Friday, September 24, 2010

traffic patterns

more complete awesomeness from the beijing city department of traffic management. this time, individual animations describing how to navigate each and every highway interchange within the 5th ring road. Each and every interchange is designed differently making it virtually impossible to know how to navigate this literal urban jungle unless it is a path well traveled. the map shows each and every interchange. click on any one to see it in detail. sihui qiao interchange is one that is particularly insane (and one which we have driven many times over after missing our intended exit). click on the different possible paths listed on the right hand side of the page and watch the poor little cars try to make simple turns. hours of good wholesome entertainment. whoopeee!

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

the moving wall


welcome to our latest offering at arrow factory. Zhang Peili's wall been up for a few weeks now, but i haven't had time to post until now. Swing by if you're in the area:

In over two years of operation, Arrow Factory has presented exhibitions and projects that have been distinguished in part by their concrete or hypothetical relationship to the social context of its immediate local setting. 38 Jianchang Hutong, a new kinetic installation work by Zhang Peili, establishes a different approach. Shedding any direct social commentary or audience interaction, 38 Jianchang Hutong represents a careful merging with the interior architecture of Arrow Factory’s space while emphatically disassociating itself with the external social surroundings. In an almost imperceptible cycle, the back wall inside the space creeps towards the front glass façade and slowly retreats back again. Correspondingly, a pale circle of light on the wall widens and narrows as the wall moves forward and back.

The installation 38 Jianchang Hutong asks of its viewers not casual engagement, but meditative patience. As such, it can be interpreted as both a desire to attract and pull in one’s attention and an act to willfully repel and disregard it. Working primarily in the medium of video, Zhang Peili’s artistic practice has often concerned itself with the slippage between realities that are constructed or perceived and that which is experienced bodily. Putting the camera aside this time, Zhang relies upon visual strategies to create an elastic void in the midst of copious hutong life which foregrounds the incongruity of Arrow Factory to its adjacent surroundings while also prompting an acute sense of engaged disengagement.

在过去两年多的运营中,箭厂空间举办了一系列的展览和计划,因在某种程度上强调了特定地域环境这一假定背景关系而显得有些与众不同。《箭厂胡同38号》是 张培力的一件机械装置作品,它呈现了一种不同的创作手法-即摒弃了任何直接的社会诠释或观众互动,作品表现出与箭厂空间内部建筑的精心融合,同时又明显地 与外在社会环境彻底脱节。沿着几乎无法觉察的圆形光柱,空间后墙慢慢地延伸至前面的玻璃推拉门后又缓缓地退了回去,墙上一个苍白的光圈随着墙面的前后移动 而变大或变小。《箭厂胡同38号》迫使观众要有思考的耐心而不只是漫不经心的匆匆一瞥,作品在此试图引导这样一些情绪地出现-引人注目的愿望,故意的厌恶 感和一种抵制的举动。张培力原本主要使用录像这一媒介进行创作,他的艺术实践往往建构于现实与体验之间的错位关系。这一次,张培力把录像机放在一边,依靠 一种视觉的策略,在喧闹的胡同生活中营造出了一个灵活的 “空洞”。