Sunday, November 29, 2009

'rounding (english version)


'rounding (english version)
Originally uploaded by raniaho

Just Around the Corner Arrow Factory, Beijing
August 15, 2009 - January 15, 2010
Curated by Chen Shaoxiong and Pauline J. Yao

*Announcing NEW WORK **Nov 29**, 2009** - Jan 15, 2010**:
**Li Ming, **Lin Tianmiao and **Wang Wei (this is the final rotation for
this exhibition)*

Please note: Artists and artworks in the show will be on view in four
different sections, each lasting for approximately one month. Please check
the website www.arrowfactory.org.cn for the most current information.

Participating artists: Lim Tzay-Chuen (Singapore/Beijing), Liang Yuanwei
(Beijing), Xijing Men (Beijing/Tokyo/Seoul), Yan Lei (Beijing), Ken Lum
(Vancouver), Wang Wei (Beijing), Patty Chang (New York), Liu Chuang
(Beijing), Li Ming (Hangzhou), Rania Ho (Beijing), Hong Hao (Beijing), Koki
Tanaka (Tokyo/Los Angeles), Dan Perjovschi (Bucharest), Lin Tianmiao
(Beijing)

Just Around the Corner is a group exhibition that looks at the street and
hutong environment as a site for artistic creation. Marking Arrow Factory’s
first group exhibition, Just Around the Corner invites international and
local artists to make new projects that interact, engage, embed themselves
or otherwise respond to social conditions that persist within Arrow
Factory’s storefront location. Extending beyond the four walls of Arrow
Factory’s space to engage more directly with the outdoor street and
neighboring businesses and residents, these works wish to promote a seamless
relationship with the local economies and micro-environments of hutong life.

In taking the hutong as site for artistic production, Just Around the Corner
also aims at engaging strategies of looking and visibility, especially as
they pertain to our understandings of consumption and exchange in daily
life. The audience at Arrow Factory is made up of immediate neighbors and
residents of Jianchang Hutong, namely local residents, merchants and random
passersby. Unaccustomed to the modes of visual consumption we readily
associate with contemporary art, they are regular users of the space and
inhabitants whose daily practice is composed of less visually oriented
types of consumption—buying vegetables, cigarettes, pancake bread, etc—that
permeate everyday life. Even though modern lifestyles and new inhabitants
have invaded the hutong, modern visual culture and art has yet to
incorporate the hutong and its residents into its own horizon and hutong
residents are nonchalant when it comes to contemporary art. The art world
views its audience as the museum director, curator, collector, art
researcher and art student, gradually abandoning the general public and
enforcing a high-minded view of art. But what does it mean for works of art
to be seen, noticed, witnessed, and felt in contexts where the modalities of
art merge with everyday human experience? Are there ways to approach a
particular location, like Arrow Factory Hutong, as a site for examining the
systems and structures of consumption that overlap with but remain
fundamentally different than those of the ‘art system’? These are some of
the ideas Just Around the Corner seeks to identify and pose through its own
formation and realization. *

International artist participation has been made possible through the
support of several organizations and individuals: Asia Art Archive, Hong
Kong; Libreria Borges Institute of Contemporary Art, Guangzhou;
Manufactura's Studio, Wuhan; Vitamin Creative Space, Guangzhou/Beijing;
Triangle Arts Trust; the Central Academy of Fine Arts (CAFA); Waling Boers
and Beatrice Leanza/BAO Atelier. *

'rounding the final corner...


'rounding the final corner...
Originally uploaded by raniaho

The final rotation for Arrow
Factory's Just Around the Corner
is up! this one features Li Ming
(pictured), Lin Tianmiao and Wang Wei. this will be up until mid jan. hope
you can make it. it's a been a marathon 5 month show. come see this last
installment of artists "playing" in the hutong.
yes, it's cold, but not as cold as its been and a nice walk around the
hutongs for some fresh air is exactly what you've been missing.
here's the press release:

就在拐角 - Just Around the Corner 北京箭厂空间 2009年8月15日至2010年1月 15日
策展人:陈劭雄与姚嘉善 *2009年11月29日-
**2010年**1月15日将在箭厂空间展出:
**李明 **, **林天苗**,* *王卫**新作品(本次展览的最后一个阶段)
*
请留意:这个展览的艺术家和作品将分成四个部分,每个部分的展出持 续大约一个月。想知道最新消息请浏览我们的网站:
www.arrowfactory.org.cn

参与艺术家:艺术家:

林载春(新加坡/北京), 梁远苇(北京), 西京人(北京/东京/首尔) , 颜磊 (北京) , 林荫庭 (温哥华) , 王卫(北京) , 张怡 (纽约)
, 刘窗(北京) , 李明(杭州) , 何颖宜 (北京) , 洪浩(北京) , 田中功起(东京/洛杉矶) , 丹·皮乔沃维奇(布加勒斯特) ,
林天苗(北京)

《就在拐角》是一次群展,将街头和胡同环境视同为艺术创作现场。作
为箭厂空间首次全方位群展,《就在拐角》邀请国内外艺术家们创作新作,这些计划令他们互动、引起他们的兴趣并使之深入其中,或者与箭厂空间临街场地固有的
社会环境相呼应。这些作品跨越空间的四壁,直接与外面的街道、近邻的商铺和居民接触, 而推动了与当地经济以及胡同生活微观环境的密切联系。
在北京,胡同不仅仅是房子与房子之间的过道,在东西南北沿经纬延伸的京城道路里,它是这个城市敏感的神经末稍,在这里,爷们侃大山、妇女聊八卦,犹如今天
的互联网,是主流话语之外民众之间交流的重要场所。而各种小生意如:包子、煎饼、水果、菜市、香烟和汽水,买者和卖者都是这些人,像一个物物交换的自给自
足的小社会,当旅游者进入这个社区才把这些买卖变成真正的商业化。当现代生活及旅游者侵入胡同之后,当代视觉文化却未把胡同及其居民纳入他们的视野之中,
而对等地,胡同以及居民也对当代艺术不加理睬。

在探索胡同半公共环境作为艺术创作的空间之外,此次展览的目的还在于吸引人的观看手法和可视性,特别是它们隶属于我们对日常生活中消费与交换的理解。箭厂
空间的观众,由近邻的街坊以及箭厂胡同的居民组成,也就是说,是当地居民、商贩以及偶然路过的人。他们并不熟悉我们很容易便同当代艺术相联系的视觉消费方
式,但却是空间的常客,他们的日常生活由很少具有视觉导向的消费所组成:买菜、买烟、买烙饼等等——这些都渗透在每天的日常生活当中。艺术界把观众设定为
美术馆馆长、策划人、收藏家、艺术研究者和学生,放弃了普通民众而把艺术的高雅模式不断地强化。艺术作品在一个多种形态或艺术与人类日常生活经历结合在一
起的语境之下被观看、留意、亲眼目睹或感受,这意味着什么呢?有没有什么方式可以进入某个现场,例如箭厂胡同,以此作为一个现场,审视与“艺术体系”相交
叠但从根本而言仍有所不同的消费体系和结构?这些就是《就在拐角》试图通过其形成和实现而认识并提出的问题。

*国际艺术家参与者的赞助: 香港亚洲艺术表演文献库, 广州博尔赫斯书店当代艺术机构, 武汉造实验工作室, 广州与北京维他命空,
英国三角基金会,中央美术学院, Waling Boers and Beatrice Leanza/BAO Atelier.*

Monday, November 23, 2009

more apothecary


more apothecary
Originally uploaded by raniaho

a recently finished project. beijing's *apothecary* bar/restaurant is now
open. designed and built by kupa
studios

more apothecary


more apothecary
Originally uploaded by raniaho

a recently finished project. beijing's *apothecary* bar/restaurant is now
open. designed and built by kupa
studios

more apothecary


more apothecary
Originally uploaded by raniaho

a recently finished project. beijing's *apothecary* bar/restaurant is now
open. designed and built by kupa
studios

more apothecary


more apothecary
Originally uploaded by raniaho

a recently finished project. beijing's *apothecary* bar/restaurant is now
open. designed and built by kupa
studios

beachy


beachy
Originally uploaded by raniaho

just back from xiamen where we installed some work at the chinese european
art center (http://www.ceac99.com/exhibition/present/present.htm). the city
is a laid-back beach town with a good portion of the population taking
seaside wedding photos (see above). we ate beautiful curry shacha noodles
streetside, went to a totally surreal party on a rooftop of a villa, and
wandered around the markets.

if this post works it will be a small victory over the firewall. have been
blocked for the last 6 months. fingers crossed.

apothecary


apothecary
Originally uploaded by raniaho

built by kupa studios

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.

Flickr

This is a test post from flickr, a fancy photo sharing thing.