Ming Wong is a Singapore-born artist who received a Special Jury Mention at last year’s Venice Biennale. He works out of Singapore and Berlin, and his entire acclaimed exhibition, Life of Imitation, is now on view at the Singapore Art Museum through August 22nd. His work confronts issues of identity in contemporary Singapore and highlights the problems of role-swapping and imitation.
The exhibit includes a video installation in which Wong films himself as 16 different characters played by legendary Malaysian actor P. Ramlee, and we see Wong doing his best to master Malay. In another installation, a Caucasian actress portrays both the Maggie Cheung and Tong Leung Chiu-Wai roles in a scene from Wong Kar-Wai’s iconic In the Mood for Love, and we see her attempt to improve her Cantonese pronunciation through various takes. In the third Wong-directed segment, three male actors representing the three main ethnic groups in Singapore (Chinese, Malay and Indian) take turns playing roles in the pivotal scene of Douglas Sirk’s film Imitation of Life. We see the mixed race daughter confront by her black mother as the three actors, none of them black, white, or female, swap costumes and perform the famous dialogue (”I’m white! White!”).
In addition to these installations are large, vibrant paintings designed by Wong and painted by Singapore’s last surviving billboard painter. They advertise Wong’s films In Love for the Mood,Life of Imitation and his medley of Ramlee classics. Wong’s nostalgia and curiosity make this exhibition provocative, personal and quite powerful.
Kambui Olujimi is one of my favorite artists right now, one that never fails to impress with the direction in which his mental, linguistic, and visual interpretations go. His last exhibition was a solo project, The Clouds Are After Me (Nov. ‘09), hosted at Saatchi & Saatchi in conjunction with The Art Production Fund. Now, having been at Santa Fe, New Mexico’s Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, intensely working for almost three months earlier this year, he’s ready to reveal these twenty by ten-foot constellations (and other new work) described as:
The central component […] each embroidered by the artist with constellations of fine thread and rhinestones, composing a narrative of contemporary “star maps.” Subverting the tradition of tapestries as a record of historical events, the constellations reference a series of fantastical yet personal stories that play on the relationship between fact and fiction, reality, and belief. The embroidered representations of persons, animals, and objects chart new constellations which transform pre-existing celestial bodies into new mythological characters. A series of sculptures that reference the artist’s celestial narratives will punctuate the maze-like installation of the tapestries. With this work Olujimi explores questions of how ancient legends function in the homes of contemporary society and whether mythology can extend community without conquest. Encountering this work, viewers will be invited to take part in a mythology of the present, explaining our world as it is, was, and as we hope for it to be.
Wayward North Opening Reception
Opening
Jun 5, 2010
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
81 Front Street, Dumbo
Brooklyn NY 11201
[Update: The opening reception has been moved up to the afternoon.]
Escape from New York is an incredibly ambitious and enviable project from independent curator Olympia Lambert, using Kickstarter and out-of-the-cube thinking. Never heard of her before this, but this kind of endeavour should be supported. Friends in the exhibition include Laurel Nakadate and Mia Pearlman, but many more names you’ll recognize on this extensive list.
See you at the opening on the 15th.
On Saturday, May 15, 2010, the New York art world invades New Jersey in mass exodus, leaving behind a cramped Manhattan for the wide open spaces of Paterson, NJ.
Thanks to Artkrush for bringing this Washington Post article and the work to my attention. Not being a Klimt scholar, though definitely an admirer, I’m interested to hear that Beethoven Frieze (1902), the permanent, too-racy-for-early-20th C.-audiences work at Secession, gets a contextual reboot by Swiss artist Christoph Büchel.
The idea of moving a local sex club, Element6, into the Vienna space in an effort to shock visitors, however, falls short of Klimt’s “frank eroticism.” It’s an exercise in forcing a polemic where none exists. If only far-right conservatives are offended, there’s much further to go. That reading seems too simplistic, though, and likely the only point of interest for media outlets. I’d rather see an historical angle, a better understanding of Klimt - and Büchel may have done that. I’ll seek out the original press release and proposal to update on what I’ve found.
Finally, after reading about this so long ago on Boing Boing, Takashi Murakami’s piece from last year’s Tate Modern exhibition, Pop Life: Art in a Material World, curated by Alison Gingeras, hits the Internet. The video, produced by Murakami and directed by McG, features actress Kirsten Dunst in anime-inspired garb and blue hair frolicking in Tokyo’s Akihabara district while singing The Vapors tune “Turning Japanese.”
Confusing Perez Hilton, Technorati, and a slew of others across the web, this wonderful, contemporary slice of pop art pushes all things otaku, commercial, and stereotypically Japanese to a fever pitch.
It’s not often that I cite the Los Angeles Times (or update, for that matter), but this article speaks as to the obstacles and successes gallery owners face in LA:
Sales have all but dried up for many L.A. area dealers, quite a few galleries have closed and others have downsized. But in a period of retrenchment and reshuffling, solidly established dealers are soldiering on with tightened belts, and a surprising number of galleries are growing, with the help of reduced rent. Unsettling as the current economic climate is, the expansions seem to confirm the resilience of L.A.’s art scene.
“Then the recession came and I wasn’t sure I really needed more space,” [Susanne] Vielmetter says, “but the landlords were getting more and more reasonable, to the point that they are now extremely reasonable. And in the new space the landlord is doing a very substantial build-out for me. As ridiculous as it sounds, the only way for me to stay in Culver City and have the space I have always wanted was this recession.”
I really do want the gallery scene there to succeed and provide some valid counterweight to NY — it would give me an excuse to travel and get some sun once in a while.
The Art Newspaper, by Andrew Goldstein, has been covering the unfolding legal tête-à-tête between French photographer Patrick Cariou and Richard Prince over the latter’s appropriation of 30 photographs from the former for his Canal Zone (2008) exhibition at Gagosian Gallery.
First filed December 30, 2008, the complaint (.PDF link) alleges copyright infringement by Prince for the use of Cariou’s images from his book, Yes Rasta, in the production of the Canal Zone series. In addition to the artist, the suit aims to hold Larry Gagosian and his gallery liable for their display and sale, and Rizzoli International Publications, Inc. for distribution of the accompanying book.
Continued coverage by The Art Newspaper (and a comparative analysis between UK and US copyright law) reveals that both Prince and Gagosian and Co. (.PDF links) are claiming an affirmative defense of the doctrine of ‘fair use,’ while Rizzoli cross-claims (.PDF link) it is indemnified of the culpability of their co-defendants — a claim both Prince and Gagosian deny in the absence of any written, binding or executed contractual obligations.
Sifting through the legal claims and analyses, the validity of the ‘fair use’ and ‘transformative’ nature of Prince’s work(s) will be determined by taking a look at these same images in contrast to Cariou’s. The Frenchman’s assertions may not hold up against all of the works, but some may receive greater scrutiny. Depending on how many, and whether the demand for their destruction is taken seriously by the defendants, a settlement/licensing agreement may be less costly overall.
While not contemporary, the story about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa is a fascinating episode of greed, conspiracy, secrets, lies, and more lies. An excerpt from the upcoming book, The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection, by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler appears in the May issue of Vanity Fair detailing the most important aspects of this national embarrassment and an act of apparent patriotism serving as the veneer for something much more sinister.
The shocking theft of the Mona Lisa, in August 1911, appeared to have been solved 28 months later, when the painting was recovered…[T]he authors suggest that the audacious heist concealed a perfect—and far more lucrative—crime.
The film tracks Vezzoli’s scandalous life and art career, the plot hinging on coverage of a fictional project by Vezzoli, an implausible remake of Maximilian Schell’s 1984 documentary Marlene, 1984, about Marlene Dietrich.
