Re-Imagining Asia Jaishri Abichandani, Shezad Dawood, Parastou Forouhar, Subodh Gupta,Andreas Gursky, Michael Joo,Johannes Kahrs, Kim Jongku, Kimsooja,Sun K Kwak, Miao Xiaochun,Ujino Muneteru, Rashid Rana, Takako Saito, Sandra Schäfer, Shen Shaomin, Shi Jinsong, Song Dong and Zhao Xiangyuan,Rirkrit Tiravanija, Zhang Dali

13 February — 4 May 2009

Curated by Shaheen Merali and Wu Hung for Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin in collaboration with The New Art Gallery Walsall

Exhibition guide

As Asia continues to develop culturally and economically at a rapid rate, our fascination with it has grown and Euro-centric perspectives are becoming increasingly challenged.

We live in an age of globalisation, mass migration and an increasingly international art world. Notions of “local” and “global” are no longer so clearly distinct. Developments in technology have resulted in the creation of alternative communities, linked by mobile phone networks or the Internet, as opposed to cultural or geographical boundaries. Within this context, the exhibition poses the question; what is “contemporary Asian art”?

The artists in Re-Imagining Asia seek to negotiate new ways of embracing both tradition and modernity, the local and the global, the culturally specific and the wider context. The exhibition offers multiple points of view through which Asia emerges as an imaginary place of the collective and a meeting point for different cultural and aesthetic traditions.

The exhibition includes installations, photographs, paintings and sculpture by a range of artists from different parts of Asia and beyond. The spectrum extends from the Indian artist Subodh Gupta to the Iranian/German artist

Parastou Forouhar to the Chinese artist Shi Jinsong and the German photographer Andreas Gursky.

Waste Not is a major installation by Chinese artist Song Dong and his mother Zhao Xiangyuan (both born in China). This breathtaking work draws on the immense collection of artefacts accrued by his mother over decades. Amongst the skeleton of a wooden house lie neatly arranged items including toys, televisions, cardboard boxes, coat-hangers, lighters, spectacles, neckties, bottles, bags and bundles of wool.

The objects included hold private memories for the family yet they also represent shared experience and collective memories. Though originating from the specific context of Communist China, this installation holds powerful resonances for us all. The “waste not” mentality is in stark contrast to the materialism and consumerism of contemporary societies and is particularly pertinent within a rapidly developing China. However, visitors who have lived through difficult times such as famine, war and political chaos, can easily detect echoes of history in these mundane objects.

The development of Zhao Xiangyuan’s archive into an installation of contemporary art has been a poignant experience for all concerned. The installation is physically created by the family and the process of

working together has cemented their relationships. Communication with each other and the audience has become a vital element of the project. Through this poignant installation, the family have all become artists and the once seemingly futile collection has a different purpose and validity.

Tragically, Zhao Xiangyuan passed away in January 2009.

Miao Xiaochun’s (born and living in China) epic photograph eloquently addresses the rapid growth of Chinese cities and the relentless pace of modern life. Through digital manipulation, Miao employs “multiple view point perspective” (sandian toushi) as used in traditional Chinese scroll painting to alter our perceptions of time and space.

Andreas Gursky’s (born and living in Germany) digitally manipulated photograph of the Kuwait Stock Exchange in turn adopts a high viewpoint to emphasise the scale and activity of the scene. Within the context of this exhibition, Gursky’s work addresses our perceptions of the Middle East with regard to Asia and also makes connections once more between the local and the international in terms of global economics.

Both Sun K Kwak (born in South Korea, lives in USA) and Kim Jongku (born and living in South Korea) translate the traditional art of calligraphy into

something more contemporary. Sun K Kwak uses masking tape to draw, often directly engaging with architectural space. Kim Jongku uses steel powder to write directly on the floor, further mediated by a camera. Through projection, the writing appears like a mountainous landscape through which the viewer can walk, confounding our perceptions of scale. There is something in the work of both Gursky and Kim that seems to hint at the relationships between macrocosm and microcosm and the place of the individual within the wider world.

This is a notion which also seems pertinent to the work of Kimsooja (born in South Korea, lives in USA). In her video and performance works, the individual is often presented as distinct and separated from the busy and preoccupied world around her.

Passport by Rirkrit Tiravanija (born in Argentina, lives in Germany, USA and Thailand) eloquently explores the subjects of migration, mobility and the multiple heritage that informs his identity. The artist was born in Argentina of Thai parents. He moved to Thailand and later to Ethiopia and Malaysia. He attended high school in Canada and today lives in New York and Thailand. Tiravanija, through his own history, reveals the complexity of cultural identity in a changing, borderless world.

Subodh Gupta (born and living in India) draws his inspiration from everyday life in India and particularly his home state of Bihar, which is one of India’s most under-developed states. In this untitled painting, Gupta employs a super-realist style to depict enlarged close-ups of stainless steel food containers, commonly used by Indian workers to carry meals to and from work. Gupta elevates the status of these everyday items to high art and reflects upon the increasing loss of rural traditions within a rapidly developing sub-continent.

Close inspection of Rashid Rana’s (born and living in Pakistan) photographs reveal that the picture surface is made up of thousands of discrete pixels, each pixel containing an individual image. Subjects are often drawn from the mass media and popular culture through which he explores the notion of the photographic moment, the authenticity of images and representations of violence.

Parastou Forouhar (born in Iran, lives in Germany), has created a powerful new work entitled Count Down. A series of bean-bag seats invite the viewer to sit and become part of the work. The chairs are covered in fabrics traditionally associated with Islamic mourning ceremonies. To the western gaze, they may appear merely exotic. When seated, the visitor is confronted with a series of flip books on the table. They contain drawings that are rendered with a child-like simplicity

but on closer inspection, they suggest scenes of torture and intimidation.

Takako Saito (born in Japan, lives in Germany) is an artist who was associated with the Fluxus movement. The notion of a game was often used to engage the viewer and to question cultural and political structures.

Michael Joo (born and living in USA) works in a wide range of media which has included sweat and salt, urine, an aeroplane fuselage, a refrigeration unit and moose antlers as well as performance and video. He frequently produces sculptural installations, often embracing an interest in science which he originally studied, as well as new and diverse technologies. Very broadly, he frequently explores the ways in which science, religion and the media shape our consciousness and he interrogates our relationships to nature, technology, spirituality and identity.

Bodhi Obfuscatus is a playful and provocative work. A Buddha’s head is surrounded by a complex web of cameras, including surveillance devices and this in turn is surrounded by a wall of overlapping mirrors and monitors. Reflections and projections of the Buddha are splintered and fragmented around the viewer whose own reflection also becomes part of the work. The artist brings together high art with popular culture, notions of East and West and antiquity and modernity,

to challenge stereotypes and to question ways in which we perceive the complex and slippery identities of objects, groups and individuals.

Zhang Dali’s (born and living in China) epic work A Second History is an archive of images of Chairman Mao that have been manipulated by hand. In an age before photoshop and airbrushing, the manipulation of images was often highly skilled. Whilst recognising the political implications of such actions, the artist is also interested in the skill of these artists and the aesthetic judgements that appear to be made.

Drawing on science and genetics,Shen Shaomin (born in China, lives in Australia and China) creates hybrid creatures and plants created from animal bones. His absurd creations allude to fable and folklore, yet also allude to contemporary issues of genetic modification, the consequences of changes in the environment and notions of the alien or exotic.

Shi Jinsong (born and living in China) has created a series of works that are associated with the care of infants such as cradles, walkers, rocking horses and other toys. However, whilst we would usually associate these items with love, care and nurturing, they become something much more menacing and intense in his work.

Johannes Kahrs (born and living in Germany) has created a series of posters designed essentially for fly-posting. The artist displaces familiar images, transforming the ‘disposable moments’ of media image bytes into disquieting portraits of the contemporary zeitgeist.

Four performance-based video works by Ujino Muneteru (born and living in Japan), Jaishri Abichandani (born in India, lives in USA), Shezad Dawood (born and living in UK) and Sandra Schäfer (born and living in Germany) complete the exhibition and can be found in locations throughout the building.

Each of the artists offers a unique perspective on the world. However, our journey through the exhibition reveals shared interests and recurring themes such as personal and collective memory, tradition and modernity, the pace of modern life and perceptions of the world through mass media and popular culture. The works also reveal an astonishing diversity. They offer a wide range of viewpoints and interests. Together, they engage in a dialogue which encourages the viewer to “re-imagine Asia”.

The New Art Gallery WalsallGallery SquareWalsall WS2 8LG

01922 654400thenewartgallerywalsall.org.uk

In Conversation:

Shaheen MeraliSaturday 21 February 2009, 2pm

Co-curator of Re-Imagining Asia, Shaheen Merali will lead a tour of the exhibition.

Places are limited for In Conversation events so please reserve your free place in advance by calling 01922 654400.

Publication

A publication accompanies the exhibition. Edited by Shaheen Merali, it includes contributions by Dipesh Chakrabarty, Rustom Bharucha, Ming Tiampo, Ranjit Hoskote, Stanley Abe, Russell Hiang-Khng Heng, Carol Yinghua Lu, Gayatri Sinha and Dayanita Singh as well as the curators, Shaheen Merali and Wu Hung. It is available to purchase at Reception, priced £19.99.

Resources

Further information about the artists can be found in the Art Library.