MARCH 2005 SPRING ISSUE INSIDE Dialogue with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Huo Hanru on the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial On Curating Cruel/Loving Bodies The Yellow Box: Thoughts on Art before the Age of Exhibitions Interviews with Michael Lin and Hu Jieming From Iconic to Symbolic: Ah Xian’s Semiotic Interface Between China and the West Place and Displace: Three Generations of Taiwanese Art US$12.00 NT$350.00 US$10.00 NT$350.00 Editor’s Note Contributors p. 16 Dialogue with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Hou Hanru on the 2nd Guangzhou Triennial Sun Xiaofeng Shanghai Duolun Museum of Modern Art Biljana Ciric On Curating Cruel/Loving Bodies Sasha Su-Ling Welland p. 31 Feminism Beyond the Female Body Anthony Leung Po Shan The Yellow Box: Thoughts on Art before the Age of Exhibitions Chang Tsong-zung An Interview with Michael Lin p. 47 Hou Hanru An Interview with Hu Jieming Shan Yingwen Made by Tiande John Tancock From Iconic to Symbolic: Ah Xian’s Semiotic Interface Between China and the West p. 75 Stefano Catalani Dis/Placement: Yin Xiuzhen’s City Installations Peggy Wang Place and Displace: Three Generations of Taiwanese Art Charles Liu Exhibitions Listings Chinese Name Index p. 82 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Volume 4, Number 1, March 2005 Contemporary art is redefining how exhibitions Katy Hsiu-chih Chien are now presented. Much new art has moved Ken Lum beyond the traditional wall and floor modes of Keith Wallace display, even beyond the museum itself, and Zheng Shengtian demands adaptive models for presentation and Julie Grundvig reception. New forms of media, non-traditional Kate Steinmann Larisa Broyde architectural spaces, public interaction with art Joyce Lin and artists, and cultural specificity are just some of the factors that curators think about when formu- Judy Andrews, Ohio State University lating an exhibition. John Clark, University of Sydney Lynne Cooke, Dia Art Foundation Okwui Enwezor, Art Institute of Chicago Yishu 12 brings together a number of texts that Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar & Curator Fan Di'an, Central Academy of Fine Arts explore some of these new approaches to Fei Dawei, Guy & Mariam Ullens Foundation developing exhibitions in China. The relatively Gao Minglu, New York State University Hou Hanru, Independent Curator & Critic short engagement with contemporary art in Katie Hill, University of Westminster Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic & Historian Chinese museums and galleries that Biljana Ciric Sebastian Lopez, Gate Foundation & Leiden University speaks of could perhaps have some advantages. Lu Jie, Independent Curator Charles Merewether, Australian National University The passive viewing habits of the public that have Ni Tsaichin, Tunghai University Apinan Poshyananda, Ministry of Culture, Thailand existed in the West ever since the emergence of Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent Critic & Curator museums often makes innovation and spontaneity Wu Hung, University of Chicago a difficult task. That the relationship between Art & Collection Group Ltd. contemporary art and the public in China carries Leap Creative Group a less established history is, for Hou Hanru and Raymond Mah Hans Ulrich Obrist, an opportunity for inventive Gavin Chow Jeremy Lee projects that are liberated from the confines of relaITconsulting, Vancouver traditional museum forms of display. Tsong-zung Chong-yuan Image Ltd., Taipei Chang also introduces a provocative challenge - to traditional museum presentation by redefining Yishu is published quarterly in Taipei, Taiwan and edited in how calligraphy and painting can be installed Vancouver, Canada. The publishing dates of Yishu are 5th of in the contemporary gallery context. But the March, June, September and December. exhibition of contemporary art also has its Editorial inquiries and manuscripts may be sent to the Editorial Office: difficulties as the texts of Sasha Su-Ling Welland Yishu and Anthony Leung Po-shan make clear, especially 410-650 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC Canada V6B 4N8 when it is the content that is non-traditional or Phone: 1.604.649.8187; Fax: 1.604.591.6392 E-mail: [email protected] breaking barriers. Subscription inquiries may be sent to either Vancouver address or Hawaii: We are also presenting interviews and articles Journals Department University of Hawai’i Press with five important Chinese artists-Michael Lin, 2840 Kolowalu Street, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA Hu Jieming, Wang Tiande, Ah Xian, and Yin Phone: 1.808.956.8833; Fax: 1.808.988.6052 E-mail: [email protected] or Xiuzhen. Exploring a wide variety of media that [email protected] include calligraphy, video, installation, and The University of Hawai’i Press accepts payment by Visa or sculpture, the discussion of their work brings Mastercard, cheque or money order (in U.S. dollars). forth issues such as traditional techniques and Advertising inquiries may be sent to either Vancouver address or Taiwan: iconography in the contemporary context, and the Art & Collection Ltd. troubled relationship between the local and the 6F. No.85, Section 1, Chungshan N. Road, Taipei, Taiwan 104 Phone: (886) 2.2560.2220; Fax: (886) 2.2542.0631 global. In the closing article, curator Charles Liu E-mail: [email protected] provides an overview of the exhibition Place and www.yishujournal.com Displace, which includes three generations of No part of this journal may be published without the written Taiwanese art. permission from the publisher. Subscription rates: one year: US $48; two years: US $86 We thank Mr. Milton Wong, Mr. Daoping Bao, Paystone Technologies Corp., Raymond Mah, and the Leap Creative Group for their generous support. Keith Wallace Cover: Michael Lin, Three on the Bund 29.09-15.11.04-2004, skaters on emulsion on wood. Courtesy of Shanghai Gallery of Art. STEFANO CATALANI is an independent curator and writer who lives in Seattle, Washington, and Rome, Italy. His recent projects have focused on the investigation of the dialectics of information/communication. CHANG TSONG-ZUNG is a curator and writer and is curatorial director of Hanart TZ Gallery in Hong Kong. Chang’s projects are aimed at reviving traditional customs and cultural practices. Recent exhibitions include A Strange Heaven: Contemporary Chinese Photography (2003), The Rudolfinum, Prague; Edges of the Earth: Migration of Asian and Regional Politics (2003), project team, China Art Academy, Hangzhou; Power of the Word (toured 1999-2002), Independent Curators International, New York; and Reckoning With the Past (1996), Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh. BILJANA CIRIC received an M.A. from East China Normal University Shanghai. She is Director of the Shanghai Duolun Musem of Modern Art’s Curatorial Department and is a regular writer for Art China magazine. HOU HANRU lives and works in Paris as an independent critic and curator. He served as co-curator of Cities on the Move (1997-1999) and was a curator of the 2000 Shanghai Biennale, the 2002 Gwangju Biennale, and the 2003 Venice Biennale (Zone of Urgency). ANTHONY LEUNG PO SHAN was born in 1974 in Hong Kong. She is the General Manager of Para/Site Art Space in Hong Kong and the Chief Editor of PS magazine. She studied at the University of Leeds on a Hong Kong Arts Development Council Scholarship and has been involved in many major exhibitions in Hong Kong and overseas, including Love the Fucking Country (1997), Hong Kong Cultural Festival, Munich; The Devotion I (2001), Para/Site Art Space, Gwangju Biennale 2002. She is also the researcher/curator of The Red Twenty Years of Ricky Yeung Sau-churk. CHARLES (CHANG-HAN) LIU was born in Shanghai in 1947 and received his art education at the Escuela de Superior de Bellas Artes de San Fernando, Madrid, and the National Taiwan Academy of Arts, Taipei. Currently living in Chicago, he is an artist, educator, writer, and curator. He has exhibited his work in the United States, Canada, Taiwan, China, and Spain. HANS ULRICH OBRIST currently lives and works in Paris. He founded the Museum Robert Walser in 1993 and began the Migrateurs program at the Musee d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, where he now serves as a Curator for Contemporary Art. He is Editor in Chief of the hybrid artist pages Point d’ironie, published by agnes b and begun in collaboration with her in 1997. He has been a frequent curator for museum in progress, Vienna, and lecturer at Facolta delle Arti, Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia. Obrist was recently appointed special correspon- dent of Domus magazine in Milan. SHAN YINGWEN is a sophomore in the Journalism College at Shanghai Fudan University. She is Vice President of the Student Union and writes for two campus newspapers, Fudan Weekly and Fudan Youth. SUN XIAOFENG was born in Chenghai, Guangdong, and lives and works in Guangzhou. Sun has exhibited at the Guangdong Museum of Art, South China Normal University, and the Museum of Sichuan Art Academy. JOHN TANCOCK was educated at Downing College, Cambridge (M.A.), and Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London (Ph.D.). From 1967 to 1973 he was Associate Curator at Philadelphia Museum of Art. He has worked with Sotheby's since 1973 and is currently Senior Vice-President in the department of Impressionist and Modern Paintings and Sculpture, where his primary focus is on the Asian region. PEGGY WANG lives in Chicago and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago specializing in contemporary Chinese Art. SASHA SU-LING WELLAND will receive her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2005. She currently teaches at the University of Washington in Seattle. Her research examines the social role of visual art and competing ideas of aesthetic, cultural, and market value in reform-era China, with a particular focus on how gender shapes contemporary Chinese art worlds. D-Lab 1 in session in gallery 9 of the Guangdong Museum of Art, November 29, 2004.