Artipedia - Arts News

Master Humphrey’s Clock

Sandy Plotnikoff, Hot-stamped Leidsche Rijn/Lucerne Postcard, 2008.

Master Humphrey’s Clock
by de Appel’s CP 07/08
May 12 - June 8, 2008

Opening: 3pm, May 11, 2008
Stanley Brouwn building
Hogeweide 3B, Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht

http://www.masterhumphreysclock.nl

Artists: Mariana Castillo Deball, Raimond Chaves, Ricardo Cuevas, Gintaras Didziapetris, Geoffrey Farmer, Victoria Fu, Noa Giniger, Gabriel Kuri, Sandy Plotnikoff, Michael Rakowitz, Simon Starling, Michael Stevenson, The Faculty of Invisibility and others.

“Master Humphrey’s Clock” is a project by de Appel’s Curatorial Programme 07/08 that explores the many intersections between circulation and storytelling. It will take place at a number of sites including the Shadow Cabinet at de Appel arts centre in Amsterdam, and a building designed by Dutch conceptual artist Stanley Brouwn and architect Bertus Mulder in Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht.

The project is inspired by the context of a second-hand shop located in the heart of a heavily designed, new surburban development in the Netherlands (Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht). Here residents and people visiting the area come together to deposit and exchange belongings. The circulation of objects and the stories held within them have been crucial to the development of “Master Humphrey’s Clock”.

The project’s title is borrowed from a periodical written and published by Charles Dickens in 1840. Produced in weekly installments, it contained a variety of approaches to storytelling and a multitude of storylines (one of which reappeared as the novel “The Old Curiosity Shop”).

Dickens’ example of intertwining narratives and the model of collection and dispersion presented in the second-hand shop are explored in this exhibition. The artists in “Master Humphrey’s Clock” engage with the intersections between storytelling and circulation in both form and content.
“Master Humphrey’s Clock” is curated by Yulia Aksenova, Jesse Birch, Sarah Farrar, Inti Guerrero and Virginija Januskeviciute.

For more information: http://www.masterhumphreysclock.nl

“The Book of Intentions”

The fourth issue of de Appel’s bi-annual journal “F.R. David: The Book of Intentions” is one of the sites of “Master Humphrey’s Clock”. Within the camouflage of this pirated journal, the curators encapsulate their intentions (shared, stolen or otherwise discovered), rather than letting them multiply or dissolve into the final exhibition.

Comprised of eight chapters that explore in-depth the thematic interests “Master Humphrey’s Clock”, “F.R. David 4: The Book of Intentions” contains selected texts and works by writers and artists.

The second part of this publication, “Index”, will be published in June 2008. “F.R. David” is distributed by Idea Books, Amsterdam ( http://www.ideabooks.com ).

Exhibition hours:
Tuesday – Sunday: 12 – 6pm
Free entry

Address:
Stanley Brouwn building, Hogeweide 3B, Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht (opposite the Kruidenlaan in Parkwijk, Leidsche Rijn).

Buses from Art Amsterdam-RAI, Sunday 11 May, departing at 2pm
The bus ride will include a Q&A with a group of visiting international curators.
In association with Close connections and Tijdelijk Museum Amsterdam.

There will also be a component of the exhibition at de Appel arts centre:
April 19 – May 25, 2008
The Shadow Cabinet, de Appel arts centre
Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10, 1017 DE Amsterdam

For press enquiries, or for more information, please contact:

Inti Guerrero
Curatorial Programme 07/08
de Appel arts centre
Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 10
1017 DE Amsterdam

Email: cp@deappel.nl
Tel: +31(0)20 6255651
Fax: +31(0)20 622521

“Master Humphrey’s Clock” is made possible with the kind support of:

de Appel arts centre ( http://www.deappel.nl ), SKOR Foundation Art & Public Space
( http://www.skor.nl ) and Beyond: the long term art project for Leidsche Rijn
( http://www.beyondutrecht.nl ).

Argos

Ursula Biemann
Sahara Chronicle, 2006-2007
Courtesy the artist.

No Place - Like Home:
Perspectives on Migration
in Europe
15.04.08 - 21.06.08

OPENING
Sat 12.04.08 18:00 - 21:00

Argos
Werfstraat 13
1000 Brussels
Belgium

http://www.argosarts.org

The group exhibition No Place - like Home: Perspectives on Migration in Europe features eighteen Belgian and international artists. Their videos, photographic works and installations take a closer look at what lies under the surface of the migration issue.

Migration is a thing of all ages. Where Europeans once colonized various continents and emigrated en masse to other lands both in and beyond their own continent, movement from the opposite direction has now taken hold. Capital, goods and information circulate freely in the late-capitalist, globalized world economy. For people, however, mobility is arranged somewhat differently. Borders and territories are still the primary expression of national sovereignty, however multi ethnic populations may have become. For Europe – which permanently shifts between regulating, even attracting, and then repelling strangers – these are the outer borders, the so-called Schengenland regions. No Place - Like Home (note the hyphen) investigates how inner and outer space, how ‘we’ and ‘they’ maintain complex relations with one another and the frictions this generates.

The media, like tourism – a phenomenon that on the Italian island of Lampedusa vacillates with the refugee issue – have little to do with transparency. By way of the varying perceptions of artists whose work focuses on the illegal refugees who are today’s modern nomads, this exhibition hopes to help visualize an issue that cannot be summarized in black-and-white contrasts: an interwoven, variegated tale of migration networks and refugee trafficking, cartography and geographical military data, migration management and border infiltrations, international rights, lack of rights and lawlessness. A few works let us hear the individual voice of the immigrant.

Thinking about migration means making a close examination of oneself. With No Place - like Home, Argos lays claim to a trans-national political space. What public space, what identity stands counter to this? What and where is ‘home’? These are questions that will be further investigated in a parallel programme of lectures and video presentations.

Curated by Paul Willemsen with contributions by: Miguel Abad, An Architektur, Xavier Arenós, Herman Asselberghs, Federico Baronnello, Ursula Biemann, Raphaël Cuomo, Pieter Geenen, Maria Iorio, Provdoliub Ivanov, Takuji Kogo, Armin Linke, Bénédicte Liénard, Thomas Locher, Hans Op de Beeck, Yves Mettler, Migreurop and Erzen Shkololli.

http://www.international.ucla.edu/showevent.asp?eventid=6649

The scene of the greatest economic and cultural metamorphosis of our time, China is not only at the center of the world’s attention but has arguably the most vital, imaginative, and uncontainable art scene in the world. The Rising Tide investigates China’s meteoric march toward the future through the work of some of its most talented emerging artists, whose work reflects the country’s rising influence as an economic, political and cultural force in the global arena.

In recent years, Chinese artists, especially those working in photography and video, have gained international recognition for their powerful works capturing the social and aesthetic confusion created in a rapidly changing society. To the Chinese avant-garde, materialism is all pervasive, and the dominant consumer culture has altered people’s mentalities. Interestingly, their work, influenced by Western ideals and art practice, remains distinctly Chinese in its content and aesthetic.

Produced within the dual context of globalization and urbanization, the work of artists Cao Fei, Xu Zhen, Yang Yong, Wang Qingsong, Chen Qiulin, Birdhead, and Zhang O examines the collision between the present and the future, and the confusion and ambiguity that characterize the new China. Their work is often a stunned attempt to deal with the dynamic and tectonic forces transforming China. The Rising Tide captures this momentous time in China’s history while exploring the work of artists, who comment with intelligence, wit, foreboding and nostalgia.

Recent glass exhibit featuring first generation of Chinese contemporary glass artist

Within every city, two cities simultaneously emerge. The first represents all that is good and right and desirable; the second city everything that we long to see changed.

The twocities art gallery in Shanghai, China seeks to help build the first city, through art and events that champion beauty, commitment, thoughtfulness and community. By providing space in the cultural world for Chinese artists and promoting academic development, we aim to help young artists find their voice in the world of art.

twocities is one of the few galleries in China that specializes in contemporary three-dimensional art. Our gallery represents Chinese artists pioneering in glass, metal, ceramic, and wood and lacquer. The glass artists we work with are considered the first generation of contemporary glass artists in China. These artists come from an academic studio art movement, studying and teaching fine arts at schools such as Shanghai University, Nanjing Art Institute, Qing Hua University, the Central Academy for the Arts and the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute.

Artists represented include Qiao Shi Guang, father of the modern wood and lacquer movement in China; Zhuang Xiao Wei, leader of the studio glass movement in China; Chen Guang Hui, a pioneering artist in the modern ceramics field; and Guo Xin, an established jewelry artist promoting jewelry as art in China.

Website: http://www.twocitiesgallery.com

National Art Museum of China

Garden Utopia
Zhan Wang
May 11 - May 21, 2008

Curator Fan Di’an
Co-curator Huang Du
Exhibition advisor Hseih Suchen
Co-organized by Long March Space

Opening reception:
Saturday May 11, 2008 3pm - 6pm

National Art Museum of China
Beijing

http://www.namoc.org

The National Art Museum of China (NAMOC) is proud to present “Garden Utopia”, an exhibition showcasing over fifty works by acclaimed Chinese artist Zhan Wang. “Garden Utopia” is part of a series of major exhibitions to be held at the NAMOC as part of a series of cultural events leading up to the Olympics.

Over the past decade, Zhan Wang’s predominant sculptural practice has taken place in tandem with an exploration of installation, performance, and video. By examining the relationship between material, technique and theory, Zhan Wang has developed a language of “conceptual sculpture” that overturns the traditional understanding of sculpture in China to explore the meaning of three-dimensional space in relationship to the phenomenon of installation art, an idea evidenced in his stainless steel “Artificial Rock” series. At the same time, Zhan Wang has used his “sculptures” to engage a broader social consciousness through public works, such as “Inlay the Great Wall”, “12 Nautical Miles”, “Mt. Everest”, and “New Plan to Fill the Sky”, expanding upon the idea of how art can engage with public space and the community.

“Garden Utopia” articulates the traditional perspective of a Chinese garden as a space for contemplation, a borderland between reality and fantasy to escape the trappings of the modern world and reconnect humanity with nature. It is this traditional aesthetic that Zhan Wang situates against a violently changing Chinese society, his works examining the tensions between landscape and industrialization, tradition and modernity. This is reflected in the stainless steel “Artificial Rock” series, which forms the core of this exhibition. Since 1995, the artist has been creating artificial replicas of “scholar’s rocks” (jiashanshi) by pounding, molding and bending stainless steel around the surface of particular rocks. After the steel has been shaped, it is welded together to form a single hollow sculpture, seamlessly merging a traditional literati object with a distinctly modern material.

The installation and photographic series “Urban Landscape” presents a contemporary garden. From an elevated periphery, taking in the spectacle from stadium style seating, the audience peers at a topographic model of Beijing’s landscape composed of reflective stainless steel kitchenware. As opposed to seeking a relationship with nature, this landscape is animated by a lust for materialism.

Another major component of this exhibition is “Deity Medicine”, a nondescript stainless steel pill - the silver bullet of modern society’s malaise. Commenting on the material solution to a spiritual complex in contemporary life, and its adherence to a new religion of technology and science, the reflective surface of the pill refuses to divulge its contents. In this exhibition, the viewer can carryout their own soul searching by tapping into one of the conveniently located “Deity Search Engines”. Aided by modern technology, viewers scroll through a carefully documented list of all known deities in the world. The interconnected terminals allow viewers to add information about non-listed deities, as well as access what others have uploaded.

Through the blending of reality into artifice, artifice into reality, this exhibition references the contemporary spaces we inhabit, presenting utopia as finite and concrete, as well as infinitely mutable and ephemeral.

The conference “Sculptural Intervention” will be held in conjunction with this exhibition. This one-day conference will explore new possibilities and definitions for “sculpture” as a medium that informs and engages other material explorations of the social condition. Zhan Wang will also initiate a new month-long project, “86 Divinity Figures” starting May 13 at Long March Space, Beijing.

National Art Museum of China
1 Wusi Dajie, East District, Beijing, China, 100010
9:00 am – 5 pm (No Entry after 4:00 p.m.)
http://www.namoc.org

Long March Space
4 Jiuxianqiao Rd (Factory 798), Beijing China 100015
Tues-Sun 11:00 am – 7:00 pm

Press contact:
Garden Utopia Project Office
c/o Long March Space
Tel +86 10 6438 7107
Fax +86 10 6432 3834
press@longmarchspace.com