The boundaries of reality are the area of play…

Love and peace,
Chin-Chin
沁沁

The Namaste Dagoba, Famen Temple
Shaanxi Province, West China 

While driving on the highway from 宝鸡 Bao Ji to 西安 Xi’an, we came across this golden structure towering above a group of ancient temple structures. Is this a science fiction or dream turned nightmare? The Namaste Dagoba was completed on May 9, 2009.  In front of it is a 2 km grand boulevard leading to the gate of the temple. It houses the world’s only veritable, authentic (middle) finger bone relic of the venerable Buddha. For the history and photographs of the old Famen Temple, please click http://www.chinaculture.org/gb/en_aboutchina/2003-09/24/content_25384.htm

**Entry fee is now 90 rmb (about 13$). Pilgrims beware: finger bone only on display  during the weekends, and the 1st and the 15th of the lunar month.

 Gansu Province, West China

Gansu Province, West China

Insiders probably already know that Gayographic (大城小同) is holding the first ever Mr. Gay China beauty pageant on Jan. 15, 2010 at the Lan Club. The winner will represent mainland China in Oslo, Norway, vying for the title of Mr. Gay World Ambassador. This is of course a monumental event in the history of the Chinese LGBT community. I finally did some test shots with 3 candidates last Sunday, courtesy to Gayographic organizers Ben Zhang, Ryan and Niu Niu.

So here is the scoop:

1) Xuefei. Calm, laconic, and mysterious.

What I especially appreciated about this candidate was his timeliness (first to arrive), patience (always a plus in the eye of a photographer), and a certain forlorn, other-worldly quality. This definitely sets him apart from any kind of visual stereotype. He’s not the first one you notice when you enter the room, yet there’s a sense of mystique and intrigue that will slowly draw you in.

2 ) Emilio. Handsome, upbeat, winsome.

Emilio’s good looks have a mass appeal by most societal standards, gay or straight. He also possesses the kind of physique that gives strength, hope, and inspiration to all health-related New Year resolutions. Potentially the poster boy of Mr. Gay China, I think this beauty pageant could be the perfect opportunity for him to fine-tune and deepen his already hugely likable character and personality.

3) Simon. Charismatic, uninhibited, fun-loving.

Simon is a ball of energy, capable of proposing 60 dramatically different poses per minute. There’s definitely a bit of an artist’s soul in him, not to mention an off-beat fashion sense. I trust that what he lacks in physique, he will amply make up by creativity and enthusiasm!

Finally, a rather dignified group portrait:

I look forward to meeting the other candidates. Their courage is a constant inspiration. It’s one thing to come out of the closet to one’s friends and family; it’s another thing to participate in such a highly publicized event, obliging each to clearly broadcast his romantic and sexual preference. Let’s face it, China is still an immensely traditional and limelight-shy society, deeply steeped in the Confucian culture of modesty (中庸) for the sake of (outward) harmony. These men are the first (hopefully of many) to break these barriers.

This contest is about community. It’s about beauty. It’s about identity. It’s also about the lessons of self-conquests, the phoenix rising high from the ashes.

Best of luck to all the candidates! If you wish to get involved with this event, please contact Gayographic. Mr. Gay China needs all of your support!

I met sculptor Chen Fei at a little craft shop in Old Beijing nearly two years ago. She was living near Nanluoguxiang and had been experimenting with making masks with paper maché and I was immediately drawn to the expressive possibilities of these hutong characters come alive. Over the span of two years, our friendship grew as we saw the surroundings of our neighborhood demolished and rebuilt at a jaw-dropping rate. As old businesses move out, new businesses settle in; Chen Fei was forced to move with the construction of the new metro line… This series is inspired by the simple people who inhabit here and whose lives are constantly affected by the mass exodus in the face of modernization. It is an elegy to the perishing traditions and lifestyles that made Old Beijing such a unique place.

This work is on show at CNEX as part of the annual Greening the Beige art show. All prints are for sale and the proceedings go to the art collective Greening the Beige. Please contact organizer Carissa Welton for detail.

In April 2010, we are holding another art show with a stage performance involving a new series of masks at CNEX.

I was instructed to use only song titles from ONE ARTIST/BAND/COMPOSER and answer
the following questions and pass it on to people. Somehow, in my usual haste and carelessness, I had read “use lyrics from one song” and answered accordingly (I know I have difficulty following instructions, sigh). I still like the answers - the song is Falling Away with You from the album Absolution:

Pick your Artist:
MUSE

Are you a male or female:
MAYBE I JUST MISUNDERSTOOD…

Describe yourself:
STAYING AWAKE TO CHASE A DREAM

How do you feel:
I THINK OUR LIVES HAVE JUST BEGUN

Describe where you currently live?
MEMORIES I WILL NEVER FIND

If you could go anywhere, where would you go:
ALL OF THE LOVE WE LEFT BEHIND

Your favorite form of transportation:
THE AIR YOUR ARE BREATHING IN

Your best friend is:
IN SPITE OF WHATEVER YOU BECOME

You and your best friends are:
WATCHING OUR FLASHBACKS INTERTWINE

What’s the weather like:
TASTING THE AIR

If your life was a TV show, what would it be called:
I HOPE I WON’T FORGET A THING

What is life to you:
NOTHING WILL EVER STAY THE SAME

Your relationship:
MOMENTS OF HAPPINESS IN BLOOM

What is the best advice you have to give:
FORGET THAT RECKLESS THING TURNED ON

Thought for the Day:
I CAN’T REMEMBER

How I would like to die:
FALLING AWAY WITH YOU

My soul’s present condition:
CRUMBLING AWAY

My motto:
MAKING THE SAME MISTAKES AGAIN

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html

Having lost love, relatedness, and creativity, Psyche (the soul) is in despair. Its mission now is to rely on perception, cleverness, courage, and determination  to fulfill the four tasks (assigned by Venus), each accomplished by some split-off part of the soul’s nature. This is how we survive when eros is lost to us. Without love, we are clever, calculating, cold, and distant. Without the soul, Eros is meaningless sensual energy. But we survive…

It jumps out of its gentrified, chic daytime envelope, vibrates at a new intensity, shrieks of new textures and emotions audible only to ears attuned to a different language. Images from my nocturnal prowling in Prague and its surrounding area, June 2009:

 Snapped at a quiet park in Paris, XXe arrondissement

 The poster for the concert of a Czech revival rock band that sang Chinese songs from the 80’s
Prague, June 4, 2009.

Jennifer Lin:

I was recently going over some lines of inquiry I’ve previously explored regarding the state of art and I came across something I wrote awhile ago…please feel free to comment, I’d really love to see what you guys think about my question..it would be really quite interesting to me to see what people think, since I am inextricably implicated in the art world, have a read…. again, would love to know what you guys think of the question I’ve posed. xoxo Jennifer

Adorno, Horkheimer and MacDonald, in brief, put forth the argument that popular culture is merely a manufactured commodity; that is, mainstream cultural products like Hollywood movies, music etc. are bereft of any originality and creativity. MacDonald in particular argues that the avant-garde movement escapes the dilemma of commodification, for it “simply refuses to compete”. Furthermore, MacDonald articulates that “[the avant-garde movement] created a new compartmentation of culture, on the basis of an intellectual rather than a social elite” (MacDonald, 63). MacDonald’s point is highly debatable given that modernists like Picasso, T.S. Eliot and Stravinsky belonged in fact to a very exclusive group, that was determined by social and intellectual status.
Furthermore, avant-garde art was made distinct from products of popular culture because they are imbued with originality. Yet T.S. Eliot, an artist who is emblematic of the avant-garde movement was reputed to say that “Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal”. So originality becomes a moot point, and a very inconcrete benchmark in identifying creativity and the status of non-commodification in any given cultural artifact. So by what measures in contemporary culture are we able to distinguish between the kitsch and the avant-garde, and by the same token, between the kitsch and academicism, when the lines between these categories potentially overlap? Is it possible to draw the lines between these categories at all? Are not all works that are produced in our culture in danger of being kitschy as long as it had the time to evolve or better yet, digress? Look at for instance, Pollack’s abstract expressionist art, or Van Gogh’s Sunflowers. These previously avant-garde works are now squarely within the domain of popular culture, as they are seen often hanging the the dorm rooms of college students or in the waiting rooms of dentist offices. Is it possible for any artistic or non-artistic works to remain “before the vanguard”?

 

Post Modern China Doll:

The avant-garde movement(s) rises from the spirit of questioning, so for me the earliest avant-gardists were Heraclitus, Socrates… The impulse of questioning is by nature uncommodifiable, however, once the process is objectified/commodified (into an object, a painting, a book, a movie, a record), it is always made so with the intention to enter some sort of circuit/market. Can we draw a parallel to Zen Buddhism and say that the spirit of the avant-garde movement is always in a double bind once it’s articulated?

Contrary to Greenberg, I do not subscribe to the idea that the kitsch is the necessary fate of the avant-garde. It seems either too optimistic or too pessimistic of a view of humanity’s general ability to digest great avant-garde ideas. I’ll have to think about that one.

 I’ve been relatively absent from the blogosphere as I notice subscription rates go up. But really I’m unable to see statistics on this site when I’m in China because of some Internet glitch. Meanwhile, I’ve been busy commodifying (rather shamelessly shall I say) my artistic discourses and yes the book is coming!

I will be in Paris in about a week, then London. I am happy to announce that the English Edition of www.photographie.com will resume under video format, and we will be examining the mutations of the photographic imagery (interviews, discussions, etc) so be on the look out.  In April, Soldiers During the Time of Peace will be showing in Art Shanghai, and I will be there. At the end of May, I will have two workshops with Austrian students from the Vienna Fotoschule-Filmschule school. The art boom is over, but art lives on! 

P.S. Like the mean professor or the masochistic first-year art student, here’s two pieces of reading that I (self) assigned. I really need to read the stuff that I talk about instead of being found furiously photocopying Chinese art magazines in B&W (btw why isn’t there a Reader’s Digest for the thousands of magazines out there?). I suppose this is the gap that’s likely to be left in your education when you went to a film school but picked up the theory bug on the way from sensitometry 102 to creative thesis-related fictional theory write:

Greenberg: Avant-Garde and the Kitsch:

http://www.sharecom.ca/greenberg/kitsch.html 

New York Times Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/arts/design/15cott.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

Robert Berman Gallery Presents:

«VIS-À-VIS, PORTRAITS OF NEW WOMEN»

«对视 : 新女性肖像 »

Pigment print, Edition of 5, 120×160 cm
© Chin-Chin Wu, 2006-2008

Catalog available upon request

photo MIAMI
Wynwood Art District, Miami, FL
(Enter on Midtown Boulevard)
BOOTH #304
Robert Berman GALLERY
www.robertbermangallery.com

December 3 - 7, 2008
Opening December 2th, 6 - 10 pm

Upcoming exhibitions:

photo LA
January 21-29, 2009
Downtown Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
BOOTH #C109
laartshow.com

30th Anniversary Exhibition, Part 1

Robert Berman GALLERY
At Bergamot Station Arts Center, Santa Monica, California
January 24 - February 21, 2009

 

Group exhibition of selected photography and photo based works featuring:
Alex Prager, Jeff Charbonneau & Eliza French, Andres Serrano, Rafael Serrano, Man Ray, William Wegman, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Dennis Hopper, Edmund Teske, Shirin Neshat, Christopher Felver, E.T. Risk, Harry Bowers, Lauren Marsolier, Marc Fichou, John Colao, Marla Rutherford, Dietrich Wegner, Cameron Gray, Gerald Slota, Chin-Chin Wu, Hana Jakralova

In 1971, American linguist/social activist Noam Chomsky squared off against French philosopher Michel Foucault on Dutch television . The program was entitled ‘Human Nature: Justice Vs. Power’ and offered sharp contrasts between the more traditional view of ‘human nature’ and what would become a postmodernist perspective … Chomsky, following a rationalist lineage going back to at least Plato, believes that there is a foundational ‘nature’ and that its positive aspects (love, creativity, recognizing and embracing justice) must be realized, while Foucault remains skeptical of any such notion… for him, the issue is not so much whether ‘justice’ or ‘human nature’ ‘exists,’ but how they have historically (and currently) function in society … in regard to justice, he says (this is not included in the clips): “… the idea of justice in itself is an idea which in effect has been invented and putto work in different types of societies as an instrument of a certain political and economic power or as a weapon against that power…” The point of any political struggle, for Foucault, is to alter the ‘power relations’ in which we all find ourselves …

Currently reading: Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison By: Michel Foucault Release date: 1995-04-25

前几天千儿告诉我, 记得她小的时候大家都管喜欢漂亮女孩的女孩叫”花痴”。这是我听到过的最美的称呼。

“都云作者痴，谁解其中味？”

想来能体会”花痴”二字的真谛的，也应该是上上品，不管他/她是男的还是女的。。。

Are you looking to push boundaries of your body and mind? Interested to get to know your body better? Want a better nude portfolio but haven’t found the right photographer? See how an artist works?

I am a Chinese-American artist living in between Beijing and Paris. Currently seeking women of all background and ethnicity for a large-scale conceptual art project – portraits of the female genitalia. The identities of the subjects will remain entirely anonymous and I offer to make other nude photographs or portraits in exchange. Length of time is estimated at around 1 1/2 hours (please plan extra time for other photo shoots).

My studio is in the historical center , 2 minutes from the Drum Tower（鼓楼) subway station, very close to Nan Luo Gu Xiang（南锣鼓巷）, Hou Hai (后海）， and other major tourist attractions. You can find information for this project on:

http://www.chinchinwu.net/?page_id=98

including a making-of video where the models who have participated talk about their experience and their views on the subject matter. You can also find some pictures and background info on the site. There’s a Chinese article in the magazine Hope／希望杂志报导 about the project:

http://www.chinchinwu.net/?page_id=191

39 women world-wide have already participated in this project. I hope that you will decide to participate in this very important project! This work will be edited into a book published by Trolley Books (London, www.trolleybooks.com) in May 2009 and exhibited in Photo Miami, Photo LA, etc.

Contact me at:
mail@chinchinwu.net with your phone number and I will call you.
Also Skype handle: chinchinlive

Thank you,
Chin-Chin Wu