MISHIMA PROJECT

MISHIMA PROJECT

DESCRIPTION

EMIL MEMON November 25, 2004

New York City

PROJECT MISHIMA

Project Mishima is based on the extraordinary personality of Mishima the famous Japanese post-war writer, some of his short stories and a series of photographs for which Mishima posed. The photographs by photographer Eikoh Hosoe were published in his book Ordeal by the Roses in 1961.

The project has 3 main parts; film,series of 5 large format drawings and a series of photographs. The photo session that produces the photographs is the integral part of the film. The result of this project will be presented as a straight film projection as well as flexible space installation.

The reason that Mishima interests me are the power of his writing, the visual imagery of the photographs for which he is using his own body as a symbolic projection of his writings. He sees his nationalism, militarism and the cult of the Samurai as an antidote to western capitalistic values overtaking Japanese society, although at the same time his political values are in contradiction with his strong humanistic art. Similar to Pasolini his sexual and political passions and his intellectual nonconformist brought him to a logical and tragic end in a ritual suicide (seppuku) in the headquarters of the Japanese army in Tokyo. The Hollywood film Mishima touched on this subject.

I’m fascinated with the work of artists of the second half of the 20th century, a period that is becoming disconnected and remote to our (more and more bizarre) reality. He is a co-traveler with Fasbinder, Beuys, Warhol, Margarite Duras, etc., artists that worked between madness of WWII holocaust and new millennium, our time of extreme contradictions of technological quantum leaps on one hand and obscurant religious wars and total collapse of civil society in large parts of the world on the other. It’s a new world where fiction in its extreme form can materialize in reality as our collective nightmares, like in a Tarkowsky movie Solaris. These artists have their roots in WWII and they reflect with a critical eye on the postwar insecurities that are being manifested at that time in a collective will to forget horrors of the war through material reconstruction and the creation of a massive consumerist society as a painkiller. In theirs criticism and pessimism is incorporated basic optimism, hope and rationality. Briefly after the fall of Berlin wall and the end of Apartheid in South Africa, when a notions of Human rights as a guiding force

in world politics was being contemplated there was a sense of optimism and unprecedented possibilities for more humane future, future that learned not in a small way, from the work of post war generation of artists, from the horrors and mistakes of the first half of the century. When I contemplate their work I realize that their voices are fading away fast. To retain minimal sense of reality and a memory of a possibility of more humane world, it’s important to maintain connection with that exceptional generation of artist and their work.

MISHIMA/DRAWING/2011

MISHIMA/DRAWING/2011

MISHIMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2011

MISHIMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2011

MISHIMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2011

MISHIMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2011

MISHMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2011

MISHMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2011

View Art Show/"Hot in a Disco" Art Happening,brooklyn,NYC

View Art Show/"Hot in a Disco" Art Happening,brooklyn,NYC

MISHIMA/DRAWING/2010

MISHIMA/DRAWING/2010

MISHIMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2010

MISHIMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2010

MISHMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2010

MISHMA/DRAWING/DETAIL/2010

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST

MISHIMA PROJECT/BROOME ST
Bushwick, Brooklyn open studios show/2013

DRAWINGS & FRIENDS

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Wang Qingsong-Past,Present,Future/review of Chinese photography at ICP

Posted by A Gathering Of The Tribes in Art Reviews - (Comments Off)
ICP International Center of Photography
Asia Society and Museum
New York
June 11-September 5, 2004
Curated by Wu Hung and Christopher Phillips       

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Wang Qingsong, Past, Present, Future, 2001, digital c-print (triptych)
In the last few years, Chinese art has been slowly introduced by a group of its dedicated champions to the West, and especially to the New York contemporary art world. As with other so called new markets, a group of westerners, in this case cultural entrepreneurs descended into the new territory and carefully selected and guided a group of talented young Chinese artists who emerged as the first generation after the Tianamen square massacre. Several generations are trying to transcend or ignore the political past, and with the rest of the Chinese economy to catch up on western technology — in this case cultural technology.
There are some similarities in style and sensibility with artists from other post dictatorial societies that recently opened up (like so called Eastern Europe or South America). There is a difference since Chinese society underwent a successful, rapid economic modernization and hard core economic capitalism–but not political pluralism–and actually so called “communism” is guaranteeing its economic success. This condensed, short time frame of changes and contradictions gives the show its unique quality, and the result is one of hard-edged beauty.

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Owing to the erudite knowledge by a specialized, small circle of academics, art critics, curators, art dealers and collectors, Chinese contemporary art exploded with a bang in a series of well timed and organized exhibitions and publications, into the consciousness of the large mainstream art world. Chinese contemporary art arrived into the warm embrace of the contemporary art market, mirroring China’s spectacular success in the world economic markets. There were previous large presentations of Chinese contemporary art, notably the exhibition in 1999 at Asia Society and P.S.1, however, this exhibition joins fresh new faces with what are now almost classic works of Chinese contemporary art. There emerges a strong group of artists who are self-assured and well equipped with knowledge of the global media and whose work goes beyond the hackneyed east vs west dichotomy.
There is a stellar photographic work at ICP by Wang Qingsong that impresses the viewer with its large scale imagery and panoramic format. Updating a famous Tang dynasty painting “Night Revels of Laoli”, the artist stages replaces the original court figures with important figures in contemporary art scene in China (the art critic Li Xianting) and himself into a grand court scene–his version of the Warhol factory. Equally striking is his work at the Asia Society, where with the triptych “Past, Present, Future” he stages his figures into a tableaux vivante referencing imagery of Chinese social realism of the not so far past. Heroically-posed figures in mud, silver and gold are representing different phases of China. He is using staging almost as a Baroque painter would do, so it is not surprising that he moved with his latest body of work, also presented at this time in NYC, to the western art historical themes.
Another powerful work is that of Zhang Huan, whose photograph incorporate reference to body art of Chris Burden or Vito Acconci but in the much more squalid environment of a public toilet with honey and flies over his body. He endures the pain that we can sense with Zen-like patience.
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Zhao Bandi with his Panda are also present at this show. His sidekick is a toy panda representing China. His work is such that you must have knowledge of Chinese cultural, social and physical landscape. His work is a simple, gentle, charming social parody but graced with extraordinary beauty. The example in the show is good, but he works better in accumulation (as a series of photos), because he and his Panda grow on you..
In an old-school type of conceptual work, like something from the 70′s, the Beijing based artist Song Dong is stamping water with a stamp that says water. It is a beautiful gesture, and makes you nostalgic for simpler and pure times. The fact that is a series of photographs on the wall, documenting the performance makes this impression stronger.
There is a lot to see in the exhibition (for instance, the powerful work of Qui Zhijie), and there are plenty of other works and many other artists that will catch your attention. This is not only an exhibition for people with a special interest in China, but for everyone that likes good art.

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“Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China” is Curated by Wu Hung and Christopher Phillips. It is the first comprehensive look at the innovative photo and video art produced since the mid-1990s in China, and will be presented jointly at the International Center of Photography and the Asia Society and Museum from June 11 to September 5, 2004.
This traveling exhibition continues on to the Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (Oct. 2, 2004-Jan. 16, 2005), Seattle Art Museum (Feb. 10-May 15, 2005), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (March-May, 2006), Santa Barbara Museum of Art (Summer 2006)
New York, August 2004

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