ArtSlant: An Act of Critique

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: Us and Institution, Us as Institution

Guangdong Times Museum, Times Rose Garden, Huang Bian Bei Lu, Bai Yun Da Dao, Guangzhou, China

29 July – 11 August, 2013

As the various flavours of institutional critique have now become “institutionalised” as part of the practice of contemporary artists, One Step Forward, Two Steps Back curated by Biljana Ciric at the Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou aims to reassess the origins, methodologies and effects of this practice.

It can be said that One Step Forward… builds on the work of the curatorial team within the Times Museum (and those of its invited curators) since its formal opening in 2009. They have approached their practice with a self-awareness that has consistently led to exhibitions, symposia, and publications that have productively investigated the ideas and roles of the institution as a structural body within the art system – in a way performing their own institutional critique through their daily work.

This exhibition deliberately moves the focus away from a canon of western artists associated with the development of institutional critique, onto artists and groups from other parts of the world who develop out of it and/or trace parallel trajectories to it.

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artforum.com.cn: Nowhere to Land – Yin Xiuzhen at Pace Beijing

无处着陆:尹秀珍个展 Nowhere to Land – Yin Xiuzhen

2013.07.20–2013.09.28 佩斯北京| Pace Beijing

Pace Beijing, 798 Art District, Beijing

20 July – 28 September, 2013

以一系列表现烟花绽放于漆黑天空的画作作为尹秀珍最新个展的开场或许有着什么特殊的含义(“烟花”系列,2012-2013)。尹更为人所知的是她融合缝制在一起的衣物的装置性作品,而在此她的画布都是几何形状的:六边形、十二边形等等。画布深深的边缘侧面被灰色的颜料覆盖,在画布周围凸起成脊状。在隔壁的一个黑暗的展厅里,一座如同雕琢过的宝石状的大型雕塑伫立在地面上(《黑洞》,2013),彩色的LED灯从雕塑里打出。这个宝石是由黑色T恤做成的,每个logo和标志都放在了雕塑立面的正中。

衣物始终保持着与人体的某种联系,甚至当穿衣人不在时一样如此。在尹秀珍的作品里,这种与人体的联系保持着一种叙事方式,仿佛这些衣物的原主还继续活在这些作品中。有时艺术家在衣物的柔软(可被理解为生物体的一种性质)与另一种材料的坚硬之间做出明显的对比。《救生筏》(2013)就是一套被黄色衣服覆盖的座位形状的作品,由一套铁管框架支撑。许多根汽车尾气管也从这底下戳出,这些管子高度磨光的金属质地可被理解为“救生艇”的喷气推进系统。这种相似的连接以更佳的效果出现在《无处着陆》(2013)中。一个原尺寸的飞机起落架被倒过来放置在画廊地面上。走近看你会发现,这个巨大的轮胎也是由纺织物制成的,而支撑它的金属结构则包含了金属的盆和盘,忠实地模拟了飞机的形态。

从画廊高屋顶垂下的是“孤独”系列(2010)。一根长长的管状米黄色织物条内部一节一节地被塞得鼓鼓囊囊,有如章鱼吸盘。一只童鞋挂在这条向下垂吊一端,并且只有鞋尖轻轻触地。当画廊里空气流动时,作品也来回移动,而这只鞋子则开始在地板的沙面上画线。这个超现实的人体部分以一种奇特的方式侵入画廊的空间,并以它不协调的存在形式和无目的的移动制造出一种关乎失去的辛酸感。在这件作品中,尹秀珍成功地将意图的精妙与富有诗意的标志性材料和外形结合在了一起。

— 文/ 李蔼德 (Edward Sanderson), 译/ 吴玉笛

The first works encountered upon entering Yin Xiuzhen’s current solo show at Pace Beijing are a series of paintings representing bursts of fireworks against a dark sky (Fireworks Series, 2012–2013). Each canvas is shaped as a geometric form, a hexagon, dodecahedron, etc. the deep edges of which are each coated in thick grey paint, building up in a ridge along the front surface of each piece.

It is perhaps significant that paintings serve as the introduction to this show, as Yin is better known for her installations incorporating elements made from stitched-together clothing. Turning the corner into a darkened room, a large structure shaped like a cut diamond sits on the floor (Black Hole 2010). The facets of the diamond are made from panels of black t-shirts, with the logos and symbols applied to the original items positioned centrally on each facet. These also have small gaps between them, through which light from an LED array inside the structure glows in ever-changing colours.

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TEXT: 30 years of Chinese Contemporary Art – Cang Xin

A brief introduction to artist Cang Xin’s performance series entitled Identity Exchange. The photographs from this series have been included in 30 years of Chinese Contemporary Art, a large group show which opened recently at Power Station of Art in Shanghai. This text is included in the catalogue for that show. The text has been excerpted from a much longer piece I wrote about Cang Xin for a book that will be published before the end of this year (hopefully).

“The body for Cang Xin seems to be merely an outer shell for an inner being. The body acts much like clothing, which represents a temporary fixing of certain aspects of an identity, but these cannot be seen as a permanent state for the being. Identity Exchange makes this clear, and also brings in a new feature of Cang’s work, the artist as providing a type of psychological or therapeutic service to the collaborator and society as a whole – something that reflects Cang’s growing interest in shamanism at the time of these pieces.

“Later on in his works, Cang Xin’s body takes on a more active role, but then it is not about working on the body (as his peers Zhang Huan and Ma Liuming might be said to do), but working with the body in relation to the viewer/audience.”

ArtSlant: Painting Lessons

Painting Lesson III: Elementary and Extreme Structure (curated by Bao Dong)

Gallery Yang, 798 Art District, Beijing, China

8 June – 7 July, 2013

Wang Yuyang

For the past two years Gallery Yang has hosted a series of exhibitions curated by Bao Dong, which he has titled Painting Lessons. In these Bao Dong has presented certain discrete aspects of the nature of current art production in China. In terms of format, the title places the emphasis on painting, but the results in the gallery spaces expand on this to include sculpture and installation.

The “lessons” that the curator proposes in this series aim to “go back to specific issues of painting,” divesting the artwork of its specific context as a way of understanding the piece. For Painting Lessons, Bao Dong suggests there has been an over-emphasised on context in contemporary art production, and (at least in these shows) he advocates a return to “various mediums and types” of artworks. In this way he claims: “we can more clearly understand the meaning and value of painting as it is.”

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