亞洲當代藝術從弱勢轉為顯學?

讀了一篇關於福岡亞洲三年展的文章
第四屆福岡亞洲三年展
撰文者寫到"亞洲當代藝術從弱勢轉為顯學"
有嗎？我想著想著很疑惑
亞洲當代藝術成為顯學,那就表示亞洲人民不分階級都在學習或接觸亞洲本土的當代藝術,
亞洲藝術家不必靠政府補助金或兼職工作也能養活自己,而且後面還跟著一大群求技的學子？

亞洲當代藝術市場上的擁擠現象反映出的是全球現象,近期邁阿密的熱潮能不能算是南美當代藝術強勢呢？緊緊相繫的全球化市場中收藏家身居多洲,我們如何分析區域性表現？
曝光率高的亞洲藝術家有一大批是歐美社會培養出來的
這是不是"有自信的自我發聲"？

不論是歐洲美國或亞洲出生成長的藝術家
我們聚在一起便發現大家都是喝美國文化奶水長大的
所謂自我如何定義？

下回去看展覽,先瞄作品單上藝術家的國籍再點頭示好吧
免得把白人藝術家畫的皮卡丘當做亞洲當代藝術來尊崇了

a gift for a gift

Watched Janis Ian sing on PBS the other night.
Something about seeing a grandma singing and playing a guitar moved me so much...
this is way sexier than anything I've ever seen.

Aged talents brew creative forces like a dark bottle of wine, rich yet subtle.
Although I don't dip alcohol, I would therefore describe them as the amber glowing from a barrel of apple cider, pungent yet soothing straight into the heart.
It is a beautiful dream to envision oneself arting for another 5 decades. It is romantic when you toss aside the material rewards, suddenly the world does not make sense any more, but self survives in dignity.

Janis Ian put it this way, (forgive me for not remembering the exact words)
"Aside from egos and all that, all artists are here to serve.
I am fortunate enough to have the talent to write these songs
and was alive in a time when people would listen.
I am extremely previlieged to be able to serve these songs."

I have learned about artists serving but often wonder who are we serving?
the peopl who never touch or see our art?
the artists surrounding us?
the world with dark buildings erected?
the universe with too much negative emotions?
or me me me?
I assume I could understand it in this way now,
"I am here to deliver the vision I was given, with the gifted fingers I was offered.
I am here to serve the sculptures, the paintings and the space among installation objects."
Suddenly serving people makes no sense, yet serving art expands the possibility to no end.

The gifted one, zonkey with 1/4 zebra and 3/4 donkey, who sings like a trumpet and loves so very gently. She is here to serve, serves the pretty stripes that no other donkeys have.

in the crevice of void

22 months worth of questions,

twist the torso to become doubts.

I resurface to find the wave drown me once more.

was it the quality of work?

was it the frequency of conversations?

was it the location of growth?

or was it the intelligence of my neurons?

Tree with limbs so low, one can climb.

Darkness with road well paved, one can traverse.

Me, myself and I

fight the battles of volume.

I realized today, the best are not usually the loudest.

But whom is heard? The best or the loudest?

Art is a game of vanity,

didn't I know that already from the very beginning.

If I should not identify myself with what I do,

then why do I do?

What is in the do for me?

What is in me for the do?

limb is hanging by a thread,

yet time must continue.

Opening night performance

hibernated for a week, here is your review of the opening night performance happened on Friday, Sept. 11, 2009.

We had a big crowd, all the standing and sitting spaces were taken by lovely audience. A good time with many hearts moved. Thank you all for coming! and huge Thank You to my wonderful collaborators~

I swear I must have done a lot of great deed in the past life to deserve such a team:)

Marathon installing. Final Rehearsal

Finished our 3-day-long marathon installing, I think it's time to stop abusing my installer husband who had to stay up late standing on a tall ladder... poor guy. but hey, we still did not break my record of 48-hour installing... I'm at the end of adrenal supply, but when I saw our final rehearsal today, I had to hold back my tears.

Everything is so beautiful, the music, the dance, the energy. For the first time I see my sculptures come alive, breathing and speaking with their own pulse in Loren's music, floating an dancing with Shyamala and Cynthia's movement.

Jake came by to document the whole piece so we can project it after the opening night. Those who couldn't make it to the opening can still get a feeling of what happened in the space.

Cynthia dances with the big ball which they have not seen until the day before final rehearsal. One has to applaud these wonderful professional creative choreographers. They are another subject of my artistic abuse :) hahaShymala's facial expression is so great, we caught a lot on tape. These two ladies' Indian dance training flow naturally thru their contemporary piece. Genius, ladies!

Let's not miss it, opening is Sept. 11, Friday night, 6-9pm.

Live Performance starts at 7:40pm, live dance, live music, live sculptures, live artists, all breathing together with the live you!

Collaborators Congregate

Dance and writing could be a career for next life.
I have longed to work with dancers, dreaming the combination of sculpture and dance would be the perfect marriage of beauty.

The dream has come true.

Thanks to my old pal from CalArts, Doug Hudson. and his lovely wife choreographer Anjali Tata, I was connected with choreographers Cynthia Lee and Shyamala Moorty from the Post Natyam Collective. Shyamala and Cynthia brought their collaborator musician Loren Nerell on board.

It is a huge honor to be able to work with these highly professional artists.

This is our first congregation in my studio:

Loren wanted to record some sound of me working to use as materials for the music.
Here I worked at getting that balloon to unstretch so we could record the sound of rubber "stretch to pop."

Finally, after a 1/2 mile of stretch, it popped!

"That itself is worth the mission," Loren said.

We did some body movement exercises and automatic writing. Recorded ourselves reading our own writing. After lunch, I arranged some spheres around so Shyamala and Cynthia could try and feel some movement.

Fun~
and this is just the beginning...

什麼都要跟男生比嗎？

每次讀到那些一定要把好作品或優秀藝術家拿來跟別人比的藝評
我就會想昏倒
尤其是當你一定要把藝術史上的偉大男性拿來當比照對象時
就令我更想吐了！
"社會,文化,歷史標準都是男生定的
所以再優秀的女性或男性藝術家一定要拿來跟歷史上的偉大男人比喔！
因為我讀的藝術史都是男生寫的
所以請原諒我知識與眼界的淺薄"
藝評說

Lies to sell the water

Sometimes I get so angry about the corporations who lie to sell water to us that I have to yell on my blog.
Does it have anything to do with art? oh yes, if they put too much fluoride in my drinking water, I'll get poisoned by the heavy metal and become stupid. Then I won't complain about them feeding me fluoride, will I?

This is a letter I wrote to Glendale Water and Power, who buys water from Metropolitan Water District of Southern Cal., who takes my tax money to put poison in my water and charge me monthly to lie to me. Nice, the capitalism at it's best!

Dear Glendale Water and Power:
Thank you for sending the WQR.08 2008 Water Quality Report. We find the information very useful. Regarding to the answers provided by GWP to Glendale residents' questions about drinking water quality, I have some comments.
In the "Pharmaceuticals in Drinking Water" section, GWP did not clearly instruct people "how" to dispose unused medication should they choose to dispose it in regular household trash. Pharmaceuticals are considered Household Hazardous Waste in the county of Los Angeles, people should do their best to Not dispose them in the trash. Even if they do, it should be "Put in a sturdy, securely sealed container, then in a trash can," according to County of LA's website. http://ladpw.org/epd/hhw/nodrugs/index.cfm

EPA is now proposing to add hazardous pharmaceutical wastes to the Universal Waste Rule. It is time GWP start addressing this issue in a clear manner. The fact that medication goes into the trash will lead to their impact in the landfill, further settles into the ground water. Best solution should be considering it as hazardous waste at all time.

Regard the "Fluoridation" section, GWP only offer One source for people to read about the fluoride's impact to human health. Unsurprisingly, the link goes directly to the MWD website, who caused a huge controversial debate back in 2007 by increasing fluoridation in water. I personally consider this report irresponsible as it failed to address the controversial issue from both sides. Fluoridated drinking water is especially dangerous to infants and nursing mothers. It is GWP's duty to educate people on that. Here is what some scientists, dentists and experts have to say about Fluoridation in drinking water: http://www.fluoridealert.org/ that Glendale residents have the rights to know about.

ps. Do you know that fluoride is byproduct from aluminum industry. Back in the 30's, some genius thought of tossing it in our drinking water to defer their waste management cost while raking in some of your tax money. It makes your teeth stronger, but is also cloud your brain and poison your blood. Teeth for intelligence, way to go!

Eugenio Merino, I admire you!

I admire this piece: "4 the love of Go(l)d" by Eugenio Merino, simply because Merino has the guts that i'll never have to make works like these.
Do I hate Hirst? No. but I did have to abandon a project because he's butterfly piece overlapped my idea.
Te read the piece in Chinese: http://artouch.com/artco/story.aspx?aid=2009031309484

Realization #01

went to see Louise Bourgeois' show at Moca today. Everybody knows she's awesome, but in what degree, one has to see her works in person.
I followed her media and concepts one by one, suddenly realized that throughout my short art career, there is one perfect word to describe my journey.
"Stumble" or "flounder," that is what I've been doing all these years. I was afraid of speaking my mind. I followed my works instead of myself. I was pushed around by the society and the vanity of the art world. Therefore I have a hard time sticking to one media or concept, or worse, to my true desires. Can't blame on the system, I'm the one who chose to be a ass-kissing pleaser.
What a shame! But how does one ungrow what was taught to us since we were born? Aren't we supposed to be sweet little girls? Even if we are not sweet anymore, we still have to dress up for gallery openings, don't we?

The first realization of this year, I have been a stumbler.