M A R C H / A P R I L 2 0 1 3 VOLUM E 12, NUM BER 2 INSI DE Shanghai and Taipei Biennials Whose Asia? Whose Art? Yin Xiuzhen: a Material World WOMEN Go Figure! Contemporary Chinese Portraiture Poetry and Praxis in Southwest China Artist Features: Miao Xiaochun, Ming Fay US$12.00 NT$350.00 P RINTED IN TA I WAN 6 VOLUME 12, NUMBER 2, March/April 2013 CONTENTS Editor’s Note 22 Contributors 6 Changing Faces of the Monster: Taipei Biennial 2012 Sylvie Lin 14 Reactivation—The 9th Shanghai Biennale Barbara Pollack 22 Shanghai/Taipei Afterthoughts 50 Makiko Hara and Helga Pakasaar 35 What Asia? Whose Art? A Reflection on Two Exhibitions at the Singapore Art Museum Chang Tan 50 Yin Xiuxen: A Material World Stephanie Bailey 60 WOMEN Alpesh Kantilal Patel 68 68 Go Figure! Contemporary Chinese Portraiture Inga Walton 76 Poetically Perfromance Art Dwells: Poetry and Praxis in Southwest China Sophia Kidd 86 Miao Xiaochun: Digitally Re-figured—The Animated Self Alice Schmatzberger 86 96 Ming Fay: From Money Trees to Monkey Pots Jonathan Goodman 106 Chinese Name Index Cover: Yin Xiuzhen, Thought, 2009, clothes and steel, 96 340 x 510 x 370 cm. © Yin Xiuzhen. Courtesy of Pace Beijing. We thank JNBY Art Projects, Canadian Foundation of Asian Art, Chen Ping, 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. 2 1 Editor’s Note YISHU: Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art Katy Hsiu-chih Chien Infoshare Tech Law Office, Mann C.C. Liu Ken Lum The majority of the texts in Yishu 55 focus on exhibitions and exhibition-making strategies, -- Keith Wallace Zheng Shengtian opening with reviews and observations on the Julie Grundvig Shanghai Biennale and Taipei Biennial—two Kate Steinmann Chunyee Li important Asian events that demonstrated very different curatorial approaches. The other ⁽ ⁾ Carol Yinghua Lu Chunyee Li exhibitions (and one performance festival) Chen Ping reviewed were presented in Australia, China, Debra Zhou Germany, Singapore, and the US, and among Larisa Broyde the topics they addressed are the question of Michelle Hsieh Maryon Adelaar what makes Asian art Asian, the possibility Chunyee Li of what might constitute a portrait, new perspectives on representations of gender and Judy Andrews, Ohio State University sexuality, the gap between the poetic and the Melissa Chiu, Asia Society Museum John Clark, University of Sydney pragmatic in performance art in Chengdu, and Lynne Cooke, Museo Reina Sofia how increased exposure to the global arena Okwui Enwezor, Critic and Curator Britta Erickson, Independent Scholar and Curator has left its mark on the work of Beijing-based Fan Di’an, National Art Museum of China artist Yin Xiuzhen. Fei Dawei, Independent Critic and Curator Gao Minglu, University of Pittsburgh Hou Hanru, Critic and Curator Aside from the specific exhibition thematics Hu Fang, Vitamin Creative Space and the shop Katie Hill, University of Westminster or artists that are the subject of these texts, Claire Hsu, Asia Art Archive what repeatedly becomes apparent are Martina Köppel-Yang, Independent Critic and Historian Sebastian Lopez, Critic and Curator references to tensions embedded within the Lu Jie, Long March Space complex relationships between regionalism, Charles Merewether, Director, ICA Singapore Ni Tsaichin, Tunghai University nationalism, and internationalism as well as Apinan Poshyananda, Ministry of Culture, Thailand our capacity to understand—or not—the initial Philip Tinari, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art Chia Chi Jason Wang, Independent Critic and Curator intentions behind an artwork’s conception Wu Hung, University of Chicago either in its place of creation or when exhibited Pauline J. Yao, M+, West Kowloon Cultural District in other contexts around the world. This can Art & Collection Group Ltd. happen within a variety of conditions—from 6F. No. 85, Section 1, Chungshan N. Road, one Asian country to another Asian country, Taipei, Taiwan 104 from China to Europe and Australia, from Phone: (886)2.2560.2220 Fax: (886)2.2542.0631 Canada to China, from the artist to his or her E-mail: [email protected] viewer. The conundrum that arises is whether Jenny Liu the misinterpretation that might result from Alex Kao what Chang Tan refers to as “transcultural Joyce Lin Perry Hsu illiteracy” does the artwork a disservice or Betty Hsieh becomes richer through the addition of new Chi Wei Colour Printing Ltd. layers of meaning. http://yishu-online.com Design Format Intrinsically rooted in the discussion of 1683 - 3082 nationalism is the issue of identity, even as Yishu is published bi-monthly in Taipei, Taiwan, and edited globalization gradually erodes the idea of in Vancouver, Canada. The publishing dates are January, March, May, July, September, and November. All subscription, fixed identities as artists travel and exhibit in advertising, and submission inquiries may be sent to: other parts of the world, as the possibilities for Yishu Editorial Office the expression of gender become ever more 200–1311 Howe Street fluid, and, especially, as the independence Vancouver, BC, Canada V6Z 2P3 and specificity of place and culture become Phone: 1.604.649.8187 increasingly tenuous. We conclude Yishu 55 Fax: 1.604.591.6392 E-mail: offi[email protected] with features on artists Miao Xiaochun and Ming Fay, and, as it turns out, the irresolution 1 year (6 issues): $84 USD (includes airmail postage) of nationalisms and identity are alluded to here 2 years (12 issues): $158 USD (includes airmail postage) as well. 1 Year PDF Download (6 issues): $49.95 USD (http://yishu-online.com) Leap Creative Group Raymond Mah Gavin Chow Keith Wallace Philip Wong 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 6 14 (Larisa Broyde) (Chunyee Li) 22 (Philip Tinari) (Judy Andrews) (Britta Erickson) (Melissa Chiu) 35 (Sebastian Lopez) (Claire Hsu) (John Clark) (Pauline J. Yao) 50 (Martina Köppel-Yang) 60 Lynne Cooke Okwui Enwezor Katie Hill Charles Merewether Apinan Poshyananda 68 76 856 : (886) 2.2560.2220 (886) 2.2542.0631 [email protected] 86 Yishu Office 200-1311 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC, V6Z 2P3, Canada : (1) 604.649.8187 (1) 604.591.6392 96 : offi[email protected] Leap Creative Group, Vancouver 106 6 http://yishu-online.com Design Format Contributors Stephanie Bailey has an M.A. in contemporary Sophia Kidd is currently a doctoral candidate art theory from Goldsmiths College, University at Sichuan University researching aesthetics of London, and a B.A. in classical civilization in classical Chinese literature. She has lived in with English literature from King’s College, China for most of the past fourteen years and London. Between 2006 and 2012, she lived in has published arts writing, poetry, fiction, and Athens, Greece, where she played a formative translations. She presently co-curates Frequency, role in designing and managing the BTEC- a semi-annual experimental live art exhibition, accredited Foundation Diploma in Art and in China. Design at Doukas Education while writing on contemporary art production and its Sylvie Lin worked at the Museum of discourses from around the world as Art and Contemporary Art of Taipei as assistant to Culture Editor of Insider Publications and Director Mr. Leon Paroissien and assisted with as a freelance critic and essayist. Currently the installation of the 2004 Taipei Biennial. Managing Editor of Ibraaz, her writing has She has also worked as an editor for major appeared in publications including ART magazines and publishers in the cultural PAPERS, Aesthetica, ARTnews, Artforum, field in Taiwan. She holds a master’s degree Frieze, LEAP, Modern Painters, Notes on in contemporary art and new media of the Metamodernism, and Yishu Journal of Université Paris VIII. During her periods abroad Contemporary Chinese Art. and in Taiwan, she has interviewed curators, artists, filmmakers, and film critics extensively Jonathan Goodman studied literature at and has written and translated texts on art and Columbia University and the University of cinema for press and institutions in Taiwan, Pennsylvania before becoming an art writer France and China. specializing in contemporary Chinese art. He teaches at Pratt Institute and the Parsons School Helga Pakasaar is a contemporary art curator of Design, both in New York, focusing on art and writer based in Vancouver. She has an criticism and contemporary culture. independent practice and has been curator at Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, Makiko Hara has been curator at Centre since 2003. She was previously a curator at A: Vancouver International Centre for the Art Gallery of Windsor, Ontario, and Contemporary Asian Art since 2007. For the the Walter Phillips Gallery, Banff. She has past twenty years, she has curated numerous produced many exhibitions, commissions, contemporary art exhibitions by Japanese, and publications of contemporary art, with Canadian, and international artists. She has a focus on photography and media art. She served as project coordinator for several also produces exhibitions of historical and international exhibitions, including the vernacular photography. Yokohama Triennale (2001/2005) and the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale (2003). Hara was Alpesh Kantilal Patel is an art historian, curator, one of the three curators for the Scotiabank and critic. A visiting scholar at the Center for Nuit Blanche (2009) in Toronto, and has the Study of Gender and Sexuality (CSGS), contributed essays to catalogues and magazines. New York University, from 2010 to 2011, he Her most recent essays were published in received his B.A. in art history with honors Mutation: Perspectives on Photography (2011) from Yale University, New Haven, in 1997, and and Institutions by Artists (2012). his Ph.D.