April 4, 2019Adcredo – The Deep Belief Network – Joey Holder 2018
VIDEOCLUB AT SHENZHEN NEW MEDIA ART FESTIVAL 2019
videoclub is one of the contributing artistic partners of Shenzhen New Media Art Festival 2019 (Shenzhen MAF). Partnering with FLAMIN – Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network – we will be showing works by 14 artists throughout the festival’s exhibition and screening programme.
Shenzhen MAF is the only active festival focusing on new media arts in mainland China. The festival is inspired by the rapid developments in the creative and cultural industries, and new technologies, exploring the opportunities for digital arts and moving image.
This year, Shenzhen MAF’s thematic title is <FREE PANORAMA> and is held at Pingshan Cultural Center Exhibition Gallery. The dates of the festival are 20 April till 16 June, running alongside Shenzhen Design Week.
For the opening on 20 April, our artistic director, Jamie Wyld will give a short talk about our work and developments in UK artists’ moving image.
On 21 April, artist Joey Holder will give a talk about her practice and work at a panel talk, along with Korean artist Kelvin Kyung Kun Park and Chinese artist Liaoyuan Zhang.
On 18 May, FLAMIN will present a Jarman Awards’ special screening programme, including work by artists Cecile B. Evans, Mikhail Karikis, Melanie Manchot and Daria Martin. Maggie Ellis, Head of FLAMIN and Rose Cupit, FLAMIN Senior Manager will be giving a post-screening talk about the awards, and FLAMIN’s mission and ambitions.
About <FREE PANORAMA>
<FREE PANORAMA> refers to the opportunities new media embraces through cutting edge technology and advances.
Showing a curated programme of creative work it highlights the latest global thinking, as well as presenting outstanding cultural and contemporary art projects. It attempts to show how media art is forever evolving and how its transdisciplinary nature allows for engagement across multiple fields of practice and audiences.
Pingshan Cultural Center Exhibition Gallery, Huide Road, Pingshan, Shenzhen
深圳坪山文化聚落展览馆, 深圳市坪山区汇德路
Schedule of events and exhibition opening times
Opening ceremony 开幕活动:
20 April 2019 3pm – 5:40pm
2019年4月20日 3pm – 5:40pm
Exhibition dates 艺术节日期:
21 April 2019 – 16 June 2019
2019年4月21日-6月16日
Exhibition opening hours 开闭馆时间:
Workdays 平日 10am – 8:30pm
Weekends & Holidays 节假日 10am – 9:30pm
Panel talks by artists Joey Holder, Kelvin Kyung Kun Park and Liaoyuan Zhang
艺术家系列公开讲座: 艺术家: 乔伊 霍尔德 | 英国 / 朴庆根 | 韩国 / 张辽源 | 中国
Dates日期: Sunday, 21 April 2019
2019年4月21日(日)
Time时间: 2pm – 5pm
FLAMIN Presents: Jarman Awards at Shenzhen MAF, Modern Nature.
FLAMIN短片大赏 | 贾曼奖获奖艺术家访谈录
Dates日期: Saturday, 18 May 2019
2019年5月18日(六)
Time时间: 2:30pm – 4:30pm
—
The festival is curated by SenSend 三三德.
This festival is funded and supported by China Resources Land Limited, China Resources Culture and Sports Development Co. Ltd. and Shenzhen Design Week Committee, and organised by RITO Art.
Our involvement in <FREE PANORAMA> is part of our ongoing UK-China collaboration with International Art & Science Research Institute.
April 3, 2019Matt Lambert, God is Watching, 2017 (courtesy of the artist, Tate and Random Acts)
Both Sides Now 5 looks at the way in which artists and filmmakers are exploring Queer culture, using various film and video techniques, to examine aspects of Queer life in Hong Kong, China and the UK. Curated by videoclub and Videotage (Hong Kong).
Differences Do Matter, Anson Mak, 1998, 3’00” Teach German with Petra Von Kant, Ming Wong, 2017, 8’00” The Drum Tower, Fan Po Po, 2016, 17’52” A Glass of Water, Kayla Wu, 2019, 4’30”
Films from UK
Handclap/Punchhole, Charlotte Prodger, 2011, 9’46” Something Said, Jay Bernard, 2017, 7’33” God is Watching, Matt Lambert, 2017, 3’24” Where We Are Now, Lucie Rachel, 2016, 9’29”
Date and time: Thursday, 25 April 19 – 7:15pm doors and bar, 7:30pm screening
Price: £3
Address: Fabrica, Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG
Web / contact / tickets: www.fabrica.org.uk / 01273 778646 / Book tickets (also available on door)
Royal College of Art (London)
Date and time: Wednesday, 1 May 2019 – 6:30pm
Price: FREE – no booking required
Address: Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Dyson Building, Riverside, 1 Hester Rd, London SW11 4AN
Date and time: Friday, 28 June 2019 – 8pm
Price: FREE – no need to book
Address: 4 Midland Street, Leicester LE1 1TG
Web / contact: www.phoenix.org.uk / 0116 242 2800
Curatorial statement
British colonialism widely affected legal discrimination against LGBT people – specifically homosexual men (just as in Britain, female homosexuality was not recognised in colonies). As in many colonies, laws criminalising male homosexuality were slow to change in Hong Kong, with decriminalisation taking until 1991, as opposed to 1967 in the UK. In 2019, laws regarding equality for LGBTQ+ people are almost equal. Though reception to Queer people in the UK and Hong Kong varies widely geographically, generationally and socially. With the rise of right-wing sentiments globally, the acceptance Queer people have enjoyed feels like it is in descent.
In response to post-colonialism and the rise of right-wing opinions, we have curated this programme to show a range of artworks that explore Queer identity and culture. Filmmakers from both sides explore aspects of LGBTQI+ life – with artists from both the UK and Hong Kong making work that reflects upon Queer identity, life and creativity.
Ever since video art first appeared as a medium, artists have been using portable cameras to explore the subversive potential of video and challenge mainstream discourse about identities. In Hong Kong, the late 1980s and 1990s witnessed a growing interest among avant-garde artists, who used video to claim a queer space amongst the mundane social codes. They disrupted the male hero’s central status in mainstream cinema’s narrative. They have also recounted unspoken stories and given voice to the marginalized in a time when homosexuality and many other identities were considered taboo. These artists have sought to complicate the understanding of what it means to be taken-for-granted and have reimagined the body, society and culture as a constant flux, which has the potential to unpack norms and open society to transformation. Avant-garde and video art go hand-in-hand with the emergence of the feminist movement and the growing public visibility of the demand for LGBT rights.
In the last few decades, many societies have witnessed a radical change in promoting a diverse spectrum of non-normative sexual and gender identities. Queer communities, whose lives are organized around constant social alienation and exclusion, have evolved into a relatively more open community. On one hand, many societies are progressively creating more liberal laws, such as legalizing same-sex marriage. The thriving gay bar scene, booming rainbow industry and increasingly popular LGBT-themed movies have built a stronger community and increased inclusivity for spectrums of sexual practices and gender. On the other hand, individual freedom and promises of diversity are increasingly fashioned by neoliberal discourses. The former border-crossing practices, fluid identities and peculiar imaginations are now commercialized, marketized and normalized. Almost every financial corporation has joined hands in sponsoring pride parades. In China, the LGBT market places is valued at approximately $300 billion dollars. The way that gay and lesbian people live is increasingly mediated by the new order of cultural economy. Queerness has been redefined and contradicted by the neoliberal reality. Apart from these changes, in many parts of the world, a parallel rise in violent homophobia has been promoted by right-wing extremists. Anti-LGBT abuse and victimization remains frequent. Queerness in our time has revealed that power dynamics appear to be shifting, complex and yet contradictory. How has queerness, once considered marginal or subversive, played a role in the radically shifting figurations of global politics?
Both Sides Now 5 attempts to reconsider queerness by looking into historical perspectives and its relevance to the present. Through this collection of films, we aim to investigate personal experiences and problematize the various notions of “queer” from local and global perspectives.
– Isaac Leung (Videotage) & Jamie Wyld (videoclub)
Both Sides Now is a tactical program that uses film and video to explore culture and society between different nations, the UK, China and Hong Kong, and beyond. It is a project developed in collaboration between videoclub and Videotage (Hong Kong).
March 30, 2019Sarah Cockings & Harriet Fleuriot, Plasma Vista, 2016 (Copyright: Sarah Cockings and Harriet Fleuriot)
Selectedis a new collection of diverse artists’ film and video touring the UK in May-July 2019, taking place at some of the UK’s leading venues for showcasing artists’ film and video.
Shortlisted artists for the 2018 Film London Jarman Award – Daria Martin, Jasmina Cibic, Lawrence Lek, Margaret Salmon, David Blandy & Larry Achiampong and Hardeep Pandhal – have nominated work by up-and-coming filmmaking talent, to develop an invigorating new programme of work.
Selected brings together some of the best work from early career film and video artists from the UK in a vibrant programme of recent artists’ moving image. Screenings will be followed by an in conversation with artists.
Programme of work:
Vikesh Govind, Shoes, 2017, 3’40”
Ollie Dook, Processing Papers, 2015, 8’07”
Sarah Cockings and Harriet Fleuriot, Plasma Vista, 2016, 7’31”
Laura O’Neill, AGAIN AGAIN AGAIN (WE EAT THE WORLD AND THE WORLD EATS US), 8’32”, 2017
Clifford Sage, Where’s My Stick, 2017, 4’21”
Sid Smith, Extension, 2018, 5’09”
Alia Pathan, Emperor Far Away, 2016, 4’50”
Alexander Storey Gordon, In Camera (I Used Blood for the Red), 2015, 1’44”
Kimberley O’Neill, Circuits of Bad Conscience, 2017, 12’
Jill Craigie Cinema (in collaboration with University of Plymouth)
Date and time: Thursday, 2 May 19 – 7pm
Price: FREE
Address: Jill Craigie Cinema, Drake Circus, Plymouth PL4 8AA, UK
To book tickets: BOOK TICKETS (booking is essential)
Fabrica
Date and time: Thursday, 13 June 19 – 6:30pm doors and bar, 7pm screening
Price: £3
Address: Fabrica, Duke Street, Brighton BN1 1AG
Web / contact / tickets: www.fabrica.org.uk / 01273 778646 / BOOK TICKETS
Spike Island
Date and time: Thursday, 20 June 19 – 6:30pm
Price: £5 / £3 concessions / Free for Spike Associates
Address: 133 Cumberland Road, Bristol BS1 6UX
Web / contact: www.spikeisland.org.uk / 0117 929 2266 / BOOK TICKETS
Nottingham Contemporary
Date and time: Tuesday, 25 June 19 – 6:30pm
Price: FREE
Address: Nottingham Contemporary, Weekday Cross, Nottingham NG1 2GB
Web / contact / tickets: www.nottinghamcontemporary.org / 0115 948 9750 / BOOK TICKETS
CCA Glasgow
Date and time: Wednesday, 26 June 19 – 6:30pm
Price: FREE – no need to book
Address: CCA, 350 Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow G2 3JD
Web / contact: www.cca-glasgow.com / 0141 352 4900 / unticketed – see details
Whitechapel Gallery
Date and time: Thursday, 27 June 19 – 7pm
Price: £5 / £3.50 concessions
Address: Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High Street, London E1 7QX
Web / tickets / contact: www.whitechapelgallery.org / 020 7522 78889 / BOOK TICKETS
Produced by videoclub and Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network. Supported by Arts Council England and Film London.
Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network
Film London Artists’ Moving Image Network (FLAMIN) supports London-based artists working in moving image, working in partnership to deliver a comprehensive programme including production award schemes, regular screenings, talks and events, as well as the prestigious annual Film London Jarman Award.
March 13, 2019Trojan Horse / Rainbow Flag, Ian Giles, 2019 (film still)
“The Joiner’s Arms smelt, tasted, sounded and felt like freedom.” Dan Glass, 2018
Trojan Horse / Rainbow Flag is a programme of artists’ film and video about LGBTQI+ spaces, presented by videoclub in LGBTQI+ clubs and community run spaces across the UK. At a time when queer spaces are increasingly under threat from gentrification the selected films variously configure a range of environments as places of resistance, community, desire and historical significance. By presenting both urban and rural spaces, the artists encourage us all to view our environment through a queer lens.
Artist, Ian Giles’ newly commissioned film Trojan Horse / Rainbow Flag –about the closure of LGBTQI+ pub the Joiner’s Arms – provides the conceptual springboard for the screenings. Queering the restrictions of a fixed programme, each city will see a different selection of artists’ film and video presented alongside Giles’ new work; the artists included are: Prem Sahib, Charlotte Prodger, Patrick Staff, Sam Ashby, Rob Crosse, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings and Mathew Parkin.Supported by Arts Council England.
A publication featuring a text by Paul Clinton alongside the transcript from Giles’ film will be distributed at each screening.
Following the screenings there will be an informal discussion about queer spaces with local organisers and thinkers.
The programme is produced by videoclub and supported by Arts Council England. Touring with the support of Gasworks, London; HOME, Manchester; BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead and Fabrica, Brighton.
Tour Details
26th April BRIGHTON The Marlborough Pub 6:30pm doors and bar, 7pm screening Sam Ashby, Rob Crosse, Ian Giles, Mathew Parkin, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings Presented in partnership with Fabrica and Brighton LGBTQ+ History Club Address: 4 Prince’s St, Brighton BN2 1RD Price: Free – booking required Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trojan-horse-rainbow-flag-tickets-58676438808
14th May LONDON Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club 7pm doors and bar, 7:30pm screening Ian Giles, Charlotte Prodger, Prem Sahib, Patrick Staff, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings Presented in partnership with Gasworks Address: 42-44 Pollard Row, London E2 6NB, Price: Free – booking required Booking link: https://www.outsavvy.com/event/2525/trojan-horse-rainbow-flag-tickets
15th May MANCHESTER Tribeca 6:30pm doors and bar, 7pm screening Sam Ashby, Ian Giles, Mathew Parkin, Patrick Staff, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings Address: 50 Sackville St, Manchester M1 3WF Price: Free – booking required Booking link: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/trojan-horse-rainbow-flag-tickets-58672603336
16th May NEWCASTLE Star and Shadow Cinema 6:30pm screening Rob Crosse, Ian Giles, Charlotte Prodger, Patrick Staff, Hannah Quinlan & Rosie Hastings Presented in partnership with BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art Address: Warwick St, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1BB Price: Free – booking required Booking link: https://starandshadow.org.uk/programme/event/trojan-horse-rainbow-flag,3490/
About the films
Please see individual listings (in the above booking links) for which selection of films is playing in each city.
Within his filmmaking process, Ian Giles continues his employment of first-hand research, and participatory workshops as structures to produce a social network. By working directly with members of Friends of the Joiners Arms (a community campaign group), Giles’ film Trojan Horse/Rainbow Flag examines the campaign to save the Joiners Arms – an iconic LGBTQI+ space. The film’s title was inspired by campaigner Amy Roberts, when describing the cynical approach of property developers seeking to push through proposals to erase queer spaces by disingenuously claiming that their LGBTQI+ status would remain unchanged post-development. His films have been screened at MoMA PS1, New York and Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Prem Sahib presents a rolling slideshow of images taken at London’s recently closed gay saunas, Chariots Shoreditch and Chariots Waterloo. His work has been presented at ICA London and Kunstverein in Hamburg, Germany.
Charlotte Prodger’s LHB is the product of her extensive research into ‘queer rurality’ – how LGBTQI+ lives are lived outside the usual urban centres that tend to dominate queer narratives, and how coded notions of queer bodies radically shift when they occupy wildernesses rather than cities. In 2018 Prodger won the Turner Prize, she is representing Scotland at Venice Biennale 2019.
Rob Crosse’s Prime Time follows a group of older gay men as they travel together on an organised trip on a cruise ship. Crosse’s incisive eye sensitively follows the group on their journey, and the vast ocean is an omnipresence here too – adding to the sense that Prime Time is, more than anything, a vital meditation on the passing of time. His films have been shown at Jerwood Space, London and Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool.
Sam Ashby’s The Colour of His Hair is based on an unrealised 1964 film script written by The Homosexual Law Reform Society – a British organisation that campaigned for the decriminalisation of male homosexual relations. Ashby’s film draws on oral histories and news clippings to create a crucial meditation on queer life before and after the UK partially legalised homosexuality in 1967. Sam’s film was co-funded by the BFI and Wellcome Trust and premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam.
Mathew Parkinfilmed Kake on a camcorder during visits to his lover’s farm in rural Scotland. The resulting work is intensely personal – a quietly yet all-pervasively erotic contemplation of queer rural life that invites us to recontextualise queer bodies beyond the usual urban centres that tend to dominate LGBTQI+ narratives. His work has been presented at Tramway, Glasgow and Grand Union, Birmingham.
Pink Room presents an empty gay bar drawn from Hannah Quinlan and Rosie Hastings’ self-compiled moving image archive – an urgent strategy of resistance against the gentrifying forces that are rapidly erasing the UK’s LGBTQI+ spaces. By filming spaces devoid of revellers, the artists reveal the complex visual language they employ in their self-representation as gay. Their work has been exhibited at the Whitechapel Gallery, London and the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale.
Patrick Staff’s Weed Killer centres around a monologue adapted from ‘The Summer of Her Baldness’, artist and writer Catherine Lord’s memoir about her experience of breast cancer. Staff accompanies the startlingly candid dialogue with a series of choreographic gestures shot on a thermal imaging camera, hinting at the all-consuming nature of serious illness and treatment. The film brings together questions of queer identity, societal attitudes to illness, and the blurry boundary between poison and cure. Their work has been shown at Chisenhale Gallery, London and New Museum, New York.
March 6, 2019In Desire – Ho Yan Pun Nicole (courtesy of the artist)
Throughout March 2019, Ho Yan Pun Nicole is artist in residence for Both Sides Now 5 with The Marlborough Pub & Theatre in Brighton. While in the UK, Nicole will be meeting with artists and organisations. During the residency, she will be developing a new work exploring gender performativity and the ambiguous space between private and public.
Artist talk by Nicole Pun on Thursday, 21 March 19, at 6:30pm at The Marlborough Pub and Theatre, 4 Prince’s Street, Brighton BN2 1RD. Free. Tickets can be booked via Eventbrite or just show up on door.
About Ho Yan Pun Nicole
Nicole Pun is a visual artist based in Hong Kong. She uses photography, video and performance to explore queer identity, desire and female representation. Her artistic practice involves collaborations and interviews with strangers. She received her MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 2014. She has a BSc from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with a background in Journalism and Communication.
Her work has been exhibited at Circus Gallery in Los Angeles; Avenue 50 Studio in Los Angeles; SOMArts Cultural Center in San Francisco; McGroarty Arts Center in Tujunga; “In & Out” Nicole Pun Solo Exhibition at Lumenvisum in Hong Kong. She is the recipient of a number of grants and awards, including Yale-China Arts Fellowship, Emerging Artists Scheme of Hong Kong Arts Development Council, WMA Masters Special Mention Award and First Prize of Chiquita Canyon landfill art competition.
About Both Sides Now
Both Sides Now presents contemporary and historical film and video work from the UK, Hong Kong and China, curated by Isaac Leung of Videotage and Jamie Wyld of videoclub. The films explore developments within the culture and society of Hong Kong and China over the past three decades, including work which reflects on the ongoing dynamics of cultures in Hong Kong, China, and the UK. The programme contains work by some of Hong Kong, China and the UK’s most exciting artists working in film and video, and varies between animation, documentary and artists’ moving image.
March 3, 2019Prime Time, Rob Crosse, 2017 (courtesy of the artist)
Throughout March 2019, Rob Crosse is artist in residence for Both Sides Now 5 with Videotage in Hong Kong. While in Hong Kong, Crosse will be meeting with artists and organisations, and investigating the development of a new work.
In 2018, Crosse was curated into our Selected 8 programme, and chosen by videoclub and Videotage to participate in the Both Sides Now Hong Kong residency for his film, Prime Time.
Prime Time follows a group of older gay men as they journey on a cruise ship. Members of a social network of so-called ‘Prime Timers’, regularly get together on excursions, to renew acquaintances, re-affirm the bonds of belonging to a supportive community, and rekindle an itch of adventure. As the pleasure boat cruises, the un-vanishing line of the horizon doubles as a metaphor for the never-ending churn of desire (always re-forming, always out of reach), while the vessel itself, with its cargo of temporary travellers, reminds us how random connections bring people closer, or keep them apart. View an excerpt of Prime Time.
About Rob Crosse
Rob Crosse completed his MFA in Fine Arts at the Slade School of Fine Art. Recent solo exhibitions include Prime Time (2017) Grundy, Blackpool, and Clear as a bell (2016), Kingsgate Projects, London. His films have been screened as part of Different Ways, Lux, London, Transactions of desire, Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Slant : for the unsettling, Jerwood Space London, These Rotten Words, Chapter House, Cardiff, and Artist Film Weekender, HOME, Manchester. He has completed residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Nebraska, U.S.A; Katara Art Center, Doha, Qatar; Foundation Marcelino Botin, Santander Spain and Woodmill, London.
About Both Sides Now
Both Sides Now presents contemporary and historical film and video work from the UK, Hong Kong and China, curated by Isaac Leung of Videotage and Jamie Wyld of videoclub. The films explore developments within the culture and society of Hong Kong and China over the past three decades, including work which reflects on the ongoing dynamics of cultures in Hong Kong, China, and the UK. The programme contains work by some of Hong Kong, China and the UK’s most exciting artists working in film and video, and varies between animation, documentary and artists’ moving image.
February 21, 2019The Glamorous Boys of Tang, SU Hui-Yu, 2018
A- – -Z (the nomadic curatorial platform run by Anne Duffau) presents a mood board and a mix from a trip to Taipei with videoclub for Viewfinder.
It is necessary to share some basic facts about Taipei and Taiwan, then to mention two favourite artworks (by Su Yu-Hsien & Su Hui-Yu) from our curatorial visit & to end on a special A- – -Z mix with Taiwanese sounds from historical to recent films and current musicians. (List below).
40th most-populous urban area in the world—roughly one-third of Taiwanese citizens live in the metro districts.
Age: half of the population is aged over 40 years.
Average income – NT$39,953.
Comparing Taiwan with mainland China & the Politics in Taiwan:
In China, 8% of the population live under the poverty line, against 0.95% in Taiwan.
Taiwan’s press freedom ranks 32nd in the world but China is in the 163rd place in the world and only better than 6 other countries.
As of now, most Taiwanese identify themselves as Taiwanese.
The China-friendly former ruling party, Kuomintang (KMT) made a comeback, winning 15 of the 22 cities and counties in Taiwan, defeating the pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Kuomintang (Chinese National Party) was the ruling government when the Martial Law (strict regulations, propaganda and censorship on any new political parties, publications, media, and other art or creative forms) was imposed in 1947 and lifted only in 1987 – after the Japanese settlement was defeated (being present since 1895 when China ceded the island).
In December 2018, to pressure the government over changes in the tax system and to make it more transparent, Taiwanese people marched down the street and wore yellow shirts and vests (in the same spirit as the movement in France). They also protested against the unfair policy of levying taxes and for delaying the implementation of tax exemption.
Two works stayed in my mind, they both responded to older references and were exhibited in the Taiwan Biennial, Wild Rhizome, in the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Art in Taichung – co-curated by Chou Yu-Ling (in-house curator) and Gong Jow-Jiun (Guest Curator) – a review of the past two years in the Taiwan Art scene.
In the “Wild Image and Alternative Histories” section, the curator Chou Yu-Ling presented to us a series of archival documents (films and photography) in relation to a group of artists, filmmakers, actors and musicians who published a quarterly ‘Theater’. All were active after the lifting of Martial Law, bringing a new wave of creativity and engagement in theatre, film and visual art. The video Prophet (2016) by Su Yu-Hsien was originally written by Huang Hua-cheng (1965). The experimental play centered on the dialogue between a couple sitting in the audience facing an empty stage. When it was first shown at the theatre, the actors were placed on stage facing the audience, as the original script was not accepted by the conservatism government of the time. This script represents the start of experimental writing in Taiwan after the second world war. Half a century later, actors Chuang Ling and Liu Ying-shang interpret once again the original play in front of the artist, Su Yu-Hsien’s camera. The couple argues, the woman pointing out the man’s failures; him nostalgic, representing the modernist intellectual collapse, aspiring to be better but never able to reach his ideal – thinking that he could have had an influential role since the May Fourth Movement in China.
With humour, these two characters are set in a surreal landscape, apparently waiting in an empty row of seats in a theatre or a cinema – waiting to see a play, a film, or contemplating for an instant at the end of a show. Godot’s Beckett comes to mind. The script places us, spectators in their anxiety, in their deepest & most intimate regrets and past aspirations, a lifetime has passed and nothing has changed.
The other work, The Glamorous Boys of Tang (2018), is a video by the contemporary artist, Su Hui-Yu – a new interpretation of a 1985 long feature film,Tang Chao qi li nan, (Tang Dynasty Beautiful Male) by Chiu Kang-Chien. Su Hui-Yu often researches aesthetics from the 1970s and 80s from films, pop culture, eroticism and porn. In The Glamorous Boys of Tang, he created a response to the original homoerotic movie which at the time was received with heavy criticism and censorship, two years before Martial Law was lifted.
Su Hui-Yu’s work, presented in a four-channel installation, is projected on four giant folded screens emphasizing the theatrical ‘mise-en-scene’, bringing the spectator almost behind a screen, or showing what is behind, accentuating the idea of a hidden setup being revealed. The uncanny story and atmosphere are a graphic, fantastic and phantasmagoric depiction of erotic bodies and flesh, where sex and murder occur, leading to the threshold of deepest passion. From the original film, Su Hui-Yu mentions the discrepancy in details between the script and the film, it seems that his work has translated these missing parts to another universe. The Glamorous Boys of Tang is honed, sharp, slick, dreadful and eerie; it is a tragedy that brings us into a catharsis.
The opportunity to travel to South Korea with videoclub came at a very timely moment in my curatorial career. I was about to open Phantom Limb (phantomlimb.info), an exhibition I co-curated with Kathy Cho at Cody Dock in East London that brought together Korean diaspora artists Dylan Mira, Jette Hye Jin Mortensen, Joan Oh, Tiffany Jaeyeon Shin and Zadie Xa.
My visit to South Korea – and the artworks at Gwangju and Busan biennales that stood out to me the most – were undoubtedly shaped by my current research, curatorial and personal preoccupations with the histories and subjectivities of Asian diasporas.
At Busan Biennale, Taiwanese artist Chin Cheng-Te’s American Pie (2016) comprised historical documents relating to the United States’ relationship with South Korea and Taiwan during the Cold War, a complex military and political history that contributed to their diaspora populations in the United States. Joo Hwang’s Minyo, There and Here (2018) is a four-channel video showing members of the Korean diaspora singing Korean folk songs, reflecting the ways diaspora populations hold onto traditional aspects of culture.
At Gwangju Biennale, Singapore-based artist Ho Rui An’s Asia The Unmiraculous (2018) presented media imagery of Asia in the setting resembling a real estate office. The fourteen posters offered analysis into media imagery Time magazine covers and yellow peril journalism, representing the Western imaginary of Asia in relationship to the economy.
The biennale’s section, “Returns” curated by David Teh, explored the Biennale’s archive, where I learned about “THERE: Sites of Korean Diaspora” curated by Yong Soon Min in 2002. The exhibition looked at how “diaspora could be a key concept for understanding Korea itself – histories of diaspora tend to encompass political, ideological and territorial conflict, and might thus reveal more about a nation’s past and present more than its official narratives do.”
Growing up with the sense that the diaspora carried negative connotations in South Korea – and that I was too Asian for America and too American for Korea – motivated me to create a unique space for Korean diaspora artists living in Europe and North Korea to explore identity through the exhibition Phantom Limb. Learning about Yong Soon Min’s project in 2002, as well as being able to connect with new art networks and organizations during this trip to Korea, encourages me to continue to build bridges between transnational Korean populations.
December 10, 2018Zheng Bo, Pteridophilia 1, 2018. HD video, 20 min. Courtesy of the artist.
‘Mycelia can save the world’, artist and co-curator of this year’s Taipei Biennial, Mali Wu tells us with ardent optimism. Post-Nature – A Museum as an Ecosystem, curated alongside Francesco Manacorda, goes on to articulate this foundational belief by collating projects from artistic, filmic, activist, and architectural contexts that interpret this in degrees literal and imaginative.
Mycelium Network Society (Franz Xaver, Taro, Martin Howse,Shu Lea Cheang, and global network nodes), Mycelium Network Society, 2018. Courtesy of the participants.
An ‘underground network imagination powered by fungus’, Mycelium Network Society (MNS) have installed a physical web of transparent chambers incubating a porcelain-white fungus and monitored by instruments which translate the augmentation of mycelial atoms into audible radio frequencies. The initiative advocates for the unique properties of mycelia, its interconnected thread-like network of hyphae holding the promise of a flourishing ecological restoration, whilst inspiring the organising structure of the society’s six transnational nodes. The value of this fungal saviour is twofold, offering an ecological solution whilst proposing a conceptual model for non-hierarchical global relations, assimilating the perceived categories of human, nature, technology.
In Hong Kong-based artist Zheng Bo’s video series (see lead image) Pteridophilia (2016–) the otherworldly subtropical forests of Taiwan dominated by ancient pteridophytes (ferns) provide the stage for slowly unfolding and increasingly erotic reunifications of man and nature. With reference to the wooded spaces of cruising, Zheng proffers a permissive, queer utopian future that challenges orthodoxies of consumption—that we might rethink the singular relationship of plants only providing sustenance. An anthology of gloomy green idylls, each scene lingers over the serpentine lines of arched backs and unfurling ferns, accumulating in something exquisitely strange.
Zheng’s attention to languorous, painterly compositions is taken to a cinematic extreme in Swiss artist Julian Charrière’s feature-length work An Invitation to Disappear (2018). In a single shot, the film tracks steadily through the unending forest of a palm oil plantation on the Indonesia island of Sumbawa, also home to Mount Tambora—the site of the largest recorded volcanic eruption, which in 1816 produced uniquely golden sunsets famously captured in paint by J.M.W. Turner. The work creeps through darkness towards a muffled electronic bassline and foggy lightshow, growing in intensity and sharpness but seemingly absent of its ravers, before passing through this man-made event and returning to the underexposed green. Charrière brings together the ecstatic but short-lived lightshows of the forest rave with the Turner-esque sunset to comment on the feverish temporality of the dangerous global palm oil trade—another kind of flash in geological history.
Julian Charrière & Inland, An Invitation to Disappear, 2018. Courtesy of the participants and Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Post-Nature is pervaded by this ever-present awareness of deep time; it calls for strategies of return and assimilation and demands action. Outpacing the malaise of so many recent biennials, it pushes beyond description and diagnosis to offer a welcome vision—even if it is mushroom-based.
The 11th Taipei Biennial continues at Taipei Fine Arts Museum until 10 March 2019.
—
Marcus Jack is an independent curator and writer based in Glasgow. He is an AHRC PhD candidate at the Glasgow School of Art and Research Associate at LUX Scotland. In 2015 he founded Transit Arts, an organisation for the exhibition of artists’ moving image, and has developed screenings in partnership with ATLAS, CCA Glasgow, GFT & GSFF, Goethe-Institut, Scalarama, Scottish Contemporary Art Network, and Tyneside Cinema.
December 7, 2018360° Without Dead End, Jiu Society, 2016
Di Fang will talk about his exhibition Streets Paved with Pearl – showing at Phoenix in Leicester till 23 December – and his practice as an artist filmmaker, both solo and as part of the collective Jiū Society.
Venue: Phoenix, 4 Midland Street, Leicester LE1 1TG Date and time: Sat, 15 December 19 at 3pm Price: FREE – no booking needed
About Di Fang
Di Fang is a Chinese artist based in Shenzhen (China) and Port Moresby (Papua New Guinea). His works convey not only the evolution of urbanisation, but also his political attitudes. He is interested in urban practice, global new references, and views himself as a tourist in his videos and multimedia installations. His work uses multiple vocabularies to investigate the intertwining experiences of city life, and reflects on the rapid and chaotic changes that affect today’s society.
Fang has exhibited in many places internationally, including: Shanghai Biennale (Shanghai, 2018), Julia Stoschek Collection (Düsseldorf, 2018), Vanguard Gallery (Shanghai, 2017), Lost in Shenzhen presented by Jiu Society at 33 Art Space (Shenzhen, 2016), Delaware Centre for the Contemporary Arts (Wilmington, 2013), The Museum of Moscow (Moscow, 2014), Maryland Art Place (Baltimore, 2013) and Connersmith Gallery (Washington D.C, 2013).
Abut Jiu Society
Jiu Society consists of three members, Di Fang, Ji Hao and Jin Haofan. The three young artists were all born and raised as part of a new generation of Shenzhen citizens, in what they refer to as an ‘immigrant city’. They are the experimental products of Reform and Opening, and also sons of dispersed culture. Shenzhen to them is not anymore what it was to their parents – a place to make money. They live and create in Shenzhen, their own city, and, by using their young perspectives, they reconsider their city and make themselves heard.
Streets Paved with Pearl has been curated and produced by Phoenix, videoclub and International Art + Science Research Institute (AS). Streets Paved with Pearl is part of ON AIR, a collaboration between videoclub and AS, enabling cultural exchange across the UK and China.
