tangent
issue 11 • spring 2008 • £2.00
Distro London: ICA Bookshop Space Station 65 Studio Voltaire Nottingham: Moot Gallery Further Afield: Eye Level Gallery, Halifax BC Headquarters Galerie & Boutique, Montreal Siddharta Gallery, Kathmandu Sticky, Melbourne Flux Factory, NYC
tangent is a member of Indy&Ink, an independent publishing society. To learn more about Indy&Ink check out their website: www.indyandink.org. FRONT COVER: Kam Lai Wan and Pak Sheung-Chuen, Two people blowing into one balloon, 2004 BACK COVER: Kwan Sheung Chi, Pocketbook of Sea (detail) (2008) tangent is a part of TangentProjects and is independently produced on an irregular basis. www.tangentprojects.org zine contents © karen d’amico 2008 unless otherwise noted. contributing artists’ work in the form of text and /or images is used by permission and is copyright by the artist. no stealing allowed; hey, make up your own ideas FFS - after all, we have.
LookSee contemporary art in Hong Kong
INSIDE (in no particular order)
China is all over the news these days. China this, China that, China everything. With the Olympics being held in Beijiing this summer, and Mr. Saatchi proclaiming Chinese artists as the Next Big Thing for art collectors, it seems that one can’t trip for reading about China’s impact on the West in one way or another. So - what about Hong Kong then? What’s going on there?
1a Space Blue Lotus Gallery Kwan Sheung Chi Chow Chun Fai Fotan Village Luke Ching Ivy Ma Pak Sheung-Chuen Para / Site Tam Wai Ping KAM Lai Wan AND . . . asked & answered with Ivy Ma dear you keenly observed by steve smith thoughts on a grey day listiings / links
Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong Dreaming of Hong Kong
FOUR
dreaming of hong kong...
at one point in the not so distant past, it looked as though i would be upping sticks and moving to hong kong for a couple years, and because of that possibility, the past several months have been spent living in a sort of suspended state of waiting. waiting to hear if we are going, waiting to make decisions like, ‘do i get a new mobile or not?’ or ‘do i renew my parking permit for 6 months or a year?’ it’s weird when your everyday life and even your own home suddenly becomes a temporary space simply because of ‘what might happen’. living in limbo and all that... nevertheless, the thought of setting up home in a place i’d never been, where i didn’t speak the language and where everyday experiences like buying food or getting from A to B would turn into small moments of triumph, was pretty enticing. i was looking forward to being a ghost, to having only part of my everyday world accessable due to the inevitable barriers of language and culture. i wanted to feel what that was like, and I wanted to feel what it was like to live right smack in the centre of a big city, with all the high rise buildings and all that city energy. (even though a friend recently told me that living on hong kong island was like wading through oxford street at the height of the christmas rush, only it was like that every day, and he knows i hate oxford street at the best of times and especially when it’s filled with tourists that walk incredibly slowly, and 5 abreast at that - why do they do that - getting in my way when i’m in a hurry, which i always seem to be. but i digress... ) so i viewed this potentially radical change in my life as an adventure, exciting and scary and amazing, and full of the unknown, and i was gutted when it all went pearshaped. sure, it would have been difficult - much moreso than the move to london from new york was, but i’d do it in a nanosecond if the opportunity presented itself. for now, it’s just a dream. when i think of hong kong i think of an incredibly dense concentration of tall buildings and skyscrapers. in my imagination i see crowded streets with lots of neon signs, none of which i can read, and loads of densly populated tower blocks with laundry hanging out the windows. that’s such a stereotypical viewpoint pathetic, really, because there’s more to hong kong than just the city. FIVE
reviews by S T E V E S M I T H www.nooza.blogspot.com
Everyday Anomolies - Phoenix Gallery, Brighton
W
e exist in a world of movement, where individuals are no longer static and confined, the geography of our lives is expanding and overlapping with the movements of many others around the world, none more so than in our cities. It is these ever changing urban environments that we now try to make sense of, fast paced and unpredictable interactions with others have replaced longer more organic development of our sense of place and identity, moments are snatched when once longer dialogues with our surroundings and the people that inhabit them took place. We stand still for some brief seconds and the city goes rushing past in a blur, we hope to make a mark for ourselves but are often hidden in the chaos. In the Phoenix Gallery in Brighton four Hong Kong based artists have been invited to respond to these concerns and explore their city. This series of explorations, chartings and interventions created for the exhibition are titled ‘Everyday Anomalies’ and show us some different approaches to the codes and patterns of urban society. The exhibition provides a varied selection of art works but one thing in common is a playful but most importantly slowed down interaction with their surroundings; they have all taken their time to look afresh and renew their view of the world around them. It is this indulgence of slowing down, stopping and looking once more that creates art of great power. It is not the overt and noticeable that is significant but as in the very title of the exhibition, the mundane, hidden, partially seen or everyday fabric of the world around us. Kwan Sheung-Chi’s fake sculptures are obvious and not so obvious recreations of existing objects. An apple juice carton is screwed up and looks ready for the dustbin but looking once more we imagine in its scrunched and screwed form the discarded apple core. In its imagery we see the space between the real and processed fruit, are we being encouraged to look once more ourselves to determine the real and fake around us? On the wall adjacent to the apple core juice carton is a dead mosquito, its body and legs splayed as if squashed violently and on the wall traces of blood oozed and dried by its side. On closer inspection it seems this is another fake created from the artists own blood and hair, the artist seems as fragile as the mosquito, perhaps we are too. Luke Ching is an altogether more robust character. He has a playful way with his art, within the cities’ noise and movement he wishes to make a mark. In silence but with actions that laugh and chatter at those who see them he charmingly mocks our unblinking, unthinking movements and embraces those who see and act with him. In Ching’s video and accompanying photographs we see him in a shopping mall, he carries a helium balloon, seemingly accidently the Disney character balloon slips from his grip and floats upwards until it stops, contained by the ceiling of the mall. Some notice, many don’t and in his photographs he returns every day to see the fate of the balloon, until, on the seventh day, it is no longer to be seen, and hope gives way to the inevitability of change. In the gallery space itself Ching SIX
has created other interventions and actions: in a hollow in the gallery floor we are asked as visitors to ‘take a nap if you want’, and a small mattress and pillow are provided. As the Brighton traffic rumbles past the window outside we could relax, bury ourselves for forty winks and become a living piece of art. Why not?, Ching would do so if he were in the gallery with us. Rather than stillness or rushing urban movements it is the gentle forces and objects outside our atmosphere that fascinate Kam Lai Wan, using star charts and rescaling them onto the world around us we can create a series of actions and journeys somewhere between predictable and unpredictable. Recreated from an antiquarian star chart is a braille chart, journeys taken into the stellar atmosphere in our sighted imaginings can be re-imagined by those without sight. In another work Wan has taken a series of journeys that are once again determined by the stars, transposing and rescaling constellations onto maps to create the route. At each point at which a star would occur a stone is collected and added as a document of the journey, a large and unknowable cosmos is travelled and charted on the familiar land we know but perhaps guiding Wan to unfamiliar places along the route. In Wan’s final series of constellation inspired works a number of modified music boxes have been created, each constallation now chimes in its own unique way as we turn the handle, it is an audible and predictable sound created from something vast and unknowable. Finally it is the potential for the significant in the seemingly insignificant that interests Pak SheungChuen, where the simple act of shopping is turned into a method for giving messages. The collection of items purchased by Pak are scanned and in the receipt that documents the purchases messages appear. The work entitled ‘Love Letter For LC’ is a message contained in the first character of the title of 4 books bought by Pak, where, on the receipt when read top to bottom the first characters of each line can be translated into the words “I am thinking of you”. ‘Miracle of $136.70’ creates a biblical message in the second characters of each line, where the supermarket items listed top to bottom can then be read as “whoever believes in Him should have eternal life”. Pak’s world is hopeful, we live in a hopeful world where our predictable everyday lives may be leading us to something better, to happier and improved circumstances. It is in Pak’s video ‘Breathing in a House’ that we see this ability to create something better through the everyday. From the 1st to the 11th of September 2006 he created an artwork in an apartment he had borrowed from a friend. In the speeded up video Pak occasionally travels the city but mostly just lounges around the apartment; we see him cooking, eating, sleeping and watching films on his laptop but amongst this mundane domestic environment he is creating and accommodating his artwork. Breathing into clear plastic bags and tying them closed, he creates a balloon like installation of hundreds of bags. As the days continue the bags accumulate until finally the apartment is full, floor to ceiling, front to back, it is a beautiful construction which bounces light off the transparent reflective surfaces of A B O U T S T E V E S M I T H: the inflated bags. Steve Smith is London born and bred, and a self taught artist. He works with existing objects and materials, modifying them into a variety of pieces from small individual works on paper and hand held sculptures to larger scale sculpture and installations. Steve also sees a lot of shows. To read more of his observations check out his blog: www.nooza.blogspot.com
In all these art works the simple act of breathing and being becomes something beautiful and significant, then again it always was, but sometimes we need the likes of Pak Sheung Chuen, Kam Lai Wan, Luke Ching and Kwan Sheung-Chi to remind us.
Text © Steve Smith 2008. SEVEN
asked&answered: Ivy Ma www.ivyma.net
THIS PAGE: Fairy Tale (the room that no one have ever entered) (2005) Installation; a playground-ride, sweets in a silk handichief, drawings, paint on wall, 4 drawings on paper, 5 coloured light bulbs shots. OPPOSITE: Far away, so close (2003) Site specific installation, Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden; tree trunks, mirrors.
Mixed media artist Ivy Ma attained her BA (Fine Arts) degree from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) / The Art School in 2001 and her MA degree in Feminist Theory and Practice in the Visual Art University of Leeds, UK in 2002. She received the FCO Chevening University of Leeds Scholarship from the Hong Kong Arts Development Council in 2001. Her work has been included in the Hong Kong Biennial and collected by the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. In 2007, she stayed at The Åland Archipelago Guest Artist Residence for six-weeks. She has been awarded a twelve-month fellowship ( Lee Hysan Foundation Fellowship) from the Asian Cultural Council to take part in a residency program, attend courses and observe developments in contemporary visual arts in the USA in 2008-2009.
Tell us about Ivy Ma: When did you first know you wanted to be an artist?
I cannot tell when I wanted to be an artist, or maybe I never want to be an artist, but I do remember I once fancied to be a painter when I was a child. so, I would rather tell in this way: I am becoming an artist. It’s hard to trace back ‘when’.
Can you remember your first piece of work?
My first piece of work, if tell a completed piece of work was a work called “Sense of direction”, made in the school (year 3), in a informal solo exhibition.
Smartest thing you ever did in terms of your art practice? I am never a smart person.
Worst mistake in terms of your art practice?
Always mistakes. Don’t know which one is the worst. That is to say, an art practice is to make mistakes.
EIGHT
As a woman artist, do you find gender to be an issue?
Gender is not a issue in the processing of my art making. but in some cases, it turns out a result of being one of perspective to understand the works. and, I also enjoy looking at woman artists’ art works, seems better communicate with them.
What shows have you seen recently?
Refabricating City – Hong Kong & Shenzhen Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism/Architecture.
You have done a fair bit of travel in connection with your art – Leeds, Helsinki, Bangladesh to name but a few places. How have those experiences, particularly of living in different cultures, influenced your work?
My works are seldom a direct response to other cultures. For me, the influence of being out of my own city, I can concentrate on making art. Therefore, you can see some of my residences are in a remote area (Kokar) or at a time when people are on holiday and few people are in the city and shops are closed (Xmas and new year in Helsinki). I enjoy more the city in silence.
And now you are preparing to move to the USA for a residency. Can you talk a bit about the project and how the opportunity came about?
It is a funding from Asia Cultural Council which has a long history supporting artists to go to the States. I plan to go to a residency in California for 3 months. Then, I think the year will be an important one because I can concentrate on my art practice. And I am happy that I can again stop working for the whole year.
Any words of wisdom for emerging artists?
Don’t follow the market and the trend. Don’t feel sad when you cannot be a full time artist. Sometimes, other working experience is good.
Tell us about the wider picture: Here in London it’s notoriously difficult for emerging artists to get affordable studio space. Is the same true for Hong Kong? Yes. Rent is high here.
The art world in London has been talking a lot recently about Chinese artists as ‘the next big thing’, and of course there is a lot of general press about the upcoming Olympics, so China is a big subject everywhere these days. What is the perception among you and your peers regarding all of this sudden interest?
The last sudden interest was 1997, and at that point I was not in the art field. Art always comes after political. This time, some HK artists do establish their studios in Beijing. It really is a fact that the art market booms these days. I don’t know if it’s because of Olympics or not. However, anyhow, I think I am not the one choosing or being chosen in the China market, and so BE a Chinese artist.
Art HK ‘08 is making its debut in May. Is this seen as a positive step by local artists - for instance, will they benefit from the exposure to international art collectors / galleries or is the art fair aimed at mainly mainstream work?
I’m concerned more on the touch of “real living” (everyday life) I concentrate on my art making, and really don’t know much about this. I am not a smart person and cannot afford thinking too many aspects. So, I focus on marking art and loving the one I love, and of course, earning myself a living.
Hong Kong holds a unique sense of identity within the Chinese cultural landscape; colonisation, the transition of the ‘hand back’ and so on seem to suggest that it is ‘a part of’ but also quite ‘separate from’ Mainland China. In terms of contemporary art, is there much contact and connection between artists in Hong Kong and Mainland China? Nowadays, there is more and more exchange of artists between Hong Kong and mainland China. . . I am not so sure I am answering your question. . . I am Chinese, but not a Chinese Artist. And, I am not interested in “becoming” a Chinese artist, or say, making myself a Chinese artist. Then maybe years later, for future generations. . . it won’t mean anything to say an artist in HK is a “HK artist”. But that is not today’s situation. Anyhow, contact and connection are constructive and healthy.
Thank you Ivy Ma for taking the time to chat!
NINE
“One of my series of art pieces is about memories and fantasies. The materials I choose help both myself and viewers stepping into psyche, where the space is always an enclosed room of solitude in which energy intensively exchange between materials and oneself, subject and object, as well as self and the other. In this work, extending the usage of hairpins which I used several years before(see room of memories), dealing with a very sensory experience, I amuses myself like a writing-machine, with those pins imitating ‘text’, that ‘auto-writes’ directly on the physicality of space.” -- Ivy Ma
Before the disappearance of rain (2005) Installation; foam, hairpains, mirrors (TOP: Installation views; BOTTOM: detail) TEN
Para / Site www.para-site.org.hk/
TOP: Nadim Abbas, Ornament and Crime (2008) (from the recent show, DIS PLAY) BOTTOM: Adrian Wong, Birthday Party (2008) (from the recent show, DIS PLAY)
Founded in the beginning of 1996, Para/Site Art Space is a non-profit art organization in the centre of Hong Kong that produces, exhibits and communicates local and international contemporary art. Their main activities include presenting an ambitious year programme comprising 10 exhibitions, publications of catalogues and PS magazine, Hong Kong’s only bilingual visual arts publication. To compliment their year programme, seminars, talks and workshops are regularly organised. Para/Site also manages another exhibition space - Para/Site Central, the smallest exhibition venue in Hong Kong, which is generously hosted by Hanart TZ Gallery in Central. The recent show, DIS PLAY, investigated the role of presentation and representation in a sculptural context with works from Nadim Abbas, Jonathan Leung Hoi Yat and Adrian Wong.
Para/Site’s mission: To establish and maintain a platform for artists and other art practitioners to realize their vision, in relation with their immediate and extended communities, with the aim of nurturing a thoughtful and creative society Para/Site Central in Hanart No bigger than two bookshelves, Para/Site Central probably is the smallest alternative exhibition venue in Hong Kong. Though hosted in a commercial gallery, Para/Site Central is independently run by artists. Young local artists are encouraged to produce quality new works here as part of the development of contemporary Hong Kong art. No rent, no fee. All creative proposals of installation work are welcome.
ELEVEN
dear you a day in someone’s life YOU is a letter addressed to you from various writers, usually handwritten, often sealed in a paper bag, and distributed anonymously within melbourne as well as lots of other parts of the planet. often, when you come across a YOU, you don’t want to open it because there are odd bits on the bag and the staples are always evenly spaced. maybe it’s an OCD thing, i don’t know, but there is something magical about the way each one is put together. also you may find yourself wondering, is it really addressed to you or are you being a voyeur and reading other people’s letters? YOU has been faithfully written and distributed on a weekly basis since november 2001 (talk about OCD!) and now there is YOU the book, published by breakdown press in melbourne. it’s an anthology of letters from the first five years, collected and put together in a nice little perfect bound book for your reading pleasure. for more info on the YOU book check out www.breakdownpress.org.
THIRTEEN
Pak Sheung-Chuen www. oneeyeman.com
Pak was born in Fujian at 1977 and immigrated to Hong Kong at 1984. Pak is a conceptual and performance artist who is well known as a regular visual arts columnist at a local newspaper. His art is about the beauty and poetry of the ordinary objects and behaviors. He had participated in “Busan Biennale 2006”, “China Power Station II”. He was awarded an Oversea Exchange Prize (Chinese Performance Art) from Macao Museum of Art at 2005. In 2006, he received a 1-year grant from the Asian Cultural Council and joined the residency program in ISCP New York., where he now lives. He has published two books, “Odd One In: Hong Kong Diary” and “See Walk What on 1 July” and is the core member of 2nd Floor 5 Sons Studio.
3 6 9 2 plastic sheet 13cm x 15cm, 11.05.2003
“To contain the spread of SARS, property management companies place a plastic sheet on the combination lock at the entrance of buildings. They have it cleaned and changed on a regular basis. This is a used plastic sheet, bearing traces of residents’ comings and goings. 3692 is the entry code for the building. (Amazingly, password was molded on the lock!) The box contains the plastic sheets of the other five blocks in the housing estate.”
Can you talk a bit about the residency? How did it come about and what sorts of things are you doing?
Asian Cultural Council supported me to live in New York for 1 year. They helped me to apply for the residency in ISCP (http:// www.iscp-nyc.org/). It is a international program, so I know the artists form all over the world. I am doing a project inside the New York public library. I am thinking how to “plant a tree” inside the library. A real tree! And people can borrow the books from the library to see my work. I use the NY resource to help me make artwork.
How are you finding NYC in comparison to HK?
New York is a real international city. You can see artists and artworks form all over the world. Everything is running very fast, even art. You will feel you are really living in the center and in the front of the art world. But for me, I will like to live in HK. The local situation gives me more familiar content to do my artwork. Though it is more quiet, but it is part of my life. New York is more about Market.
Tell me a bit about ‘waiting for all the people to sleep’ - what inspired this piece of work?
First concept is “Light = Life”. When you look at the beautiful night scene of HK, you can imagine how many people are here. One night I was walking around the street. I found a lot of the lights in a building were turned on. That means people are here. I just stand here for a while, I saw some lights go off. I know some people sleep, because it is at night. I just want to wait here, until all the people sleep.
To me, a lot of your work has a strong political message to it, yet it is also playful and indeed very subtle - the message almost sneaks up on the viewer, as if tapping on the shoulder and whispering, ‘hey, have you noticed this?’ would you agree with this?
I don’t care very much about the political. I just want to change something I feel is wrong. First, I think life should be more fun, but in the city people are boring. Second, life should have meaning, or I’m better off dead. Third, how to live is a FOURTEEN
problem, so we need poetry. It is not something to declare. It is a way to live, sometimes very subtle. I just make my life more meaningful through my art. I don’t so much care about others’ response.
And can you talk a bit about how it is received in HK? Is there any political constraint when doing work such as the SARS and the ribbons in Tian a Man Square? In China, you can do everything (sex, violence...), but not politics! In HK, you can do everything, even political art, but no one cares! That is the problem.
Lastly, tell me anything else you want to say about your work and about being an artist.
I think artists should not think too much about success in the market. Artist should live as free as they can and really do something for the future world.
Waiting for all the people sleep (2006) 22:38 / 01:40 / 02:36 / 04:09 / 05:04.
I stood in front of a 13 floors building at Sham Shui Po. Waiting, until all the people slept. Time of the photos: 22:38 / 01:40 / 02:36 / 04:09 / 05:04.
A Little Flower for the Passer-by 07.01.2005
”I arranged five one-dollar coins into the shape of a flower and placed them at the street corner. Then I drew it a twig and leaf and date (as a mark), waiting for those “in need” to pick them up. The one who picked them up would be like to receive a flower. The twig and leaf and date would remain, as well as the feeling of luck and blessing.” FIFTEEN
“I opened a map book. Then, I walked along all the
gaps* between the left pages and the right pages in it, from the south to the north Tokyo. The pages are arched like 2 mountains and the gap is craved in like a valley. I stood and took photos at every points that were crossed the valleys.�
*I walked vertically from p1 to p296, total 24 pages. -- Pak Sheung-Chung
Valleys Trip - Map (1:10,000 / 2006-1 Edition) Period : 27-28/2, 1-2/3, 5/3/2007 SIXTEEN
Blue Lotus Gallery www.bluelotus-gallery.com
Blue Lotus Gallery is a contemporary art gallery supporting Hong Kong and international talent by staging different exhibitions throughout the year. Located in the middle of Fotan Art village, one of its aims is “to bring the collector closer to the artist instead of the other way around.” This was clearly evidenced by their recent show, Fair Enough, which coincided with the January 2008 Fotanian event. As they explain:
Art fairs and auctions have recently raised many Hongkongers’ eyebrows. Art sales as well as the number of new galleries are booming, and art as an investment has definitely become a hot topic. For local Hong Kong art, the art scene has been overshadowed by the China explosion which lately has become quite a burgeoning phenomenon. In this climate, Blue Lotus Gallery took the bold step of staging an exhibition titled “FAIR ENOUGH”, bringing to the forefront the sensitive issue of value, in both art making and art consumption. “FAIR ENOUGH” was chosen as the title of the exhibition because it can be read as both a playful reply to the art fair and art auction fever, while by itself, a fair signifies an agreeable experience of lively public exchange and the experience of something new. The exhibition includes five thoughtful and interesting artists: Leung Mee Ping, Joel Lam, Luke Ching, Law Man Lok and Doris Wong. The artists are from different backgrounds and have various ties with the Fotan art scene and their works range from painting, film, video, installation and performance, craftwork and mixed media. Guest curator Jaspar K.W. Lau selected these artists for their diverse media, and the ways in which they are all attentive to the issue of value of art, and the relationship of artists to society. What they all commonly share is a playful flipping strategy, between being art works for art sake, and art works for sale. Each side of the flipped coin represents a contradiction and a social interaction involving ideas of value. In many ways, “FAIR ENOUGH” is an advanced look at the act of art making, characterized by French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu as the “inversed logic” of the cultural production field. It demonstrates how art and creativity can become the ultimate “value enhancer”, challenging the Marxist understanding of “surplus value” and labor exploitation whereby the capitalist reaps the benefit of the value of the goods while keeping the laborers’ wages low. As a playful exposition of the complex issue of value in the art field today, the exhibition creates the ambivalence that actually opens up more possibilities for our understanding of values within and beyond contemporary art practices. The market is never fair, and we have had enough of it: within this gallery show, is this itself not a “fair enough” deal? SEVENTEEN
Kam Lai Wan www.iamlc-iamlc.blogspot.com
KAM Lai-wan was born in 1980. She graduated from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2003 with a B.F.A. Her art is about the mystery and poetry of everyday objects. She participated in exhibitions “Everyday Anomalies” (Phoenix Gallery, Brighton, 2008), “Prison Art Museum” (Victoria Prison, Hong Kong, 2007) and “Fotanian Open Studio” (Fotan, Hong Kong, 2006).
EIGHTEEN
THIS PAGE: Thickness of the Year (2006) Assemblage; Calendars of 2006 OPPOSITE: Sound of the Stars (2008) Installation; Modified Music Boxes
A bit about ‘thickness of the year’ : “The perception of
time is quite personal. A particular moment
to one is long while to the another is short. I collected seven
calendars of 2006 and
discovered that they are of different thickness.”
NINTEEN
TWENTY
Tam Wai Ping
LEFT: Asian Footsteps (work in progress - 2005 - present Photography IMAGE ORDER FROM TOP: Hong Kong Sir Lanka Japan Taiwan PAGES 22 and 23: Temple (2005) Installation, Inflatable structure, white PVC, helium
TAM Wai Ping completed his postgraduate study with distinction from the Slade School of Fine Art, University College of London, UK in 1995. Tam works in various media, and is notable for his photography, installation and environmental art works. His works mainly concern the relationship between “Individuality and Land”. His works have been exploring in the areas of “home and identity”, “public and private sphere”, and “reality and imagination”. Tam has participated in various international exhibitions such as “EchigoTsumari Art Triennial 2006”, “The Second Guangzhou Triennial / D-Lab, Xin Yi International Club”, “Kaoshiung International Container Arts Festival, 2001”, “Simply Reality Spells” – Exhibition of Chinese Conceptual Photography since 90’s, China, Taiwan & Hong Kong.” His work has been exhibited in Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Macau, Japan, Sir Lanka, the United Kingdom, France and the USA.
About Asian Footsteps
“I have been working in a photographic project of recording people’s footsteps in different Asian countries since 2005, including Sir Lanka, Hong Kong, Taiwan, China and Japan and will continue to travel more countries, to investigate the contemporary daily life from the local point of view as well as build up a dialogue between the regional development and their relationship. It is a research-based project to document the changing at our time, at the same time exploring their interrelationship between the local, the regional and the worldwide. Although the project is under the same framework of “Footstep” but the focus of the subject matter is different from each country, for example, Hong Kong is about the social changing after 1997, Sir Lanka is about the economic conflicts between different sectors in the society, China is about a journey of modernization, and Japan is about another side of a stable society. I suppose these are what’s happening in Asia now, a journey with different timelines and stages in which we are facing more or less the same issues now or in the coming future.” TWENTY ONE
Tam Wai Ping - Event Art Installation Title of work: Medium / Date: Measurement: Location: Production:
Temple Inflatable Structure, White PVC, Helium / 2005 (L) 7 x (W) 5.5 x (H) 6 metre Taipei Xia-Hai Temple of the City God Shenzhen Factory, Shi Ling in Hua Dou, Guangdong
Temples
“Temple” is an anthropological symbol. The continuity of such a symbol is a combination of culture, art, and custom. Most importantly, it has a long history of development, and this development represents a symbol of “living” culture. The reading of “Temple” is multitudinous. Take the Taiwan society as an example: “temple” is not only a place where religious believers gather, but is also the foundation upon which local communities are built, a connection between people and community. The density of temples within a community is extremely high (comparable to that of 7-Elevens). I began conceiving this plan in 2001. In 2003 I made my research and field study in Taipei (at the Taipei Artist Village), seeking out adequate temples within Taipei and its suburbs (some twenty temples). Later, I went to the Taipei Da Dao Cheng District to conduct my historical research. Tai Dao Cheng is in the vicinity of Tam Shui river, a river from which early trade activities in Taipei were born. In as early as 1871, records of economic activities in Da Dao Cheng were already present. In 1853, the skirmish between the Xia Jiao and the Ding Jiao came to pass in Mongo. The Xia Jiao (people from Tong An) and the Ding Jiao (people from Quan Zhou) engaged in an armed skirmish. The beaten party, the Xia Jiao, escaped along the Dan Shui River, escorting their deity – the Xia Hai City God, and settled down at Da Dao Cheng. During the course of my investigation, I discovered that the Xia Hai City God Temple of Da Dao Cheng was moved from Fujian Tong An to Taiwan in 1821. The cultural and historical shift was compatible with my creative ideals. While the Xia Hai City God Temple is by no means sizable, it is one of the more important temples in Taiwan. The temple is attended by many believers, and plays an active and important role in building the community and promoting cultural activities. The continuity of the Chinese culture is also observed from the role “temples” play in the Taiwan-mainland relationship. As a symbol, “temple” has a long history of development in terms of culture and social life. It has even transcended recent political hostilities; it concentrates in itself a simple conception. While the Taipei Xia Hai City God Temple is built on Taiwan soil, it is an offshoot of the cultural development of the Central State. Originating from Chuan Zhou, Fujian, it is by its nature a product of migrating cultures. This is one of the reasons why the project was handled in a relative manner – handpicking a Taiwan temple and reproducing it, in plastic, in mainland China. (On the other hand, the deed was done out of economic considerations. As the factory of the world, making the piece in mainland China is half as cheap than doing it in Taiwan.) From an artistic perspective, the presentation of the two “temples” at the same time and space represents the juxtaposition of different values, including real and simulacra, history and modernity, similarity and difference… etc. These “relativities” are a topic that I, as a researcher, has always been concerned with. In researching the actual production, I discovered that plastic material looked more modern, could be produced en masse, and carried an unauthentic (as a blow-up toy) message. Suspension in the air was a physical state, but also conveyed a religious message one often connects with sky-gazing. The glowing state of the object at night also punctuated a “surrealistic” scene. The “temple” installation aimed at, by going beyond its physical factors, imposing new conceptual experiences on its audiences.
Time
The project was completed at 4:30am on August 18, 2005. The flight lasted 3 to 4 hours. While 5 years of preparation work boiled down to a mere 3-hour presentation, it was precisely the experience that gave the impression of how insignificant we humans are in the flow of time and history. This is a project about time. After the project is completed, a backward description of the project is made. Two situations are involved here: First, the presumptions made before the event, and second, history cannot be presumed. This is the law of time, and it affects how we perceive history. History is an inevitable development, a random opportunity. We know not before history comes to be, just as we change not after history came to be. The “Temple” project is intended as an investigation upon historical values. It is more than the five years of work spent on its creation to TWENTY TWO
compare two temples that are separated from each other by 184 years, it is also the recreation of the two “temples” with an aim to investigate how we can make assumptions about future history.
People
This is also a project about people. Right now, the Chinese people is living in a 2-dimensional space. Both the space of life, and the space of time, are rather passive. I imagine that the Chinese people of the past are also confined by such a destiny. I have compared the proletariat – from both mainland and Taiwan – whom I have came across in the course of my project; the difference is easily discernible. First, both of these two groups are not made up of the so-called intellectuals. Their attitude toward life is more natural and direct. When I work on the mainland, my first impression was that the companies under my employment would be of good help, but to the extent that it would only be part of a business transaction. They would be rather upfront about demanding payment. After I got along with them for some time, they understood the client’s (me) demands for the goods (the art piece), and made provisions and assistance where they could. Even if they were unclear about the details of the task, they would maintain an open attitude. This reflects that they are highly adaptable, which is a common phenomena in the Chinese society. The Taiwan people are more direct and friendly, but at the same time have anti-foreign (primarily against the mainland) tendencies and an inwardly focused (a island culture) attitude. Proud of themselves as Taiwanese, they are comprised of locals, outsiders, natives, hakkas, and parted by the north-south divide – the conflicts are many. They have a deep-seated refusal towards mainland China, which may be attributed to the success of government propaganda. Because they are denied normal contact with mainland China, their perception of the mainland is somewhat chronologically misconstrued.
The Factory
The factory is located in the Town of Shi Ling in Hua Dou, Guangdong. The Hua Dou district is 22 km north of Guangzhou, and Shi Ling is about half an hour ride away from Hua Dou. Every time when I came to Shi Ling, I had to get a ride to Jun Tian. There were no taxis in the area; every time I had to hitch a ride at the back of a bicycle. The factory was of small to medium scale, with about 40 workers. Like many factories in Guangdong, the workers came from different provinces. They were mostly women; they come and go fast – if they didn’t like the prolonged overtime periods or if a higher-paying job was available, they would leave. Non-technical workers had no career prospects, and could only earn their keep via manual labour. Technical workers were on average younger, around 25 to 35, and had a larger pick of jobs in cities around the nation. They had hope in the future, planned their career choices, and made provisions for life 3, or 5 years from now. Many days of overtime had driven workers away. Their working hours were 7 days a week, 8 to 12 in the morning, two hours lunch break, and off at six. If overtime was required, they worked from 7 to 10 at night, sometimes till midnight. In the whole process of creation I was confronted by a neverbefore experienced sensation of insecurity. I did not have enough confidence over whether I can complete the project; I even considered the possibility of “failure”. During that time I have read “The book of failure” from the poet Bei Dao, and gained some inspiration from it. In creation, I was faced with a different relativity of completion, non-completion, or the possibility of completion. At last, I prayed sincerely in front of the City God, the Guanyin, the City Goddess, and the Eight Brave Warriors. TWENTY THREE
Chow Chun Fai www.chowchunfai.com
Fai received his BA and MFA in Fine ARts from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and is an active member of Fotanian Art Village . A visiting Lecturer (part-time) in Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s School of Design, he now teaches as a part-time Lecturer in the Hong Kong Art School. Fai has exhibited widely and received several arts awards. His work is held in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, The Hong Kong Heritage Musuem, HangART-7( Austria), as well as in private collections.
Would you describe yourself as a painter or do you see painting as one of many languages you employ as an artist to get across an idea? I ask this because it seems that most of your work is painting but there is also the photographic and the video clips, which tend to give the work a different appearance and reading. Perhaps the real question is, do you think it’s even important or necessary to label oneself as ‘painter’ as opposed to ‘artist’? I have quite a strong sense that I’m working on the medium. It’s interesting that the sense push me to the other end: not just stick on one medium. I always have works in the middle, to paint from a photo, or the make a photo from a painting, or the paint from a moving images (movies). So am I a painter? I think about paintings.
A lot of your recent work directly relates to Hong Kong films, yet it appears to be presented with an irony and what I would say is a wry sense of humour. Can you tell me a bit about how the filmic influence / interest came about? Also your use of text within the work, is this a direct reference to the ‘stereotypical’ view of Hong Kong films being dubbed? Films show a lot of the culture of a city. The story of the movie shows how local people think of their own city, like what the people cares. The bilingual subtitles can be very funny too. How can a Kung Fu movie being translated in English? But it happens here everyday. For example, I studied Chinese History in English during high school.
You appear to be one of the lucky ones who sells work. As an artist who is fortunate enough to do this, how would you describe your relationship with commercial art galleries / art fairs and the general commercial aspect of the art world? Obviously it is a great thing to be able to make a living (or subsidise your income) from being an artist, and so many artists aspire to this but don’t have a hope in hell of attaining it, yet they continue to make work anyway, because they are driven by something other than financial reward. So when it works, it’s a great thing. But the commercial aspect of the art world also poses questions of how value is attributed to art and there often seems to be an uneasy relationship between artist and gallerist. Gallerist wants to please collectors and make money / artist wants to please himself and make money - and when the two are ‘on the same page’ it works well for all concerned. What happens when they are at odds with each other, and have you had that experience?
Internal Affairs, “I want my identity back” (2007) Enamal on canvas, 100 x 150cm TWENTY FOUR
In the past when I had interviews from local newspapers, they came from the cultural section. Ironically some of my recent interviews appear on the financial section of the magazine. They tried to tell a story about how the artists survive in the expensive rent. Of course I can understand that the numbers and the prices make it easy for the general public to understand the stories. The only thing I am concerned about is I try to stop if it causes any disunion on the community. It could be terrible if the story is entitled “He is the artist who just bought a unit while the other one can’t afford and has to go”.
Chow Chung Fai, Conversion of Monkey King (2007) Photographic installation, 240 x 177cm, edition of 7
TWENTY FIVE
Fotan www.fotanian.com
FoTan (Fire Charcoal) is a cluster of buildings in old industrial area that has been inhabited by artists and other creative professionals since 2000. Seen as a base for both emerging and established artists, recently, galleries such as Hanart and Blue Lotus Gallery have set up spaces, and since 2003, Fotan has hosted an annual Open Studio programme. Artist and open studio committee member Chow Chung Fai says, “After several open studio events we started to call ourselves ‘Fotanians’. “ Here, Fai explains a bit about this vibrant arts community: What sort of galleries and spaces have opened in Fotan recently - are they artist-run or commercial or both?
There are two galleries here now in Fotan. Hanart is one of the most famous galleries in Asia. They are based in Central, like most of the galleries in Hong Kong. Since the Fotanian open studio day in 2007, their loft in Fotan opened for public, although it’s closed in normal days and used as storage. (www.hanart.com/). Blue Lotus Gallery is a new gallery also based in Fotan and opens every Saturday and Sunday. The gallery is organized by a Belgian lady. The first space opened in Oct 2007 with a show about contemporary Chinese Ink and Brush exhibition. The second space was just opened a few weeks ago on the ground floor, called “Stage One”. As I heard from the gallery owner, “Stage One” means the ground floor and it’s planned to have some new artists shown there, who are also at the first “stage” of their career. (www.bluelotus-gallery.com/) The recently opened art space is called Island 6. They have spaces in Shanghai, Brussels and now in Hong Kong. After they had a show at Blue Lotus, very quickly they decided to have a unit at this industrial building. (www.island6.org/index.html). Some of the other local art spaces, such as Para/Site, have also participated in the Fotanian Open studio events and some of the studios here run thenselves as a art space, like I-Kiln Studio, which is a non-profit organization founded in 1996, which do ceramic arts.
Is there an easy relationship between the commercial and the ‘not for profit’ within the Fotanian community?
No problem at all. The only thing I can think of is the rent. The commercial may push up the price of the units like in arts communities in other cities, but the case in Hong Kong is a bit different. The total density here is too high while the art related population here is small. Like in our building, there are more then 300 units. And in the whole industrial area in Fotan there are at least 50 buildings like this. Though I don’t have the exact figure, I can say that the proportion of artists to the total population here is small. So it can’t prove that there is any relationship between the art community and the raising price and rent, though it is really rising. Maybe the influence happened within this building but not to the whole area. It is true that in “Wah Leun Industrial Centre”, where my studio and most of the studios are located, it is not easy to find a unit available for rent or for sale recently. The two galleries, and the new art space, and some brand new grand studios opened in this building. Some property developer started to claim the building “suitable for studio and art related industries”.
I like the idea that Fotan is actually a sort of community - the people that have space there describe themselves as Fotanians - and I see from the website that there are many different sorts of artists in this community, with the more traditional and craft maker existing alongside more contemporary work. Can you tell me a bit about how this community relates to each other? Is there a lot of cross over in terms of sharing ideas and building relationships / organising shows, etc.?
Fotan is also famous for its local restaurant at night. Fried pigeon and chicken congee. Some of the artists always eat there and talk for several hours. But it’s a informal gathering. The open studio event is the only formal event of the community. In these 2 years there are some artist talks but it happens only occasionally.
Is there any criteria for an artist to gain studio space?
No. That’s why I always make a joke with friends who want to be an artist. I said, “It’s easy to be an artist. Just play the rent in Fotan.” Everyone can be a Fotanian Artist if they have a studio in the Fotan region. That makes the whole Fotanian community very organic. Every year we find new faces from different spheres.
How does Fotan relate to other artist run spaces such as 1a and Para / Site? For example, here in London, the East End is full of artist run spaces, studios and commercial galleries. So much so that we tend to drift from one space to another on any given Thursday evening, and it is almost like a pub crawl from private view to private view, which of course can be quite fun. But also, the contemporary art scene here, whilst large in numbers, is actually quite small and intimate, and it seems that everyone knows everyone, or knows someone who knows someone else and is often more than a little incestuous, making it difficult - initially - for emerging artists to link in. Is it the same in HK? Does it become a sort of ‘club’?
The Art circle in HK is also small and intimate. Everyone knows everyone. “Fotanian” could be a label. But as mentioned before, it’s organic. That makes it difficult to have a very clear image of the community. But I think it’s good as an art community. No brand name means anything unexpected can happen here. TWENTY SIX
New TerrITories FoTan Hackney Wick Queens
How far are you willing to travel to attend a Private View? (A subjective look at Hong Kong, London and NYC and how they might relate in terms of perceived distance.) Kowloon 1a space (Cattle Depot) Vyner Street Brooklyn
Central Para/Site Mayfair Hoxton Chelsea SoHo
Hong Kong Island
This map is inaccurate, certainly not to scale and a total figment of the imagination. Hong Kong London NYC
TWENTY SEVEN
Kwan Sheung Chi
www.kwansheungchi.com
In 1980 KWAN Sheung-chi was born in Hong Kong. In 1999 he entered the Fine Arts Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. In 2000 he was named the King of Hong Kong New Artist. In 2002 “Kwan Sheung Chi Touring Series Exhibitions, Hong Kong” was exhibited and toured in 10 major exhibition venues in Hong Kong. Within the same year, the Hong Kong Art Centre presented “A Retrospective of Kwan Sheung Chi”. In 2003 he graduated with a third honor bachelor degree from the Fine Arts Department of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. From 2004 he became a nine-to-fiver in Central. In 2005 he helped his mother, Tsang Yin-hung, to create her first artwork, “Teapoy”. Later “Teapoy” was included in the “Hong Kong Art Biennial 2005”, as a selected entry. His artworks haven’t widely exhibited around the world. On 1st January 2008, he determined not to sell any of his artworks for 3 years.
“This pocketbook is good for citizen to enjoy the sea.” -- Kwan Sheung Chi On being an artist in Hong Kong: “I think there are quite lots of chance in HK for emerging artists here, especially within this few years. We can quite easily have the opportunities to exhibit in local art spaces, galleries, and even in local art museums. Many of them now can have their own studio space for making art, like studios in Fotan. However I think not many of them can constantly produce good quality artworks & maintain a good proficiency as being an artist.” TWENTY EIGHT
On art as a commodity: “I think in the modern world, art inevitably happens to be commodity and to be consumed in different ways. Even some conceptual, or more experimental works have taken a commodified way to present themselves to be more appealing to curators and global audiences. Working under the strong competition among artists (local & global), it’s becoming harder & harder for artists to gain resources, opportunities to expose their works and recognition. Every artist has make their own decision & keep the balance between what they really want to do & what they know can make them success.”
On the arts community relationship between HK and Mainland China: About the HK China thing, I think HK is going to become more and more a part of the Mainland China. There’s more opportunities for HK artists to exhibit in Mainland China now or exhibit internationally together with Chinese artists. Personally, I think HK artists are very different from the Mainland Chinese artists. I think I’m (or my generation) quite separated from mainland China. Chinese art is so hot among the world now, however I think the chinese artists’ works are mostly too market driven and have not enough diversity. I think the younger generation has lost the experimental spirit which the artists active in the 80s & early 90s had and they’re too conscious of how to present their work to the international art scene. HK still being very marginalized from mainland China and having not much exposure in the global art world, local artists are more concerned with their local culture and personally aesthetic concern. We don’t have the market and exposure yet but have more freedom to work in our own way. THIS PAGE: A Finished Apple Made by a Finished Pack of Apple Juice (2008) Finished pack of apple juice OPPOSITE TOP: Pocketbook of Sea (2008) Handmade book, seawater, plastic bag & c-print OPPOSITE BOTTOM: Don’t Let the Tower Fall! (2007) Installation, 54 wood blocks with silkscreen printed text, 15 pages A4 size proposal framed behind glass ,H350 x W200 x D400 cm, approximately TWENTY NINE
Luke Ching www.lukeching.blogspot.com
Luke, Chin Wai CHING was born in Hong Kong in 1972. He received a MA degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He sees himself as a spontaneous observer of the city. He deconstructs the city, observes it, and then rebuilds a city which is in-between the real life city and a conceptual city, by his works of art. His major works recently include Folk Art Series: Cockroach, a work concerning the city life and craftsmanship, Easy to Learn Cantonese, Chapter 1-6, concerning language learning process, and Public Sculpture: Dog Footprint, Wet Print: Rainbow, and Room as Pin-hole Camera, close examinations of public space. In 2006, he joined two artist-in-residence programs in Vermont Studio Center, US and Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan, respectively. Minimal Accident
“Hong Kong is a safe city comparatively. We have very few catastrophes but minor accidents happen here and there in our daily life.
I am interested in thinking about the idea of accident in terms of scale. When an accident enlarges to the scale of a major catastrophe, it brings us only negative effects and feelings. When an accident minimizes to a level very close to the edge of a safety realm, it carries a kind of unknown beauty, which fills the void of a city with blind faith in safety. This beauty is about spontaneous, surprise, humours, rebellious, humanities, curious, and enlightening. The 3 works in the exhibition, Everyday Anomalies, are about a repetition of an accident inside a safety-control area, a document of a minimal natural accident in a modern city, and an experiment of enlarging the risk of a minimal accident.”
Shang yue: to enjoy the glorious full moon
“In Hong Kong, there are many large-scale shopping malls in different districts but in similar design, services, and combinations of shops. Security is of management’s major concern of a shopping mall and every corner is under surveillance. It is very hard for an accident to be gestated in such a highly controlled area. Among those rare accidents, a helium balloon wandering away from Toys R Us and flying straight up to the ceiling of the shopping mall is at no doubt the brightest one. In a repetitive time, repetitive space, an accident happens repeatedly.”
Shoelace
“I take a sculptural approach to realize the idea of this artwork. When you forgot to tie your shoe, you are under a risk of losing balance when someone steps on the shoelace accidentally. What I am intended to do is to enlarge the risk by extending the length of the shoelace and leave it untie. The longer the shoelace, the higher the risk of having a minor accident.
High level risk builds connections with strangers. This is an accident with humanities.” THIRTY
Dreams
Museum is a must-see for me when I travel to other cities. Museum is a white-cube environment with temperature and lighting under serious controlled. Natural laws take limited effects there. There is almost unlikely for a natural disaster occurs inside a museum. The most likely natural accident for a visitor to encounter would be falling asleep unintentionally. In Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, I restored many fragile dreams made by fragile accidents.
THIRTY ONE
1a Space
www.oneaspace.org.hk
1a space is an independent, non-profit making contemporary visual art organization and art venue founded by a collective of Hong Kong artworkers in 1998. Originally housed in an old government warehouse at Oil Street, North Point, it was moved to the Cattle Depot Artists Village in To Kwa Wan in January 2000.
THIRTY TWO
With aims to promote the critical dissemination of contemporary visual arts practices and affiliated artforms through a programme drawn from Hong Kong and international arenas, 1a space has been active in curating exhibitions, organizing international exchange, cultural activities and festivals, as well as interactive community art programmes, arts criticism and publications. It is now operated by the Program Committee, governed by a Board of Directors and augmented by an Advisory Panel of local and international artworkers. Operation funding of 1a space has been assisted by grants and private donations, and partially supported by Hong Kong Arts Development Council. 1a space has organized programmes that feature a wide spectrum of contemporary visual arts, including exhibitions focusing on the enrichment and critical reconsideration of various media (painting, sculpture) as well as those that stimulate discussions on artistic and socio-political issues and those that provide a platform for dialogue between emerging and established artists, curators and arts professionals There is also a desire to encourage a creative interface between the arts community and the public. Examples of this are Home Affairs (1999), in which household members and artists were teamed up for artistic creation, and Behind The Eyeballs (2000), a joint project with the visually impaired, that was further developed in 2002 into an exhibition and school touring education program. 1a space also provides venues for various social groups, has been active in collaborating with other cultural organizations to stage cultural events and has fostered an initiated several international network and overseas exchange and artist-in-residence programmes.
THIRTY THREE
D’Amico thoughts on a grey day Karen www.karenay.com SameSame
Sometimes it’s good to get a different perspective and make an attempt to look at the world through different eyes, and the web has been my doorway to the world for quite some time now. It’s great to be able to connect with other artists without the constraints of geographical or cultural boundaries, and what I notice the most from all my email exchanges with artists here, there and everywhere is the commonality - we all struggle with the same issues: finding suitable and affordable space in which to work, getting work out there and into shows, finding ways to fund ourselves, deciding what sort of success is the most important to us and what we are willing to sacrifice in order to get it, sustaining an art practice over the long term... the list goes on. It’s all the same for all of us, though we wrestle with it and present our thoughts and ideas in different and unique ways. Somehow that’s comforting. Doing the research for this issue has been like finding hidden treasure because the artists I’ve chosen make the kind of work that really inspires and encourages me. There is a sense of freedom and a certain sensibility in their work that I don’t much find here in London - not to say there isn’t great art and artists here, of course (so don’t go getting your knickers in a twist). Perhaps it’s because the art scene there is much smaller, and on a global scale, Hong Kong is still somewhat eclipsed by mainland China’s boom in both the art market and the world generally, but what I’m seeing is really fresh and innovative. It makes me laugh, it makes me think, and it touches me deeply. I believe this freshness is due in no small part to the fact that the arts community is incredibly supportive of experimental practice, and it’s been enlightening to get a glimpse of what’s going on in that part of the world. How that sense of artistic freedom will fit in with the Art Market in terms of interest from collectors over the long term remains to be seen, but I think it’s refreshing to see people making work that is driven less by commerace and more by wanting to communicate ideas. Long may that continue. THIRTY FOUR
[an] magazine - www.a-n.co.uk Artwords Bookshop - www.artwords.co.uk/aboutus/ Arty Magazine - www.artymagazine.com Bookarts Bookshop - www.bookartbookshop.com/index.htm cafe royal - www.caferoyal.org/index.html Donlon Books - www.donlonbooks.co.uk/ Eighty-eight shades of grey - www.beastmangoat.com Found Magazine - www.foundmagazine.com Grrrl Zine Network - grrrlzines.net/index.htm Interlude Magazine - www.interludemagazine.co.uk Leisure Centre - www.leisurecentre.org.uk Milk Two Sugars - www.milktwosugars.org/site.html rifRAG - www.riffrag.org/ Runway Magazine - www.runway.org.au/about.htm. Savage Messiah - www.savagemessiahzine.com Smoke: a london peculiar - www.shink.dircon.co.uk/smoke.htm The Critical Friend www.transitiongallery.co.uk/htmlpages/editions/critical_friend.html Things magazine - www.things.net Artangel - www.artangel.org.uk Artinliverpool - www.artinliverpool.com/blog Artquest - www.artquest.org.uk Axis Artists - www.axisartists.org.uk Eyebeam - www.eyebeam.org FadBlog - www.fadwebsite.com/ Fallon & Rosoff - www.fallonandrosof.com/artblog.html Golgonooza - www.nooza.blogspot.com Newsgrist - www.newsgrist.typepad.com/underbelly/weblogs/index.html Re-Title - www.re-title.com Russell Herron’s blog - www.russellherron.blogspot.com Theory.Org - www.heory.org 2B1 - www.2b1studio.co.uk Bearspace - www.thebear.tv/bearspace/ Cafe’ Gallery Projects - www.afegalleryprojects.com Castlefield Gallery (Mancs) - www.castlefieldgallery.co.uk Cell Project Space - www.cell.org.uk Clapham Art Gallery - www.claphamartgallery.com DeviateProjects - www.deviateprojects.com Fieldgate Gallery - www.fieldgategallery.com Form/Content - www.formcontent.org Gasworks - www.gasworks.org.uk inIVA - www.iniva.org ICA - www.ica.org.uk Moot Gallery (Notts) - www.mootgallery.org MOT - www.motinternational.org SevenSeven - www.sevenseven.org.uk/ Seventeen - www.seventeengallery.com/ South London Gallery - www.southlondongallery.org Space Station 65 - www.spacestationsixtyfive.com Spectacle (Birmingham) - www.pectacle-gallery.co.uk/ Stand Assembly (Notts) - www.standassembly.org Standpoint - www.pauperspublications.com/gallery.html Studio Voltaire - www.studiovoltaire.org Surface Gallery (Notts) - www.surfacegallery.org/index.html The Flea Pit - www.myspace.com/tom_and_bob Tatty Devine - www.tattydevine.com/boutique/index.php The Residence - www.residence-gallery.com The Wyer Gallery - www.www.thewyergallery.co.uk Transition Gallery - www.www.transitiongallery.co.uk5 Transmission (Glasgow) - www.transmissiongallery.org/ Vitamin (Beijing) - www.vitamincreativespace.com/ Blue Lotus Gallery (Hong Kong) - www.bluelotus-gallery.com 1a Space (Hong Kong) - www.oneaspace.org.hk/ Fotan (Hong Kong) - www.fotanian.com/events.php Para/Site (Hong Kong) - www.para-site.org.hk/whatis.htm Platform Artists Group (Melbourne) - www.platform.org.au Sticky Institute (Melbourne) - www.stickyinstitute.com Headquarters Galerie & Boutique (Montreal) - www.HQgalerieboutique.com Flux Factory (New York) - www.fluxfactory.org/ Location 1 (New York) - www.location1.org Printed Matter (New York) - www.printedmatter.org White Columns (New York) - www.whitecolumns.org Eye Level Gallery (Nova Scotia) - www..eyelevelgallery.ca Torpedo Artbooks (Oslo) - www.torpedobok.no/ Iaspis (Stockholm) - www.iaspis.com/ The Invisible Inc. (Sydney) - www.theinvisibleinc.org.au CAC (Tbilisi) - www.actualart.ge/index.html Senko Studio (Viborg) - www.senko.dk/