I just got back from the press conference and preview for Yoko Ono's solo show at Ke Art. It opens tomorrow, and is curated by my girl Biljana Ciric, Shanghai's best home-grown young rising curatorial star. It was great: huge attendance of mostly Chinese press, and both Yoko and Biljana were total rock stars. It was so odd having a security detail at an art event, that's a first, but required.
I'll transcribe the more interesting comments and upload some pictures after I get some work done.
The opening tomorrow is "invite only" - and for once I think that will be pretty strict, but the show is definitely worth catching after the 23rd. I look forward to the "instructionals" series being posted all over town: I think they will confuse the crap out of people, which is what makes conceptual art so much fun.
I suspect it is no coincidence that Yuyintang, which is located smack next door to Ke Art, is having a "Young Beatles in Shanghai" show tomorrow night. Not sure whether that's a tribute to or crack at Ono; without having talked with Zhang Haisheng, I'll guess neither, since it's a concert showcasing young Brit-rock bands. (Hopefully the Beatles covers will be kept to a minimum. Details:
英式风格和现代摇滚的里程碑乐队beatles，相信是很多人所喜欢的第一个乐队。
上海的新英式小子空中花园，甜蜜古怪的硬女王，中日法混合DropKicks, 充满拉丁风情的Hotter than
Tepanyaki，还有来自南京的radiohead,verve--v day，五支乐队一起带给你一个brit rock的夜晚。
提醒（当天在隔壁可当代有大野洋子的个展开幕，英饭们可以先去看个先）
注意：穿英式复古装进场可享受门票8折优惠
育音堂 演出具体时间：11月22日 晚9点
地址： 延安西路1731号凯旋路门（3号线延安西路站2号出口）票价：30元
Alas, Ono is having a swanky afterparty at a venue I am not permitted to disclose, so probably won't make it. Also in music: Beijing faves New Pants are back to release another album, playing at Zhijiang Dream Factory.
Then, also tomorrow afternoon, my friend Chen Hangfeng has a solo show opening at Art Labor. While I love his older works that subtly incorporate traditional Chinese culture while mocking modern materialism mercilessly, the new direction that I've seen in progress promises to equally bring his trademark humor. Check it out.
DAILY PROSPERITY
- An Installation by CHEN HANGFENG
November 22, 2008 -
January 2, 2009
OPENING PARTY Saturday Nov 22, 5 - 9pm...
10- 36
Yongjia lu, Shanghai
info: 6431 7782
ART LABOR Gallery invites you
to an fabulous new installation of chandelier, wallpaper, paravent (wood screen)
and carpet by artist Chen Hangfeng, along with other works on paper.
Chen Hangfeng arranges the logos of the world's largest companies into
traditional Chinese patterns with a modern twist, without soaking it in cynical
irony. As an ancient woodcarver might have used the bird he observed in his
daily life and place this in his work, Chen Hangfeng takes the symbols in front
of our eyes and puts them into his work as motifs, creating very attractive
works of art composed of rather more normally mundane corporate logos of our
times.
Working along these lines of appropriation and reapplication, Chen Hangfeng has
over some months collected various objects out of garbage collection and
redistribution centers around Shanghai. Out of these he has built a
glamourous "Chandelier" from discarded pieces (which he had to purchase from the
garbage vendors - and have been well washed and processed!!), and as well,
discovering much during this process about the system of garbage reclamation and
trade in a city which "produces" 20,000 tons daily. Juxtaposing his highly
collectible art craft with the disposable nature of most mass production - in a
country renowned for being the world's factory - is not meant to make an ironic
comment, but merely intends to illustrate the complex layers behind the
processes in our daily lives and also the layers inherent in our application of
value to an object at various phases of use. A video of this artistic project
has been produced by ART LABOR SHANGHAI GROUP.
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