Art Asia Pacific 132 March April 2023
Cover: Detail of JES FAN’s Apparatus, 2022, glass, aqua resin, metal, wood, and silicone, 157 × 91 × 114 cm. Photo by Nicholas Knight. Courtesy the artist and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.
Recovery, healing, transformation—collectively and individually we are undergoing these interconnected processes in the post-pandemic era. Artists too are reframing their practices in light of recent experiences and reconsidering their relationships to place, identity, history, and community.
Weight | 0.360000 |
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Binding | Magazine |
Pages | 104 |
Report Date | 2023/04/01 |
Date Published | 1st April 2023 |
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ISBN13/Barcode | 9771039362056 |
Publisher | Art Asia Pacific, LLC |
Cover: Detail of JES FAN’s Apparatus, 2022, glass, aqua resin, metal, wood, and silicone, 157 × 91 × 114 cm. Photo by Nicholas Knight. Courtesy the artist and Empty Gallery, Hong Kong.
Recovery, healing, transformation—collectively and individually we are undergoing these interconnected processes in the post-pandemic era. Artists too are reframing their practices in light of recent experiences and reconsidering their relationships to place, identity, history, and community.
Our cover Feature looks at multimedia projects by Jes Fan, whose reflections on the historical and environmental changes in Hong Kong have inspired a new body of work using akoya pearl oysters. In conversation with ArtAsiaPacific’s New York desk editor Mimi Wong, Fan explains how his Mother of Pearl series (2020–22) uses the oyster’s natural response to grow shiny nacre over the site of an infection. For Wong, Fan’s interest in the precious material reveals how “we can treat the wound as a site of healing—and as an adaptation necessary for survival.”
Photo of the exhibition invitation to “In Search of Art,” curated by OSCAR HO, at Hong Kong Arts Centre, 1990. Courtesy Ha Bik Chuen Archive, Asia Art Archive.
The second Feature in this issue marks the beginning of a collaborative series with Asia Art Archive to translate into English influential texts by members of the Hong Kong art community. For this issue, AAA researcher Anthony Yung selected three texts from 1991–92 produced as responses to the Hong Kong Cultural Centre’s construction and the opening of the Hong Kong Museum of Art. In these essays, translated by associate editor Pamela Wong, leading figures of the Hong Kong art scene questioned whether the city needed a western-style art museum and what kind of support for culture would benefit the community in the lead up to the 1997 handover and beyond.
For Inside Burger Collection, art historian Rebecca Peabody reflects on Kara Walker’s black-and-white cutout installation The Long Hot Black Road to Freedom, a Double Dixie Two-Step (2005–08). Peabody considers new meanings that might arise with the “exportation of US-specific imagery about slavery to other countries that are grappling with their own unique histories of oppression.” In Up Close, we spotlight recent projects by Ahmet Doğu İpek, Natasha Tontey, and Lo Lai Lai Natalie.
Photo of NIKHIL CHOPRA’s site-specific performance Inside Out, 2012, costumes, props, fabric, photo, slide show, wallpaper, 99 hrs, at Galleria Continua, San Gimignano, 2012. Costumes by Sabine Pfisterer. Photo by Shivani Gupta. Courtesy the artist and Galleria Continua.
Our two Profiles feature artists working with identity and transformation. Contributor Meera Menezes caught up with Nikhil Chopra at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and learned about his latest drawing and performance projects, after the pandemic waylaid many live-art events. Johanna Bear, writing from Gadigal Country, Sydney, met with the performance duo Club Ate to discuss their collaborative, motion-based practice that draws on their Philippine heritage and mythology.
In Essays, contributor Christopher Whitfield reflects on the themes of Ghost 2565, the festival of moving-image art and performances held in Bangkok, examining the surprising resilience embodied in spectral forms.
Elsewhere in the issue, Entang Wiharso pens a moving Tribute to the late Ashley Bickerton (1959–2022), a fellow artist with whom Wiharso developed a strong personal friendship and creative dialogue. For our One on One column, artist Sriwhana Spong writes about her fascination with the secret language of feminine rebellion devised by the 12th-century mystic Hildegard of Bingen.
Jars of baby sharks and a snake on the shelves of İNCİ EVİNER’s studio. Photo by Tiffany Luk for ArtAsiaPacific.
In The Point, artist Dane Mitchell explains how a surreptitious initiative to 3D-print the Parthenon Marbles inspired his latest project, The Museum of Without (2022), while Rachel Lim files a Dispatch from Singapore during its month in the art world’s spotlight. For Reviews, we gathered reflections on the biennials in Singapore and Bangkok, as well as solo showcases from Hong Kong to Paris.
Our main News story looks at efforts by cultural organizations to provide support following the devastating earthquakes in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. Several months earlier, associate editor Tiffany Luk visited the Istanbul studio of İnci Eviner. After reviewing Eviner’s video works, Luk reflects how her “visual language . . . pushes the boundaries of the body, exploring the ideas of male and female, animal and human, and the spaces in-between.” Like many artists featured in this issue, Eviner’s practice reflects the dramatic ruptures that societies have undergone in recent decades. At times of instability and chaos, artists are continuously seeking out new modes of resiliency for themselves and their communities.
EDITOR'S LETTER
REPORTS
- One On One: Sriwhana Spong on Hildegard of Bingen BY SRIWHANA SPONG
- Dispatch: Singapore BY RACHEL LIM
- Controversy, Career Moves, Public Domain BY THE EDITORS
- Art Fairs: Back in the Groove BY THE EDITORS
- Whispering Gallery: Bold Moves, Big Plays BY DT
- The Point: The Museum of Without BY DANE MITCHELL
- Previews: March–April, 2023 BY THE EDITORS
- New Currents: Data Driven Dream BY THE EDITORS
- Tribute: Ashley Bickerton BY ENTANG WIHARSO
- Main News: Cultural Sector Rallies for Earthquake Relief BY THE EDITORS
PROFILES
FEATURES
- Jes Fan: Precious Wounds BY MIMI WONG
- A Better Tomorrow for Art Museums in Hong Kong: Looking Back at the 1990s BY ARTASIAPACIFIC X ASIA ART ARCHIVE
- Up Close: Natasha Tontey BY HG MASTERS
- Up Close: Lo Lai Lai Natalie BY PAMELA WONG
- Up Close: Ahmet Doğu İpek BY HG MASTERS
- Inside Burger Collection: Kara Walker BY REBECCA PEABODY
REVIEWS
- Singapore Biennale 2022: Natasha BY LOUIS HO
- Tokyo: Roppongi Crossing 2022: Coming & Going BY EMILIA WANG
- Bangkok Art Biennale 2022: Chaos : Calm BY BRIAN CURTIN
- Manila: Phylogeny of Desire BY DONDIE CASANOVA
- Istanbul: The 90s Onstage BY SEDA YILDIZ
- Paris: Ma Desheng BY BEATRICE GRENIER
- Hong Kong: Jaffa Lam BY ELAINE W. NG
- Taipei: The Wild Eighties BY ANNETTE AN-JEN LIU
- London: Zadie Xa BY SUINING SIM
- Los Angeles: The Space Between: The Modern in Korean Art BY JENNIFER S. LI
- Book Review: The Contest of the Fruits BY TIFFANY LUK
- Book Review: O BY NICOLE M. NEPOMUCENO
- Book Review: What Do Museums Connect?: Museums in a Post-Pandemic World BY HG MASTERS