文 / Hou Hanru
EXHIBITION TEXT
Curated by Hou Hanru in collaboration with Clara Kim at REDCAT in Los Angeles, the group exhibition Everyday Miracles (Extended) extends from the original project Everyday Miracle curated by Hou Hanru for the Chinese Pavilion in Venice Biennale 2007, which originally featured four Chinese women artists. For this exhibition, there will be women artists from many different regions of Asia. In both venues there will be 2 cycles, each cycle containing 3-4 artists with new articulations of their work, both exhibition sites in conversation and collaboration with each other. By bringing a few artists together in each installation/cycle/locale, the artists are able to have comfortable conditions to create and present their individual work while creating effective dialogues together. The exhibition seeks to expand the dialogues on feminism, Asia and the everyday emerging as a new context for creating the extraordinary in art.
Everyday Miracles (Extended) examines within the Asian context the female way of life and perception, the new ideas which are produced and continue the evolution of female identity and negotiation of sensibilities. These new forms are produced out of a new kind of freedom, a different way of existence developing for women which comes from dealing with the world differently, changing the existing conditions to share an alternative economy. Technology, for example, is dealt with differently by these artists, it is not a claim for progress or conquering, but rather about changing existing conditions to share alternative economy articulated through the particular usage of the media language. These artists are dealing with the political issues of today with a fluid understanding of space and time and embrace beauty.
This exhibition was born out of a desire for a deeper investigation in order to fully reflect the dynamic scene of creation across the Pacific Rim ranging from the Americas to Asia. Asia has received significant interest during the last few years with a new profile on the global art scene and much of the attention on specific cities, although there has been some decentralized excitement and creative boon across regions. Driven largely by the market, the art world’s attention is focused more and more on spectacle while many issues are ignored or overlooked—particularly the tremendous influence of women artists.
In fact, globally, the question of women’s creative contribution to the restructuring of today’s artistic, cultural, social, economic and political reality is becoming a centre of attention. The recent major retrospective exhibitions of women artists, for example, WACK! Art and Feminist Revolution in Los Angeles’ Geffen Contemporary at MOCA and Global Feminisms at The Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art at The Brooklyn Museum offered important, comprehensive examinations of feminist art movements in the western world between the 1960s to 1980s and since the 1990s respectively. However, the presence of women artists, those from the Asian Pacific in particular, in the “mainstream” of the international art world remains relatively insufficient.
The quasi-coincidental appearance of the above mentioned exhibitions show the very urgent need to reclaim attention to the issue, indeed. In the meantime, it also represents a very interesting evolution of how the art world is dealing with the issue itself, especially the female artists’ new commitment to the struggle for a more “feminised” and sustainable world from a largely global perspective, reaching far beyond the initial problematic Western world. This also puts Asian Pacific women at the very frontier of today’s global cultural mutation. This reality urges us to make it into an exemplary case for the international art world to reconsider their inquiries of imagination, values and means of production.
Everyday Miracles Expanded addresses these inquiries as it emphasizes the cultural diversity across regions, as well as the historical differences that provide a much more comprehensive relationship with the colonialism of the past. The Asian dynamism reflects the process of the modernization of the continent. Behind this dynamism are other forms of social and cultural missions. Women are playing an active role in these pursuits and are bringing another perspective, one that is based beyond the male-centric ideology. Their vision and contribution to making a new Asian society is much more diverse and more related to the spiritual aspect of the culture itself. Asian women are also claiming values of equality between the genders. However, their expressions of this equality go beyond the traditional feminist notion of a collective voice, and instead are more focused on individual creativity. This exhibition delves into such questions as “what kind of social vision for society in the future can be conceived?” and “What kind of globalism and commonalities can be built?” Key to the success of this project is the recognition of the total context in which these artists are creating, and how they relate to their whole environment of art, architecture, urbanization and related social issues.
Everyday Miracles Expanded is presented under the Pacific Perspectives section within the framework of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the San Francisco Art Institute. This program is focused on the examination and promotion of innovative models of art production utilizing creative interplay between global and local communities. Pacific Perspectives covers the largest trans-disciplinary collaborations examining the dynamic scene of creation across the Pacific Rim ranging from the Americas to Asia, bringing merit to the need for much deeper investigation. Ultimately the program looks into the question of locating the geopolitical and cultural position of San Francisco and the West Coast.
ARTIST BIOS:
Jewyo Rhii - Korea
Born in 1971 and based in Seoul, she recently attended Rijksakademie van Bildende Kunsten, Amsterdam. Rhii’s art suggests ways of alleviating the weakness of the body and mind. With her subversive and constructive approach, producing tools or places to avoid physical discomforts and providing the audience participate in the project, Rhii’s humorous pieces often represent the need for comfort and warmth. Rhii has focused on producing art books including, ‘Two, Warming and Humidifying’ and ‘Once You Lie Down’. Among her solo and group exhibitions, Korean Misulsang (Seoul, 2007), Lie on Han River (Düsseldorf, 2007), Samuso (Seoul, 2006), 51st Venice Viennale (2005), Under Construction (Tokyo, 2003) and recently the 10th International Istanbul Biennial.
Kan Xuan - China
Born in XuanCheng, China in 1972, she lives and works in Beijing and Amsterdam. Kan Xuan’s independent visions of personal identity, spirituality and the social condition of her life using the everyday object and her body, allows her to question the modes of perception of reality through video images. Kan Xuan is a graduate of the China Art Academy in Hangzhou and recently completed a fellowship at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam from 2002-2003. Exhibitions of her video work include shows at Venice Biennale, Chinese Pavilion (2007), I Still Believe in Miracles, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Prix de Rose, De Appel Foundation (Amsterdam), 9th Havana Biennial, Wifredo Lam Center (Cuba, 2006), Cycle Tracks Will Abound in Utopia, Australia Centre for Contemporary Art and in 2007 the 10th International Istanbul Biennial.
Minouk Lim - Korea
Born in 1968 in South Korea, lives and works in Seoul. Lim studied fine arts at Ewha Womans University for 3 years before she went to Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. She mainly concentrates on diverse faces, absurd aspects of the society by identifying various strategies of visual production through collaboration with artists working with diverse media. Her work is usually a satire of reckless development and money-driven landscape of the society. She won the 7th Hermes Korea Art Prize (2007) and Gwangju Bank Prize at the 6th Gwangju Biennale (2006). Exhibitions include, ‘Somewhere in Time’, Artsonje Center (Seoul, 2006), ‘Symptom of Adolescence’, Rodin Gallery (Seoul, 2006), ‘Parallel Life’, Frankfurter Kunstverein (Germany, 2005), ‘Where Is My Friend’s Home?’, Kunstlerhaus (Mousonturm, Frankfurt, 2005), ‘This Is Not a Love Letter’ (! Flyer project), Marronier Gallery (Seoul, 2004).
Shilpa Gupta - India
Born in 1976, she lives and works in Mumbai, India where she studied at the Sir J.J. School of Fine Arts. Gupta creates artwork using interactive video, websites, photographs, objects, sound and public performances to probe and examine subversively such themes as desire, religion, notions of security on the street and on the imagined border. In 2008 she had a solo show ‘BlindStars StarsBlind’ which was shown in Mumbai across the two galleries of Bodhi and in Germany at Galerie Volker Diehl and BodhiBerlin. Her work was in Gwangju Bienniale (2008) and the Yokohama Triennale (2008). She was also shown by Yvon Lambert Paris, Mori Museum in Toyko, Serpentine Gallery in London and Devi Art foundation in Gurgaon. She has additionally shown at Tate Modern in London, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai and Delhi, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Torino, Daimler Chrysler Contemporary in Berlin, ICC in Tokyo, Queens Museum in New York, Tamayo Museum in Mexico City and Chicago Cultural Center.
Hamra Abbas - Pakistan
Born in Kuwait in 1976, lives and works in Islamabad and Boston. She was trained initially in sculpture and miniature painting at Lahore’s National College of Arts and was an assistant lecturer in Universität der Künste, Berlin and a visiting faculty member in National College of Arts, Lahore. She now works in a variety of media, including video, installation and sculpture, and her peripatetic artistic practice resists easy labeling.. She mixes the old with the new, the culturally specific with the universal. Hamra Abbas’ work explores ideas of cultural ownership and alienation, and the creative and destructive energies of love and war. Selected Group Exhibitions and Screenings include in 2008 (amongst others) the 2008 Guangzhou Triennial, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangzhou, China; Green Cardamom, London & Dubai. In 2007: the 10th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey; UTS Gallery, Sydney; National Art Gallery, Islamabad, in 2006 the Sydney Biennial. Solo exhibitions in 2008 include: Green Cardamom, London, Gallery NCA, Rawalpindi, Schultz Contemporary, Berlin, Zahoor-al-Akhlaq Gallery, NCA, Lahore. In 2006 Gallerie Dorothia Konwiarz, Berlin and in 2005 Rohtas 2, Lahore, The Phatory, New York, Vermont Studio Center.
Ringo Bunoan - Philippines
Born in 1974 in Manila, Bunoan addresses memory, community life and sharing through her installations. Bunoan received her BFA in Art History in 1997 from the University of the Philippines-College of Fine Arts, Diliman, Quezon City. Solo exhibitions in 2008 include the Silverlens Gallery, Philippines and Mo_Space, Philippines. Selected group exhibitions include in 2007 Mo_Space, Philippines, Prose Gallery, Philippines, in 2006: West Gallery, Philippines and Green Papaya Art Projects, Philippines.
Chen Hui-Chiao- Taiwan
Born in Tanshui, Taiwan in 1964, she lives in Taipei, Taiwan. She is the Director of the alternative space IT PARK in Taipei. IT PARK is one of the few surviving alternative spaces presently in Taipei metropolitan area. Chen Hui-Chiao deals in her work with ritualistic repetitive movements, examining the interrelationship between external realities and inner consciousness, through which she searches for personal meaning and equilibrium. Inspired by poetry, psychology, and the dream state, Chen reinterprets and redefines matter through form, exploring the meaning of relationships, conceptually as well as formally. Her recent work includes Here and Now in the Museum of Contemporary Arts, Taipei, Taiwan (2006), Pass: Rhythm of the space in Nagoya Univeristy of Arts (Japan, 2006), Artists at Glenfiddich 05, Glenfiddich Art Gallery (Scotland, 2005) and recently the 10th International Istanbul Biennial (2007).
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Everyday Miracles (Extended)
Phase 1
Walter and McBean Galleries
Opening reception: September 30, 2009, 5:30–7:30pm
On view: October 1, 2009–October 31, 2009
Artists: Shilpa Gupta, Kan Xuan, Minouk Lim, and Jewyo Rhii
Fall 2009 Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series panel discussion:
September 30, 2009, 7:30pm
Kan Xuan and Jewyo Rhii in dialogue with Britta Erickson and Hou Hanru
Phase 2
Walter and McBean Galleries
Opening reception: November 12, 2009, 5:30–7:30pm
On view: November 13, 2009–December 11, 2009
January 5, 2010—January 30, 2010
Artists: Hamra Abbas, Ringo Bunoan, and Chen Hui-chiao
Fall 2009 Visiting Artists and Scholars Lecture Series panel discussion:
November 11, 2009, 7:30pm
Hamra Abbas, Ringo Bunoan, Chen Hui-chiao, and Minouk Lim in dialogue
Phase 3
REDCAT in Los Angeles
Opening reception: November 21, 2009, 6:00–9:00pm
On view: November 22, 2009–January 17, 2010
Artists: Hamra Abbas, Ringo Bunoan, Chen Hui-chiao, Shilpa Gupta, Kan Xuan, Minouk Lim, and Jewyo Rhii
Curated by SFAI’s Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs Hou Hanru, in collaboration with Clara Kim at REDCAT in Los Angeles, Everyday Miracles (Extended) elaborates on Hou’s original project, Everyday Miracles, which he curated for the Chinese Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennial and which featured four Chinese women artists from different generations. Everyday Miracles (Extended) brings together the work of seven women artists—Hamra Abbas, Ringo Bunoan, Chen Hui-chiao, Shilpa Gupta, Kan Xuan, Minouk Lim, and Jewyo Rhii—and creates a dialogue about the cultural diversity and historical difference effected by colonialism and modernization in China, India, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Taiwan. Using the miraculousness of the everyday to negotiate and transcend political and historical reality, the artists in the exhibition explore such questions as “What kind of social vision for society in the future can be conceived?” and “What kind of globalism and commonalities can be built?”
Recognizing the limitations of classic feminist discourse, the artists implicitly express a desire to structurally and systematically reorient Western European intellectual and artistic traditions. From highly varied and individual perspectives, the artists use their own languages to manifest a universal necessity for alternative visions of modernization and globalization. Key to the success of this project is the recognition of the total context in which these artists are creating, and how they relate to their whole environment of art, architecture, urbanization, and related social issues. The seven artists in the exhibition poignantly reflect upon the vast economic and political changes that have affected every aspect of society and explore the world through a decidedly decentralized perspective—a powerful political position to take in the context of a global art market driven by spectacle and essentialist views.
Hamra Abbas’s work explores ideas of cultural ownership and alienation as well as the creative and destructive energies of love and war. Working in a variety of mediums, including video, installation and sculpture, she mixes the old with the new, the culturally specific with the universal. At SFAI, Abbas presents Love Yourself; at REDCAT, she presents God Grows on Trees.
An active organizer of art events in Manila, Ringo Bunoan spent considerable time in Nepal to seek alternative forms of spirituality. In her installation-based practice, Bunoan weaves this rich experience, encouraging viewers and participants to embrace one another’s life experiences and shared hopes. At SFAI, Bunoan presents Wall, an installation made of used pillows, and, at REDCAT, an installation made of used wood pallets entitled Bridge.
Chen Hui-chiao deals with ritualistic repetitive movements, examining the interrelationship between external realities and inner consciousness, through which she searches for personal meaning and equilibrium. Inspired by poetry, psychology, and the dream state, Chen reinterprets and redefines matter through form, exploring the meaning of relationships, conceptually as well as formally. At SFAI, she will present Here and Now: Winter Sun, and at REDCAT, Sound Falling II.
Shilpa Gupta’s In Our Times, which will be exhibited at SFAI, is a sound sculpture that pairs the speeches of Jinnah and Nehru at the time of the independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. At REDCAT, she will present Untitled, large mural-like photographs about collective silence and deprivation. Gupta’s work utilizes interactive video, websites, photographs, objects, sound, and public performances to probe and subversively examine themes of desire, religion, and notions of security on the street and on the imagined border.
Kan Xuan uses everyday objects and her own body to manifest independent visions of personal identity, spirituality, and the social condition of her life. The immediacy of video allows her to question modes of perception and reality through quick-witted, but poignant imagery. A selection of recent video work will be presented at both venues.
Minouk Lim considers some absurd aspects of society by identifying social and political strategies of visual production. In Game of 20 Questions: The Sound of a Monsoon Goblin Crossing a Shallow Stream, Lim documents the annual Multicultural Festival in Seoul to speak about issues of homogenization and difference. In the new work S.O.S.—Adoptive Dissensus, which will be shown at both venues, Lim presents a video work of a performance that takes place on an excursion ship on the Han River, collapsing the past with the present desire for redevelopment that threatens to erase history.
Jewyo Rhii’s art suggests ways of alleviating the weakness of the body and mind. With her subversive and constructive approach, producing tools or places to avoid physical discomfort and providing the audience avenues for participation in the project, Rhii’s humorous pieces often represent the need for comfort and warmth. Rhii will present Ten Years, Please at both SFAI and REDCAT.
The first collaboration between SFAI’s Walter and McBean Galleries and REDCAT, Everyday Miracles (Extended) concretizes the two institutions’ shared interest in contemporary practices of the Pacific Rim as well as the ongoing dialogue between Hou and Kim. Each of the artists in the exhibition will display unique works over three phases, bridging the two institutions and expanding upon the discrete boundaries of an exhibition.
Born out of a desire for a deeper investigation, Everyday Miracles (Extended) reflects on the dynamic shifts across Asia over the last thirty years. Both the Walter and McBean Galleries and REDCAT have been committed to articulating the historical, cultural, and artistic relationship between the West Coast and the Asia-Pacific region. This exhibition has been conceived as a component both of SFAI’s Pacific Perspectives—one of five discrete but intersecting directions, within SFAI’s exhibitions and public programs, for investigating current constructions of contemporary global culture—and of REDCAT’s ongoing focus on Asian art.
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