VERTICAL VILLAGES: LEVEL UP

JAKARTA. 9 – 30 NOVEMBER 2013.

Vertical Villages: Level Up is the second phase of the collaboration between ruangrupa ArtLab, Keg de Souza and 4A, presented at the 15th Jakarta Biennale 2013. Vertical Villages: Level Up is contextualised within the theme of the 15th Jakarta Biennale, ‘siasat’ – translated as ‘tactics’ – which unpacks the strategies individuals and communities apply to navigate and negotiate the urban environment of Jakarta. Artists and collectives were invited to participate by making new work in Jakarta either in collaboration or response to specific communities and groups.

The installations in Vertical Villages: Level Up comprises a series of maps of Jakarta and Sydney visualising the experience of an emerging middle class. As a precursor to the Vertical Villages project in Sydney, Vertical Villages: Level Up engaged with a diverse group of students and teachers from international schools and residential developments in Jakarta examining the role that education has played as a strategy to increase mobility and status within both the city and the region. A number of Indonesian students currently studying in Australia were also interviewed as a means of creating connections between lived experiences of Jakarta and Sydney. The aspirations of these group are highlighted in this exhibition through the promotional materials distributed by international schools and universities abroad within Jakarta.

Over the last twenty years, a number of political and economic factors have contributed to the development of a middle and upper class in Jakarta. This along with the increase of expatriates living in Jakarta have increased the demand for gated communities, high-rise residential towers, shopping centres and international schools. These structures are often combined into single ‘one-stop-living’ developments that in essence produce self-contained enclaves within the city. Vertical Villages: Level Up is on until 30 November.

4A would like to thank the artists involved in Vertical Villages: Level Up; Reza Afisnia, Haoritsa, Iswanto Hartono and Ade Darmawan from ruangrupa ArtLab; and Keg de Souza for their insightful and fresh perspective contributed to the project. Thank you also to the participants from the second phase of the project, in particular Maya, Anna, Bayu, Ibnu, Andan, Natasya, Mark, Geo, Jeffry, Thea and Claude for taking the time to be interviewed.

4A also wishes to thank our Government Partners and Sponsors for Vertical Villages & Vertical Villages: Level Up:

4AA4 2013

SYDNEY. 7 NOVEMBER 2013.

Submit a work for 4A A4 2014 here

4A A4 is a fundraising exhibition featuring renowned international artists alongside local Australian artists who have risen to the challenge to make an artwork that’s A4 – in support of 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.

4A put the call out through to its international network and the response has been phenomenal, bringing together a staggering 200 works from from Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, Phillippines, Turkey and USA.

4A A4 features works by leading contemporary artists including Vernon Ah Kee, Tony Albert, Kazim Ali, Arahmaiani, Dadang Christanto, Gary Deirmendjian, Heri Dono, Shaun Gladwell, Guan Wei, FX Harsono, Pei Pei He, He Xiangyu, Roslisham Ismai (aka ISE), Jumaadi, Jasper Knight, Hyun Hee Lee, Lindy Lee, Liu Jianhua, Liu Xiaoxian, Raquel Ormella, Reuben Paterson, Alwin Reamillo, Koji Ryui, Khaled Sabsabi, Tony Schwensen, Shen Jiawei, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Michel Tuffery, Ruth Watson, Ah Xian, Jun Yang, John Young, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Zhang Xiao, Zhou Xiaoping, and many more!

Here’s how it works: all A4 artworks are available for purchase at a fixed price of $200. Artworks are exhibited anonymously with artists’ names and artwork details revealed upon sale. From opening night through to sell out, visitors can pick up a small masterpiece in person at the gallery or online at the 4A Shop. All proceeds from sales go right back into 4A’s coffers to support 4A’s 2014 artistic program –artists helping artists.

Join us at the launch on Thursday 7 November 6.30pm, Members’ Exclusive Preview at 5.30pm, more info here

Celebrate with us on opening night for music, drinks by Grasshopper and fever-pitch sales, hosted by our special guest and MC, Sunil Badami, writer, bon vivant, raconter, flâneur and ABC Radio broadcaster.

A catalogue of the exhibition is available for download here. It has been split into 8 separate files for easy download:

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8

4A A4
Opening night Thursday 7 November 2013
General launch: 6.30pm-8pm
Members’ Preview: 5.30pm-6.30pm
Exhibition Dates: 8 November – 30 November 2013
Venue: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 181-187 Hay St, SydneyARTISTS:Lyla Abdallah, Bo Ablan, Deb Affleck, Lucinda Aguiar, Vernon Ah Kee, Christine Ai, Tony Albert, Chad Alley, Pedro de Almeida, Osnat Alice Almog, Kate Andrews-Day, Michelle Ang, Angelfxck, Adrian Apante, Arahmaiani, Bababa International, Sunil Badami, Min Woo Bang, Majella Barbe, Clementine Barnes, Gloria Bohorquez, Linda Brescia, Anastassia Briantseva, Tina Bridge, Peter Burke, Camilo Bustamante, Corine Li Ling Chan, Claudia Chan Shaw, Hannah Chapman, Somchai Charoen, Olivia Chow, Omar Adanan Chowdhury, Dadang Christanto, Shu Rui Chuah, Thomas C. Chung, Adrian Clement, Susan Cole, Terrence Combos, Billy Bob Coulthurst, Gabrielle Courtenay, Dawn Csutoros, Jayanto Damanik, Gary Deirmendjian, Michael Art M. Deleon, Michael Art M. Deleon, Shoufay Derz, Isabella Dobrijevich, Heri Dono, Drew Duckworth, Andish Ebrahim, Jo Ernsten, Janelle Evans, Equardo Ezequiel Martinez, Dong Wang Fan, Kathryn Farr, Ann Fletcher, Ryan Flocco, Kath Fries, Brigitta Gallaher, Gao Ludi, Maryann (Xanthie) Gascoigne, Simryn Gill, Hayley Givins, Shaun Gladwell, Andrew Grant, Matthew Greene, Guan Wei, Ishu Han, Newell Harry, FX Harsono, Pei Pei He, He Xiangyu, Daisy Hsu, Hu Ming, Huang Yan, Atila Ilkyaz, Feyza Ilkyaz, Roslisham Ismail (a.k.a. ISE), Anna Jarvis, Daniel Jestin, Jumaadi, Katrina Katipunan, Ali Kazim, Deborah Kelly, Gail Kenning, Sukhmani Khorana, Samuel Kirby, Danica Knezevic, Jasper Knight, Friederike Krishnabhakdi-Vasilakis, Karen Kriss, Nuengruthai Kuanpadoong, John Lam-Po-Tang, Ida Lawrence, Lindy Lee, Jae Hoon Lee, Rachel Lee, Hyun Hee Lee, Lei Tong, Owen Leong, Renjing Li, Lin Mei, Liu Tongwu, Liu Xiao Xian, Winson Liu, Liu Shiyuan, Victoria Lobregat, Kim Lowe, Luo Li, A. Gethsoline Lydina, Ma Jingjing, Ma Yujiang, Mandy Ma, Kaye Mahoney, Jessica Mais Wright, Ingrid Maltsson, Flora Mavrommati, Caitlin Mee, Enjia Mi, Modi, Susan Montano, Nicola Morton, Apinya Nantanon, Peter Nelson, Grace Ng, Toan Nguyen, Claudia Nicholson, Takashi Ohuchi, Raquel Ormella, Rafaela Pandolfini, Chris Pang OAM, Sarah Park, Rueben Paterson, Sue Pedley, Peter Pham, Debra Porch, Zul Rahaman, Alwin Reamillo, Joanne Regan, Katie Russel, Koji Ryui, Joanne Saad, Khaled Sabsabi, Saffaa, Jeffry Santony, Tony Schwensen, Pamela See, Aaron Seeto, Camille Serisier, Rebecca Shanahan, Michael Shaowanasai, Shen Jiawei, Shen Hua, Shen Shaomin, Shen Hongwei, Shi Zhiying, Pearl Hae Jin Shin, Jennifer Skeoch, Song Xi, Vipoo Srivilasa, Ariani Sugiarta, Maja Suljevic, Sherly Susan, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Alvin Teck Heng Tan, Luhsun Tan, Cyrus Tang, Yal Ton, Thao Tran, Lucia Tran-Dinh, Dana Trijbetz, Garry Trinh, Rachael Tse, Michel Tuffery, David Veleski, Dell Walker, Wang Zhiqiang, Lachlan Warner, Ruth Watson, Laura Williams, Laura Wilson, Eko Bambang Wisnu, Eduardo Wolfe-Alegria, Ruyi Wong, Bridget Wood, Shea Woodbridge, Anne Woods, Shuang Wu, Tintin Wulia, Lilian Wycisk, Ah Xian, Wang Xu, Jun Yang, Lan Yin, Cheryle Yin-Lo, Ken and Julia Yonetani, Victoria York, John Young, YOUNGHAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES, Zhang Xiao, Zhang Rui, Zhang Yanping, Zhang Yue, Zhou Xiaoping, Tianli Zu, Diana Zyliene

VERTICAL VILLAGES: 4A, ARTLAB AND KEG DE SOUZA

SYDNEY. 6 SEPTEMBER – 26 OCTOBER 2013

Vertical Villages is a collaborative partnership between ruangrupa ArtLab (Indonesia), Keg de Souza (Australia) and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Australia), working with the international student population living in Sydney’s CBD. Throughout July the artists’ were based in 4A’s ground floor gallery, utilising the street-front space as an opportunity to meet and collaborate with international students.

Vertical Villages articulates how international students engage with urban design and architecture through an amassing of personal experiences and belonging. Through a series of alternative mapping processes, Vertical Villages unpacks the individuals movements both within the city, and more broadly in the region. Personal objects and communication have also been incorporated into the exhibition as a means of highlighting the many voices of international students who participated in the project.

After intensive research, ruangrupa ArtLab and Keg de Souza recognised these students – specifically those living in high-density and multiple occupancy housing – as a group with varied understandings and expressions of domestic and communal spaces. As temporary migrants, this group illustrate the capacity of self-organisation in an unfamiliar situation, whether that may be through improvised and makeshift living situations, or a specific engagement with the urban context.

With over 35,000 international students enrolled in Sydney tertiary institutions annually, international students play an important role in the social and economic dynamic of Sydney, yet their presence within a wider conversation about the cultural and architectural development of the city.

Equally, the structure of residential living in Sydney is about to change dramatically. Developments such as World Tower, Central Park and Green Square are evidence of a shift from low to medium and high-density housing. But is the city of Sydney itself equipped for such a dramatic shift in the scale of personal and public space?

Vertical Villages is the first time that ruangrupa have worked in Sydney and by collaborating with Keg de Souza this project represents a unique, organic and process-driven experiment that will culminate in an exhibition at 4A that will be incorporated as part of the 15th Jakarta Biennale later this year.

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Vertical Villages: Keg de Souza, ruangrupa ArtLab & 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art from 4A on Vimeo.

15th Jakarta Biennale

Parallel research is currently being undertaken in Jakarta by ruangrupa ArtLab and de Souza. In the second phase of Vertical Villages the artists are gathering experiences of migrant workers in Jakarta, as a study of a population who – similarly to students in Sydney – temporarily move to a city, and in doing so impact the design of public domain and the immediate environments they inhabit. The Jakarta Biennale opens on the 9 November 2013.

ruangrupa is a non-profit organisation founded in 2000 by a collective of Jakarta-based artists that focuses on supporting the development of art in contemporary cultural contexts through research, experimentation, collaboration and documentation through its member artists’ exhibitions, artist residency programs, site-specific projects and workshops. ruangrupa work collaboratively with a range of artists, architects, designers, musicians, community members and other creative producers to support and mediate fresh ideas that consider visual art as a cultural practice with a relationship to the social spheres that mediate contemporary living. From June 2008 they have operated the RURU Gallery in Jakarta, providing a space to exhibit works by young artists and curators, as well as presenting ongoing art and visual culture writing and curatorial workshops. ruangrupa also established the Jakarta 32°C, a biennale exhibiting visual artworks by Jakarta students; founded and present the international video festival, OK Video; and publish the regular journal Karbon. As a collective they have worked extensively internationally with projects having been included in the 9th Istanbul Biennial (2005), 6th Liverpool Biennial (2010), and 7th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane (2012). ruangrupa.org

ruangrupa Artlab artist members participating in Vertical Villages are Reza Afisina, Iswanto Hartono, Hauritsa and director and founding member Ade Darmawan.

Keg de Souza is a Sydney-based artist who works across disciplines including architecture, screen-printing, installation, cartography, social research and tours. She formally trained as an architect and continues to be influenced by her training, concerned with the spatial politics of the built environment and the changes in relationships between a community and their surroundings. Her work is often ephemeral and reflective of the constant state of flux in which cities and their populations operate. De Souza has previously worked as part of the curatorial and artistic duo You Are Here (with Zanny Begg), that included initiating and presenting the exhibition, residency, discussion and publishing project There Goes the Neighbourhood (2009) at Performance Space that explored the politics of urban space in the inner-city Sydney suburb of Redfern. In addition, De Souza has extensive experience working collaboratively with such groups as SquatSpace Artist Collective, Network of Un-Collectable Artists and The Rizzeria. De Souza has worked extensively in Australia as well as across Asia and North America. Recent group exhibitions include the 5th Auckland Triennial, If you were to live here… (2013); Gonflables et amuses-bouches, Darling Foundry, Montreal (2012); andPrimavera, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2011). De Souza is the recipient of numerous international residencies, grants and awards including, most recently, a Creative Australia Fellowship from the Australia Council for the Arts to support the professional development of outstanding Australian artists. http://allthumbspress.net/

House Party

As part of Vertical Villages, 4A will present a series of events to be hosted by different international students. House Party invites four students to host a party in the Ground Floor of 4A from 6pm til late. Bookings essential.

5 September 6pm – late      Opening of Vertical Villages & House Party
20 September 6pm – late    Chinese hot pot with Jeffry Santony
5 October 6pm – late    hosted by Fuse Worapot and Angelica Casado
25 October 6pm – late          Demolition Party

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MEDIA COVERAGE

The Art Life, 6 September 2013

Concrete Playground

Meld Magazine, 16 September 2013

The Thousands, 5 September 2013

In Profile: Keg de Souza, Realtime, 25 September 2013

ZHANG RUI 张瑞: ONE YEAR 一年

SYDNEY. 28 JUNE – 17 AUGUST 2013

One Year (一年) presents a new collection of paintings by Chinese-born artist Zhang Rui (张瑞). Having moved to Sydney one year ago, the body of work in One Year portrays Rui’s development of a visual language working across the context of her experiences of China and Australia. Faced with new physical and psychological environments, the artist’s new work draws on a vast array of images – usually sourced from the internet – as a means of reading or engaging with her surroundings. The results are dense and at times visually cryptic paintings that subtly combine the autobiographical with political threads and interweave personal and social worlds.

The conceptual development of Rui’s works indicate a broad cultural practice that encompasses an education in Western oil painting, an ongoing interest in the Wumen School (吳門學校) painters of China and a broader interest in how to express a sense of humanism through painting. Rui’s practice reveals the complexity of translating meaning across cultural and geographical distances despite the expanding reach of technology. Presented as a series of constellations the works in One Year produce a sense of meaning through a cumulative reading of the language and imagery embedded in the canvases.

Zhang Rui (张瑞) was born in 1983 in Tianjin, China and graduated from the Department of Painting, Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts. She has presented work internationally, both in China and Europe, including the solo exhibition Freedom We Need, Laden No.5 Gallery, Bad Ems (2011). Rui has also participated in a number of group exhibitions including Fang – then there was no more living room, 978 Art District, Beijing (2007); Xu Ni, Cao Chang Di Art Space, Beijing (2008) and Mud, curated by Ai Weiwei, China Art Archives & Warehouse, Beijing. Rui met Weiwei as a participant in his acclaimed project, Fairytale, presented as part of dOCUMENTA (12), Kassel, Germany (2007).

VIDEO INTERVIEWS

Zhang Rui: One Year from 4A on Vimeo.

PUBLIC PROGRAM

Saturday 29 June 2013

In celebration of the exhibition Zhang Rui: One Year 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (4A) and
Musica Viva have teamed up and are pleased to present an afternoon of public programs
on Saturday 29 June 2013. Join us for lively talks and drinks.

Venue: 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art
181-187 Hay St
Sydney NSW 2000
Maplink

1PM Artist talk with Zhang Rui
Join us for a brief tour of One Year led by the artist followed by…

2PM Cellist Jian Wang in conversation with Dominic Knight

Cellist Jian Wang first came to international attention as a child prodigy in the 1980s documentary From Mao to Mozart. Since then his career has taken off around the globe and Musica Viva now brings him to Australia to perform with pianist Bernadette Harvey. Jian Wang will be in conversation with Dominic Knight relating his experience growing up in the Cultural Revolution to his current international career highlighting themes in Zhang Rui’s One Year that resonate with him.

Dominic Knight is Evenings presenter on 702 ABC Sydney, co-founder of the Chaser and novelist.

Presented by Musica Viva, Jian Wang and Bernadette Harvey will be touring Australia in July. At the event 4A will have two double passes to give away to the Sydney shows. Further information.

ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Perth, Australia

Perth: Two new exhibitions ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections curated by
Ted Snell (Director, Cultural Precinct, UWA) and Sally Quin (Curator, UWA) and ORIENTing: With Or Without You curated by Aaron Seeto (Director, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney) and Toby Chapman (Assistant Curator, 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, Sydney) opened in early May 2013 at the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, The University of Western Australia. With Or Without You features a number of prominent Australian artists including Newell Harry, Tom Nicholson, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Roy Wiggan, Tintin Wulia, and John Young.

According to the official media release:

ORIENTing is an exhibition in two parts, each exploring a different aspect of artistic engagement with Asia. ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections gathers together for the first time a series of significant early works by Fairweather in Western Australian collections, focusing on the influence of Asian art and culture on the artist’s practice. A major artist of the twentieth century, Fairweather was Scottish born, though spent periods of his life in China, Bali, the Philippines, India and Australia. He was particularly fascinated by Chinese culture and this is reflected in the subject matter and style of his works, which indicate a strong fascination with calligraphy. The exhibition focuses on Fairweather’s early paintings from the 1930s and 1940s, which recall his experiences of travel.

ORIENTing: With or Without You is an exhibition of contemporary art by Australian artists which touches on similar themes, considering the significance of place, identity and landscape in a variety of art forms. Artists include Newell Harry, Tom Nicholson, Phaptawan Suwannakudt, Roy Wiggan, Tintin Wulia, and John Young. While some artists respond directly to Ian Fairweather’s paintings, others reflect on the broader themes of cross-cultural engagement and interaction.

The exhibitions enable us to look at the past to provide an understanding of the present, and also to act as a lens onto the future by exploring our cultural relationship to our geographic region over a broad time span.

Additionally, in June 2013 the Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery will launch a companion book including full-colour plates of all the works together with essays written by leading scholars and authors.


The exhibition is on from 4 May – 13 July 2013.




















ORIENTing: Ian Fairweather in Western Australian Collections
ORIENTing: With Or Without You
4 May – 13 July 2013
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery
The University of Western Australia
35 Stirling Hwy (cnr Fairway)
Crawley, Perth
Western Australia 6009
Ph: 08 6488 3707
Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery hours 11.00am to 5.00pm Tuesday to Saturday

IN POSSIBLE WORLDS: ELLY KENT, CLAUDIA NICHOLSON AND TIANLI ZU

SYDNEY. 19 APRIL – 8 JUNE 2013.

In Possible Worlds brings together a selection of recent works by Australian artists Elly Kent, Claudia Nicholson, and Tianli Zu.

Touching on themes of intimacy, dislocation, violence and the pleasures of ordinary life, In Possible Worlds encourages us to question the concrete reality of visual fact when faced with shifting realms of meaning beneath the surface of things. Engaging with the material qualities of forms and imagery enables a process of exchange and negotiation that opens up possibilities of seeing the world in different ways.

Elly Kent’s works on paper draw on her knowledge of traditional Indonesian batik practices – a skill she learnt during her studies at the Indonesian Institute of Art in Yogyakarta. Interested in subverting the ways in which difference is identified and named, Kent re-contextualises batik processes by creating patterns using familiar everyday objects. Crafting stamps out of domestic utensils sourced from her home Kent prints the same object repetitively onto strips of paper that are then dyed, stitched together and stretched over door and window frames.

Born in Colombia and raised in Australia, Claudia Nicholson occupies an ambiguous position between Australian and Latino cultures. As an adopted child, her work questions the construction of identity in the absence of a known ancestry and subsequent experiences of cultural and geographic dislocation. Interested in the social functions of folklore and myth surrounding pregnancy and childbirth, Nicholson works extensively with her family, using performance to comment on social attributes pertaining to kinship and familial relationships.

Fascinated by the powerful potential of shadows, Tianli Zu’s large-scale intricate hand cut-outs and animations are inspired by human and organic forms and genitalia. Drawing on traditional Chinese paper cutting techniques, Zu creates complex visual environments by projecting animations through multiple layers of acetate. These beautiful objects cast shadows that evoke a sense of restlessness, anxiety, doubt and contradiction, reflecting on the inseparable relationship between light and shade and the intertwining of yin and yang.

Developed over a year through a process of curatorial guidance with 4A, these artists were chosen to exhibit by Lisa Havilah, Chief Executive Officer, Carriageworks and Aaron Seeto, Director of 4A through 4A’s early career artists’ initiative.

Elly Kent (b. Australia) is a Canberra-based printmaker whose works on paper, inspired by Indonesian Batik practices, are created with everyday objects sourced from her home. Kent holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in Printmaking and Drawing, and a Bachelor of Arts in Asian Studies specialising in Indonesian, from the Australian National University, Canberra, where she is currently completing doctoral research on the theory and practice of contemporary artists in Indonesia. Over the past decade Kent’s works have been exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Australia, and she has been an artist-in-residence at the Bundanon Trust and Megalo Print Studio and Gallery. Kent has further strengthened her ties to Indonesia by studying at the Indonesian Institute of Art and Universitas Gadjah Mada, and has also worked previously at Cemeti Art House, Yogyakarta (2003-2004).

Claudia Nicholson (b. Colombia) is a Sydney-based artist, adopted from Colombia and raised in Australia. Nicholson is a graduate of the College of Fine Arts (COFA), University of New South Wales, completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) in Painting and Drawing in 2011. She has exhibited in a number of group exhibitions across Sydney, including ARC annual emerging artist and design show (2007 & 2011) at Kudos Gallery and EASY SPEAK Tortuga Studios Group Show (2011). Nicholson’s work has been featured in COFA’s graduate exhibitions and group shows, including Halfway House at COFA Space Paddington (2011).

Tianli Zu (b. China) is a Sydney-based artist who practices in intricate papercuts and projecting light and sound animations. Her body of work is inspired by Chinese philosophy and much of her work and research dwells on shadows and the powerful dynamics between light and dark. She graduated from the Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing in 1987, and has a Master of Fine Arts (Research) from the Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, where she is presently completing a Doctor of Philosophy, researching Taoism and the power of the shadow.

VIDEO INTERVIEWS

Produced for 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art by Das Platforms.

Image: Claudia Nicholson, Alliance VS Decent (work with dentures) (2011), single channel video, 2 mins. Courtesy of the artist; Elly Kent, Diverge (2012-13), production image (detail), batik wax, machine stitching concrete oxides on paper, found door and window frames, dimensions variable, private collection. Courtesy of the artist; Tianli Zu, White Shadows (2013),(detail) acrylic on acetate film, handcut, and light projection and animation dimensions variable. Courtesy of the artist.

SONG DONG: DAD AND MUM, DON’T WORRY ABOUT US, WE ARE ALL WELL

SYDNEY. 5 JANUARY – 30 MARCH 2013.

Dad and Mum, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well is an exhibition of work by Song Dong spanning the last 30 years

Emerging as an important artist during a period of significant cultural, social and economic transformation in China, Song Dong’s work reinforces the family unit as a microcosm for society at large.

Song Dong creates spaces in contemporary art where members of his family from the present and the past are able to reunite and establish connections. Family members are featured in the artist’s earlier experimental video, photographic, sculptural and neon works which present compelling portraits of parent and child relationships and the power of simple actions in the process of memorialising and remembering. Song Dong’s experimentation with video over the past three decades – superimposing images of himself, his father, his mother and his daughter – bears the hallmark of emotional and spiritual connections but with the impossibility of physical contact ever materialising. Since his parent’s passing, Song Dong created his neon work, Dad and Mum, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well (2011)which faces the direction of the sky and relays a personal message from his family to his late father, Song Shiping and late mother, Zhao Xiangyuan.

Coinciding with Dad and Mum, Don’t Worry about Us, We are All Well is Waste Not presented at Carriageworks, Song Dong’s most celebrated work previously exhibited at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 2009 and London’s Barbican Art Gallery in 2012.

Dad and Mum, Don’t Worry about Us, We are All Well and Waste Not are presented by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art and Carriageworks in association with Sydney Festival.

Song Dong (born 1966) lives and works in Beijing and has been at the forefront of conceptual art in China since the 1990s. Known for combining aspects of performance, video, photography, sculpture, and installation, Song Dong’s works are often ephemeral and utilize modest materials that explore notions of transience and impermanence in personal, local, and global spheres. He has long been part of a traditional, tight-knit Beijing community, and his work reflects the everyday concerns and realities of his neighbors. Song Dong graduated from the Normal University in Beijing in 1989 and has exhibited widely in Asia and abroad. Recent exhibitions include Song Dong (2008) at the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai; Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China (2004-2006) at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; and Oalors, a chine: Chinese Contemporary Art (2003) at the Center Pompidou in Paris. His work was presented at the 2004 Sao Paolo Biennale in Brazil and at the 2003 Istanbul Biennale. He was also shown in the exhibition Inside Out: New Chinese Art Exhibition (1998) at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center.

VIDEO INTERVIEWS

Song Dong and curators, Aaron Seeto and Lisa Havilah were recently interviewed about the exhibitions, Dad and Mum, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well presented at 4A and Waste Not presented at Carriageworks. With thanks to Das Platforms.

Presented by

SONG DONG: WASTE NOT

SYDNEY. 5 JANUARY – 17 MARCH 2013.

Carriageworks and 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in association with Sydney Festival proudly presents, Waste Not by Song Dong.

From his family home in Beijing, to the Museum of Modern Art in New York to the Barbican Art Gallery in London, Waste Not presented at Carriageworks is a transformative installation by one of China’s pre-eminent artists, Song Dong. Conceived by the artist following the death of his father, the work represents his mother’s process of mourning and remembrance. Consisting of the entire contents of his mother’s house, Waste Not reflects a journey of hardship and grief, resulting in a display of personal resilience and ultimately a celebration of life.

Coinciding with Waste Not is Dad and Mum, Don’t Worry About Us, We Are All Well, presented at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, an important survey of Song Dong’s work from the last three decades which reinforces the power of simple actions and the process of remembering.

VIDEO INTERVIEWS

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