AAA.org.hk, diAAAlogue, August 2005
Diving into Parallel Realities: Notes on The 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
Kuroda Raiji

The curatorial concepts of the 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale 2005
(hereafter, FT3) developed differently from past two Triennales – FT 1
(1999) & FT2 (2002). This does not mean the basic system of research,
selection of artists, and decision on the theme was changed; rather,
these were almost the same as before: curatorial teams of Fukuoka Asian
Art Museum (FAAM) researched emerging artists in Asian cities based on
proposals by local curators and other information gathered through
museum activities. For artists in several countries where we could not
afford to undertake research, we asked curators to work as “commissioned
researchers”, responsible for providing materials on artists as FT3
candidates. Then FAAM curators made shortlists, and the selection
committee, consisting of 5 members, discussed the shortlists and chose
artists (1). The only, but quite important, change in FT3 is that in the
research and selection processes we intended not to be preoccupied with
thematic focuses developed from the past logic of FAAM’s mission, such
as “communication” or “exchange”.

[image] Ten Differences, 2004, video
Rashid Rana, Pakistan

[image] Cosplayers, 2004, video
Cao Fei, China

This change resulted from both the “internal” and “external” situation
around FAAM. The “internal” matter is our long process to re-examine the
established programs and systems of the FAAM, the world’s only art
museum for Asian modern/contemporary art. During our six year practice
of exhibiting Asian modern and contemporary art and our exchange
programs through artist-in-residence and invitations to artists for the
Fukuoka Triennale, we gradually recognized how difficult it was to
attract the attention of local people showing Asian artists – guests
from another world and totally unknown to them – and to produce familiar
and lively communication and collaboration between foreign artists and
local people. The “external” situation is, above all, what everybody in
the world knows: the post- 9.11 situation, the Iraq war, where strong
politics pretending to be justice takes place against “The Other”,
anti-American terrorism, followed by terrorism in U.K. two months before
FT3. And other incidents seemingly “external” to FAAM have been no less
influential in the conception of FT3’s theme: in the Asian context, the
lasting tragedy of Hindi-Muslim confrontation seen in the Gujarat riot
in India in 2002; the enactment on Takeshima Island as Japanese
territory by Shimane Prefecture Council, against Korean opinion
insisting Dokto (Korean name of Takeshima Island) belongs to them; and a
series of anti-Japan demonstrations in Chinese cities in April 2005. The
biggest tragedy in the pan-Asia region was the Sumatra Earthquake in
December 2004, and the tsunami that caused more than 200,000 deaths in
Indonesia and other Asian countries. Then, with these events, how can we
expect happy “communication” between such opposing and egocentric
parties, or between the victims and the news receivers of natural and
man-made disasters? In short, it seems absolutely impossible to bridge,
reconcile, coordinate HERE and THERE – in PARALLEL REALITIES?

[image] Reference image for exchange program
Tiarma Dame Ruth Sirait, Indonesia

I will go back to the curatorial process of FT3. As mentioned, the
selection committee decided not to discuss a theme for selection, but
they tried to choose “fresh” artists to present a new but unfamiliar
aspect of Asian visual culture, instead of choosing artists according to
any preconceived thematic focus. This meant two things: first, we wanted
to get away from FAAM’s own mindset since FT1 to explore “exchange”
through artists’ works or projects/workshops; second, we tried to choose
artists whose works would present different images of Asian society and
visual culture, or non-Asian, anti-Asian aspects in works by artists
living and working in Asian cities. Actually, I noticed some of the
participating artists in FT3 consciously oppose this strategy to present
“Asian contemporary art”. Instead of using local materials and dealing
with political issues in Asian cities, they prefer the use of “pop”
media and elements in their work, which do not seem to belong to their
indigenous culture, but to the “nowhere” culture of fashion, design,
manga, anime, the internet, etc., free from the identity politics which
used to be a weapon and armour for Asian artists.

With this “pop” media these artists can move from a reality to other
realities. Examples of this “new generation” (because of their work,
rather than age) are Thaweesak Srithongdee (Thailand), Kill Your
Television (Singapore), Tiffany Chung (Vietnam), Tiarma Dame Ruth Sirait
(Indonesia), and YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES (Korea), among others.
To borrow a title of a work by Tiarma, who has been working as fashion
designer and artist, what is common to these artists may be the idea of
“synthetic love” – a love for the artificial, the superficial, the
digital, the hybrid, and for the media; all characteristics of
contemporary popular culture – which appeals to the general public,
often with humour and sexual concern. The increase in video works (20
artists among 50 somehow use projected moving images) in FT3 is not
surprising, considering the intentional exclusion of video works in FT2
and the many “black cubes” for video installation found in most
international exhibitions. However, as the usage of moving images is so
diverse, these works should be seen as artists’ natural response to
everyday life, thereby presenting sensitivities and lifestyles of a new
generation which might appear “alien” to those who are expecting
“Asian-ness” from these artists.

[image] Shortcuts to Bliss
Tiffany Chung, Vietnam

An example of the “Parallel Realities” conveyed by such “pop” media is
Cosplayers, an installation with video images by Cao Fei, a
Guangzhou-based artist. In Japan and other East Asian cities, playing
with the costumes of popular characters in anime, manga, and computer
games (kosupure, in Japanese) has become undercurrent fashion, but in
Cao’s works, the gap between “the real”, commonplace urban life with
their family of middle class, and their fantasy of playing strong and/or
cute characters in youngsters’ circle, is ironically emphasized.
Similarly, in an installation by Ito Ryusuke, known for his experimental
films, the co-existence of a pair of cheap and small sets and the
enlarged video projection of the sets show doubled, double reality –
life and media; the real and fantasy.

[image] Power, 2005
Thaweesak Srithongdee, Thailand

The new generation of artists – however innocently optimistic they may
seem – does not turn away from the still-harsh realities in our local
environment or in the globalizing world. The artist whose work gave a
hint in developing the concept of “Parallel Realities” is Rashid Rana, a
Pakistani artist based in Lahore. He was creating paintings by combining
images from Pakistani films and western culture, but his recent works
are extremely elaborate combinations of small digital images. Artists in
Lahore often use tricks to keep the viewer’s attention in small
paintings, in order to have them notice the gap between the first sight
and that of patient reading, and Rashid’s strategy is alike; to catch
eyes of viewers with seemingly beautiful (sometimes “exotic”) images,
which actually consist of tiny numberless digital images from billboards
in Lahore or of soldiers in battle. It is understandable that artists
from Muslim countries are keenly aware of this kind of “double reality”;
the large distance between what the mass media provides and what it does
not, its bias of the common life of Muslims as it responds to the global
preoccupation with the Muslim community and the view of this community
as dens for terrorists.

We should be aware of the illusion of popular culture, even if it is an
available means for us to travel to other realities. The illusion is
another carefree misunderstanding that pop cultures can easily
transgress national or cultural borders, based on rapidly expanding
markets of music, TV drama, films, anime & manga, and computer games in
East Asia, because it ignores the fact that only small parts of cultures
deprived of social and political complicacy can be circulated and
mass-consumed, thereby seeming to be exchangeable beyond “borders”, just
like Hollywood films. Even from metropolitan cities like Taipei, Wu Mali
has now started to research the forgotten culture of fishermen, both to
focus locality and missing link along the Kuroshio tide across national
borders. However, as Wu uses video documentation to present this reality
parallel to that of city dwellers, it is absurd to choose to give up
media technology highly developed in popular culture.

Reference work
Ito Ryusuke, Japan

In the painting/video installation by Ho Tzu Nyen from another
metropolis – Singapore – the artist re-produces, re-acts, and re-creates
to uncover the history of the Malay king, Utama, in a style of Western
historical paintings, but the style is also reminiscent of educational
TV programs performed by popular actors! A similar structure can be also
seen in the projection of still images by Jo Seub from Korea, in terms
of his combining the setting and exaggerated action of TV comedy with an
acute criticism towards the internalized fascism prevailing in Korean
society through violence, machoism, and military values. These works by
younger generation artists may represent the big potential of popular
culture which is already mature enough to deal with social issues as
seen in recent Japanese manga culture.

(1) The 5 members were Nakamura Hideki, Okabe Aomi, Mori Yoshitaka
(Japan), Salima Hashmi (Pakistan) and Kwon Kian Chow (Singapore).

http://www.aaa.org.hk/newsletter.html#news224

 

__________________

with kind regards,

Matthias Arnold
(Art-Eastasia list)

http://www.chinaresource.org
http://www.fluktor.de

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