JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 VOLUME 12, N UMBER 1 INSI DE Third Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art Artist Features: Chen Chieh-jen, Chen Zhen, Wang Qingsong, Han Feng Curatorial Inquiries 12 The Art of Archiving Exhibitions in Istanbul and London Li Kunwu: A Chinese Life US$12.00 NT$350.00 PRINTED IN TAIWAN 16 VOLUME 12, NUMBER 1, JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013 CONTENTS Editor’s Note 29 Contributors 6 Third Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on Contemporary Chinese Art 9 The Context of Contemporary Chinese Art in the New Century Lü Peng 16 Unauthorized Archive: Profane Illumination in 42 Chen Chieh-jen’s Works Chou Yu-ling 29 Transexperiencing Chen Zhen’s Art Amjad Majid 42 Wang Qingsong’s Use of Buddhist Imagery (There Must Be a Buddha in a Place Like This) Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky 55 The “Being and Nothingness” of Han Feng Voon Pow Bartlett 55 66 Curatorial Inquiries 12 Nikita Yingqian Cai and Carol Yinghua Lu 71 The Art of Archiving: A Conversation with Karen Smith Elizabeth Parke 83 On Form and Flux: Change and Transformation in Chinese Art at the Istanbul Modern and the Hayward Gallery, London 71 Stephanie Bailey 95 Li Kunwu: A Chinese Life Ryan Holmberg 106 Chinese Name Index Cover: Chen Zhen at Le Magasin, Centre national d'art 95 contemporain, Grenoble, France, 1992. Photo: Xu Min. We thank JNBY Art Projects, Canadian Foundation of Asian Art, Ping Chen, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Li, and Stephanie Holmquist and Mark Allison for their generous contribution to the publication and distribution of Yishu. Vol. 12 No. 1 1 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Katy Hsiu-chih Chien Infoshare Tech Law Office, Mann C.C. Liu Yishu 54 opens with texts by recipients of the Ken Lum Third Yishu Awards for Critical Writing on -- Keith Wallace Contemporary Chinese Art. They are Lü Peng, Zheng Shengtian Julie Grundvig recommended by Wu Hung, and Chou Yu-Ling Kate Steinmann recommended by Chia Chi Jason Wong. Lü Peng Chunyee Li Larisa Broyde has been writing for many years and Chou Yu-Ling Michelle Hsieh represents a younger generation, exemplifying Maryon Adelaar Chunyee Li that this award honours a range of writers who have made a strong contribution to the discussion Judy Andrews, Ohio State University of contemporary Chinese art. In his text, Lü Peng Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum takes stock of contemporary Chinese art in the John Clark, University of Sydney Lynne Cooke, Museo Reina Sofia first years of the twenty-first century, while Chou Okwui Enwezor, Critic and Curator Yu-Ling builds upon her in-depth study of the work Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar and Curator of Taiwanese artist Chen Chieh-jen. Fan Di’an, National Art Museum of China Fei Dawei, Independent Critic and Curator Gao Minglu, University of Pittsburgh In addition to this study of the work of Chen Chieh- Hou Hanru, Critic and Curator Hu Fang, Vitamin Creative Space and the shop jen, we are presenting three other artist features. Katie Hill, University of Westminster Amjad Majid looks at specific artworks by the late Claire Hsu, Asia Art Archive Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic and Historian Chen Zhen to coax out their complex transcultural Sebastian Lopez, Critic and Curator references. Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky writes Lu Jie, Long March Space Charles Merewether, Director, ICA Singapore about Wang Qingsong’s frequent use of Buddhist Ni Tsaichin, Tunghai University motifs and his growing skepticism towards the Apinan Poshyananda, Ministry of Culture, Thailand Philip Tinari, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art rectitude of religion in contemporary society. Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent Critic and Curator Voon Pow Bartlett turns to a younger artist, Han Wu Hung, University of Chicago Pauline J. Yao, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District Feng, to show how the aspects of emptiness and solitude that inhabit his painting and sculpture are Art & Collection Group Ltd. 6F. No. 85, Section 1, in fact signs of hope. Chungshan N. Road, Taipei, Taiwan 104 Phone: (886)2.2560.2220 Nikita Cai and Carol Lu, whose on-going Fax: (886)2.2542.0631 platform, Curatorial Inquiries, introduces its E-mail: [email protected] twelfth installment and it will become a regular Jenny Liu feature in upcoming issues of Yishu. In Yishu Alex Kao 54 they emphasize the lack of a systematic Joyce Lin Perry Hsu account of exhibition histories in China and Betty Hsieh abroad, and propose that our understanding Chi Wei Colour Printing Ltd. of the contemporary should not be ahistorical but, instead, be based on its connection to such http://yishu-online.com Design Format histories. Complementing the concern to keep 1683 - 3082 history vital, Elizabeth Parke talks with Karen Yishu is published bi-monthly in Taipei, Taiwan, and edited Smith about the fate of her extensive personal in Vancouver, Canada. The publishing dates are January, archive, which serves as a valuable document March, May, July, September, and November. All subscription, advertising, and submission inquiries may be sent to: of contemporary Chinese art from the 1990s into the 2000s. Yishu Editorial Office 200–1311 Howe Street Vancouver, BC, Canada In conclusion, Stephanie Bailey reviews V6Z 2P3 Phone: 1.604.649.8187 exhibitions of contemporary Chinese art Fax: 1.604.591.6392 presented in two diverse cultural contexts— E-mail: offi[email protected] Istanbul and London—and their attempts to illustrate the vast changes in China and its 1 year (6 issues): $84 USD (includes airmail postage) contemporary art during the past three decades. 2 years (12 issues): $158 USD (includes airmail postage) 1 Year PDF Download (6 issues): $49.95 USD (http://yishu-online.com) Ryan Holmberg reviews one of the first Chinese graphic novels to be published in English, a Leap Creative Group Raymond Mah memoir by Li Kunwu, and checks in on a life lived Gavin Chow through the Cultural Revolution as expressed in Philip Wong this popular genre of publishing. 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. Keith Wallace Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art 200251 2 4 6 (Larisa Broyde) (Chunyee Li) (Philip Tinari) 9 (Judy Andrews) (Britta Erickson) 16 (Melissa Chiu) (Sebastian Lopez) (Claire Hsu) (John Clark) (Pauline J. Yao) 29 (Martina Köppel-Yang) 42 Lynne Cooke Okwui Enwezor Katie Hill Charles Merewether Apinan Poshyananda 55 66 856 : (886) 2.2560.2220 (886) 2.2542.0631 [email protected] 71 Yishu Office 200-1311 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2P3, Canada : (1) 604.649.8187 (1) 604.591.6392 : offi[email protected] 83 Leap Creative Group, Vancouver 95 6 106 http://yishu-online.com Design Format Contributors Stephanie Bailey is a writer, artist, and educational curating, exhibition studies, and educator with an M.A. in Contemporary Art institutional critique. She graduated from the Theory from Goldsmiths College, London. Journalism School of Fudan University and She played a formative role in designing the was a participant in the de Appel Curatorial Foundation Course in Art and Design offered Programme, Amsterdam, 2009–10. at Doukas Education, Greece, where she lived and worked between 2008 and 2012 while Chou Yu-ling was a research assistant for covering contemporary art and culture around the Taiwan Media Art Archives project at the the world and from a global perspective for Graduate School of Arts and Technology, publications including Art Papers, Aesthetica, Taipei National University of the Arts. She Artforum, Frieze, Naked Punch, LEAP, and was assistant curator of Chen Chieh-Jen’s Yishu: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. She exhibition Empire’s Borders —Western is currently Managing Editor of Ibraaz and is Enterprises Inc., at the Chinese Arts Centre in on the editorial committee for Naked Punch. Manchester, United Kingdom in 2009. In 2010 she co-curated Plug in x Add on: Taiwanese Voon Pow Bar tlett, Ph.D., is an artist, curator, Contemporary Art with +8 at the Rag Factory, lecturer, and writer, as well as an associate London. She is a Ph.D. candidate at the London member of the Institute of Chartered Consortium. Her research interests cover media Accountants in England and Wales. She was art theory, video art, and art cinema. born in Beijing and educated internationally. Her focus is on exploring an expanded field Ryan Holmberg is an independent writer in the study of the complex causal framework and editor currently based in Mumbai, India. influencing the global discourses on fine art. He earned a Ph.D. in Art History from Yale She currently works at Tate Research Centre: University in 2007. He specializes in modern Asia Pacific, in London. and contemporary Japanese art, with a particular focus on comics. Much of his Nikita Yingqian Cai currently lives in recent research on the subject is published Guangzhou and is Curator at the Guangdong semi-monthly online at The Comics Journal Times Museum. She has curated and edited (www.tjc.com). He is also currently editing publications for A Museum That is Not (2011) and translating two lines of historical manga and Jiang Zhi: If This Is a Man (2012, co- for PictureBox Inc., New York, one focusing curated with Bao Dong) and organized No on icons of alternative manga, the other on Ground Underneath: Curating on the Nexus Japanese mongrelizations of American pop of Changes (2012, co-curated with Carol culture; the latter is titled “Ten-Cent Manga.” Yinghua Lu). She was one of the founders of Ping Pong Space (2008–10), in Guangzhou, Patricia Eichenbaum Karetzky holds the which functioned as a platform of activities O. Munsterberg Chair of Asian Art at Bard and artistic production for local artists.