“It returns the child’s eye to the retinas of men. Emerging from subway, [taxi] or even hydrofoil, the visitor to the [Shanghai Expo 2010] feels that he is in a special world, full of runaway pylons, impossible cantilevers, and buildings that look like flowers or accidents of flowing lava.

Is it the future? Not exactly.”

This John McPhee surveying the 1964 New York World’s Fair in his essay “Fairs: The World of Already,” but he could just have equally been describing the Shanghai Expo. Some photos from the still-unfolding, barely-comprehensible spectacle.

Slideshow of May 1 (on Flickr):

Slideshow of May 2 (on Flickr):

A short review I did on “Light Streams,” the current show at Center for Cosmic Wonder in Tokyo, is up at Artforum.com. Read online here or in the vault. See some pictures from the show below.

Title: “Light Streams” Review
Publication: Artforum Online
Date: Oct 2009
Article Link
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Tokyo
“Light Streams”
CENTER FOR COSMIC WONDER
5-18-10 Minamiaoyama, Minato-ku
September 4–November 7, 2009

Since its debut in 2000, Cosmic Wonder has carved out a special place in the expansive gray area between art and fashion. Founded by architect-turned-artist Yukinori Maeda (who maintains a separate art practice under his own name), the project has two dedicated spaces in Tokyo and Osaka that serve as hybrid gallery-boutiques. Both present seasonal “collections” that are amalgams of clothing, art installations, and publications.

The entry corridor at “Light Streams,” the current exhibition in the Tokyo center, features a video shot in a Parisian gallery, in which beautiful models dressed in Cosmic Wonder wares “perform” as art viewers with subtly eccentric choreography. In the minimal main space, a few pieces of clothing are displayed on sculptural racks. (The rest are hidden behind the white wall panels or inside a mirrored cube.) The same garments, such as a gold lamé circle dress and a retro prairie shirt, also appear in the photographs that line the walls, captured in the slightly dated antifashion pictorial style popularized by Purple magazine. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, all the photographers are Purple alumni.)

While Henry Roy captures a gold-circle-clad man and woman trekking through a sun-dappled field, Takashi Homma disconnects the clothing from human usage and lays it out in a snowy forest like otherworldly debris. Laetitia Benat’s pictures aspire to portraiture of the apparel (not the girl in it), and Mark Borthwick applies his trademark sun flare to some half nudes in a garden. These works are most interesting when viewed as an extension of the Cosmic Wonder project, which itself is intriguing mostly for its unique definition of branding and endlessly reflexive dialogue between art and commerce. The photos, zines, and installations serve to sell the clothes, while the clothes further propagate the aesthetic of the photos, zines, and installations. Through it all, Cosmic Wonder’s guileless position seems quite simple––chasing the joys of lying down in a sun-dappled forest clearing in a gold lamé dress.

My rambling notes from the week of SHContemporary are up at Artforum China; read the full article online here or in the vault. They didn’t end up using all of my pictures, however, so here are a few extras below…

Also, just for reference, here are three other articles about the Shanghai Fair week:
“Shanghai Art Week Review,” The Art Newspaper, Chris Gill
“Chinese Art Scene at SHContemporary,” Artnet, Barbara Pollack
“Postcards from Shanghai No. 1, 2, 3,” Frieze Editors Blog, Jörg Heiser

Hurun Lounge - Nobody Knows China's Rich Better

Seeing One's Own Eyes: Middle East Contemporary Art Exhibition

Bourgeoisified Proletariat: Bicycle by Guangzhou's Borges Libreria

Bourgeoisified Proletariat: Wall destruction by Polit-Sheer-Form Office

Bourgeoisified Proletariat: MadeIn's Metal Language

Bourgeoisified Proletariat: MadeIn's styrofoam disco room

Title: “’Pawnshop’ at The Shop, Beijing”
Publication: Housevibe, the Opposite House Blog
Date: Sep 2009
Article Link
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What is a piece of art worth? Is it based on age? The value of the materials used? The reputation of the artist? Or something far more mysterious? In these recent years that have seen the art market in China and elsewhere bubble up and then burst, the timeless debate seems more relevant than ever. The new exhibition “Pawnshop” in Beijing is the perfect place to consider this question, with a playful twist.

This month, Vitamin Creative Space’s experimental art-space in Jianwai Soho has transformed into a “Pawnshop” for artists. Underneath a beaming neon sign, the normally open-plan gallery now has a wooden shop-front and glass cases with items by over 60 international artists on display. Some are clearly “art works,” others simple “objects” that demand we look closer and understand their significance in this new context. All were “pawned” by the artists in the traditional manner: they exchanged their pieces for cash ($99 RMB) and a claim ticket. If the artist chooses to reclaim their object within 30 days, they need to pay back the loan with interest. If not, the piece will go on sale to the public.

Whereas a real pawnshop just wants to turn a profit, “Pawnshop”’s goals are more complex. (And all profits of this project will go to charity, by the way.) By adopting this commercial framework, the organizers hope to start a dialogue about the nature of art, exchange, consumption, and money itself.

“Pawnshop” is the brainchild of e-flux founders Anton Vidokle and Julieta Aranda, New York artists and curators who successfully launched the experiment in a Lower East Side shopfront last year. Now transplanted to China, this new edition features more artists from Beijing and greater China alongside an edgy selection of emerging and established international names.

Some objects on offer are highly conceptual: New York-based artist Rene Gabri has pawned one hour of his time (represented by a small slip of paper, with the words “One hour of my time”). Others are humorous – Beijing’s own Cao Fei exchanged a cockroach trap entitled “Cockroach House from Cao Fei’s House.” Singapore’s Ming Wong contributes a vintage Chinese opera record, and Hong Kong’s Doris Wong Wai-Yin a 1960s pocketbook; each investigating the link between object and memory. The legendary Martha Rosler, American pioneer of both feminist and conceptual art, came to Beijing for the opening and panel discussion, and appears to have left behind one of her suitcases (a duffel bag filled with airport paperbacks and tagged with airline stickers).

And 50 unscratched lottery tickets supplied by Rutherford Chang could be seen as either a potential big win, or just colorful paper – a direct comment on the “gamble” of art collecting.

As so much of China’s contemporary art exists on an epic scale, the smallness and intimacy of “Pawnshop” are a delight. It’s easy to spend an hour crouched down next to the glass cases, examining all the objects on display, and contemplating which might make for a good purchase – as long as the artist doesn’t reclaim it first.

“Pawnshop” will be at The Shop September 16-November 16 2009; keep up with its transformations on Vitamin’s blog

The Shop (by Vitamin Creative Space)
+86108059004374
B1-1503, Building15, Jianwai SOHO, 39 East 3rd-Ring Rd,
Chaoyang District, Beijing, 100020, China
http://www.vitamincreativespace.com
http://www.e-flux.com/shows/view/7178

My article on Bangkok’s Kitsch Cat is in the newest issue of Theme Magazine.

Read article online at Theme or in the vault.

If you haven’t already heard the cats and their brand of 80s pop madness, check out their packed site, download some special tracks (and a mix over on Asian Man Dan), and keep up with their blog (including obligatory MJ Tribute). Also you can order the CD/shirt no matter how far away you live from the BTS…

(Cyndi Seui, one of the beat wizards behind Kitsch Cat, performing in Bangkok, 2007)

Title: “Kitsch Cat is the Cat’s Meow”
Publication: Theme Magazine
Date: Fall 2009
Article Link
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Take a quick spin through Siam Square or Chatuchak Market and it’s clear: Bangkok’s youth culture knows how to do retro. From deadstock sunglasses to modernist furniture, the past is not only present, but lovingly curated and feverishly consumed. The cool kids behind the Kitsch Cat project, however, are taking an obsession with a previous decade (namely the ’80s) to a whole new level.

Kitsch Cat was born a year ago when Thai electro-pop fixture Cesar B. De Guzman (aka Cyndi Seui) and graphic designer/musician Peera Suk-a-Suk (aka Yuri’s Nominee) began brainstorming on a music collaboration—something personal and separate from their day-jobs at indie label Smallroom Records. Soon their friend Jaree Thanapura (aka Gramaphone Children) joined in, and over weekly dinners at a Thonglor ramen joint, the concept evolved: a mini-label to push the electronic music envelope, through compilations, T-shirt design, a blog, and any other means necessary.

“We didn’t expect it to come out so ’80s,” Thanapura explains, “but it ended up that everyone was doing something relating to ’80s music, and it just snapped into place… kinda like velcro.” Velcro is cited as an influence in the liner notes of the first CD compilation, alongside “8-bit video games, vinyl toys, Rubik’s cubes, calculator watches, and spandex.”

The six artists on the compilation remix their reference points into something fresh. Juicy synths and shiny horns are chopped almost beyond recognition in D.J.S.C.P’s dense composition, while Gramaphone Children’s “One Pink Saturday” is a tweaked John Hughes film theme song. The King of Pop is alive and well in Cyndi Seui’s tracks, cross-shuffled and sped up for an impatient age.

After the CD’s release last fall, Kitsch Cat won admirers in France, Japan, and beyond (swamping De Guzman with lots of remix work for electro acts like Astrolabe and Freaku). Ironically, the local scene is discovering them from the outside-in, through international music blogs. Meanwhile the Cats are working on upcoming live shows, the next CD compilation and corresponding T-shirt, and perhaps even a custom-designed “Kitsch Cat” effects filter. Their grand plans to “create electro madness on the dance floor” are well under way.

Title: “Flu Season / Scene & Herd Column”
Publication: Artforum Online
Date: May 2009
Article Link
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JUST A WEEK BEFORE THE OPENING of ART HK 09, hundreds of international travelers were quarantined at the Wanchai Metropark Hotel—a stone’s throw from the Convention Center hosting the fair—and most passengers landing at HKG were having their temperatures screened by hazmat-suited officials. Luckily, the specter of swine flu didn’t faze most players in an Asian art market stricken with its own ailments. The hordes descended on the city as planned, perhaps reassured by a statement from ART HK promising “hand sanitizers at the entrance and at strategic points within the fair.” Or maybe, as one Beijing artist joked, people were just hoping to get quarantined at the five-star Grand Hyatt.

At the vernissage, the mood was cautiously buoyant; the fair’s unofficial motto of “better than last year” seemed to hold up at first glance. Near the entrance, new additions Gagosian, Lisson, and White Cube were working big and splashy looks (with Lisson showing wall-to-wall Julian Opie), while farther back, usual Beijing suspects such as Boers-Li, Galleria Continua, Urs Meile, Red Gate, and ShanghART mixed with a host of pan-Asian galleries like Kukje, Tomio Koyama, and Eslite, each of which showed consistently polished work. Prominent collectors and local visitors all nodded their heads approvingly and tossed about buzzwords like quality, professional, and potential. The only complaints were about the white walls (plastic instead of wood) and the white wine (undrinkable).

Better alcohol was on offer at Gagosian’s opening-night afterparty at the Pawn, which sadly seemed a victim of its own exclusivity. The historic Wanchai pawnshop-turned-lounge actually had elbow room at midnight—all the better, perhaps, for the dedicated few dancing to the’80s playlist put together by the gallery’s Nadia Chan. (Though Gagosian opened a local office last year, there’s still no word on when they’ll launch an actual gallery.) At a slightly livelier Pawn party hosted by Schuebbe Projects the following night, a few attendees offered their early assessments of the fair. Beijing/Lucerne dealer Urs Meile remarked that ART HK’s ambition to become the Art Basel of the East is not out of reach. He compared Hong Kong to Switzerland (“Same population, very practical people, forced to become very international because they are so small”) and also explained why it’s a good contrast to Beijing: “Beijing is hell––interesting hell, but hell.” Of course, art sold in China is also burdened with a 34 percent luxury tax––one advantage that tax-free Hong Kong holds.

A highlight of the fair’s programs was the Asia Art Archive’s “Backroom Conversations,” a series of screenings and panels that aimed to give an intellectual counterweight to the market madness. The afternoon premiere of the AAA’s new documentary, From Jean-Paul Sartre to Teresa Teng: Contemporary Cantonese Art in the 1980s, was standing-room-only, and even Sir David Tang (founder of Shanghai Tang and the China Club, art collector, and general cultural pundit) was in attendance. In her introduction, AAA chair and art historian Jane Debevoise discussed the “complex and important reasons” that Guangdong is overlooked in art-history books. It’s a topic close to the hearts of the Hong Kong artists, curators, writers, and dealers who have also felt left out of the narrative (and/or bubble) of Chinese contemporary art. When Sir David in effect called Hong Kong artists lazy for relying on the government to support an arts scene while the ’80s Guangdong artists created their own, an irate woman shouted him down, telling him he didn’t know anything about Hong Kong art.

The state of Chinese contemporary art was clearly on everyone’s minds, and it was specifically explored in another panel, “China Focus: Reinvesting in Contemporary Chinese Art.” Moderated by dealer Johnson Chang, critic Hu Fang, artist Qiu Anxiong, collector Uli Sigg, curator Pauline J. Yao, and Artforum’s own Phil Tinari, the group weighed in, agreeing on certain points: Everything is in flux, artists will be tested, and Mainland criticality has to step it up. In a more combative panel later that evening, the London debate forum Intelligence Squared made its Asian debut with the polemical topic “Finders, Not Keepers! Cultural Treasures Belong in Their Country of Origin.” Inspired by the recent YSL auction debacles regarding the Old Summer Palace bronze animal heads, several distinguished men with British accents (including Sir David, again) spoke for and against the motion, which was moderated by CNN anchor and Twitter enthusiast Kristie Lu Stout. In the end, the audience voted 110 for, 247 against; apparently, people like the Elgin Marbles just where they are.

As the fair plunged into the weekend, visitors were lured farther afield by various openings: Li Qing at Hanart TZ, Yan Lei and MC Yan at Tang Contemporary, and two interrelated shows at 10 Chancery Lane Gallery: photographs by Dinh Q. Lê at the Soho space, and, at the gallery’s annex in the Chai Wan Industrial district, a group show of young Vietnamese artists curated by Lê and Zoe Butt. The latter’s warehouse after party stretched late into Saturday night, mixing young Hong Kong artists like Lee Kit, Chow Chun Fai, and Warren Leung Chi Wo and his wife, Sara Wong Chi Hang, who compared the annex space with the sizes of their own studios with artists Rirkrit Tiravanija and Michael Lin.

By Sunday evening, the fair was all but over––except for those who were staying for the opening of the Louis Vuitton exhibition, “A Passion for Creation,” opening at the Hong Kong Museum of Art several days later. News circulated about big purchases of works by Damien Hirst, Opie, and Gilbert & George, but most galleries went home with few sales. Robin Peckham of Boers-Li Gallery twittered a glum summary of the scene: “Art HK winners: major Western galleries, local Hong Kong galleries. Big losers: major mainland galleries.”

Oh well – still nice to support an actual music shop, and made an additional purchase of some Cui Zi’en (崔子恩) DVDs I haven’t seen around before. A few years ago at HKIFF, Thai director Pen-ek Ratanaruang described to me his first exposure to Cui’s films as something like this: “I put on the tape, and was watching it until I felt I had to turn it off, but then I couldn’t turn it off… it’s so bad that it’s fascinating, and then it becomes interesting.” Intense paraphrasing going on there, but it sticks in my mind as fairly apt. The weird, self-conscious crappiness in the aesthetic and tone of “Withered in the Blooming Season” is kind of amazing.

The Hedgehog and Ourself Beside Me albums are available for streaming and download below. (Legally! Though the concept of something that is both “digital” and “legal” in China is still confusing to me.) I’m still making my way through them…

Ourself Beside Me “Ourself Beside Me”
(Loving the Rundgren/Barrett-by-way-of-Lisa-Frank cover art; also I’m amazed that they actually did use ‘Ourself Beside Me’ as the official name on it – they had barely decided it while my THEME article on them was going to press)

Hedgehog “Blue Day Dreaming”
(I wish time machines existed just so that Hedgehog could travel back to 1993 to appear on 120 Minutes, and we could now watch it on grainy Youtube VHS capture…)

Title: “Hong Kong Art Wave”
Publication: Planet Magazine
Date: Winter 2008/2009
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Hong Kong has always been a mercantile town, built by pirates, British opium-traders, and successive waves of mainland immigrants whose inclinations were more capitalist than communist, and by no means artistic. In recent years, though, the “Special Administrative Region,” as Hong Kong became termed after the handover to China, has become a significant platform for the explosion of Mainland Chinese visual art, hosting one record-breaking auction after another. But even beyond the auction block, some exciting new developments indicate that Hong Kong’s local art scene may finally be coming into its own.

The most intriguing venues are truly alternative spaces where indie creativity thrives. A growing synergy with fashion and design has produced ventures like the Diesel Brave Gallery, the Agnes B. Librairie Gallerie, and the independent boutique Kapok, each showcasing video, photo, and installation alongside clothing racks and hipster toys. On the even more DIY side, Para/site Art Space in the historic Sheung Wan district has supported local artists ranging from photographer Warren Leung Chi Wo to up-and-coming conceptualist Lee Kit for over a decade, and has recently brought big international names like Paul Chan, Cao Fei and Lawrence Weiner into the mix. Across the harbor in Kowloon, the Cattle Depot Artist Village is a former abattoir now housing a small theatre, studios, and independent spaces like Artist Commune, 1a Space and Videotage in its original red brick courtyard.

On more establishment levels, this past spring saw the first official Hong Kong Art Fair (Art HK 08), featuring more than 100 galleries from around the world, just a few weeks after the latest round of sky-high Sotheby’s sales. Collectors in town for the fair could also trek up to the veteran commercial galleries around Hollywood Road, such as Schoeni Gallery (launching pad for many of the big-name mainland oil painters) and 10 Chancery Lane, as well as the new branch of Bangkok/Beijing-based Tang Contemporary. New openings also include Atting House, an auction space and website devoted to Hong Kong artists (the brainchild of the venerable Johnson Chang, curator and founder of Hanart TZ Gallery); Ooi Botos, a space dedicated to edgy contemporary photography; and if the hype is to be believed, Gagosian Gallery, will bring their blue-chip art-stars to the Fragrant Harbor sometime this year.

Still, many artists lament Hong Kong’s lack of a world-class contemporary art museum (the existing one focuses on modern and Chinese ink works), or a Biennale to call its own. But if the dynamic combination of glitzy mainland capital and DIY local spirit continues, it may only be a matter of time.