calendario eventi  :: 

X

4/3/2010

Two exhibitions

Chelsea Art Museum, New York

YIBIN TIAN
"Our New York"

curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos and Elga Wimmer

“Tian’s main concern is individual psychology operant in a collective society with an eye for the indomitable nature of the human spirit.” – Dr. Thalia Vrachopoulos, from Yibin Tian: All for One and One for All.

The Chelsea Art Museum, Home of the Miotte Foundation, is pleased to present Yibin Tian: Our New York. Yibin Tian’s multi-media installation comprises C print photographs, three-dimensional sculptures, and video installation. Tian’s goal is to capture the effects that authoritarian Songun-ism (Military First) has on its citizenry. Tian uses color film and casual observation as his methodologies. Aside from his aesthetic contributions, Tian’s work holds relevance in its timely cultural and social value especially given the recent political crisis resulting from North Korean nuclear testing and Jongil Kim’s refusal to cooperate with international disarmament policy.

Our New York by Yibin Tian (a.k.a. Lao Liu or Old Six) is an installation that continues his last year’s series All for One and One for All. His work is a result of being reared in a totalitarian government in Bejing, China. This rigid environment provoked him to explore the contrary lifestyle of individualism. Many of the works express the North Korean Songun (military first) politics, yet simultaneously touch upon democratic values as they combine western figures and ideas. Tian’s photographs and sculptures of North Korean military authoritarianism (Songun) where a nation is at the service of its leader Jong-Il Kim, are metaphors for power. Juche is akin to a religious philosophy that espouses worship of a charismatic leader and is informed by Confucianist values advocating the notion of filial piety and familial hierarchy. While exhibiting the last series in New York the artist enacted a pre-set visual dialogue between western and eastern militarism by posing together North Korean officers juxtaposed against New York uniformed policemen.

True to his desire to recognize human uniqueness, Tian has cast one of his many soldiers with a funny smirk in his facial characteristics while his body is lined up in unison with the rest. Surrounded by his large-scale photographs of North Korean soldiers goose-stepping in orchestrated simultaneity in front of their national banner, his soldier sculptures are reminiscent of army formations that in their sheer number and similitude strike terror in the hearts of viewers.

While the tension continues between the communist block and the west, Tian’s world as seen in his many political photographs, videos and sculptures critiques a much larger form of power, one that is more insidious in its sublimity, and that controls everyone’s fate.

Yibin Tian: Our New York is co-curated by Thalia Vrachopoulos, Ph.D independent critic and Associate Professor at the City University of New York John Jay College and Elga Wimmer, Head Curator of the Chelsea Art Museum.

------------

KOTARO FUKUI
"Silent Flowers and Ostriches"

Curated by Luchia Meihua Lee

The Chelsea Art Museum, Home of the Miotte Foundation, is pleased to present Kotaro FUKUI: Silent Flowers and Ostriches. An extraordinary 24 ft. long “Silent Flower” painting was transported from Tokyo to blanket the walls of the Chelsea Art Museum. Kotaro Fukui is a Japanese artist who created this masterwork by applying gold foil to washi, a handmade Japanese paper, employing brush ink to create stems and leaves, and then superimposing blue lapis lazuli pigment on the result. The precious blue stone powder is simultaneously subtle in application but powerful in affect.

Traditionally in East Asia, the iris has been a talisman against evil. An iris painted on a soldier’s armor was said to protect him from enemies. Irises have also symbolized longevity because they stand straight reaching towards the sky and the blue of the petals recalls the blue of sky and sea – in addition to the photographs of Earth from space. Fukui’s fascination with irises reflects his concerns with nature and the role of humans in nature.

Kotaro Fukui’s work mainly focuses on ostriches, irises, and recently peonies. His work addresses themes of nature, body, and Eastern spirituality. He paints ostriches on Washi paper, canvas, kimonos, obis, ostrich eggs, and even on the human body and motor vehicles. He also makes murals; he has painted the inside of a curved tunnel a long line of ostriches walking, running, and gazing intently at the viewer. His improvisational performances are inextricable linked to the concepts of Zen philosophy. When he stands on the paper holding the ink, and randomly drops the first gobs of ink. The form to come and where the lines will go are unknown. He often says before the action” I am nervous, because, I don’t know what the painting will eventually look like.” During the action, we can only hear the heavy inhalation and exhalation of his breath along with the rhythm of the music; then we will find the artist himself transformed into an ostrich - he darts about like a bird and his movement draws the lines that form the painting. It takes not more than half hour, and the audience invariably enjoys the stunning performance art. There will be performances on March 6 at 4pm.

His ostrich series, entitled “Flightless,” investigates movement through line. The rotund shape and rich black coloring of the ostrich's body in juxtaposition with the linear shape of the bird’s extended neck and legs sets the stage for the magnetism of opposites. Individual ostrich faces reveal their own unique characters; many seemingly try to speak to us. Some are cute as cartoons, while others seem completely human.

Fukui’s work is notably steeped in the tradition of Nihonga and the modern Japanese avant-garde. His paper of choice – washi – is not only handmade but also tougher than paper made of wood pulp and breathes in a way that wood pulp paper does not. Fukui also follows traditional Japanese painting in using natural mineral pigments and India ink. Thus his modern vision and talent unfold via a range of materials, lyrical expressions, and historical influences of traditional Japanese art.

Curator Luchia Meihua Lee researched the artist for several years and greatly admires the eclectic nature of his work. From 2004, she has organized five exhibitions of Fukui’s art in the US. This March marks their sixth collaboration. Ms. Lee has curated numerous exhibition and events internationally.

Curator and Artist Talk: Saturday, March 6, 4:00pm
"Ostriches in Motion"- performance by Kotaro Fukui
Performances: Saturday, March 6, 4:30am

------------

JENNY MARKETOU (Greece/US)
"Lighter Then Fiction (2010)"

Presented by the Project Room for New Media at the Chelsea Art Museum

March 4 - April 3

A video installation which engages principles from aeronautics, aerial surveillance, ballooning, recreation, landscape, architecture, data mapping and video streaming, that triggers feelings of fear, disturbance and suspense. Marketou combines video editing techniques, manipulating and destroying the order and coherence of the narrative, which brings into question the notion of documentary versus fiction and challenges the traditional objectivity of “mapping” reality.


Image: Silent Flower (Ten), 2008. Japanese paper, gold foil, Mineral pigment, Indian Ink, 29 x 24.2 inches © Kotaro Fukui

For more information please contact:
Chris Longfellow Press Officer The Chelsea Art Museum 212-255-0719 x 108 chris@chelseaartmuseum.org

Opening March 5, h 6 pm

Chelsea Art Museum
556 West 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011
open Tuesday through Saturday 11am to 6pm
Thursday 11am to 8pm
closed Sunday and Monday
$8 adults, $4 students and seniors, free for members and visitors 16 and under

stampa

permanent link