and Heman Chong, the moderator for Moderation(s), introduces a multidisciplinary ethic that opens itself to the vulnerabilities of unanticipated flexibility.

The two concluding texts feature artists Paul Wong and Shezad Dawood who represent different generations and come from different regions of the world, but they share an interest in postcolonial identity and its complex relationships with popular and traditional cultures through the means of new media.

Keith Wallace

image (top): Shezad Dawood,Towards the Possible Film (production stills), 2014, HD and Super 16mm transferred to HD, 20 mins. Courtesy of the artist.

The Four-Volume Collected Essays by Yishu’s Managing Editor Zheng Shengtian are now available at Imagokinetics Lab (想象力学实验室) http://www.imagokinetics.com/archives/960?from=timeline&isappinstalled=0

This four-volume book includes a collection of his essays on visual art, cultural exchange, biennales and art fairs since the 1980s. The Collection also features a memoir of his personal story. This book contains over 500,000 words and more than 300 coloured images to provide a first hand observation of thirty years of development in contemporary Chinese art.

About Zheng Shengtian:

Zheng Shengtian, Managing Editor of Yishu, is a scholar, artist, and independent curator. For more than thirty years he worked at China Academy of Art as Professor and Chair of the Oil Painting Department. He was a founder and board member of the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian from 1999 to 2011. He has been a board member of Asia Art Archive in North America since 2009 and a Trustee of the Vancouver Art Gallery since 2011. As an independent curator, he has co-organized numerous exhibitions including the Shanghai Modern at Museum Villa Stuck in Munich and Art and China’s Revolution at Asia Society in New York. He is currently the Senior Curator for Asia with the Vancouver Biennale. He contributes frequently to periodicals and catalogues about contemporary and Asian art.

Editor’s Note

Yishu 63 offers a mix of essays and conversations that explore the work of both established and emerging artists. Some of these artists have been discussed previously in the pages of Yishu, and the current essays provide updates or new perspectives on their work. Well-known artists He Yungchang, Ding Yi, Chen Haiyan, and Chen Shaoxiong, as different as they are from each other in focusing on issues of performance, abstraction, the fantastic, or urban development, have made significant contributions to the evolution of contemporary Chinese art during the past three decades. One condition that ties these diverse artists together here is their experience of the flood of philosophical and art historical ideas that arrived in China from the West in the 1980s and that for most were completely new and revelatory influences on their work.

In addition, this issue features a reflection on an exhibition by twelve artists who call themselves N12 and were educated together at the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing during the late 1990s. While pursuing their independent careers, these artists also have been showing periodically as a group for more than a decade, and the essay featured here considers the reasons for and effectiveness of showing together in the past compared to now.

Yishu 63 also offers conversations with artists who are of a younger generation and who are exploring directions that reflect the social, political, and cultural conditions that they live within now, which are so different from those of twenty years ago. Chow Chun Fai and Nadim Abbas, both based in Hong Kong, are interested in the complexity of perception and our misconceptions or mistranslations about the origins of history or ideas. Rutherford Chang, who lives in the USA, explores everyday objects that we may take for granted and the qualities and cultural meaning that lie within them, and, like those artists from an earlier generation, he too navigates the spaces between the East and the West, but in a very different way.

Keith Wallace

image (top): Chow Chun Fai, Supper at Emmaus (detail), 2014, photo installation, 142.4 x 177.8 cm. Courtesy of the artist.