Apologies, friends, for the very sporadic posting on my part. Of late, most of my blogging energies have gone into a new project for me, the Chinese version of artforum.com.cn.

Maintaining this already wonderful site is now one of my responsibilities, and finally getting off the AWW manuscript to MIT Press, and the new year hibernation, etc…. The 2010 spring thaw will bring wonderful things, and happily, with most of my editorial energies pouring into the artforum.com.cn site, sinopop can become become more personalized, more suibian, and a place for stories and ideas that don’t fit the scope of the other site.

Please look for us in the future, as we hope to start adding some new Chinese language columns to the artforum site, attempting to add some thoughtful content and commentary to a crowded cybersphere of art news from China, of various qualities.

朋友们、亲爱的读者， 非常抱歉！最近忙一堆事没有更新博客。今年要开始投入美国artforum杂志网站的中文版，担任一些编辑的工作。 如果你还不熟悉，应该过来看，网站上有大量的杂志译文，也有亚洲地区的展评。

随着我的在官方网站的参与，之后sinopop的内容就更加自由， 更随便和主观一些， 我会尽量把“严肃艺术编辑”的精神集中在artforum.com.cn了。（如果您，读者还没有看到此精神，请不要急––之后有人赞助我就好说！哈！）

What more is there to say? If we should learn from history, and images are the most powerful medium of our age, then the following should need no introduction. For all the love of spectacle we endured, 2009, thank you most of all for introducing me to the perils of the Caonima, watch your back, river crabs are everywhere.

Click on photos for news links.

The death of celebrated translator, scholar and poet Yang Xianyi was mourned this morning in western Beijing at Baobaoshan cemetery.  Hundreds of well-wishers and media were there to pay respects to Yang Xianyi, he was 95 years old.

Yang Xianyi’s life was ripe with celebrated achievements, he and his wife Gladys Taylor produced definitive translations of Chinese classics and Yang was full of intellectual vibrancy, an “upright scholar” if modern China ever produced one.  In China’s pivotal century, his life might well be the quintessential definition of inter-cultural exchange.

Yang Xianyi and his wife Gladys Taylor met at Oxford in the 1930s, and returned together to a war torn China, where they roamed in the southwest before they began translating, eventually moving to Beijing in 1951 in support of the Communists, they engaged in decades of translation, political persecution, and loving companionship.

The funeral hall was filled with flowers, and well wishes from leaders as high as Jiang Zemin, Wen Jiabao and Wu Bangguo, nearly the entire staff of the Foreign Languages Press came to pay respects, but the passing was only made easier to know that Yang Xianyi’s tremendous contributions will outlive him for many decades to come.

Never afraid to speak his mind, always standing on the side of righteousness and humanistic and sympathetic to the people, the passing of an intellectual such as Yang Xianyi brings an era of heroism nearer to a close.

R.I.P. Yang Xianyi 杨宪益 (1915-2009)
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The Guardian has an excellent obituary by old friend John Gittings
看卫报的中文版的讣告： 大翻译家杨宪益
DANWEI has translated some of his more political vignettes in an obituary here
看新浪的杨宪益告别仪式报道
Yang Xianyi NYT obituary
more from the Independent

Wang Wei manipulates spaces, most often building spaces in spaces. In “Historic Residence” he recreates the lavish bathrooms of cottage that was built for the Chairman and his wife Jiang Qing in the south of China. They are built into the gallery, tile floors and all; while the toilet, bathtub etc, are built to proper proportion, the space itself has been blown up to exaggerated proportions.
The cavernous spaces say something about the cult of personality, the fact that Mao himself only stayed there for a total of 10 days, while it was always kept pristine lends it a sacred air.
Highly recommended, in the new Space Station, now occupying the former space of the China Contemporary gallery in 798.

Until Nov 14

from my ARTiT blog, visit for more exhibition images

read curator’s statement on art-ba-ba

Today is the third day of the “Negotiating Differences” conference in Beijing, and the atmosphere is sparkling. Overall more productive than the May conference “China Contemporary Art Forum” that called together scholars such as Hans Belting and Hal Foster, the conference is progressing with productive debate. This second day of presentations looks promising, Sinopop will post more later, including selected papers.Negotiating Difference. Contemporary Chinese Art in the Global ContextVenue: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, TheatersaalAddress: John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, GermanyDate: 22 to 24 October 2009Organiser: East Asian Art History, Freie Universität Berlin“Negotiating Difference. Chinese Contemporary Art in the Global Context” is hosted by:Freie Universität BerlinDepartment of History and Cultural StudiesInstitute of Art HistoryEast Asian Art History (more…)

The “Green” art fair recently ended in China’s World Trade Center. Young artists sent their works directly to the fair, applying through an online form, and buyers, gallerists came to root through the weeds, in hopes of finding young sprouts to cultivate. Each artist was only allowed to display one work, and there were some rather established artists present, such as Yang Fan, who sent a portion of the massive carpet she installed last spring, and even some artists under pseudonyms (one included in the photos below).  In its first year, the fair’s website is as ‘green’ as the artists it promotes: only a portion of works are shown online, and the site often malfunctions. Despite that, some editor’s picks are below, click on image for detailed information.

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Hopefully these pictures can let you experience China’s national day parade as it was enjoyed by hundreds of millions on the morning of October 1st (only the very loyal, and high ranking cadres and military folk actually made it to the bandstand that morning). The painting of Mao looking over the square has been replaced with a smiling, benevolent and satisfied looking comrade, “Old Hu” inspected the troops poking out of the sunroof in the same Hongqi from 1949, and after a very proud and spine-tingling display of “model” soldiers and firepower, the parade began. Perhaps the most elaborate display of socialist pagentry possible today, the parade cost billions of RMB, and (of course) made the DPRK’s birthday celebration look like a mere joke.

Below are some shots of thrilled, smiling crowds and saluting policemen and soldiers. Judging from the blue skies, and the nicely balanced crowds of citizens, we’re pretty sure these were “filler shots” filmed at the rehearsal that happened the previous week.

Aerial shots provided uplifting views of the poignant messages that were delivered via cards flipped by the masses seated in the square they read as following:

“loyalty to the party”/ “socialism is good” / “protect world peace”

The final image is an amazing recreation of the Fu Baoshi painting that hung in the Great Hall of the People. It was commissioned for the hall in 1959 and for decades it provided a most dramatic background for diplomatic missions.

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On the eve of the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic, things are beginning to look red here in Beijing, deep red, like a profuse wound. On the Beijing streets, some of the visual celebratory feast residents drank in last year during the Olympics is being recreated in billboards, television galas, parades, mass performances and wide-ranging worship for spectacle, but the festivities this year are tinted with more eulogizing, more solemnity, more red. In a commemorative fine art exhibition at the National Art Museum of China (closed on Sept 14) red not only prevailed in the literal sense, its ideological presence was overpowering. In this exhibition that sprawled out over the entirety of the NAMOC’s exhibition halls, co-sponsors Cultural Ministry of China and NAMOC pulled sixty years of revolutionary masterpieces out of storage from all of Beijing’s major collections, including the Military Museum and the former Revolutionary Museum (soon to reopen as the Museum of Chinese History). It was a mind-blowing show, by scale and quality alone. Also, by their omissions, curators highlighted what isn’t included in the sanctioned visual lexicon that is “fine art” in China today. This became especially apparent when viewers started to wonder on what floor the “contemporary” were being hidden.

 

Divided into three main sections, oil painting, traditional painting, and propaganda posters with comics and animation, “masterpieces” of recent art history, were in every room.

 

Heading directly to oil paintings, I was intercepted by the captivating magnificence of Chen Yifei’s Seizing the Presidential Palace, (1977), a work that could inspire anyone to make revolution. More familiar as Chen’s work was his Looking at History From My Space (1979), also by Chen Yifei. Perhaps the most iconic painting in contemporary art history was Father (1981) by Luo Zhongli, displayed adjacent to My Space. This work was much more three-dimensional than ever imagined, through a painting technique the “dirt” on the ‘father’s’ eyebrows and on his turban look as if they might literally crumble off the canvas onto the floor.

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Wang Yifan’s latest exhibition is titled “Kan Bu Wan” [which in English means you can’t finish seeing or looking], and is in utter agreement with the works themselves. Primarily video and installation works in this exhibition confront viewers with simply too much to take in, each individual work offering an extreme amount of information, making it possible that not a single viewer could finish “looking” at any single work in the show.Throughout his work Wang Yifan pays close attention to the dimensionality of time, then he confronts it with a challenge, Stakeout on Time––Wang Yifan’s Clock is one of his representative works. In this video, Wang Yifan takes a common quartz clock found in most Chinese households as his prop and then uses digital means to record its state over a period of twenty-four hours. Through this lengthy documentation, Wang Yifan covers the clock’s logo with an obscure symbol for his own name, and in an attempt to establish a new order he establishes control over time.In a general survey of Wang Yifan’s works, it appears he is examining trivial, humdrum things insignificant to mention. But beyond doubt there are minute changes that exist within these works. No matter if he is recording the state of a given space, or employing the thickly congested words of his own novellas written over canvas, magnified by Wang Yifan’s lens imperceptibly minute details are abruptly thrust into the spotlight. As such frivolous commonalities take starring roles in the works, the role of seer and the seen are begin to fluctuate. Through a stealthy hand, time itself is transformed into a character into whose life we peer, and the power of discourse is diverted into the hand of the viewer. Whether or not to look, or whether or not to finish looking are both determined by viewers. At the same time, the established duality and oppositional roles of the artist and audience are subject to change. Wang Yifan’s works provide a link by which the artist and viewer are linked, and by which both can envisage and deconstruct time.Author: Jing XiaomengTranslation: Lee AmbrozyOriginally Published in Chinese on www.artforum.com.cn

While we’ll never keep up with AWW’s news appearances, here’s a few recent articles on his activities, his activism, and an interview with ARTiT from Japan following his first major museum show at the Mori Museum in Tokyo.  The photo is him photographing in an elevator from a cell phone while detained by the police, the blog it was found on titled this image “Ai the God” or 《艾神》. 

From ArtAsiaPacific, a magazine on “Contemporary Visual Culture” from Asia:

Ai Weiwei Continues Activism Against China; Government Responds
By Katherine Grube

On New Year’s Eve 2008, during a conversation with curator Hans Ulrich-Obrist at Vitamin Creative Space’s Beijing branch, artist-provocateur Ai Weiwei predicted: “2008 was the first year that China safeguarded legal rights; it’s when people started to wake up. But in 2009, I think China will confront greater problems.”

These words now seem unnervingly prescient, given that the first six months of 2009 in China were marked by politically sensitive anniversaries and often-violent protests including riots by members of the Uighur minority in Xinjiang province. From his Beijing studio, Ai continued his calls for a more responsible government even as China stepped up its response to the artist’s efforts.    [read the rest of this article on the AAP site]

From ARTiT, the Japanese webjournal on contemporary art:

Ai Weiwei Interview: “I’m fighting for freedom of speech. I never settle for less. I don’t engage in negotiation.”

Read the interview in English here, on the ARTiT site

In Chinese pinyin, Kàn Bù Wán literally means, “You can’t finish looking.” These works by the emerging artist Wang Yifan embody the statement—with five 24-hour videos and 20,000 characters written over eleven canvases, it would take one more than 120 hours to see this exhibition in its entirety. The artist doesn’t hope that anyone will try. Thus he liberates the viewer using impossible length, mundane appearance and self-evident simplicity to imply that seeing with our minds is just as important as seeing with our eyes.

Projected in the stairwell is Quietude, a short homage to everyday memories of waiting while staring at the shadows of leaves on the concrete. Like a sunbeam, visitors’ shadows are intended to mingle with the projection. Subtle movements from the wind are visible to keen-eyed people.

The artist’s conceptual evolution begins with stories on canvas, represented by “blackboard” works like The Story of Ma Li.  One single work of eleven canvases, the original story was authored Wang Yifan, and then copied onto canvas by eleven of his friends. Each canvas has a different “artist.”

Wang Yifan films Xie Molin from lee ambrozy on Vimeo.

his upcoming solo exhibition, “Kàn Bù Wán” I captured Wang Yifan as he films an acrylic painting by Xie Molin. The exhibition was lovingly curated by Yours Truly.

This work in production is titled [Insert Name Here] Filmed By Wang Yifan.

From a fixed position, Wang will film the [Insert Name Here] series is a collection of paintings filmed for a period of 24 hours as they hang on the walls of each respective artists’ studio. The resulting video is soundless, the only changes apparent are subtle variations in sunlight.

看不完
Kàn Bù Wán
王一凡个展
Wang Yifan solo exhibition
策展人：安静
Curator: Lee Ambrozy

开幕酒会：2009年8月8日下午4点
Opening: Aug 8, 2009, 4:00 pm

2009.8.8 – 2009.9.7 / Aug 8, 2009 – Sep 7, 2009

地点：星空间、北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路2号、798艺术区D09
Star Gallery，D09, 798 Art Zone, No.2 Jiuxianqiao Road，Chaoyang District, Beijing
Tel: +86 10 5978 9224

The feelings of the Chinese have been hurt once again, but this time, they demand an apology.

Five days ago three Chinese filmmakers withdrew their entries into the Melbourne International Film Festival, most prominently was Jia Zhangke (the World, Platform), Tang Xiaobai (aka Emily Tang), and Zhao Liang (a rising documentarian). The film behind the hurt feelings and the withdraws is “Ten Conditions of Love,” by Melbourne film-maker Jeff Daniels, it is a documentary, filmed over seven years, that tells of Rebiya Kadeer’s relationship with her activist husband Sidik Rouzi and the impact her campaigning had on her 11 children. Rebiya Kadeer is a Uigyher activist and advocate who has been demonized by Chinese media as the driving force behind the recent riots in Xinjiang. For readers who can’t make out the Chinese animosity towards her, we could compare her role in China to that of Osama bin Laden in the US.

Many Jia Zhangke fans overseas were shocked and dissapointed that he would make such a polical decision, but according to this writer’s gossip channels, the film-making community in Beijing seems overwhelmingly convinced that the decision was made from coercion. Considering Jia Zhangke is filming his first attempt at a blockbuster hit, a kung fu film, can we really doubt the motivation behind his withdraw from the MIFF? The nationalist fervor surrounding the issue seems to guarantee his investors would demand his withdraw.

Demonstrating the harmonious feelings of all Chinese, the first paragraph of the China Daily report reads as follows: “Chinese directors Jia Zhangke and Tang Xiaobai say they have quit the biggest film festival in Australia because of personal beliefs - - not because of any pressure from the Chinese government.” (Source China Daily) Tang Xiaobai was quoted elsewhere saying that she was practicing “self-restraint” by pulling out from MIFF; Zhao Liang, whose entry was a documentary film on petitioners who come to Beijing to voice their grievances to the deaf ears of central government, has stayed relatively silent on the issue. His film Petition, already touches on sensitive issue in Beijing, perhaps its easy to understand why he remains silent.

Everyone is feeling the pressure these days: according to news sources, director of MIFF Richard Moore received a phone call from the Melbourne-based Chinese consulate last week.

“She told me that she was ringing to urge me to withdraw the particular film (more…)

We all remember “Running Teacher Fan,” the poor sap who, after abandoning his students in the classroom during the Sichuan earthquake, proceeded to be butchered by Chinese media as the anti-hero. “My sense of self-preservation is too strong,” he was quoted as saying.

Later, Ai Weiwei defended him in his legendary blog, commending his honesty and bravery in admitting his un-noble actions in a time of hero fetishizing, especially in comparison to the Sichuan Ministry of Education, which still won’t face up to the sub-standard construction on schools that caused their collapse.

As if taking Ai’s lead, Zhu Qi, artistic director for the upcoming “798 Biennale” will include Fan Meizhong, the notorious “Running Teacher Fan” in the biennale as an artist. Publicity stunts, or significant attempt to bring art in 798 to a new social dimension? We will have to wait until August 15th to find out.

In a post on the artnow.com.cn site , Zhu Qi writes: “I’m not saying that I agree with Running Teacher Fan’s sense of values, however, the fact that he can honestly voice his opinion is worthy of appreciation.”

“我并不认同范跑跑的价值观，但范跑跑能真实地表达自己的态度和看法是值得欣赏的。”

And he’s not the only “vocal” participant, in an exhibition titled “The Soulful Society VS The Net Spirit” (社会魂vs网络魄）infamous Chongqing “rustynail” dweller（钉子户） Wu Ping, the woman who refused to vacate her home (pictured at left) will also be participating, as well as some disabled, and there’s even a program that trains unemployed workers to be artists, the “Laid off Art Rehabilitation Program.” Hm. How does one qualify?

The whole thing will be going off in the 706 space within the 798 complex, one of the main venues of the Biennale. Dates are August 15 to September 12, 2009. Although a little unclear on the details, or what, exactly, they will be making “art” of, Zhu Qi seems unhindered by the fact that these folks have probably never considered themselves artists before they received a call from his assistant.

Zhu Qi gives two reasons for his decision in his post: the first, Chinese contemporary art should take its lead from reality; the second, a biennale shouldn’t necessarily be a collection of highlights, but also a platform for which to discuss issues.

Read Zhu Qi’s post here (Chinese only)

Preview the Biennale at the official website

The Gao Brothers were recently in Moscow for the second annual awards ceremony of the Kandinsky Prize, their well received performance was part of the “Art and Power” themed event.

For their performance, a golden “Miss Mao,” their giant fiberglass bust of Mao’s head with naked breasts, sat in the middle of the stage. The brothers came on stage in similar masks and imitating politicians, waving, etc., before they embraced in a hug, and then taking a hammer to Miss Mao’s head. Inside was a red bust of Lenin, which was bust open to reveal a black skull.

The Gaos were in good company, Dinos Chapman presented the award, and screened a recent video work on the death of famous artists, and Marina Abramovic also gave a performance. The awards ceremony itself was a bit of a scandal, with the award going to Moscow artist Alexey Belyaev-Gintovt, who has been called “ultra-nationalistic” and “neo-Stalinist.” Leftist internationalists protested outside …

Read about the awards ceremony at Frieze.com /  on ArtInfo

www.gaobrothers.net

ART iT was a promising Japanese-English art print magazine with contemporary art coverage from primarily Japan, Asia and the rest of the world. Last month it made the migration to an online format, sad for subscribers and paperphiles, but a triumph for trees and blog readers around the globe.

The online magazine and communities is just starting out, but features “official bloggers” from around Asia, myself included. To celebrate and support this new platform, and try to enrich the Asian art community, I’ll be posting short exhibition profiles and photos on the site, please check it out at the link below.

The site features a few other bloggers from China, such as curator Ou Ning. Those interested in on-the-ground Japanese artists couldn’t find a better site, there are tons of blogs from Japan, and local arts news. The “automatic translation” tool is not as bad as one would expect, either.

Read more about the site in this article from the Japan Times: ART iT transforms into a digital forum
Link to my exhibition reviews and my official blog on ARTiT

http://www.art-it.asia

Today marks the inauguration of the “China-DPRK Friendship Year,” which also coincides with the 60th anniversary of bilateral diplomatic relations.  Surely this will be the DPRK’s only chance at a “friendship year,” so, to mark the beginning of what will be a long, nauseating year in public relations coverage, I examine the aesthetic features of some DPRK photography sanctioned by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA); these have all been released on Xinhua.com, China’s media equivalent. Stark, almost Brutalist qualities mark these photos, recalling the regime that created them.

Click on each photo for related Xinhua article.

Both nations have a history of enforcing civic and aesthetic harmony. Wen Jiabao stands here with his DPRK counterpart, Kim Yong Il. What a patriotic name Mr. Kim has! There is something very “progressive” about this photo, note that instead of posing with a traditional painting as backdrop, we are treated to red and yellow color combination (Chinese flag? Olympic opening ceremony 西红柿炒鸡蛋 anyone?).

Ah… that’s more like it. You can’t help but notice the turbulent ocean waves depicted in this classical backdrop, and the matching key-lime, flowered carpet, Kim sits so perfectly in-between those blossoms, with his feet just dusting the petals of each. In DPRK history, the stones that are breaking those waves surely have some courageous, patriotic symbolism. Note to woman in turquoise: there’s only one person who should be standing out in this photo (nice beige jumper). (more…)

This NYT article briefly touching on the fate of the Nicolae Ceausescu collection of propaganda paintings was an inspiration. Part of this collection of oils, dating from the 1970s onward, are on display at the Romanian National Museum of Contemporary Art, where the curator hung these propaganda works upside-down and crooked to clearly note that this was not an homage to the personality cult of the Romanian dictator and his wife Elena. They were Communist Romania’s quintessential propaganda duo, and faced a dramatic ending in 1989, when the two were executed by firing squad after the Romanian revolution.

Not to draw conclusions about the similarities of the regimes (similarities notwithstanding) but I really liked the exhibition method  of these crooked paintings. Nearly twenty years after the revolution, the decision to display these works is one step in coming to terms with a past, healing wounds and moving on––something that would obviously benefit China and the fragmented trajectory of contemporary Chinese art history. While this chapter in history is not completely suppressed, it still emerges as an underbelly of coded references in contemporary art, or as campy, consumer culture. The official art channels of “modern China” still turn a blind eye to the historical value of such works. Similar treatment of China’s propaganda art would be a step forward.

Artist Lu Hao and curator Zhao Li were announced earlier this month as the curator of the China Pavillion at the 53rd Venice Biennale. The 40 yr old artist has participated before in the Venezia Biennale as artist, as well as the San Paolo and Busan Biennale.  Lu Hao told reporters in while in France that he wanted to confront Italians with more challenging problems, and discussed mirroring the walls and projecting images from various corners of the pavilion, to create a “gaudy and grotesque site”. (more…)

Two nights ago was the end of the Spring festival in China, at the celebration called the “Lantern Festival” where people let off their final blammo of fireworks, Beijing’s new pride and joy — the new symbolic CCTV tower by Rem Koolhaas/OMA — was engulfed in flames! It was an incredible fire, in a few hours it made a shell of the production studios, the Mandarin Oriental hotel, that was in the adjunct building next to the more symbolic “Mobius strip”. With an estimated  5 billion in losses–so much for this vanity project of the government propaganda machine!
What is the estimated cause? (Aside from these battling felines of good and evil?): “CCTV hired staff from a fireworks company to ignite several hundred large festive firecrackers in an open space outside the nearly-completed Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which is part of the iconic CCTV tower complex, said Luo Yuan, spokesman and deputy chief of Beijing Fire Control Bureau.”

“… these fireworks were much more powerful and explosive than what was available at roadside stalls during the Spring Festival and therefore needed approval from the municipal government before being allowed in the downtown areas.”

“Owners of the property ignored police warnings that such fireworks were not allowed.” from the China Daily: CCTV Hotel Fire Caused By Fireworks

This year marked only the fourth year that they were allowed after a more than 10 year prohibition. See more doctored images at Mop.com

International Museum of Women Announces Call for Submissions
Submit your work to the Women, Power and Politics global online exhibition

Submit your original artwork, essays, film shorts, poetry, photography and cartoons to be considered for the Women, Power and Politics online exhibition at I.M.O.W. Until December 31, 2008, Women, Power and Politics focuses on a provocative new topic each month and uses community-submitted work to start a dialogue on the issues. Work can be submitted directly online in Arabic, English, French and Spanish. Chinese language assistance with the submissions process will be available until September — email submissions@imow.org with any questions. To learn more about the submissions topics and how to submit your work, visit www.imow.org/submissions. To start exploring Women, Power and Politics, go to www.imow.org/wpp.

Every woman counts! Tell them your story.  I.M.O.W. is very interested in hearing stories from China, submissions are encouraged! Please forward to the women in your life!

Post 70s artists, including some of Star Gallery’s most sought-after artists, are holding an exhibition and charity sale of their works in Star Gallery. The show runs only for 5 days, all payment of works will be donated to the “Project Hope” non-profit to build a “School of Hope” in the earthquake affected regions of Sichuan. Works are on sale for more than 20% off their valued price, there are some great works available by promising artists.Exhibition lasts till June 20thStar Gallery / 798 Arts District / 8456 0591 

Jin Jing returns home from a heroic Torch run in Paris!
Read about China’s reaction to the events in Paris
See an excellent photo series documenting the attack and heroic recovery

Read more at Xinhua: “… a terror group worse than Bin Laden”