An icon in his native city, Tsang Tsou Choi (1921–2007) covered the streets of Hong Kong with his graffiti for over 35 years, using a brush and ink to proclaim himself “the King of Kowloon”--heir to an imaginary birthright that fueled a lifetime of artistic output. With his signature style, Tsang wrote himself into the collective memory of a generation caught between British and Chinese rule, leaving behind an oeuvre that includes countless outdoor projects (the majority now extant only in photographs), myriad works on paper, board and cloth, as well as painted objects. This milestone publication documents Tsang’s influential art and enduring legacy. With over 100 reproductions, a foreword by Hans-Ulrich Obrist and critical essays by Hou Hanru, Ou Ning and others, The King of Kowloon is the first comprehensive survey of Tsang’s complex and fascinating artistic output.
The last decade has witnessed a noticeable return to utopia and utopian thinking in contemporary art. This volume convenes artists, academics and curators to discuss different ways of thinking and performing utopia. Divided into two sections, “Utopia Revisited” and “Utopian Positions,” it considers both artists exploring the theme as subject matter and artists actively aspiring towards utopian ideals.
This volume documents Hou Hanru's PHoto España 2011 exhibition gathering works in both new and old media relating to photography as a model of perception. Artists and photographers include Hamra Abbas, Adel Abdessemed Du Zhenjun, Thierry Fontaine, Shaun Gladwell, Jiang Zhi, Dinh Q Lê, Wangechi Mutu, Pak Sheung-Chuen, Dan Perjovschi, Shahzia Sikander, Nedko & Dimitar Solakov, Sun Xun Tsang, Kin-Wha and Wong Hoycheong.
This catalogue documents Chen Shaoxiong's multifaceted solo practice, from his participation in the Big Tail Elephant group to his current installation-based explorations of the global financial crisis. The book features an extensive archive of previously unpublished photographs and illustrations, a critical text by curator Hou Hanru and a conversation between the artist and critic Pauline J. Yao.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 10 x 10 in. / 80 pgs / 71 color / 17 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 2/28/2011 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2010 p. 124
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789881803450TRADE List Price: $45.00 CAD $55.00
“My work has moved away from the idea of a painting as an object,” Michael Lin (born 1964) observes. “I'm more interested in creating a painting as a space to occupy.” Lin makes painted installations that reconfigure institutional spaces with designs appropriated from Taiwanese textiles. This publication is the first comprehensive overview of his work.
Puerto Rico-based American and Cuban-born Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla are known for their playful, socially-involved, sound-based installations, videos and performances. This well-designed volume presents recent works that investigate how power, militarism and war are encoded into sound.
This monumental volume highlights the esteemed Estella Collection of contemporary Chinese art, with works spanning from 1966-2006. At more than 450 pages, and standing more than 13 inches tall by 10 inches wide, it features an abundant supply of lavish full-spread images and remarkable details of work by virtually every major contemporary Chinese artist to have contributed to the pivotal, revolutionary moment that has lasted from the 1970s until today. Some of the contributing artists include Wang Keping, Huang Rui, Ai Weiwei, Cai Guo-Qiang, Cai Jin, Feng Zhengjie, Wenda Gu, Huang Yong Ping, Rong Rong and Inri, Su-en Wong, Xu Bing, Yue Minjun and Zhang Huan. The breadth of work collected within the covers of this catalogue is so far unrivalled in quality and range. With impeccable scholarship for specialists as well as a lucid and accessible introduction for the wider public.
At first glance, one might compare the young Chinese photographer Yang Yong to Nan Goldin or Larry Clark, for he, too creates sexy/abject pictures of marginal urban youth. However, when one examines Yang Yong's work more closely, one connects it with its larger context, the "model" city of Shenzhen. In this light, Yang Yong's work can be seen as a kind of photo-roman that exposes the specific state of being that is shared by his generation, who have immigrated from all over China to reinvent themselves in this artificially created "Special Economic Zone" that is supposed to be a testing ground for China's new urbanization and modernization. Yang Yong is a sensitive and accurate observer of his generation, though his work is by no means documentary: The scenes he depicts are all directed and set up by the artist himself. Perhaps this is why Yang Yong's work always radiates a certain cinematic flair.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 7.75 x 10 in. / 200 pgs / 60 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 4/1/2007 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2007 p. 120
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889901585TRADE List Price: $40.00 CAD $50.00
The Contemporary Chinese Art Awards (CCAA) are intended both to enhance public awareness of what Chinese artists contribute to contemporary culture and to encourage the development of the country's most promising talent. This compendium includes work by and interviews with awardees such as Xu Zhen, who took the overall CCAA Prize for Excellence, Gu Dexin, the CCAA Achievement Prize winner, and Song Tao, winner of the Young Artist Prize. Those three portfolios alone offer a compelling cross-section of their milieu, bodies of work both young and extensive, in a wide variety of media. Along with five compatriots, including Yang Fudong, they demonstrate unequivocally the vitality of their growing contemporary art scene. With essays by Harald Szeemann and Alanna Heiss, among others.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 8.5 x 11.25 in. / 181 pgs / 100 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/15/2006 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2006 p. 133
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889868093TRADE List Price: $28.00 CAD $32.50
For the past 20 years, Chinese artist Sheng Qi has been creating remarkable works of art in diverse media, approximately 100 of which are showcased here in full color. A prevalent theme in his work has been the study of the body: of body language and its culture. (When he left Beijing in 1989, he cut the little finger off of his left hand and buried it in a flower pot.) Since returning to China after completing his artistic studies in London, he has been selected to participate in the Nippon International Performance Festival, and the recent International Center of Photography exhibition, Between Past and Future, where his photographic work was selected for the cover of the exhibition catalogue. He is also one of the few artists in China to concern himself with AIDS and to become involved in local awareness campaigns.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 8 x 11 in. / 144 pgs / 150 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 3/15/2005 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: SPRING 2005 p. 129
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789889808679TRADE List Price: $30.00 CAD $35.00
China is booming! In the wake of economic liberalization, the nation's art scene has taken flight as well. The Swiss collector Uli Sigg, formerly his country's ambassador to Beijing, has followed the rapid pace of development since the 1980s, compiling along the way the world's largest collection of contemporary Chinese art, comprising more than 1,200 works by some 180 artists. Mahjong, named after the popular and ancient Chinese game of chance, presents more than 200 paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, video pieces and installations from Sigg's collection. Alongside them hang such curiosities as vintage Mao posters. In addition to a number of internationally famous works, such as Ai Weiwei's Han vase with Coca-Cola logo, Fang Lijun's bald heads or Xu Bing's “Xinglish” calligraphy, this book also offers readers a unique opportunity to discover tremendously gifted artists still largely unknown outside China.
This first monograph to look back over Huang Yong Ping's work to date finally brings the full range of his accomplishments to an international audience. As a contemporary artist in China working with diverse traditions and new and ancient media, Huang has built an artistic universe comprised of provocative installations that challenge the viewer to reconsider everything from the idea of art to national identity to recent history. He was once one of the leading figures of the Xiamen Dada movement--a collective of artists working to create a new Chinese cultural identity by bridging trends in Western modernism with Chinese traditions of Zen and Taoism. He continues to confront established definitions of history and aesthetics with sculptures and installations that draw on the legacies of Joseph Beuys, Arte Povera, and John Cage as well as traditional Chinese art and philosophy, juxtaposing traditional objects, iconic images, and modern references. House of Oracles echoes that blend by binding photographs, essays, and striking sketchbook pages, which are presented with translations of the artist's calligraphy, in a matte soft cover with two facing spines--it opens with the plates on one side and the essays and artist writings on the other.
In this first monograph, Chinese photographer Yang Yong explores the fictions and lusts of a young generation in Shenzhen. Lighthearted, fluorescent-lit photo series and videos capture a trendy woman in the subway station, an underwear-clad woman at home alone, a young woman playing with a gun--all ennui, beauty and urban environment.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 8.25 x 10.25 in. / 140 pgs / 120 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/2/2004 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2004
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789628638864TRADE List Price: $30.00 CAD $35.00
Staged and composite photographs, digitally manipulated Japanese porn films, scribbled ink paintings, photo-collages on rice paper, installations of toys and model motorcycles, performances, cast-iron Coke bottle sculptures, tanks made of bread and then stir-fried... Zheng Guogu does it all in this disorienting, glossy artist's book.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher/Shangh Art
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 7.75 x 10.5 in. / 384 pgs / 300 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/2/2004 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2004
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789628638857TRADE List Price: $40.00 CAD $50.00
...since the last revolution of the arts at the end of the 60s, there has been no subversive art; good artists, yes, but the subcutaneous rebelliousness has disappeared in the west, and that explains my interest in China. Whether work is traditionally painted or sculptured, whether painting is undermined by rolloing picture scrolls or by videos, subversiveness is always part of the message. This may be explained by the context: artists who stay in the country want to change things and want to gain freedom of action... --Harald Szeemann Revolution, subversion, and rebellion run throughout this compilation of interviews with, texts on, and works by the 23 artists who won the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards between 1998 and 2002. Jurists included Harald Szeeman, Alanna Heiss, Hou Hanru, Li Xianting and Uli Sigg.
PUBLISHER Blue Kingfisher
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6.75 x 8.75 in. / 180 pgs / 126 color.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/2/2004 No longer our product
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2004
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789628638888TRADE List Price: $25.00 CAD $30.00
During the last five years of his life, Chen Zhen expended his energies to create a body of work that poetically articulated his knowledge of traditional Chinese culture and Western avant-garde art. Born in Shanghai in 1955, Chen grew up during the tumultuous years of the Cultural Revolution. When China transitioned out of that era, he became interested in combining traditional Chinese philosophy (forbidden under Maoist rule) and Western practices as an alternative to the government's official cultural ideology. The resulting body of work held as a central theme the creation of harmony through difference, taking the human body, illness and medicine as metaphors, mixing cross-cultural social dynamics before multiculturalism and globalization had ever been articulated. Exploring the intricate and often paradoxical relationship between the material and the spiritual, the community and the individual, interior and exterior, Chen used sound and everyday materials such as candles, beds, chairs, and even chamber pots, linking the physical world to the spiritual, ritualistic one. The result was an aesthetic immersed in the traditional past but aligned with the present. This catalogue accompanies an exhibition held at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in tribute to the artist, who died from a rare medical condition known as autoimmune hemolytic anemia in 2000, in Paris, where he had emigrated as an art student in the mid-80s.
Hou Hanru is undoubtedly one of the most dynamic and innovative curators and critics on the contemporary art scene today. Known for such ground-breaking exhibitions as Cities on the Move (co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist), Out of the Center, Parisien(ne)s and the Kwangju Biennial in Korea, his work addresses questions of globalization and identity, understanding contemporary art practice as it exists beyond geographical and regional boundaries. This dense, excellent collection of his writings and interviews is divided into four sections: “From China to the International,” “ From 'Exile' to the Global,” “Global Cities and Art,” and “Interviews, Dialogues, Conversations.”
PUBLISHER D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6.5 x 8.75 in. / 281 pgs / 120 color / 194 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/2/2003 Out of stock indefinitely
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2003
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9789628638826TRADE List Price: $35.00 CAD $47.50
The rise of globalism has created tremendous challenges to old economic, political and cultural paradigms, changes that are increasingly reflected in diverse artistic practices across the planet. If disciplinary boundaries are now crossed as easily as geographic ones, how does the new internationalism that we are facing affect aesthetics and artistic production? Is there a link, for example, between the rise of video works and the global availability of digital media? Does the global information age facilitate an international language of art and an alternative reading of history, from art history toward art histories? From the perspective of a museum of modern and contemporary art--a purely European construct--the art institution has to overcome a major contradiction, one that exists between its mission of permanence and its mission of change. How can cultural institutions contribute to the revamping of their own structures now that the hegemony of Western modernity is being challenged? How can museums connect with new audiences through different practices, different scholarships, and different interpretive strategies that grow out of the sedimentation of their own history? To invite and encourage such dialogue, How Latitudes Become Forms looks at current scholarship on globalism and changing curatorial practices, and identifies critical models provided by artists themselves, featuring thought-provoking essays and conversations by curators, critics, and cultural programmers from across the world, as well as multidisciplinary artworks by more than 40 artists from Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Africa, Turkey and the United States.
Art as the Scene of Global Conflicts, Ars Electronica 2002
Published by Hatje Cantz.
Dedicated to the blind spots of globalization, to those mental and geographic barriers beyond which access to and participation in global networking--and the cultural and societal models that come with it--are not feasible, not allowed, or simply not wanted, the catalog for Ars Electronica 2002, the Festival for the Arts, Technology, and Society, features selected texts and exemplary projects pinpointing the vehemence with which the political momentum of art has returned to the agendas of intellectual discourse and the practice of art itself.
Foci gathers together interviews with ten of the most renowned curators working internationally in the field of contemporary art. The interviews are rich with wide-ranging dialogue and cover issues such as the relationship between the exhibit and its location, art as the barometer for the age, the role of architecture, fashion and design in shaping art, the notions of national and gender identity in art, as well as more specific issues concerning personal curatorial styles. Interviews with Kasper Koenig, Rosa Martinez, Hou Hanru, Harald Szeemann, Vasif Kortun, Maria Hlavajova, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Dan Cameron, Yuko Hasegawa and Barbara London give the reader a fascinating insight into the work and thought process of some of the most creative individuals in today's art world.
PUBLISHER ApexArt Curatorial Program
BOOK FORMAT Paperback, 6.5 x 9.5 in. / 144 pgs / 23 color / 28 bw.
PUBLISHING STATUS Pub Date 8/2/2001 Out of print
DISTRIBUTION D.A.P. Exclusive Catalog: FALL 2001
PRODUCT DETAILS ISBN 9780970407153TRADE List Price: $22.00 CAD $25.00
Utopia & Contemporary Art
The Power of Doubt
Chen Shaoxiong
Michael Lin
Jennifer Allora & Guillermo Calzadilla
China Onward The Estella Collection: Chinese Contemporary Art, 1966-2006
Chinese Artists: Texts and Interviews
Sheng Qi: Madness, Appropriation
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art From The Sigg Collection
House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective
Zheng Guogu: Cross Back And Forth Quickly
Chinese Artists, Texts And Interviews
Chen Zhen: A Tribute
Hou Hanru: On The Mid-Ground
How Latitudes Become Forms
Unplugged
Foci: Interviews With 10 International Curators