Xu Bing: The Character of Characters, coming soon

One of Xu Bing’s sketches for The Character of Characters.

One of the most exciting things about Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy is without doubt the new work acclaimed Chinese artist Xu Bing is creating for the exhibition.

Xu Bing’s work is an animation, but as it is being created right now there’s not a whole lot more we can tell you about it yet. However, we did just receive some amazing stats from the artist.

Each day 14 people (including Xu Bing) are working on the project. They work 10 hours per day and have worked 35 days thus far; a total of 4900 person hours to date. Given that work will continue through September, they expect a further 5600 hours to be added to this number.

Xu Bing has drawn approximately 50 drafts and more than 1000 hand drawn sketches. There could be thousands more sketches by the end of the project.

Given all of that, we’re expecting something extraordinary. Don’t miss it.

Chinese Calligraphy: Beneath the Surface

Thousand Character Essay in Clerical Script, Wen Peng (1498-1573). China. Ink on paper. Courtesy Guanyuan Shanzhuang Collection. 2012.2.028_01

Sometimes it seems like Chinese calligraphy is everywhere. From David Beckham to Din Tai Fung to Hero, calligraphy has found its way into popular culture in the West. But calligraphy isn’t just a design element to be used in decor and tattoos. And it’s not just writing. Calligraphy is China’s highest art form, and our next exhibition, Out of Character: Decoding Chinese Calligraphy, will show you why.

We’ll have plenty to share as we approach opening day on October 5, but we want to start by showing you a video we created a few years back. Enjoy this taste of what calligraphy has to offer; we hope it whets your appetite for more.

Bathing Lions

Recently, this pair of monumental bronze Japanese lions was cleaned in preparation for display.  The lions are a recent gift to the museum.  This coming winter they will be repaired and pedestals constructed.  Look for them outside the museum in May 2013.

One bronze lion arriving at the bath-house.

These guys are heavy. The bronze lions are also rarer than their stone cousins.

Looks like he enjoys a shower.

Ready for your close-up, Mr Lion?

Staff Picks: Achala Vidyaraja

In this occasional series, museum staff introduce their favorite pieces from the collection. We rotate works in our galleries every six months, so we’ll have a fresh batch of picks when new objects go on display.

The Buddhist deity Achala Vidyaraja (Fudo Myoo), 1100-1185. Japan. Colors on wood. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60S146+.

Anita DeLucio of Facilities tells a great story about this depiction of the Buddhist deity Achala Vidyaraja (Fudo Myoo in Japanese).

During an event at the museum, I saw a young man dressed all in black, his bare arms covered in tattoos, standing in front of this sculpture. He glanced at the deity and then at his arms, noticing similarities in design between a sculpture that was more than nine hundred years old and the ink that had been painfully etched onto his skin. His arms had flames similar to those behind the deity. This moment in which centuries, cultures, and design collided is one of my favorite memories since I’ve worked here at the Asian.

Phantoms of Asia Tour, Part 7: Art from Home

Adeela Suleman with “Untitled (Peacock with Missiles) with added elements”.

Recently staff were treated to an exclusive tour of Phantoms of Asia led by Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Allison Harding. While Allison can’t personally escort every visitor around the galleries, we wanted to share the experience. In this, the final in our series of posts based on the tour, we look at four works rooted in the artists’ home towns.

Jagannath Panda‘s The Cult of Survival II is a response to modernization and development in Indian cities like Bhubaneswar, where Panda was born, and Gurgaon, the satellite-city of New Delhi where he currently lives. Panda explores these themes using traditional icons built from industrial materials such as sewage pipes. This work was created specifically for Phantoms, and is now a larger series.

Opposite the sewage-snake is another of Panda’s works, The Cult of Appearance III, which is being shown for this first time. The painting includes collage elements made from traditional Indian fabrics. For those who know Indian textiles these fabric pieces would be identifiable as being from a particular region; thus the artist has used the very materials of the work to create an additional layer of meaning. The piece depicts scenes from epics alongside contemporary images of Indian life. The figures at the bottom of the painting show people fleeing from floodwaters in Bhubaneswar in 2011. Some experts claim that the floods were caused by the mismanagement of water from a nearby dam.

Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul creates an eerie otherworld in Phantoms of Nabua. The film is set in the artist’s hometown, which suffered in the military crackdowns from the 1960s to 80s, forcing the men of the village to flee. There is a legend in the area of a witch who abducts the men of the village, and this intersection of myth and reality has earned the village the name “widow town”. In the ten-minute film we watch the rituals of young men hanging out, kicking a soccer ball, but in the film the ball is on fire; this peaceful activity holds the seeds of destruction. The film reminds us that  notions of home can be destroyed, burned down.

Another artist with a complex relationship with home is Pakistani Adeela Suleman. Suleman lives in Karachi, where she holds the Chair of Fine Arts at the Indus Valley University of Art and Architecture. She is also a mother of three. Her steel reliefs are based on the metal decorations used in the city’s delivery trucks and buses, and is strongly rooted in the everday live of the city. But for people in Karachi, death is a part of everyday life, and Suleman’s work powerfully confronts the reality of living surrounded by violence. She says that when her husband goes to work each day, she never knows if he will come home. Her juxtaposition of symbols of violence such as missiles and suicide vests with images from nature and scenes from myth are unsettling, and tell a powerful and disturbing story of home.

Tour Part 1: Heman Chong
Tour Part 2: Hiroshi Sugimoto
Tour Part 3: Asian Cosmologies
Tour Part 4:  Hidden Energies
Tour Part 5: The Afterlife
Tour Part 6: Myth, Ritual, Meditation

Staff Picks: Friendly Duck

In this occasional series, museum staff introduce their favorite works from the collection. Objects in our galleries are rotated every six months, so we’ll have a fresh set of picks when new things go on view.

Vessel in the shape of a duck (detail), approx. 200-300. Korea; ancient region of Gaya. Earthenware. The Avery Brundage Collection, B63P13+.

Larry Oliver from admissions chose this darling duck from our Korea galleries.

This charming piece shows how a seemingly simple object can convey the friendly nature of a living creature.

 

 

 

 

 

Taking Up Space: An Interview with Imin Yeh

SpaceBi is staging a takeover of our museum on Thursday night. We asked founder Imin Yeh what that’s all about.

What is SpaceBi and how did it start?

SpaceBi is an unauthorized, pop-up contemporary art space quietly hosting a year’s worth of unofficial exhibitions, projects, and performances within the Asian Art Museum. SpaceBi invites local artists to use the Asian Art Museum as inspiration, as a studio space, as a challenging framework for the creation of new work with the hope that artists can play with the experience of visiting large art institutions.

The project started when I used to be an employee working in the Museum Store, where I learned about the museum’s Jade Circle level membership program. Jade Circle members are seriously invested in the museum, actively participating in many programs and introducing new patrons to the museum. They also gain a few perks such as bringing up to four visitors to the museum at a time and access to the private Peterson Room and adjacent garden.

The impetus for this project was to raise the funds to purchase this level of membership, and then use the membership benefits to invite local artists to create and share their work within the walls of the museum.

Why is the museum important to artists, in your opinion?

I think this museum is important to artists because is it a space dedicated to art. I strongly feel that any space that is open to art is important and relevant to all artists regardless of cultural specificity.  This museum is doubly important because the collection belongs to the city of San Francisco, a fact that many people do not know. This museum is not only part of the city, it is housed in the old Public Library, so it is imbued with the history of the city.

As this project progresses, I think that the framework that SpaceBi has engineered is even more important to artists because the museum does not have a strongly established contemporary art program, so there is room in the museum for projects like SpaceBi to exist. Because there is that space, I think it is extremely relevant and important for artists to consider.

Why is this event called Taking Up Space?

I think a big part of the SpaceBi project has been about taking space, space that has never really been available to local, contemporary artists before. Since this event is the only official platform for a year’s worth of projects, we are going to be taking up A LOT of it. It will be the first time that local artists will be “exhibiting” their work or projects in this space, and over 28 artists are participating in this one evening.

You will find works in unlikely places throughout the museum: hidden projections, in the museum store, on stairwells, outside. New work will be created directly in conversation with the collection, and existing work will find new and interesting, albeit temporary, homes within the museum.

On top of that 8 local community groups will also be at the museum showing their independent projects.

Who are the artists involved in Taking Up Space and what are they working on?

You can find the full list of participants and their projects on our website: www.spacebi.org. The artists who are participating in this official event include Michael Namkung, Ricardo Rivera, Jose Navarrete, Debby Kajiyama, Adria Otte, Justin Hoover, Derek Chung, Amy Ho, Brandon Drew Holmes with Janey Smith and Tom Comitta, Charlene Tan, the Great Tortilla Conspiracy with Scott Tsuchitani, Raymond Wong, Zina Al-Shukri, Kim Anno, Imin Yeh, Jackie Im, Aaron Harbour, Julie Chang, Tina Takemoto, Stephanie Syjuco, Juan Luna-Avin, Pablo Cristi, Kathy Aoki, Erik Scollon, Kevin Chen, Johanna Poethig, Misako Inaoka, and Ranu Mukherjee. But please know that there are many more artists who have contributed projects to SpaceBi throughout the last year.

The artists who are participating comprise a diverse group. They make daily contributions to the cultural landscape of the Bay Area and beyond. And they have given their time and energy to thinking and considering the Asian Art Museum as a space for their work. I really hope that the participating artists are inspired or challenged by this frame work, and use it as an opportunity to try new work, get great documentation, and gain something from this experience.

The evening of this Matcha will be the premier of many works created specifically with the Asian Art Museum or this unique opportunity in mind.

What do you want people to get out of the experience of coming to Matcha: Taking Up Space?

The Bay Area is so rich with participatory, social practice based works and I hope that visitors enjoy and are challenged by experiencing living, breathing artwork. There are things that are whimsical and fun such as Super Disco Chino by Juan Luna-Avin and Amy Ho’s Fruit Costumes to dress up in, but there are also going to be some difficult, critical and heavily theoretical art experiences. This is an experiment for both the participating artists and also the institution, to function more as an incubator for the development of new work.

On your Facebook page you say that this is not an exhibition at the Asian Art Museum. What’s that about?

It is to acknowledge that we (all the participating artists, including myself) know that this work is not supported by the museum through its official exhibition program. “I am not in an exhibition,” as a statement, is meant to be empowering: this isn’t an Asian Art Museum exhibition and we are proud that it is not. It is a collaboration born from artists and not from the institution and it therefore does not need to adhere to the same rules.

This project has been supported by the vision and effort of the Education team and the museum store, as well as the incredible openness of both the Facilities and Security departments.

Staff Picks: Daughters of Mara

In this occasional series, museum staff introduce you to their favorite pieces from the collection. We rotate our galleries every six months, so we’ll have fresh picks when there are new objects on view.

Daughters of the demon Mara, 1470-1480. Burma; Ajapala’s temple, Pegu. Glazed terracotta. Museum purchase, B86P14.

Head of Publications Tom Christensen, whose most recent book is 1616: World in Motion, selected this relief of the daughters of Mara.

As the father of two young women, I was interested in the story of Mara’s daughters and their devotion to their father, which inspired this poem.

Sympathy for Mara

Mara’s daughters were bad girls
perhaps but they were loyal
daughters, not hesitating
to tempt the meditating
Buddha with their arsenal
of wicked tricks and come-ons:
hey Daddy want to have some fun

After all their dad was God
of Death and Desire and how
cool is that compared to dry
as dust Siddhartha pointing
to the earth like some old fart
ascetic all ribs and bones
radiant and luminous
no doubt but not so much fun
for goodtime girls like Mara’s

The Buddha had enlightenment
but he didn’t have daughters

Phantoms of Asia Tour, Part 6: Myth, Ritual, Meditation

Adrian Wong in our library during the planning of his feng shui installation.

Recently staff were treated to an exclusive tour of Phantoms of Asia led by Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Allison Harding. While Allison can’t personally escort every visitor around the galleries, we wanted to share the experience. We’ll be presenting a series of posts based on the tour, with Allison’s insights into the works and the artists who created them.

Osher Gallery is the final room of the exhibition and also the largest. The diverse collection of works here deals with the overarching theme of myth, ritual and meditation. These works ask how we can commune with spiritual.

As you enter the room you are confronted by Motohiko Odani‘s masks, which are styled on the masks worn in Japanese no theater. These, though, are half anatomical, half trapped here on the physical plane. There seems to be a tension as well as a communion between the physical and the spiritual. On the opposite wall is a selection of traditional masks from our collection; old and new confront each other across the room. I wonder what they make of their counterparts from another time.

As you continue through the gallery you reach one of the most unusual—and funniest—works in the exhibition. Canadian artist Adrian Wong
has created two rooms using the principles of feng shui, one auspicious and one inauspicious.  Wong is trained as a research psychologist, and his art practice is a fusion of science and art.  He was inspired to create this work after learning that many people wouldn’t come to the Asian Art Museum because they believe that our building has bad feng shui. He began researching feng shui with a scientific eye, interviewing many experts from the Bay Area and becoming along the way a leading expert on the feng shui of our building. Walking through the rooms, with their linoleum floors creating a cheesy 70s aesthetic, you get the feeling that the artist’s tongue is firmly in his cheek.

From the somewhat ridiculous to the sublime, you next encounter Prabhavathi Meppayil‘s white panels. Meppayil is from a family of traditional metalworkers. Using traditional tools and techniques, she blends 1960s minimalilsm and her own cultural tradition to create these meditative pieces. The works are created by embedding copper wire in the panel; you need to get low  to see the metallic quality of the wires and really appreciate the detail of the piece. Achieving this kind of simplicity is a complex process; maybe that’s why these tend to be favorites among the artists that come through the exhibition.

Tour part 1: Heman Chong
Tour Part 2: Hiroshi Sugimoto
Tour Part 3: Asian Cosmologies
Tour Part 4: Hidden Energies
Tour Part 5: The Afterlife
Tour Part 7: Art from Home 

Phantoms of Asia Tour, Part 5: The Afterlife

Jompet, Anno Domini, 2011. Wooden pillars, sound installation, text, soldier figures and video components. Dimensions variable. Installation view. Photo: Kaz Tsuruta.

Recently staff were treated to an exclusive tour of Phantoms of Asia led by Associate Curator of Contemporary Art Allison Harding. While Allison can’t personally escort every visitor around the galleries, we wanted to share the experience. We’ll be presenting a series of posts based on the tour, with Allison’s insights into the works and the artists who created them.

As you leave Hambrecht gallery you encounter a video installation by Thai artist Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook. In this provocative piece, Araya lectures a group of cadavers on death and the afterlife. Her work explores how we react to death, and is very much tied up with her own Buddhist faith. The reactions to her work bring home the different attitudes to death across cultures.  In many cultures the body is brought into the home for ritual and preparation. Araya’s work in some ways reflects these traditions, while also being irreverent–she is, after all, using dead bodies as props. This caused her some problems when she performed a similar piece in Italy, where corpses cannot be used for any purpose. In the end, denied access to the Italian dead, it is rumored Araya had cadavers flown over from New York. For me, these stories add to the experience of the work itself, prompting me to think about how different cultures think about death.

Outside the gallery is an alcove charmingly named Vinson Nook, currently housing an installation by Indonesian artist Jompet. Works from this series have been shown around the world and made a huge splash at the Venice Biennale last year. Jompet’s work delves into the history and syncretic culture of Java. This piece depicts bodiless soldiers, the symbolic protectors of a blended past. The guards’ costumes incorporate Dutch and Javanese elements, the music references street parades, and the whole is contained within the frame of a traditional Javanese house. The installation weaves these elements together to physically depict the story of modern Java.

Tour Part 1: Heman Chong
Tour Part 2: Hiroshi Sugimoto
Tour Part 3: Asian Cosmologies
Tour Part 4: Hidden Energies
Tour Part 6: Myth, Ritual, Meditation
Tour Part 7: Art from Home