For Mousse Magazine issue 73’s TIDBITS section, curator Billy Tang reflects on ‘Poetic Justice for Yu Man-hon: Cici Wu.’ “New York-based artist Cici Wu is interested not only in the materiality of the tools and machines we use to observe the world, but also in the myriad ways our worldly experiences are propelled by subtle interactions among language, memory, rituals, sociopolitical structures, and different states of awareness and emotions that can be triggered by moving images and their ambient effects. Turning increasingly toward the supernatural, Wu’s work alternates between drawing, film projection, and sculpture, skillfully interweaving the human and the nonhuman into surrealistic, dreamlike installations…”
For Mousse Magazine issue 73’s TIDBITS section, cultural critic and curator Jeppe Ugelvig wrote about ektor garcia’s ‘Psychic Time of Handicraft.’ “Craft has historically found itself thrust into heated disputes relating to the materiality of gendered and racialized labor. More recently, it’s found new currency in the art world, which in turn has developed a proclivity for reducing its makers to simple tropes of identity. In his practice, ektor garcia wrestles with these stratified positions of production with a restless poetry that defies fixed meanings, whether formal or subjective…”
Join artists Kelly Akashi and Matthew Ronay in conversation with Tishan Hsu on the occasion of Tishan Hsu: Liquid Circuit at SculptureCenter. Moderated by exhibition curator Sohrab Mohebbi.”We, humans under the influence of technology, are desperately trying to recapture a feel for our skin, to be reembodied, to prove that we are still here.” Matthew Ronay writes in a recent Artforum essay on Tishan Hsu. “But perhaps we aren’t here any longer. We’ve dominated nature completely, and now we’re running a simulation. There is a harmony between the body and the mind somewhere, but not in Hsu’s works, which feel so accurate to me because harmony is so hard to find. His art is not pessimistic; it just offers a humbled perspective—a seductive warning.” Register at the link below.
On Tuesday, October 20, 7:30 pm EDT, Tishan Hsu will lecture online as part of Boston University’s Tuesday Night MFA Lecture Series. Hosted by the MFA programs in Painting, Sculpture, and Graphic Design at Boston University, the Tuesday Night Lecture Series brings practicing artists and curators to Boston University to present their work. Register on Zoom at the link below.
美報 (Art and Piece), a new Cantonese arts publication established in 2020, has sat down with HENRY SHUM to discuss the process behind his debut exhibition at Empty Gallery, ‘Vortices‘. Read the full Q&A in Cantonese （廣東話）, by CUSSON CHENG, at the link below.
Samwai Lam profiled John Ziqiang Wu for the October 2020 Art issue of MING’S Magazine. Their conversation discusses whether art can be taught, how to live and work as an artist, and Wu’s background as an educator and painter. Read the full interview in Cantonese (廣東話) below.
Many Imaginary Returns: Screening and artist talk with Cici Wu in conversation with Michelle Wong, October 8, 7:30PM HKT. The Unfinished Return of Yu Man-hon (2019) focuses on Cici Wu’s cultural imaginary and extensive research into the unaccountable disappearance of Yu Man-hon, a mentally disabled and an autistic boy who crossed the Hong Kong-Shenzhen border into the mainland and disappeared on August 24, 2000.His case remains unsolved to this day. Filmed in both Minneapolis and Hong Kong, the work follows an abstract narrative where Man-hon returns to the material world, retrieving lost memories of his disappearance in the process. The artist’s camera floats through the city’s myriad pedestrian spaces, lingering at certain familiar places to which Man-hon felt particular attachment –a swing set or favorite restaurant, a local supermarket or bus-depot, a ferry or market. The short film highlights the emotional fragility of our memory, attempts to challenge the familiar interpretation of Man-Hon as an embodiment of loss, and to perceive his image as an enlightened being rather than a ghost.
After the screening, we will connect with Cici Wu in New York with art researcher and academic Michelle Wong for a conversation on the making of the film, Yu Man-hon in relation to lost time and space, and the possible meaning of imaginary returns.
‘100 Drawings from Now’ is an exhibition and benefit event supporting participating artists and The Drawing Center. Featuring drawings made by an international group of artists since early 2020, ‘100 Drawings from Now’ provides a snapshot of artistic production during a period of profound global unrest that has resulted from the ongoing health and economic crises, as well as a surge of activism in response to systemic racism, social injustice, and police brutality in the United States. Together, the works in the exhibition spotlight the urgency, intimacy, and universality of drawing during moments of upheaval and isolation.
Tishan Hsu’s recent painting ‘signal.noise/membrane’ (2020) is included in the benefit ‘Artists for New York’ at Hauser & Wirth until October 22, 2020. ‘Artists for New York’ is a major initiative to raise funds in support of a group of pioneering non-profit visual arts organizations across New York City that have been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Notes for Tomorrow” is an experimental exhibition conceived by Independent Curator’s International and made up of artworks selected by curators from around the world to reflect on a new global reality ushered in by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this cultural moment of transition, each work is a source of inspiration from the recent past and a guiding perspective for the future. Rei Hayama’s film On the colinear and reflected on the water (2018) of a crying emu is included in the exhibition.
Curated by Charles Campbell, Freya Chou, Giulia Colletti, Veronica Cordeiro, Allison Glenn, Tessa Maria Guazon, PJ Gubatina Policarpio, Ivan Isaev, Ross Jordan, Drew Kahuʻāina Broderick, Josh Tengan, Esteban King Álvarez, João Laia, Luis Carlos Manjarrés Martínez, Fadzai Veronica Muchemwa, Lydia Y. Nichols, Marie Hélène Pereira, Balimunsi Philip, Josseline Pinto, Florencia Portocarrero, Shahana Rajani, Rachel Reese, Marina Reyes Franco, Mari Spirito, Alexandra Stock, Eszter Szakács, Abhijan Toto, Fatoş Üstek, Su Wei, Sharmila Wood.