JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 VOLUME 11, N UMBER 1 10TH ANNIV ERSARY YEAR INSI DE Art Intervenes in Society: A Conversation With Wang Chunchen The Pursuit of Space: The Art and Artists of Hong Kong Artist Features: Xu Bing, Duan Jianghua, Lam Tung-pang Exhibition Reviews: Unofficial Chinese Art 1974–1985, Moving Image in China 1988–2011, Zhang Peili Retrospective Book Reviews: Total Modernity and the Avant-Garde in Twentieth-Century Chinese Art, Ai Weiwei’s Blog: Writings, Interviews and Digital Rants 2006–09 US$12.00 NT$350.00 PRINTED IN TAIWAN 16 VOLUME 11, NUMBER 1, JANUA R Y/FEBRUA R Y 2012 CONTENTS Editor’s Note 30 Contributors 6 Wu Street: Tracing Lineages of the Internationalization of the Art World Orianna Cacchione 16 Revolution and Power: The Paintings of Duan Jianghua Robert C. Morgan 37 30 The Best of Times: Lam Tung-pang’s Long View Under Scrutiny Abby Chen 37 A Conversation With Lam Tung-pang Abby Chen 52 The Pursuit of Space: The Art and Artists of Hong Kong Celine Y. Lai 66 66 Art Intervenes in Society: A Conversation with Wang Chunchen Marie Leduc 82 Blooming in the Shadows: Unofficial Chinese Art, 1974–1985 Jonathan Goodman 96 Moving Image in China: 1988–2011 and Certain Pleasures: Zhang Peili Retrospective Xhingyu Chen 82 102 Fictions of Nationhood Robert Linsley 109 Chinese Name Index 96 Cover: Lam Tung-pang working on Past Continuous Tense, 2011, charcoal and image transfer on wood. Photo: Gordon Lo. Courtesy of the artist and Hong Kong Art Centre. We thank JNBY Art Projects, Canadian Foundation of Asian Art, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Li, and Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison for their generous contribution to the publication and distribution of Yishu. Vol. 11 No. 1 1 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Katy Hsiu-chih Chien Infoshare Tech Law Office, Mann C.C. Liu The pages of Yishu have often served as a voice Ken Lum reflecting the need for the historical grounding of -- Keith Wallace contemporary Chinese art. However, with China’s Zheng Shengtian Julie Grundvig booming economy and art scene, the “immediate” Kate Steinmann seems to hold a more urgent role in securing an Chunyee Li international presence for that art. While the texts in Larisa Broyde Michelle Hsieh Yishu 48 are not devoted solely to the four-decade Chunyee Li history of China’s contemporary art history, it is something that resonates throughout this issue’s Judy Andrews, Ohio State University content. Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum John Clark, University of Sydney Lynne Cooke, Museo Reina Sofia Orianna Cacchione discusses a 1993 work by Okwui Enwezor, Critic & Curator Xu Bing, Wu Street, and brings into question the Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar & Curator Fan Di’an, National Art Museum of China slippery veracity of cultural translation within what Fei Dawei, Independent Critic & Curator was termed at the time The New Internationalism. Gao Minglu, University of Pittsburgh Hou Hanru, San Francisco Art Institute Through the contemporary paintings of Duan Hu Fang, Vitamin Creative Space and the shop Jianghua, Robert C. Morgan explores the ironic Katie Hill, University of Westminster dissonance between desire for revolution and the Claire Hsu, Asia Art Archive Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic & Historian hope for power in the US and China in the1960s and Sebastian Lopez, Critic and Curator seventies. Two texts by Abby Chen focus on Lam Lu Jie, Independent Curator Charles Merewether, Director, ICA Singapore Tung-pang, a Hong Kong artist who is acutely aware Ni Tsaichin, Tunghai University of the historical trajectory his city is experiencing Apinan Poshyananda, Ministry of Culture, Thailand in its shift from a British colony to its apparent Philip Tinari, Independent Critic & Curator Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent Critic & Curator absorption into the People’s Republic of China. And Wu Hung, University of Chicago in spite of what appears in this context to be an Pauline J. Yao, Independent Scholar unpredictable relationship with one’s identity, he Art & Collection Group Ltd. suggests the climate for artistic activity has improved. 6F. No. 85, Section 1, Celine Lai, on the other hand, identifies the lack of Chungshan N. Road, Taipei, Taiwan 104 viable studio space in Hong Kong as a problem in Phone: (886)2.2560.2220 creating a healthy, productive art scene. Fax: (886)2.2542.0631 E-mail: [email protected] Marie Leduc interviews Wang Chunchen who Jenny Liu Alex Kao eloquently discusses the social role of art in China Joyce Lin both historically and in the context of today. This Perry Hsu leads into a review by Jonathan Goodman of the Betty Hsieh first exhibition in the US to explore the pioneering art Chi Wei Colour Printing Ltd., associations in mainland China who saw themselves http://yishu-online.com as contemporary artists and not agents of the state. Design Format This is followed with a review by Xhingyu Chen of 1683 - 3082 two exhibitions in Shanghai that propose a history Yishu is published bi-monthly in Taipei, Taiwan, and edited of new media and video in China. Finally, we offer a in Vancouver, Canada. The publishing dates are January, review by Robert Linsley of two recent books—one March, May, July, September, and November. All subscription, advertising, and submission inquiries may be sent to: by Gao Minglu and one by Ai Weiwei—that examine the ongoing problem of national identity in Yishu Editorial Office contemporary art. 200–1311 Howe Street Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 2P3 One example of the complexity of defining this history: Phone: 1.604.649.8187 Fax: 1.604.591.6392 a number of the texts in Yishu 48 make reference to an E-mail: offi[email protected] early contemporary artists’ association in mainland China—Xing Xing Hua Hui—which is translated into 1 year (6 issues): $84 USD (includes airmail postage) either The Stars Group, The Star Society of Painting, 2 years (12 issues): $158 USD (includes airmail postage) or the Stars-Stars Association. That there is no 1 Year PDF Download (6 issues): $49.95 USD (http://yishu-online.com) consensus upon the official name reiterates how Leap Creative Group potentially confusing this history can become. Raymond Mah Gavin Chow Philip Wong Keith Wallace No part of this journal may be reprinted without the written permission from the publisher. The views expressed in Yishu are not necessarily those of the editors or publisher. Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 200251 2 4 (Larisa Broyde) 6 (Chunyee Li) (Philip Tinari) 16 (Judy Andrews) (Britta Erickson) (Melissa Chiu) 30 (Sebastian Lopez) (Claire Hsu) (John Clark) 37 (Pauline J. Yao) (Martina Köppel-Yang) 52 Lynne Cooke Okwui Enwezor Katie Hill Charles Merewether 66 Apinan Poshyananda 82 856 : (886) 2.2560.2220 (886) 2.2542.0631 96 [email protected] Yishu Office 200-1311 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2P3, Canada : (1) 604.649.8187 102 (1) 604.591.6392 : offi[email protected] 109 Leap Creative Group, Vancouver 6 http://yishu-online.com Design Format Contributors Orianna Cacchione is a Ph.D. student Xhingyu Chen is a Shanghai-based writer in art history, theory, and criticism at and contemporary art specialist. A longtime the University of California, San Diego. observer of Shanghai’s art scene, she A former visiting scholar at the Central previously worked at the non-profit space Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, she is BizArt. A former art editor for Time Out currently based in San Diego and Beijing. Shanghai, she contributes to Art Asia Pacific, She received her master’s degree in Sculpture Magazine, Nukta Art, and the Contemporary Art Theory at Goldsmith International Herald Tribune. Chen’s first University in 2008. She is a frequent book, Chinese Artists: New Media, gives a contributor to Flash Art International. wide overview of selected artists working in Her current research focuses on how new media (video, installation, and other transnational art practices shape critical related mediums). discourses about the internationalization of the contemporary art world. Jonathan Goodman studied literature at Columbia University and the University of Abby Chen is a curator, writer, lecturer, Pennsylvania before becoming an art writer and art administrator. A graduate of the specializing in contemporary Chinese art. California College of Arts, she is currently He teaches at Pratt Institute and the Parsons curator and deputy director at the Chinese School of Design, focusing on art criticism Culture Foundation of San Francisco. Her and contemporary culture. curatorial projects include San Francisco Public Art Initiative of Arts-in-Storefront Celine Y. Lai is teaching cultural and and Central Subway (Stockton), Gender heritage management at the City University Identity Symposium (Guangzhou), Yerba of Hong Kong. Her interests in modern and Buena Center For the Arts (San Francisco), contemporary Chinese arts are developed Museum of Chinese in America (New York), from her former postdoctoral research on Photo San Francisco, Pingyao International the Khoan & Michael Sullivan collection Photography Festival, and San Francisco as well as the Reyes collection of Chinese Arts Commission. Her writing focuses paintings in the Ashmolean Museum, on hybridity, photography, gender, and Oxford. With a background in archaeology, contemporary Chinese culture. she undertook several field trips in China 4 Vol. 11 No. 1 during the period 2004−2009 and witnessed Robert C. Morgan is an international administrative changes in museums and critic, writer, curator, and painter who lives other cultural sectors. Her recent research is in New York City. He holds an advanced concerned with the relationship of heritage degree in Sculpture (M.F.A.) and a Ph.D. in to arts and archaeology. China and Hong contemporary art history and is Professor Kong are her focus regions. Emeritus at the Rochester Institute of Technology.