zhang dali

i saw these pieces advertised at the chinese contemporary art gallery in new york, and was absolutely terrified/riveted/awakened. the figures are so strong, the statement is so bold, and the aesthetic is all white (which always seems to appeal to me. dunno why).
according to the website,

"For the migrant worker uncertainty is one of the key elements of their existence. Zhang Dali wanted to bring these people and their hard, bitter lives to the attention of others, and did so by creating head and body casts of volunteers from among these people... who are shown hanging upside down from ropes tied around their ankles. The imagery is shocking: hanging like carcasses of meat, in mid-air, in limbo. The artist uses the Chinese "dao xuan" to express being upside down in limbo without any inner strength to turn their bodies. These works capture the spirit, or lack thereof, of these workers. For Zhang Dali his sculptures are living taxonomy, a human version of insect samples ("biao ben") except the specimens are live people. It is a documentation of the species at a specific moment in history. In another time the bodies would be different. The material used for the body casts has a ghost like quality. Its dull whiteness is lifeless."

new favorite artist

I found this guy while flipping through Art Asia Pacific and I could not get over the visual impact of "Echoes-Infinity." The floor is covered with stenciled sand flower patterns, while the walls lay bare. Museum patrons walk through the room and inevitably smear and destroy the pristine shapes."there is the otherworldly sense of stepping out onto the surface of a paint-smattered canvas or a virtual board game of meticulously executed chromatic calligraphy."

Check out more of Shinji Ohmaki's works: www.shinjiohmaki.net

to raise the water level in a fish bowl

i will admit absolute unfamiliarity with zhang huan's work, but i found these two images next to the yan pei ming in that same sotheby's catalogue and have been divulging the internet for more evidence of his work since. his photographs have incredibly strong compositions and images, some even feeling inappropriate or even crude, but therein lies their poignant attraction. says zhang huan, "the body is the proof of identity. the body is language."

yan pei-ming

such life in these brush strokes!! i found an image of yan pei-ming's entitled "un portrait d'un africain" (he's been living in france since the eighties) in a sotheby's catalogue i purchased a bit ago and was incredibly mesmerized. unfortunately, i couldn't find the painting on the internet, but this self-portrait is equally evocative. seriously, that paint dripping down onto his left shoulder - perfect.

a marriage

so it's two in the morning and i should really be getting to sleep, but i just came across a pile of postcards i'd gathered from various art galleries this summer, and these were among them - how could i have forgotten? the images from this series, entitled "my bride and me" by qui zhen, haunted me for weeks. the self-portraits feel like they could be a twist on the Kierkegaardian knight of faith, with a princess who can never realize the love of the man she's bound to.
and the titles are brilliant - truly. if you have a moment you simply must watch this slide show.
i also found about ten billion other artists in the pile of postcards that i'm dying to talk about! but i will opt for saving them for a wiser hour and a later date.

the information superhighway

so i feel like i can't get much farther in this blog without mentioning nam june paik, the man in korean contemporary art. he's widely regarded as the world's first video artist and initiated a number of fascinating/racy/scandalous exhibits in new york in the sixties with the advent of the portable audio/video recorder.

to be perfectly honest, i can't say that i'm in love with most of his works, but being korean i can't help but be seized with a bit of nationalistic pride at his innovative works and recognition. it was nice to see his name mentioned again in a recent new york times article praising the rise of korean art.

either way, this enormous television sculpture (from yet another photo at the korean moca) is pretty breathtaking.

fang lijun

this week, fang lijun's angsty pieces in the midst of overwhelming ocean waves seemed to fit my mood best. there's a meditative quality that keeps it all balanced and totally appeals to me.

1996.No.17

1999.6.1

Untitled (Swimmers) 2004

ai wei wei (II)

i'm not done with ai wei wei, and frankly, i don't think the art world will be either for many years to come. he is, to say the least, prolific. here are a few of my favorites:

Oil Spills (2006)

i think i was as struck by the atmospheric quality of this more than anything else (but i always do love a floor piece). the title says oil, but i think ink.

Map of China (2003)

the wood in this piece is reprocessed from qing dynasty furniture.

Lijiang Guesthouse (completed 2007)

ai wei wei has been working with architects on many projects recently--the most famous being the beijing olympic stadium. the lijiang guesthouse is a little severe, but i enjoy the combo of strict modernity with organically patterned doors, random angles and the inclusion of the tree.

new artist crush

I first got excited about Lee Ufan's work when I saw it in the Korean MoCA this summer -



This piece, entitled Correspondence, has such an appealing interconnection between its positive and negative spaces, as if we're watching or listening in on a conversation unfolding in words, or in body language, or in gestures. (I also love that my mother and sister are unconsciously mimicking these spaces in this photo.)

It was a delight, then, to see Lee's name again in the most recent Artkrush issue and read about his contribution to the Mono-ha (School of Things) movement (which aims to "simply bring things together, as far as possible in an unaltered state, allowing the juxtaposed materials to speak for themselves... and draw attention to the interdependent relationship between these things and the space surrounding them", according to the Tokyo Art Beat). And then, of course, his philosophical connection to artists like Robert Ryman and Richard Serra, according to Berswordt-Wallrabe's "Encounter with the Other," only futher elucidates his appeal to me.



I'm sort of in love.

an initiation

i'm sort of feverishly excited about the art21 website in general, but this documentary and these images are a breathtaking look into the work of chinese contemporary artist cai quo-qiang.

on chaos as a material in art:

With time you start to get to know the material. You actually develop a way to know how it will behave, to a certain degree. First, you have to accept that it’s uncontrollable and that there is an accidental element. You have to accept it and then work with it. I’ve worked with the material for so long that I’ve gained an understanding of how it works. Sometimes I can control it better than I realize, better than I expect. Then at that point it becomes stagnant. So it’s very important that there is always this uncontrollability that’s a part of the work. My way of doing it is just to flow with the material, go with the material and let it take me where it wants me to go. So I continuously want it to give me problems and obstacles to overcome.

categorical ambiguity

Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995)

this ai weiwei （艾未未）piece seemed particularly relevant to a recent conversation. he drops a han dynasty (206 bc - 220 ad) urn, providing three images of the cringe-inducing fall. never mind that i find the images aesthetically compelling in themselves, the visuals are secondary. he has destroyed art for the sake of art. meet the chinese duchamp.