Category: 2015 Exhibitions

SYDNEY. 17 JANUARY – 17 MARCH 2015.

Hailing from Yangjiang, a coastal city in Guangdong Province, Yangjiang Group was formed by the artist Zheng Guogu in 2002 with members Chen Zaiyan and Sun Qinglin. With a focus on social action, their work spans installation, painting, performance and calligraphy. Yangjiang Group has a belief that culture can be practiced by anyone, and possess a desire to break the hierarchies and social privileges that inform traditions like calligraphy. Yangjiang Group imbue its work with a sincere anti-authoritative streak.

In developing this exhibition 4A’s invitation to Yangjiang Group was to engage with the gallery and administration areas of the organisation. Yangjiang Group has responded by devising a daily action for 4A staff called Tea Office (2015). Each morning staff will prepare and drink a cycle of Chinese teas for the duration of the exhibition. The artists have chosen these teas for their therapeutic qualities and the effects they have on the mind and body, which is a particular process valued by the artists. By encouraging a daily ritual, the artists offer an activity to observe shifts in sensory and spiritual perception and to consider the organisation’s administrative and cultural functions.

SYDNEY. 27 MARCH – 16 MAY 2015

Tell Me My Truth seeks to address persistent and often contentious relationships that frame the individual within the group. Exploring the motivations of artists for whom a questioning of the veracity of the status quo is a defining aspect of their practice, Tell Me My Truth presents works that give form to alternative narratives. Contrasting fiction with the documentary, remembrance with negation, responsibility with impunity, and privacy with surveillance within the public realm, Tell Me My Truth is at once a provocative demand and an admission of the futility of splendid isolation in a world that more than ever is defined by our connectedness.

This is the second exhibition instalment of MASS GROUP INCIDENT, a major five-month multi-stage project curated and produced by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art. Comprising a series of exhibitions, site-specific projects, performances, film screenings and public programs, this broader project’s central theme is the power and limits of social engagement and collective action as experienced by the individual. Within this construct, Tell Me My Truth takes a more analytical and meditative approach in its investigation of the causes of social friction and mutual understanding.

Bringing together artists from Australia, Asia and abroad, new works have been commissioned by 4A especially for this exhibition, complemented by significant existing works presented in Australia for the first time. Taking longer historical views are works that seek to reveal the hidden or otherwise suppressed aspects of identities and geographies, for instance, those that relate to Sydney’s Chinatown and Indonesia’s persecuted Chinese minority. Underscoring history’s immense role in shaping individual lives are deeply personal studies, as in an artist’s attempt to re-stage a moment from his mother’s past, contrasted with investigations into the spatial dynamics of public space in which mass demonstrations are contained. Whilst Tell Me My Truth focuses on the use of digital technologies in recording and relaying often abstract and de-personalised experiences, more traditional methods of representation are also utilised to articulate marginalised perspectives.

Tell Me My Truth holds a mirror up to audiences, one in which we might recognise the embodiment of dissent and the dangers of expediency in the age of perpetual revolutions.

Simon Fujiwara (b.1982, London, UK) spent his childhood between Japan, England, Spain and Africa. In dense dramas about personal relationships, family relations, politics, architecture and history, Fujiwara’s work explores biographies and ‘real-life’ narratives through a combination of performance, video, installation and short stories.In linking fictional and real people, locations and events he explores the boundary between the real and the imagined, often revealing the very fiction of such distinction. Fujiwara’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Contemporary Art Society, UK, 2014; Tate Liverpool, UK, 2012; Dvir Gallery, Tel Aviv, 2012; 53rd Venice Biennale, 2009; and the Schindler House/MAK Center for Contemporary Art, USA, 2009. In 2010, Fujiwara completed the Iaspis Residency in Gothenburg, Sweden and was awarded the Arts Foundation Fellowship Award in the UK in 2009.

Helen Grace (b. Warrnambool, Australia) is a new media artist, filmmaker, writer and academic whose work has played an active role in the development of art, cinema, photography, cultural studies and education in Australia and regionally for 30 years. Elements of art and politics intertwine in her work as she draws on the past to reflect on the present. Her work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Art Gallery of South Australia and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, and has been exhibited internationally in Hong Kong, the US, the UK, France, Spain and Finland. Grace’s latest book, Culture, Aesthetics and Affect in Ubiquitous Media: The Prosaic Image, was published by Routledge in 2014. She was Founding Director of the MA Programme in Visual Culture Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong; an associate (Department of Gender & Cultural Studies) and research affiliate (Sydney College of the Arts), at the University of Sydney; and is currently Co-Investigator on a study on the measurement of community benefit in public space transformation in Hong Kong; and a member of the Film Advisory Board of Sydney International Film Festival, where she focuses on Asian and independent cinema.

Amala Groom (b. 1979, Casino, Australia) is a conceptual artist whose practice is informed by Indigenous methodologies and whose work, as a form of passionate activism, reads as a social and political commentary on contemporary politics and race relations. Since the beginning of her art practice in 2012 Groom has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the 2013 and 2014 Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize where her works were highly commended. Groom’s first solo exhibition, The Cider Series, took place at Kings Cross Library in 2014. Recent and upcoming shows include: Lawful & Permissible: Amala Groom & Blak Douglas (aka Adam Hill) at Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney; Bungaree’s Farm, curated by Djon Mundine OAM for Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney; (in)visible: the First Peoples and War at Lake Macquarie City Art Gallery. She is currently undertaking a Bachelor of Fine Arts at UNSW Art & Design.

FX Harsono (b. 1949, Blitar, Indonesia) is a seminal figure in Indonesia’s contemporary art scene. Since his student days he has been an active critic of Indonesian politics, society and culture, always updating his artistic language to the current social and cultural contexts. Harsono’s own biography and family history are often the basis of his art. He has exhibitied solo work and participated in group exhibitions in and outside Indonesia, including at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, 2014; Arter Space for Art, Istanbul, 2014; Jogja National Museum, Yogyakarta, 2013; Bangkok Art And Cultural Center, Thailand, 2013; Tyler Rollins, New York, 2012; and the Singapore Art Museum, Singapore, 2010. Harsono’s work has been presented at 4A as part of the major multiyear community-engaged project Edge of Elsewhere in 2011 and 2012. In 2014 Harsono was the recipient of the Prince Clause Fund award. He currently lectures at the Faculty of Art and Design at the University of Pelita Harapan, Tangerang, Indonesia.

He Xiangyu (b. 1986, Liaoning Province, China) is part of a new generation of conceptual artists in China. Using various media, his work is a commentary on society and culture. He has held solo exhibitions at The Bathhouse, Tokyo, 2013; White Space, Beijing, 2012; Kunstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Bad Ems, Germany, 2011; Loft Art Gallery, Paris, 2011; and Wall Art Museum, Beijing, 2010. His work has been included in group exhibitions in Groninger Museum, The Netherlands, 2013; Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2013; Iberia Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, 2012; and Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland, 2011. Xiangyu graduated from the Shenyang Normal University and lives and works in Beijing. He Xiangyu is represented by WHITE SPACE, Beijing.

James Newitt (b. 1981, Hobart, Tasmania) lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal and Hobart, Tasmania. His work engages with specific social and cultural relations, often embracing mutability and paradox in order to investigate the spaces between individual and collective identity, memory, history, fact and fiction through personal, observational and performative approaches. Newitt’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Australia and Europe, including Lumiar Cite, Lisbon, 2013; the 2013 Anne Landa Award for Video and New Media Arts, Art Gallery of New South Wales; the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, 2012; the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, 2009 and 2011; Rosalux, Berlin, 2009 and 2010; The Gallery of Fine Arts, Split, Croatia, 2010; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2010. In 2012 James was awarded the prestigious Samstag Scholarship to participate in the Maumaus Independent Study Program in Lisbon. James is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Tasmania, College of the Arts.

Tony Schwensen (b. 1970, Sydney, Australia) explores the human condition through performance, video, installation and sculpture. He has maintained an active participation in contemporary art practice since 1988, including establishing and running artist run initiatives, hosting international artists, providing exhibition and performance opportunities and regularly exhibiting nationally and internationally. Schwensen completed a PhD at Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney, researching the influence and adaptation of the discipline specific investigations of Samuel Beckett on and into historic and contemporary video performance practice. Schwensen was awarded the Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship in 1998, enabling him to live and work in Rotterdam, The Netherlands from 1999–2001. Schwensen’s work has appeared in solo and group exhibitions, including Perform! Cooperate! Now! Burgtheater, University of Hildesheim, Hildesheim, Germany, 2014; How Xenophobia Affects Aliens, Mobius, Cambridge, USA, 2013; Monaism, Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, 2011; BIG PINKO (with Andre Stitt), Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown, 2009; Complain about Australia to an Australia, Michael Lett Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand, 2006; Border Protection Assistance, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Casula, 2002; Revolutions: Forms that Turn, 16^th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2008; and ANTI Contemporary Art Festival, Kuopio, Finland, 2006. He currently lives and works in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

John von Sturmer (b. 1943, Lismore, Australia) is a social anthropologist with a long and distinguished career in Aboriginal studies. He has been a central participant in many key events and issues including uranium mining in Western Arnhem Land, the Aboriginal Customary Law Reference, and the Wik Native Title Claim. Research director/senior adviser to the Agreement Implementation Committee and First Nations Joint Company, PNG-Gladstone Pipeline Project. Long involvement in Aboriginal art and performance. Since the mid-1990s, increasing creative involvement – painting, installation and performance; collaborations with Slawek Janicki, Cigdem Aydemir, Djon and Roy Mundine; critical writing and textual production. Senior Fellow, Institute of Postcolonial Studies, Melbourne. Based in Sydney since 1984.

 

 

MEDIA COVERAGE

 

Erin Smith, “Sydney’s 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art Announce “Tell Me My Truth” Exhibition” , The Au Review,  March 26 2015.

Sue Wang, “4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art announces “Tell Me My truth” featuring eight Australian and international artists,” CAFA ART INFO, March 26 2015.

Rachel Storey, “The Asian art market is expanding but is Australia looking in the right direction?,” ABC Arts News, May 13 2015.

Rachel Ang, “Sydney Is All About The Art,” A Magazine, April 21 2015.

Dee Jefferson, “Tell Me My Truth,” Timeout Sydney, March 27 2015.

Artists James Newitt and FX Harsono, as well as co-curator of Tell Me My Truth, Toby Chapman appeared on 2ser 107.3 (radio and online) March 26 2015.

 

Tell Me My Truth is produced by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art; assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body; and supported by the City of Sydney Cultural Grants Program.

 

 

SYDNEY. 29-31 MAY 2015.

Running over 48 continuous hours at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, 48HR Incident is a program of performance art and live actions initiated or performed by artists from Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

Challenging conceptual and social frameworks that surround the position of the individual in relation to the group, 48HR Incident presents a series of works ranging from artistic interventions through to longer
durational performances. Participating artists have drawn upon contested historical narratives, political provocations and social situations to conceive and present works specifically for the context of 4A, taking
into account dynamics of space, geography and social relations in and outside of the gallery. 48HR Incident considers the impact of these actions on the decisions that individuals and groups make, avoid or otherwise
oppose in the daily act of living.

Conceived as the third and final component of MASS GROUP INCIDENT, 48HR Incident is in many ways a culmination of the discussion that occurred during the development of this broader curatorial project, in
particular how ephemeral, interdisciplinary and performative artforms embody real social conditions or frictions. Equally, 48HR Incident is an opportunity to continue 4A’s commitment to performance art from
the region, including Dadang Christanto’s Survivor performance and touring program (2012-2013); Eunhye Huang’s It Without A Blink (2011); Tatsumi Orimoto’s Oil Can (2010); Young Sun Han’s 24HR Embrace (2011); and Shigeyuki Kihara’s Talanoa: Walk The Walk #V (2010).

48HR Incident is a call to action, a test of audiences’ will and commitment to meet the challenges that artists present them, and an admission that at the irreducible core of any collective actions or movement is the latent power of the individual.

 

 

Frances Barrett (b. 1983, Sydney, Australia) is an artist whose practice of live actions, endurance performance and sonic experimentation is informed by feminist and queer methodologies. She is currently Curator of Contemporary Performance, Campbelltown Arts Centre and is part of the artist collective Brown Council. The Wrestle (2015) is a new performance between Barrett and 48HR Incident curator, Toby Chapman. Barrett will compete to double her artist fee in a freestyle wrestle in the gallery space. Both curator and artist have trained with Commonwealth Wrestling Athlete Carissa Holland, who will also adjudicate the performance.

Dadang Christanto (b. 1957, Jakarta, Indonesia) is a prominent interdisciplinary artist working with the recurring theme of the mass disappearance of political dissidents during the 1960s in Indonesia. He has exhibited extensively in Indonesia and internationally including at the 50th Venice Biennale (2003); Biennale Jogja (2003 and 2007); and the 3rd Gwangju Biennale (2000). For 48HR Incident Christanto will present seminal performances from the last 30 years of his career; Tooth Brushing (1979), For Those Who Have Been Lost (1993) and Litsus (2004).

BLAK DOUGLAS (b. 1970, Blacktown, Australia) was born and raised on Booreberongal (Dharuk) Country but with a Dhungatti Aboriginal bloodline traceable to the mid-north coast of New South Wales. He was the first Koori artist to hold major solo exhibitions in Penrith, 1998-1999. His works are in the collection of the National Gallery of Australia, National Museum of Australia. National Maritime Museum, Taipei Museum and the Aboriginal Art Museum of Utrecht. Timing is Everything (2015) draws on traditional forms such as smoking / cleansing ceremonies and the changing walking pace of society via the rhythms of clap sticks. The sound intervening into both the gallery and 4A’s street frontage proposes alternate experiences in time, coupled with an LED sign displaying pertinent phrases from the artist.

Salote Tawale (b. Suva, Fiji) explores the identity of the individual in collective systems through ‘performances of the self’, drawing on personal experiences of race, ethnicity and gender. Tawale works across the mediums of photography, video, installation and live performance. She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at WestSpace, Melbourne (2014); the Indonesian Contemporary Art Network, Yogyakarta (2014); Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne (2013); and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Sydney (2007). For 48HR Incident Tawale will perform Celebrations and Sympathies, Studies in Culture Part 3, drawing links between the narratives and cultural expressions found within traditional Fijian Lali (wooden drums), popular musicals and Hip Hop culture.

Latai Taumoepeau (b. Sydney, Australia) is a Punake – body-centred performance artist – whose practice tells the stories of her homelands: the Island Kingdom of Tonga, and her birthplace, the Eora Nation. Her work explores race, class and the female body politic. Dark Continent (2015) is a new performance by Taumoepeau which involves the artist inhabiting the ground floor gallery for the duration of the program and employing spray tanning techniques as an exploration of ritualistic dark skin practices and markings of nationalism in Australia.

Tony Schwensen (b. 1970, Sydney, Australia) is one of Australia’s foremost performance artists. His work examines contemporary culture through the use of his own body as a performative object, often reflecting on themes such as masculinity, the working class and Australian identity. SCABLAND (2015), conceived especially for 48HR Incident, continues Schwensen’s interest in the history of the labour movement and its correlation to the emergence of a leisure class in Australian history, through a 12-hour durational performance.

Abdullah M.I. Syed (b. 1974, Karachi, Pakistan) is a contemporary artist and designer, working between Sydney, Karachi and New York. His art practice weaves the narratives of East and West, seamlessly knitting together art historical references and concerns from each. The performance work, Bucking and Laundering (2015) situates the artist in a major global metropolis, his dapper appearance countering preconceived notions of the artistic persona, as Syed attempts to eat and stuff his mouth with a stack of dollar bills, slowly at first and then forcibly as his body attempts to reject the material, gagging, coughing, but persevering nonetheless.

JD Reforma (b. 1988, Sydney, Australia) is an artist interested in the relationship between art and leisure, creating sculptures and installations as a social critique of material creation and product consumption. His works are primarily created from everyday materials and reflect upon the perceived value of art, challenging the physical act of viewing and consuming art. A Novel Merchant(2015) is an exploration of the role of distribution in sustaining an economy in which it is increasingly difficult to determine the complicity of artists in so-called ‘pretend activism’.

Wok The Rock & Lara Thoms (b. 1975, Madiun, Indonesia; and b. 1983 Sydney, Australia) are artists interested in experimentation within collective space and social environments who are collaborating for the first time for 48HR Incident. Wok The Rock lives and works in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and held his first solo exhibition in 2003 at Ruang MES 56, a non-profit institution he co-founded in 2002 and is now the director of. Lara Thoms is a Melbourne-based artist creating engaging site-specific art and is an Artistic Associate of Aphids, a contemporary art collective with an interest in performance, social engagement and site specificity.

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo is considered a ‘metalhead’ and owns every album by Metallica. In 1993 heavy metal concerts were banned in Java, following a riot at a Metallica concert at Lebuk Bulus stadium in Jakarta.  Many fans considered the concert ticket price too high and set cars and a shopping mall on fire until the stadium was opened to everyone. Their new work, Jakarta Whiplash ’93 (re -revisited) (2015) questions the political views of Indonesian ‘metalheads’ and Metallica fans worldwide through both performance and the creation of a line of contemporary ‘merchandise’. The merch commemorates the ’93 riot, and has a dual purpose of being both a sentimental souvenir and useful in a current riot situation. These items will be available for sale throughout the show as well as through Metallica fan sites and Indonesian music distribution.

Samson Young (b. 1979, Hong Kong) is an artist-composer who, after completing a Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University, creates art that breaches disciplinary divides. His work ranges from audio-visual projects to live performance yet is anchored in a practice of sound art. For Nocturne (2015), Young has collected and edited together a series of YouTube clips of night bombings (Gaza Strip, ISIS, Gulf War) and removed the audio track. The artist then performs a live soundtrack using domestic devices and ‘foley’ techniques, with the audience experiencing the performance through a broadcasted FM radio signal, accessible throughout the building.

 

MEDIA COVERAGE

Fiona McGregor, “Asia-Australia; art, conscience, action,” Realtime, 13 August 2015.

Sue Wang, “4A Centre for Contemporary Asian art announces “48HR Incident” opening 29 May,” CAFA Art Info, May 26 2015.

Meggan Turner, “4A Centre Announces Two-Day Program of Live Art Performance,” The Brag, April 29 2015.

Nicholas Forrest, “4A’s Performance Art Live Action “48HR Incident” for Sydney,” Blouin Art Info, May 22 2015.

Claire Finneran, “48HR Incident,” The Thousands, May 27 2015.

Naomi Gall, “The AU Interview: Samson Young (Hong Kong) discusses his involvement in “48HR Incident” and his work “Nocturne,” The AU Review (online), May 29 2015.

Frances Barrett, “Canvas #036 – Metal Wonderlands & Dark Continents,” Canvas on FBI 94.5 (radio and online podcast), May 31 2015.

Kate Milton, “4A Presents 48HR Incident,” Broadsheet.

 

48HR Incident is produced by 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art; assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body; supported by the City of Sydney Cultural Grants Program; and supported by Museums & Galleries NSW and Gordon Darling Foundation. Lara Thoms and Wok The Rock’s project ‘Jakarta Whiplash ’93 Re-Revisited’ was developed during a residency in Yogyakarta as part of Gertrude Contemporary’s Indonesia/Australia exchange project #banyakbanyak.

 

SYDNEY. 10 JULY – 22 AUGUST 2015

4A is pleased to present dual solo exhibitions featuring new and commissioned work by two exciting artists, Indonesian-Australian Tintin Wulia and Iranian-born Nasim Nasr.

Untold Movements by acclaimed Indonesian-Australian artist Tintin Wulia is a dynamic new singleI work exhibition, developed over 18 months through a commission by 4A with the support of the Keir Foundation. The exhibition is her most ambitious sound installation to date, and first solo exhibition in Australia. The project is a development of earlier research that Tintin Wulia undertook while in United Arab Emirates participating in the Sharjah Bienniale in 2013.