tales of our time vol. 2

BORDER DISPUTES.

How do we decide which country owns a piece of disputed land?

• Anesia> WAR!• Taeron> Rock, paper, Scissors. • Cailan> Negotiation, treaties• Michael> we put our name on it. (or put a flag on it) • Jess> POWER and INTIMIDATION. • .• .• .

BORDER DISPUTES.

How do we decide which country owns a piece of disputed land?

• Chess: KILL PEOPLE. SURVIVOR GETS THE LAND• Raian: They fight amongst each other and decide who gets it.• JJ: One method…is to build a wall. • Alex: Make a treaty and purchase it. • KT: Deceive them by posing as an opportunity or friend. Take advantage of

people’s weaknesses! THE STRONG WINS. • .• .

Tsang Kin-Wah

In the End Is the Word2016

Video installation with sound

Tsang Kin-WahIn The End Is The Word combines found video footage, animated texts, and ambient sound to create an immersive media environment. The work begins with images of rocks, battleships, and waves near the “Diaoyu” Islands (known as the “Senkaku” Islands in Japan), and archipelago northeast of Taiwan claimed by both China and Japan.

These representational images soon begin to morph into abstractions and synchronized projected videos create a visual effect in which animated coiling strips of text pour out of the main screen and spread across the gallery.

Lives and works in Hong Kong



Tsang Kin-WahEchoing the work’s title, this optic phenomenon symbolically points to the construction of history: when the physical experience of an event ends and memory fades, narratives are all that remain to create, disseminate, and contest the past. Rather than simply disappear, the texts accumulate into a crescendo of almost blindingly bright light…and a few seconds later, the video begins again.

Tsang Kin-Wah likens this repetitive cycle to samsara, a Sanskrit term denoting perpetual wandering in the sea of life’s suffering.

(Born 1976) Lives and works in Hong Kong



And the destination of those words?? We’ll cover that soon…

Tsang Kin-Wah

(Born 1976) Lives and works in Hong Kong

Tsang Kin-Wah is a Chinese contemporary artist, known for his paintings and multimedia installations created out of the visual manipulation of text and language with distinctive cultural and religious references.

Born in Guangdong in 1976, Tsang Kin-Wah graduated from the Department of Fine Arts of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, a major cradle where new generations of artists are nurtured to push Hong Kong Art onto the international art map.

Subsequently in 2002, he moved to London and studied Book Art at the Camberwell College of Arts, in which [sic] period significantly shaped him as an artist.

Tsang Kin-Wah(Born 1976) Lives and works in Hong Kong

Tsang made his career by creating art which blends foul language with beautiful and pleasing floral patterns, which are swirling and running throughout the space, creating different layers of interpretation. Tsang’s works are in public and private collections, and he has exhibited locally and globally.

Tsang Kin-WahLe Petite Mort

2011-2015

La Petite Mort_No.14Acrylic, emulsion paint and ink on canvas60 x 90 cm,

La Petite Mort_No.5Acrylic, emulsion paint and ink on canvas60 x 90 cm, 2011 - 2015

An expression that’s been in use since at least 1880, literally meaning ‘the little death’ but it refers to a brief loss or weakening of consciousness. Contemporary use of this phrase has sensual suggestions as well.

In 2009, Tsang Kin-wah started off still ongoing spiritual and philosophical series the Seven Seals by projecting texts onto the walls and floor inside a white box. Immersed in an overwhelming storm of provocative texts, varying feelings swell up within each viewer, the animated texts increase its speed as the ambient sound reminiscent of cries and pain intensifies, congesting the entire room, on a continual loop.

The First Seal - It Would Be Better If You Have Never Been Born ...Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2009Digital video & sound installation, 6 min 41 sec.5.13 x 5.13 m

Taken from the Book of Revelation from the Bible, the Seven Seals series refers to the seven symbolic seals that secure a scroll in the vision of St. John the Apostle. When a seal is broken, a judgment is passed, and when all seven seals have been opened the Christ will return. According to the Book, the judgment comes in the form of apocalypse — warfare, terrorism, and natural disasters. Here, Tsang shares his sentiment towards Nietzsche and expands his interests in the notion of human morality and the external world. This is an urgent issue to the artist as a global citizen – to search for meaning in a difficult time.

The First Seal - It Would Be Better If You Have Never Been Born ...Hong Kong Museum of Art, Hong Kong, 2009Digital video & sound installation, 6 min 41 sec.5.13 x 5.13 m

Tsang Kin-WahThe Seven Seals

2009-

The Sixth Seal - HE Is Something That Should Be Overcome. You Are Something That Should Be Overcome.Guangzhou, 2014Digital video & sound installation, 6 min 36 sec.

The Fourth Seal - HE Is To No Purpose And HE Wants To Die For The Second TimeNagoya, Japan 2010Digital video & sound installation, 6 min 25 sec.

Tsang Kin-WahVideo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5Y3kkSEEk

Describe this artist, what stands out? Does his demeanor match his aesthetic? • Erin: Other artists we’ve seen don’t talk about religion….more politics. But

he thinks a lot about spirituality and death. • Anna: His main topics are spirituality, death, & Nietzsche• KT: He takes a lot of local ideas and adds them to his work (flower pieces)

But there’s also a certain memory or idea that influences his work.• Chess: He seems extremely reserved. He seems very “in control”

• Gio: Hmm, but his clothing seemed quite bland, so we’re assuming that his demeanor is BLAND. But his artwork is NOT. Some of his work MAY be juxtaposing religion/spirituality with truth/reality.

• Anna: he’s not picking sides, he’s putting all the sides out there to the viewer to evaluate.

• Chess: He said how his teachers in Catholic school were parroting this spirituality, without believing in it.

• Alex: For someone who seems so reserved, his work is an explosion of ideas and feelings. His work is so much more dynamic than other artists we’ve seen so far.

Tsang Kin-WahVideo!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5F5Y3kkSEEk

Describe this artist, what stands out? Does his demeanor match his aesthetic? • Sean: His whole spirituality vibe. In the end it comes down to spirituality.

• Kristen: He seems soft spoken, not quiet but his work touches on more hard hitting topics.

• Michael: He’s inspired by these life and death issues. • Tash: Like “the infinite nothing” with this vast empty landscape.

Also, I said that. • Jess: The Christian school upbringing had an impact on him, and he had to

make up his own ideas about spirituality, since the ones being taught to him were not genuine.

• Andia: I’m confused by whether or not he is religious. He uses a lot from the Bible but he changes it in his work.

• Tae: When it comes to religion, it’s all up to interpretation, like philosophy (Nietzsche)

• .Angel: His art has powerful undertones. Like the floral patterns and foul language juxtaposition.

• Michelle: He creeps me out a little bit with the dark undertones.

Tsang Kin-WahIn addition to his immersive video installation in the Tower 5 Gallery at the Guggenheim, Tsang Kin-Wah created a site-specific text installation that extends into the museum’s passageways: including stairwells and elevators. These texts coil and spread throughout the space, forming a graphic representation of how a storyline might develop and grow over time.

No(thing / Fact) Outside2016vinyl

The texts come from a wide range of sources, from religion to critical theory. In particular, Tsang referenced many 19th and 20th century writings by authors such as Jacques Derrida, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Emil Cioran. He interpreted, rewrote, and combined the various texts into new philosophical and poetic narratives. Visitors are encouraged to read segments of the work in multiple locations, similar to collecting clues and piece together different storylines. The sprawling installation also leads visitors to different parts of the exhibition and invites connections with the other works on display, fusing with and expanding on other artists’ tales in unexpected ways.

No(thing / Fact) Outside2016vinyl

Tsang Kin-Wah

Tsang Kin-WahFinal Thoughts?

• Natalia: His work is really overwhelming, all the text, all the words, and I’m not really sure what I’m supposed to look at. It’s hard to focus on one part, but it’s very immersive.

• KT: For every art piece there’s hidden messages, and that’s literally happening here! Like with the flowers and curse words, there’s a lot that’s open for interpretation even though the message is directly spelled out in front of you.

• Gio: We often forget about the power of text and language and he reminds us of the power that words have.

• Anna: I like how he questions the viewer’s beliefs and provides new perspectives on the world, like in In the End is the Word.

• JJ: I like how he takes what people consider bad and makes it beautiful.

Tsang Kin-WahFinal Thoughts?

• Rachel-no-table: I like that he uses a lot of different authors and philosophers that give him new ideas. Like when he uses things like flowers and gives them different meanings with then curse words.

• Jess: He uses these “soft” ideas or images but fills them with such harshness. I enjoy the outlook he has on religion and spirituality in a non-traditional way.

• Michelle: I like the fact that he uses his experiences from his youth because ….

• Cailan: It’s cool because it shows he really cares about what happens in the past, and wants to show it to new audiences.

• Angel: It also shows a deeper connection towards his art. There’s contradiction in his pieces

• Kristen: It makes his piece more valid, it’s not just a recent thought, he’s clearly considered this for a long time.

Tea Time.

“Tea in China embodies the concept of breaking away from the old and ushering in the new. The more accessible and convenient it is, the easier to create a relaxed environment that guides and facilitates creativity. Tea selection is crucial. Because the right tea helps channel and balance our inner qi.”

Yangjiang Group阳江组

Yangjiang Group is an artistic group founded in 2002. They currently live and work in Yangjiang, Guangdong Province, China. Their work spans across multiple genres, from performance/action to calligraphy, to radical architecture, and more.


Sun Qinglin (1974, Yangjiang, China).

Zheng Guogu (1970, Yangjiang, China)

Chen Zaiyan (1971, Yangchun, China)


Yangjiang Group is famous for subverting ancient calligraphy and bringing everyday pleasures, like food and drink, into their mixed-media art.

For TOOT, they have created an interactive tea garden for the circular gallery overlooking Central Park, with a blood pressure station for visitors to measure the calming effect the installation has on their senses.

Unwritten Rules Cannot Be Broken2016Plants, pond, wooden bridge, wooden tables and stools, teaware and accessories, and tea gathering performance; blood pressure monitor and record chart; acrylic latex paint; and acrylic on foam



Yangjiang Group阳江组Erin: I don’t get how tea is art. Chess: NAH SON, NAH…The experience is the art. KT: The first thing I thought of was “reading” tea leaves, but you normally don’t see artists doing things like this…drinking tea ALL DAY. It adds another level to this piece.


Yangjiang Group阳江组Michael: It looks like the tea saved their marriage. Steph: I like it but I don’t like tea. The space is nice though. I’m more of a coffee person. Sean: I wonder if they would support using drugs while making art. Lina: It’s very unusual, because most artists here make sculptures or videos…but they’re really expressing their culture and sharing it with others. Tash: The calligraphy really breaks up standards for beauty and perfection.Camila: I really like how the purpose of this piece is to sit down and relax.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUTS8yHTRek

Yangjiang Group阳江组Describe the collaboration of these artists with each other and their audience.

Describe the collaboration of these artists with each other and their audience.

Yangjiang Group阳江组• Chess: If it can’t be read is it really written?• Gio: I think they compliment each other.

Their process seems very fun for them.• Alex: They’re like the uncles who have fun.

Getting’ fat and drunk. But in a good way. • Gio: They like the reaction and relaxation

that they get from smelling and drinking tea.• JJ: At one point I wasn’t really sure what

they were doing. He looks like he’s just falling and playing it off like he meant to do it.

• KT: In the video they talk a lot about one’s Qi and how to find balance in your life, and how tea can help balance you out. Some of their work seems to waste food, but in that process they seem to make more art? It’s like art can put you in a different mind set, like drinking??

Describe the collaboration of these artists with each other and their audience.

Yangjiang Group阳江组• Tash: I like how they do their work,

they’re very carefree and chill. They drink tea (and alcohol) and then they make work. It’s like LIFE. We sleep and eat and wake up. But they also make art.

• Kristen: It’s like they’ve known each other for a very long time. And their process seems very casual.

• Wing: The music that was playing alongside the calligraphy reminded me of Chinese New Year. And he was moving the rhythm of it.

• Angel: They mentioned • .

Yangjiang Group阳江组One person who has worked with the Yangjiang Group is Reuben Keehan, curator of contemporary Asian art at the Queensland Art Gallery in Australia. In 2015 he said,“The hegemony of the Beijing/Shanghai domination of the art world is really starting to break down. Different parts of China are starting to evolve. It’s still very, very fresh but it’s a good time for Yangjiang Group. The art world has come to them.”

“We’re quite familiar now with the slightly older generation of Chinese artists who were around in the 1980s and ’90s,” he said, “people like Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Zhang Huan. They’re people who went through the Cultural Revolution and directly experienced the events of the late 1980s.”

The members of Yangjiang Group, born mid-way through the Cultural Revolution in the early 1970s, experienced the full brunt of China’s consumer-culture boom of the 1990s.

Cai Guo-QiangSky Ladder

Ai Weiwei(Janel’s guy!)Sunflower seeds

Zhang HuanFamily Tree

Jess: It’s like they’re living a double life. Because what they were originally known for is so different from where they’re at now. Angel: With all the artists we’ve seen in this exhibit, the meaning here is SO DIFFERENT. Like in Unwritten Rules Cannot be Broken, I wouldn’t go so deep into it. Camila: Adding on, I think most people would see this as an experience without knowing the purpose (intention) behind it.

Jess: They’re kind of bashing an pre-established art form. They’re totally demolishing it and flipping it over it’s head. And calling it art…again.Tash: maybe their message is overshadowed by the “fun” of the piece.

Final Thoughts for Yangjiang Group 阳江组 ?

Alex: Their work feels more “global” and less about simply China’s politics. Chess: These artists seem to focus more on emotions than on specific cultural things. While they use their own culture, they’re also expressing emotions that belong to everyone.Khiri: I LIKE THE WORK! And what they stand for. They seem to appeal to things that we don’t normally consider….like relaxation, daily stresses, euphoria and alcohol, etc. Arielle: I agree, our daily lives are really chaotic. Nobody ever sits down to smell the tea and feel the relaxation that it can give you. Anna: When I get home I normally make tea…sip it…and then I do work. Janel: I like to TURN UP on Fri-Sun. That’s my relax time. I’m dying for Friday.

Final Thoughts for Yangjiang Group 阳江组 ?

Zhou Tao

Zhou Tao

Zhou Tao was born in 1976 in Changsha, Hunan Province in China and now resides in Guangzhou, China.

His work has been shown in several exhibitions, in China, America, Norway, Luxembourg, Italy, and Hong Kong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c5GbG82qq8&t=13s

Zhou TaoTime in New york2009Single channel video 16’55”

https://vimeo.com/zhoutao

I wanted to do a new project about how to deal with my New York life. I bought ten balls of thread and [using] my body, I created a visual motif of my daily movement. The thread followed me throughout my apartment and I would use small tacks to tack the string onto the walls wherever I would take a moment. I recalled my every action. I did it for twenty days in October.….



KT: I think about how one’s past can come back to haunt him. It was simple in the beginning but now it’s this giant mess, like a spider web where everything has been placed with reason.Erin: I would get so frustrated with myself if I did this!Khiri: I am so clumsy. I wouldn’t last a day without tripping.Chess: I adore this. It’s great.JJ: ...



Michael: I could never live like that. I get the name though, It’s like if we could retrace our steps back in time, we could see where we’ve been. Angel: it would give me anxietyTash: I would probably cut up the strings.

Rachel: You can see where you’ve been.

Camila: His work shows that we all have routines! Tash: You don’t realize your own habits!

Zhou Tao https://vimeo.com/zhoutao

I made another work in New York. It’s a piece about how to walk and how to deal with reality while walking. I think there is a gap between reality and imagination. New York and Guangzhou are like films, different films. I make work about these locational films.It’s funny, when walking in New York, you sometimes forget that your feet are moving below you; all of a sudden your thoughts are taking you to another place, and there you are, you’re not in New York anymore but you’re elsewhere, enjoying the ‘elsewhere’, forgetting that your feet are moving you forward, and that’s just the way things are. Your subconscious takes over and spaces keep changing. Sometimes experiences are changing when in reality nothing is really happening to you. There are times when I’m walking and I don’t react when someone hits me on the elbow; it’s as though I’m not there. Maybe they realize we’ve bumped into one another, but at the time it won’t even occur to me. Then there are other times when I’m hyper-aware of my surroundings, but they are also lifted and pulled out of reality. Maybe it’s the air, the place, the city, my walking pace…I don’t know. Once in the park, I decided to sit down next to a man and mimic his actions, not to joke around or hurt him, but because I thought his movements seemed so natural and I wanted to experience his natural resting states. I was his audience and his performer. When I performed his actions, I felt hollow because I couldn’t live up to his realness; I felt superficial. Then there were other people who came by to take photographs, which made it quite fun. I didn’t think about whether it was a good or bad idea; I just did it. In Guangzhou, I think I am too familiar with everything around me so when nothing is going on, it feels like nothing is going on. The experience is less energizing.

• “Everyone’s invisible”• “Familiar strangers”

Zhou Taohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c5GbG82qq8&t=13s

What are the big ideas that this artist is

pursuing in his work?

Zhou Tao• Chess: Capturing the fleeting, what’s lost and what

remains in this ever-changing world. He tries to capture the essence of the change, but in doing so makes it permanent.

• KT: He’s a collector of feelings, giving inanimate objects background stories. A subtle change in the lens (of a camera) can show a big change in perspective. • -floating chair!!

• Khiri: Capturing the essence of subtle change. He sees connections between Sci-Fi and reality.

• Gio: He does not intend to restore objective reality. He kind of projects his perspective on the reality of things.

• Jess: He jumps from idea to idea very quickly. It’s hard to follow.

• .• .• .• .• .• .

What are the big ideas that this artist is pursuing in his work?

Zhou Tao• Sean: He doesn’t see the difference between Sci-Fi

and reality.• Cailan: My visual approach isn’t one that intends to

restore objective reality. This goes back to what we were talking about with the gap between reality and imagination. His work is meant to keep us in our imagination.

• Steph: A person who stumbles along…”It’s like his art as a collection of feelings….these collections of little moments that matter to him. Se challenges me to see mundane things in a new way.

• Camila: “People reveal themselves in a perpetual cycle.” For me this means you can see what a person’s been through by their routine(s).

• Jess: His quotes are simple and memorable • Rachel (with table): He has no strict storyline or

plotline and focuses on the natural and physical environments.

What are the big ideas that this artist is pursuing in his work?

Zhou TaoLives and works in

Guangzhou

This work’s chinese title references a military term that uses the throat’s location on the body as a metaphor for a strategically important position or passage.

For Land of the Throat, Zhou Tao

Land of the Throat2016Two channel color HD video

Zhou TaoLives and works in Guangzhou

This work’s Chinese title references a military term that uses the throat’s location on the body as a metaphor for a strategically important position or passage. For Land of the Throat, Zhou Tao considered construction sites as such critical places in his investigation of the rapid urbanization of southern china’s Pearl River Delta. This Region’s Changing topography compelled Zhou to examine other terrain, both real and imagined, and even the surfaces of other planets in order to propose a recent history of humanity, the materials we produce, and the landscapes we inhabit.


Zhou TaoLives and works in Guangzhou

Filmed at dusk, the work features eerie details that paradoxically would be hidden by bright sunlight, like construction waste mounds that evoke a body’s veins, muscles, and skin. Zhou juxtaposed such imagery with scenes that seem unrelated—including a mooing calf chained to an industrial washing machine and a rescue team in Shenzhen searching for landslide survivors in 2015—thus blurring the distinctions between fact and fiction as well as natural and manmade.


Zhou Tao

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c5GbG82qq8

Final Thoughts on Zhou Tao

• Anna: His work confuses me. • Kozak: you’re welcome!

• Alex: From the time i was little i used to really dislike people that speak as if they’re telling a story. Zhou Tao is that person. But i like his artwork.

• KT: For his work, I like to have a story behind it…even if there’s multiple stories..but he seems to bounce around a lot and it’s hard to know his true intention.

• Erin: His work is kinda confusing. My head hurts seeing that video! I’m going from one place to another!!

• .

Final Thoughts on Zhou Tao

• Angel: I’m kinda still not like sure what his intentions are.

• Michelle: in the video, he says he’s a collector of feelings, and the things he says are profound, but I’m missing the connection with the art he makes.

• Tash: I guess the idea he’s trying to give out is related to objectivity and being aware of your surroundings. The way he portrays your work is tough to get.

• Tae: He talks about walking without realizing what he’s doing. I guess this is how he makes his work too?

• Cailan: This talks about things that we can relate to, like reality and objectivity.

tales of our time vol. 2

Education