Disgusting on One’s Own History Hong Kong-London 2008-2-17 Pak Sheung Chuen
On 1st July of 1997, Hong Kong was handed over to China by United Kingdom. It ended its 100 years colony era. Hong Kong is governed under Chinese government by the "one country, two systems" policy. All colonized symbols (like Queen Elizabeth II's portrait) are no longer used.
In this work, I collected the old Hong Kong one-dollar coins (with Queen's portrait) from the public currency system. The years that I could find are 1978, 1979, 1980, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991 and 1992. I brought them form Hong Kong to London, and then I demolished all the Queen's portraits on the ground. Each "Queen" became a scar.
Through these work, I criticized the Hong Kong Government's policy on the historical building of the British colony period. Recently, the government removed the 50-years-old Victoria period buildings: Star Ferry Pier and Queens Pier. It rose up once a very strong rebellion from the Hong Kong public.
Ethnographies of the Future takes into account the vast geographies impacted by colonial rule by bringing together artists whose works present a critical relationship to post-colonial identity politics. The artists in the exhibition, with their diverse historical reference points, make clear that the terms of cultural identification are unstable. In installations, videos, and mixed-media works, they suggest an ever-shifting discursive field where the possibilities for defining ethnography are unending. Drawing on histories of the Caribbean, South Asia, Israel, China, Korea and Japan, the South Pacific, Europe, and the Americas, the exhibition addresses colonial rule from a contemporary, global perspective.Ethnographies of the Future is staged in two parts: a gallery installation that resembles a museological presentation of ethnographic objects and a video screening. Both components of the exhibition capture the time-based aspects of post-colonial identity politics where locational identity, cultural history, and the body as territory, set the stage for a discussion on the construction of identity.
Artists Include: Elia Alba Rajkamal Kahlon Seung Young Kim and Hironori Murai Simone Leigh Ohad Meromi Marc Andre Robinson Pak Sheung Chuen Allison Smith Sriwhana Spong Roberto Visani (with John Movius)
Image Credits: Ohad Meromi, Moon Colony, 2005, video still from five-minute video. Courtesy of the artist and Harris Lieberman Gallery, New York. Rajkamal Kahlon, Ancient Indian Rope Trick, 2003. Courtesy of the artist.
The exhibition will present the work of 15 contemporary Chinese artists from three different urban settings united in their search for an independent cultural identity free of the restrictive rules of the global market.
… This is a crucial moment in China’s search for cultural identity as it strives to reconcile the weight of tradition, a troubled recent socio -political history and the rapid entry into the western-style global economy. The most visionary contemporary art in China attempts to shape the future in the light of the past... In a very short space of time China is experiencing a process that in Western culture evolved slowly over centuries. But just as the Florentine Renaissance of the fifteenth century led to the emergence of the city by its use of culture as a vital channel of communication modern China is investing extensively in the development of a cultural infrastructure and in its promotion abroad.The exhibition presents a lively interchange between the curators’ three sections, representing three distinct but complementary attitudes and perceptions.
Zhang Wei, the curator from Guangzhou, in “Throwing Dice”, brings together artists of different backgrounds, training and modes of expression. Zhang Wei presents individual visions of human existence in a fragmented and constantly changing world. The videos of Kan Xuan, Pak Sheung Chuen and Yang Fudong (acclaimed in the most recent Venice Biennale), digital animations by Cao Fei (also present at the Biennale), technological installations by Chu Yun, and paintings by Duan Jianyu offer individual stories that engage the spectator in the exploration of a shared existential landscape and in the constant tension between the world of dreams and of reality.
我正在做一個關於「紐約公共圖書館的藏品計劃」，希望可以在我走之前留一點回憶在紐約。計劃的作品很多，好像我正在構思如何把一棵樹（真樹）種在圖書館的藏書內，有一件作品叫“Folded Half of the Library”，把圖書館一半的書都的p.22都摺了小角，你們來美國也可以來探探這件作品…觀眾需要進入圖書館，或通過圖書館的借書系統來看我的作品。
ACC的Margaret安排了一日Museum Visit的活動，其中一站是位於East Harlem (Spanish社區)內的El Museo (http://www.elmuseo.org/)，平日很少人會來。這裡正擺放一個關於拉丁美洲行為藝術的回顧展，作品以相片和錄像記錄，因為主要靠文字解釋，我們花了兩個多小時才看完整個展覽。作品多以抗爭的形式揭示社會不公平的現象，實驗性質居多，偶有一些「好勁」的作品。
Elizabeth Simo(可能寫錯)在美國贏了一個藝術項目的比賽，但他拿這筆獎金（可能是製作費）去做了另一件作品：他把獎金分成很多份，每份一張十元美金（左圖示），全數分給在美國的南美洲非法勞工，只要他們肯簽一張紙證明自己拿了這筆錢。作品的觀念是把美國納稅人的錢合法地用在非法勞工的身上。事情曝光後，引起政客和傳媒很大的關注，美國和南美的報章、電視皆有大量的報導和討論，有人認為藝術家沒有權這樣去用這筆錢、甚至有人認為他在挑戰政府的權威、侮辱美國。Simo的成功是他利用傳媒作為他的工具，把本來只在藝術家個體、或藝術圈關心的議題，提升到社會層面去廣泛討論。
