Daniel Boetker-Smith, the Melbourne-based curator and director of the Asia-Pacific Photobook Archive, lists Voices of Photography ‘SHOUT IV’, which highlights Chi-Wen Gallery artist Su Misu, as one of his Top 5 photobooks of 2019, calling the issue “a must-have for anyone interested in emerging photographic practices in Asia”. Boetker-Smith compiled the list for the British Journal of Photography Online.
Su Misu Featured in Voices of Photography - SHOUT IV
Chi-Wen Gallery collaborated with Voices of Photography in the publication of their new photobook SHOUT IV, which is a compilation of photography by Su Misu and other photographers. Through the art of Japanese rope bondage ‘Shibari’ and their images, the artists reveal the complex relationship between the photographer and their subjects. The photobook is in a limited edition of 500 copies only and comes with a special hand binding by Su Misu and the BDSM Company. Please contact the gallery for details on how to purchase this book.
Victoria Sin at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Toronto
Victoria Sin’s video works “Tell me everything you saw, and what you think it means” (2018) and “Illocutionary Utterances” (2018) are part of the group show “Age of You” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Toronto, Canada. “Age of You”, which is curated by Shumon Basar, Douglas Coupland and Hans Ulrich Obrist, is a timely exhibition about how the self has become more extreme, and what it means to be an individual today, with graphic design by Daly & Lyon and over 70 visual contributors from the worlds of art, design, filmmaking, photography, performance and electronic music. The exhibition continues till January 5, 2020.
Of note is the re-staging on November 28th of the special performance “If I had the words to tell you we wouldn’t be here now” (2019) that concluded Victoria’s Sin’s residency at Chi-Wen Gallery in January of this year. For the performance at MOCA Toronto, they will be accompanied by percussionist Nikki Joshi.
Yu Cheng-Ta at Performa 19 Biennial in New York, where he will explore the cultural phenomenon of “influencers” in Western social media alongside celebrity and food trends in a series of live and filmed performances that appropriate the visual and narrative language of reality television. Developed through the character of Fameme, a Taiwanese farmer drawn to New York City to promote durian—a thorny, odorous, tropical fruit indigenous to Southeast Asia—the project depicts an outsider’s quest for fame and acceptance in American culture. Fameme’s ambition draws him to the world of social media influencers and ingluencer events as he attempts to utilize the latest marketing trend and media obsession for his own capitalist needs. (Text from Performa 19 website) Performa 19 Biennial runs from November 1 to 24 with panel discussion “The Afterlife of Live Performance” at 6:00 p.m. on November 12, 2019.
FAMEME is organized by Esa Vincenty Nickle (Producing Director, Performa) and Jo Hsiao (TFAM). Co-commissioned with Taipei Fine Arts Museum, with generous support of the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture, Taipei Culture Center in New York, and co-presented with Wallplay.
FAMEME is part of the Taiwanese Pavilion for the Performa 19 Biennial.
Yin-Ju Chen’s “One Universe, One God, One Nation”,“Extrastellar Evaluations III : Entropy : 25800”,“Dogs of Straw” (in collaboration with James T. Hong), Yuan Goang-Ming’s “The Strangers”, “Everyday Maneuver” will be screened at Flowers of Taiwan at MAXXI Auditorium, Rome from 6 to 8 September, 2019.
Yu Cheng-Ta is invited by Das Haus der Kulturen der Welt in Berlin for participation in Flaneur Festival on 31 Aug, 2019. The festival is organised in cooperation with Flaneur Magazine, which current issue is devoted to Kangding/Wanda Roads that lead through the oldest part of Taipei and which can be understood as both the center and periphery of the city. Yu Cheng-Ta uses his research of the Taiwanese geisha Wong Xiangchan and his studies with masters of geisha body practices to transform into “Shasha”, who plans to welcome guests of the festival into her pop-up live piano karaoke bar where she will sing and invite others to sing along with her. This special performance will be presented on 31 August, 2019
Yu Cheng-Ta’s three channel video “adj. Dance” is part of the group show “The Racing Will Continue, The Dancing Will Stay” at Guangdong Times Museum in Guangzhou. The title of the exhibition comes from a saying popularised in Hong Kong and Mainland China since the mid-1980s. As per the museum’s information, “the phrase suggests the speaker’s expectations for a better future and the collective imagination of effective social systems”. Showcasing the work of twenty-four artists and collectives, “this exhibition considers the body and performativity as a method of responding to the absence and presence of the subject”. The exhibition runs from 22 June to 18 August, 2019.
Victoria Sin’s A View from Elsewhere, Act 1, She Postures in Context (2019) is exhibited at Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, London. Kiss My Genders is a group exhibition that explores and celebrates gender identity and gender fluidity. Spanning the past 50 years, it brings together over 100 artworks by more than 30 artists from all over the world, some of whom were born almost a century apart. Exhibition starts from 12 Jun to 8 Sep 2019.
"Awakenings: Art in Society in Asia 1960s–1990s" at Singapore National Gallery
Wang Jun-Jieh’s early work “Face/TV” ( 1989), “How History Was Wounded” (1989; in collaboration with Cheang Shu Lea), Chang Chao-Tang’s “Banqiao” (1962) and Chen Chieh Jen’s “Dysfunction No. 3” (1983) are exhibited at Singapore National Gallery for last stop of “Awakenings, Art in Society in Asia 1960s-1990s.” The Exhibition is co-organised by National Gallery Singapore, the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and the Japan Foundation Asia Center. Awakenings draws connections across Asia through over 150 artworks by important artists from China, India, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. Exhibition starts from 14 Junto 15 Sep 2019.
Yu Cheng-Ta and MingWong are invited by Centre National de la Danse Paris for Camping Workshop from 17 to 21 June, 2019. They propose to explore the space between virtual and real performance avatars, based on footage found from the internet “Mème”. Participants will think about forming their ‘avatar’ based on found footage from the internet such as viral videos, Cat videos, YouTube Makeup Tutorials, Games footage, by casting themselves in the video reference and by re-interpreting the source as a choreographic and theatrical exercise, introducing variation, repetition and extension. The work “Watermelon Love” will be presented at “Watermelon Sisters Party” on 22 June, 2019.
Performance art comes to the Venice Biennale 2019. Eight different works will be staged during the opening week of “Meetings on Art” including performances by our gallery artist Victoria Sin. “If I had the words to tell you we wouldn’t be here now” (2019), commissioned by Chi-Wen Gallery, and “A View From Elsewhere” (2018).