Guggenheim Selects Five Artists to Create New Works for the Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative

Third and final exhibition of the multi-year research, curatorial, and collection-building initiative opens May 4, 2018

(NEW YORK, NY—December 7, 2017)—The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum announced the selection of artists commissioned to produce works for the third and final phase of The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. Cao Fei, Duan Jianyu, Lin Yilin, Wong Ping, and Samson Young have been selected for their unconventional artistic practices, creative experimentation, and critical reflections on social conditions in a technologically mediated reality. Each will collaborate with the museum on individual site-specific projects that respond to interconnected ideas proposed by the curators of the initiative. The commissions will be featured in a group exhibition, on view from May 4 through October 21, 2018 at the Guggenheim, and enter the museum’s collection.

The exhibition is organized by Xiaoyu Weng, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Associate Curator of Chinese Art, and Hou Hanru, Consulting Curator, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. Kyung An, Assistant Curator, Asian Art, provides curatorial support. The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative is part of the Guggenheim’s Asian Art Initiative, directed by Alexandra Munroe, Samsung Senior Curator, Asian Art and Senior Advisor, Global Arts.

The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative exhibitions continue the Guggenheim’s history of collaborating with artists to develop site-specific works. The third exhibition in this series is accompanied by an illustrated publication featuring curatorial essays, new and reprinted poems, and conceptual drawings and images essential to the development of the artists’ projects. The book explores the spaces between words and images, and process and production, while also experimenting with the relationship between catalogue publishing and exhibition making.

The commissioned artists are:

Cao Fei (b. 1978, lives and works in Beijing)
Since graduating from Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 2001, Cao Fei has earned international acclaim for her groundbreaking multimedia works that probe the interplay between virtual and real worlds, utopia and dystopia, and the body and technology. She finds impetus in the precarious socioeconomic conditions of contemporary life, and her works are critical witnesses to the impact of hyper economic growth, urban development, and rampant globalization on the individual in China. Her early works explore the alienation and desired escapism felt by China’s youth and investigate the personal dreams of factory workers. For RMB City: A Second Life City Planning by China Tracy (aka Cao Fei)(2007), she spent several years developing a virtual city on Second Life, an online platform where users create avatars and can build imagined utopias together. The magical yet dystopian metropolis has been a key theme in Cao’s works since she moved from Guangzhou to Beijing in 2006. For Haze and Fog (2013), she shifted her focus to the spiritual malaise induced by capitalism, consumerism, and urbanization. More recent works such as La Town (2014) revisit the subject of a surreal post-apocalyptic metropolis that exists outside a specific time or culture. Cao received the Chinese Contemporary Art Award’s (CCAA) Best Young Artist Award and Best Artist Award in 2006 and 2016, respectively. In 2010 she was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize.

Duan Jianyu (b. 1970, lives and works in Guangzhou)
Duan Jianyu graduated from the Department of Oil Painting at Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1995. Narrative is the driving force behind Duan’s ethereal large-scale paintings and intimate sculptures. Often working in series, she weaves surreal images of ordinary people and everyday scenarios into allegories of society’s moral complexities. Her practice also involves publishing artist books, such as New York, Paris, Zhumadian (2008). A refracted sense of realism gives Duan’s paintings a dimension of social critique, as evident in the series Sharp Sharp Smart (2014–16), which she titled after shamate (a phonetic play on the English “smart”), a subculture blending goth, punk, glam, and anime sensibilities that is popular among youth in rural areas in China. Against the backdrop of rustic settings, figures (smiling peasant women who appear either naked or clothed in gaudy colors) and their actions (breastfeeding in front of huts or carrying geese in baskets) allude to the growing tension between China’s modernization and its rural tradition. Duan’s faux-naïve visual language incorporates references to both Western and Chinese art-historical tradition, from Primitivism and abstraction to Socialist Realism and the work of early twentieth-century Chinese painters who consciously incorporated Western artistic styles. Her anachronistic and humorous approach in works such as Muse and Museum (2011) teases out existing cultural anxieties around regional identity in contemporary China and surpasses simple appropriation to challenge the canon of painting in the age of globalization. She was named Best Artist at the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards (CCAA) in 2010.

Lin Yilin (b. 1964, lives and works in Beijing and New York)
Since the 1980s Lin Yilin has pursued a multifaceted practice rooted in site-specific performance. He draws from shifting socioeconomic and political conditions and experiences of cultural displacement to reimagine the relations between the self, community, and surrounding environments. Lin studied sculpture at the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1987. Throughout the period of rapid economic growth in China during the 1990s, he made a series of works under the rubric of what he termed “social construction.” Using bricks, he built temporary architectural forms that often surrounded, confined, or merged with his body. His involvement in the Guangzhou-based group Big Tail Elephant Working Group (formed in 1990) was instrumental in shaping his responses to and interventions in the urban development of Southern China. Since moving to New York in 2002, Lin has expanded his scope to work with both local and international communities, from college students in Norway to families in China and farmers in Thailand. For Documenta 12 (2007) in Kassel, Germany, Lin erected a freestanding wall featuring a small hole, through which he ran a rope. He staged a tug-of-war pitting local residents against visitors from abroad, interrogating the social function of monuments and the public’s role in determining their meaning. During his 2011 residency at Kadist Art Foundation in San Francisco, Lin organized a series of performances involving Chinese immigrants across the city, exploring how identity is renegotiated when people navigate through new environments. Lin currently teaches in the School of Experimental Art at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing.

Wong Ping (b. 1984, lives and works in Hong Kong)
Repressed obsessions and unfulfilled desires, emasculation and submission before sexual and political dominance, lust and slippery morals. These are themes that run through the strange and intimate stories in Wong Ping’s animated videos. Skirting the line between shock and humor, Wong relates his observations of society through invented anecdotes that allow glimpses into the deepest—and often shameful—traits of human nature. For instance, a dating-app-facilitated encounter between a religious woman and an atheist man is the scenario for Who’s the Daddy (2017), and Jungle of Desire (2015) tells a story of an impotent man who becomes embroiled in a plot involving his wife working as a prostitute and police extortion. Wong sometimes creates colorful installations that extend his animated worlds into three dimensions. For a 2015 solo exhibition of Jungle of Desire at Things that can happen, Hong Kong, a nonprofit art space in a working-class neighborhood at the center of the local sex industry, Wong created an actual jungle of desire and included sculptural elements such as cat figurines with swinging, penis-like arms. These images of masculinity and provocations allude to the underside of power and its abuses, and reflect tensions over gentrification and urban transformation. Wong obtained his BA in 2005 from Curtin University in Perth, Australia, and worked in broadcasting before founding Wong Ping Animation Lab in 2014. He was the recipient of the Incubator for Film and Visual Media in Asia (ifva) Gold Award in 2013, and the Best Animation and Spirit of Hong Kong awards from the Third Culture Film Festival, Hong Kong, in 2016.

Samson Young (b. 1979, lives and works in Hong Kong)
Samson Young’s music, drawings, installations, radio broadcasts, and performances touch upon topics such as military conflict, identity, migration, and the political frontiers of past and present. Sound and its cultural politics are at the heart of Young’s practice —he obtained a doctorate in music composition from Princeton University in 2007 before becoming involved in contemporary art. Young often investigates the relationship between violence and sound, and many of his works develop out of extensive historical research. Supported by BMW Art Journey, Young traveled to over thirty sites on five continents to produce For Whom the Bell Tolls: A Journey into the Sonic History of Conflicts (2015–), which traces the histories of bells and their usage. Taking the form of an archive of recordings, sketches, and objects, the work reveals how the bells have been implicated in territorial, religious, and cultural conflicts. For his solo exhibition in the Hong Kong Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale, he used “charity singles,” hit songs made in the 1980s by super-groups of recording artists to provide relief aid. Critical of the subtexts behind the singles—among them, the complicity of such gestures of “charity” with neoliberal policies and cultural imperialism—Young created drawings, objects, videos, and site-specific installations that reference these well-known songs. Young maintains a practice in classical music composition. He was a recipient of the Bloomberg Emerging Artist Award in 2007.

THE ROBERT H. N. HO FAMILY FOUNDATION CHINESE ART INITIATIVE

Launched in 2013, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative at the Guggenheim supports a curatorial residency, three exhibitions and publications, and commission-based acquisitions. By commissioning new works by artists born in Greater China, the program offers a platform for artistic experimentation that responds to and reflects urgent issues of our time. The most recent presentation, Tales of Our Time (2016–17), was a group exhibition of nine new works by five artists, an artist duo, and an artist collective. The exhibition explored and challenged the notion of place against the backdrop of increasing tension between the global and local. It included a robot-operated installation of monumental scale, a public tea gathering in an indoor garden-like setting, immersive video works, and more. The first exhibition, Wang Jianwei: Time Temple (2014–15), featured a sculptural installation, paintings, a film, and a performance by Wang Jianwei, one of China’s leading conceptual artists. All works created through the initiative will form The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Collection at the Guggenheim.

THE ROBERT H. N. HO FAMILY FOUNDATION

Established in Hong Kong in 2005 by Robert Hung Ngai Ho as a private philanthropic organization, The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation works to foster appreciation of Chinese arts and culture to advance global learning; and to cultivate a deeper understanding of Buddhism in the context of contemporary life. The Foundation supports efforts that make Chinese arts approachable and relevant to audiences worldwide. It also supports the creation of new works, exhibitions, and publications that offer original perspectives and improve the quality and accessibility of scholarship on Chinese art.

ABOUT THE SOLOMON R. GUGGENHEIM FOUNDATION

Founded in 1937, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation is dedicated to promoting the understanding and appreciation of art, primarily of the modern and contemporary periods, through exhibitions, education programs, research initiatives, and publications. The Guggenheim constellation of museums that began in the 1970s when the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, was joined by the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice, has since expanded to include the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao (opened 1997) and the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi (currently in development). The Guggenheim Foundation continues to forge international collaborations that celebrate contemporary art, architecture, and design within and beyond the walls of the museum, including the Guggenheim Social Practice initiative, Guggenheim UBS MAP Global Art Initiative, and The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Chinese Art Initiative. More information about the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation can be found at guggenheim.org.

古根海姆委任五名藝術家爲「何鴻毅家族基金中 國藝術計劃」創作全新作品 

  此跨年研究、策劃和藏品建設計劃的第三回合即最終展覽將 於 2018 年 5 月 4 日開幕 

（紐約，2017 年 12 月 7 日）——所羅門•R•古根海姆美術館宣布爲其「何鴻毅家族基 金中國藝術計劃」第三回合即最終章委任創作全新作品的藝術家名單 。這五位藝術家分 別是曹斐、段建宇、林一林、黃炳（Wong Ping）和楊嘉輝（Samson Young）。他們的藝 術實踐充滿實驗精神、深具創造性並且深入地反思在當今技術介導之下的社會現實。藝術 家將與美術館合作，回應由策展人提出的一系列關鍵詞，創作其個人場域特定的項目。這 次委任創作的作品會以群展的形式呈現，於 2018 年 5 月 4 日至 10 月 21 日在古根海姆美 術館展出，並隨後列入美術館館藏。 展覽由何鴻毅家族基金中國藝術副策展人翁笑雨與顧問侯瀚如共同策劃。亞洲藝術助理策 展人安輝景（Kyung An）爲本次展覽提供策展協助。何鴻毅家族基金中國藝術計劃是古根 海姆的亞洲藝術計劃的一部分，由古根海姆三星亞洲藝術高級策展人兼全球藝術高級顧問 孟璐（Alexandra Munroe）主持。 「何鴻毅家族基金中國藝術計劃」的系列展覽延續古根海姆與藝術家緊密合作，進行場域 特定項目創作的淵源 。展覽將出版一本由策展人編輯的全彩畫冊，其中包括策展人所撰 寫的文章、委任創作及再版的詩歌選、此次所委任藝術家在創作過程中的素材和概念草稿 等。這本出版物將打破傳統展覽畫冊內容上的局限，探索文⫿與圖像、過程與生產之間的 張力空間，並同時在畫冊出版與展覽制作的關係上進行實驗。 受委任創作的藝術家有： 曹斐（出生於 1978 年，工作生活於北京） 自 2001 年於廣州美術學院畢業起，曹斐不斷探索虛擬與現實、烏托邦與反烏托邦及身體 與技術的相互作用，並以其開創性的多媒體作品獲得了廣泛的國際聲譽。她在當代生活岌 岌可危的社會經濟狀況中尋找推動力。與此同時，她的作品批判性地目擊了中國超速經濟 增長、城市發展和全球化的蔓延對人類個體的影響。她的早期作品探索中國青年的異化和 逃避主義傾向以及工廠工人的個人夢想 。在《人民城寨：第二人生網絡城市規劃》 （2007）中，她花費數年時間在「第二人生」，即一個可以由用戶們創造替身及共同建造 想象中的烏托邦的線上平台中建設了一個虛擬城市。曹斐於 2006 年自廣州移居至北京， 既魔幻又反烏托邦的都市成爲了她作品中的一個重要主題。在《霾》（2013）中，她將關 注點轉向由資本主義、消費主義及城市化所引起的精神萎靡。曹斐更爲近期的作品，如 《La Town》（2014）則重訪了一個超現實的後末世風格都市，遊離於特定時代或文化之 外。曹斐分別於 2006 年和 2016 年獲得 CCAA 中國當代藝術獎的「最佳年輕藝術家獎」和 「最佳藝術家獎」。她於 2010 年曾獲得古根海姆美術館「Hugo Boss 藝術家大獎」的最終 提名。 段建宇（出生於 1970 年，工作生活於廣州） 段建宇於 1995 年自廣州美術學院油畫系畢業。敘事是段建宇超凡的大幅油畫及私密的雕 塑背後的驅動力。在通常以系列形式出現的作品中，她將普通人生活中的超現實圖像與日 常場景交織成反映社會道德複雜性的寓言。她的創作實踐亦包括出版藝術家書籍，如《紐 約巴黎駐馬店》（2008）。一種對現實主義的折射式感知賦予段建宇的油畫社會批判的維 度，這在《殺，殺，殺馬特》（2014—2016）系列中體現得尤爲明顯。這組作品由亞文化 「殺馬特」（英文「smart」的諧音）得名，它集哥特、朋克、華麗金屬和動漫感爲一身， 在中國城鄉結合部的年輕人群中廣爲流行。在鄉村式的背景前，人物（微笑的農村婦女或 裸體或穿著俗豔）和她們的行爲（在茅屋前哺乳或用籃子提著鵝）暗示著中國的現代化與 其農村傳統之間日益加劇的緊張關係。段建宇「僞素樸式」的視覺語言結合了西方和中國 的藝術史傳統，從原始主義和抽象主義到社會主義現實主義，並從二十世紀早期有意識地 結合西方藝術風格的中國畫家們的作品中汲取靈感。她在如《缪斯與美術館》（2011）的 一些作品中以時代錯置的幽默手法梳理了當代中國與地域身份相關的文化焦慮，並超越了 簡單的挪用，進而對全球化時代的繪畫規則發起挑戰。她於 2010 年獲得 CCAA 中國當代 藝術獎的「最佳藝術家獎」。 林一林（出生於 1963 年，工作生活於北京和紐約） 自 1980 年代起，林一林便開始了植根於場域特定行爲的多面向藝術實踐。他從變動的社 會經濟政治狀況和文化錯位中取材，對自我、社群與周遭環境的關系進行再定義。林一林 曾在廣州美術學院雕塑系就讀，並於 1987 年畢業。貫穿中國經濟快速發展的九十年代， 林一林以「社會建設」爲標題命名了一系列作品。他以磚頭爲材料建造臨時性的建築形式， 並常常使之圍繞、囚禁或結合他自己的身體。作爲廣州藝術小組「大尾象」（成立於 1990 年）成員的經歷深刻影響了林一林的個體實踐，包括他對中國南方地區城市發展議 題的回應和介入。林一林於 2002 年移居紐約，其後他拓展了實踐範圍，與在地和國際的 社群共同工作，比如挪威大學生、中國家庭以及泰國農民。在 2007 年第十二屆卡塞爾文 獻展上，他就地壘起一面留有一個小孔的磚牆，再以繩子穿過小孔，組織當地居民與外國 遊客之間進行拔河比賽，從而審視紀念碑的社會功能和公衆在紀念碑意義的構建中所扮演 的角色。2011 年，在他於舊金山卡蒂斯特藝術基金會駐留期間，林一林在城市中的多個 區域組織了一系列有中國移民參與的行爲表演，旨在探索於新的生⬀環境下，人們如何調 整自己的身份。林一林目前任教於北京中央美術學院實驗藝術學院。 黃炳（出生於 1984 年，工作生活於香港） 壓抑的情緒和未滿足的欲望，在性與政治強權面前的去勢與順從、情欲和搖擺的道德感— —這些主題貫穿於黃炳動畫中那些古怪又私密的小故事。遊走於驚愕與幽默之間，黃炳將 其對社會的觀察虛構爲一段段奇聞軼事，窺探著人性最深處常常最爲羞恥的部分。比如， 在《你要熱烈地親親爹地》（2017）中，故事由一個有宗教信仰的女子和一個無神論男子 通過約會軟件相遇而開始；《慾望 Jungle》（2015）講述一個性無能的男子糾纏於開始從 事賣淫的妻子以及勒索警察的荒誕劇情中。黃炳有時會創作絢麗多彩的裝置作品，從而將 動畫延伸至三維世界。2015 年，黃炳的個展「慾望 Jungle」在非盈利藝術機構咩事藝術空 間展出。他在這個位於香港工薪階層街區，也是紅燈區的空間裡創造了一個真正的欲望叢 林，其中包括有著陰莖狀手臂的招財貓等雕塑元素。這些有關雄性和挑釁性的圖像指向權 力的陰暗面及其對弱勢群體的濫用，也反映著在士紳化和城市變革進程中無處不在的緊張 關系。黃炳於 2005 年在澳大利亞珀斯的科廷大學獲得學士學位，在 2014 年成立黃炳動畫 工作室之前，他一直在傳媒行業就職。2013 年，他獲得香港獨立短片及錄像比賽（ifva） 金獎；2016 年，他獲得了第三屆香港文化電影節的「最佳動畫影片獎」和「香港精神 獎」。 楊嘉輝（出生於 1979 年，工作生活於香港） 楊嘉輝的音樂、繪畫、裝置、廣播及行爲作品觸及軍事爭端、身份、遷徙和過往與現在的 政治領土等議題。聲音及其文化政治是楊嘉輝創作的核心，在從事當代藝術實踐之前，他 於 2007 年獲得了普林斯頓大學的作曲博士學位。楊嘉輝常常探索暴力與聲音的係，他的 許多作品皆以詳實的歷史調研爲根基。在「寶馬藝術之旅」的支持下，楊嘉輝旅行至五大 洲的三十餘個地點創作了作品系列《喪鍾爲誰而鳴：衝突的音頻史之旅》（2015 至今）， 以追溯鍾聲的歷史與用途。這組作品將錄音、素描和物件以檔案的形式編排，揭示了鍾聲 在領土、宗教和文化爭端中所扮演的角色。在 2017 年威尼斯雙年展香港館的個展中，楊 嘉輝使用了風靡一時的「慈善單曲」（charity singles）概念和現象——即 1980 年代錄音室 音樂人組成超級樂團所演唱的救災金曲——進行創作。對楊嘉輝來說，這些單曲的內核值 得推敲，比如此類「慈善」舉動與新自由主義政策和文化殖民主義的相互勾結。楊嘉輝參 考這些廣爲人知的歌曲創作了一系列繪畫、物件、錄像和場域特定的環境裝置。同時，楊 嘉輝一直保持著古典音樂作曲的創作實踐。他於 2007 年獲得「彭博新銳藝術家獎」。 何鴻毅家族基金中國藝術計劃 何鴻毅家族基金中國藝術計劃於 2013 年啓動，何鴻毅家族基金在古根海姆設立的中國藝 術計劃支持一個策展人職位，三個展覽及其出版物，以及進入古根海姆館藏的委任作品。 通過委任來自大中華地區的藝術家們創作全新的作品，本項目提供了一個平台，以鼓勵那 些對當下時代的緊迫議題進行回應的藝術實驗。上一個展覽「故事新編」（2016—2017） 彙集了來自五位藝術家、一個藝術家雙人組合和一個多人藝術小組的九件全新作品。展覽 在全球與本土的關係日益緊張的背景下，探索並挑戰了地域的定義。展覽包含一件巨型機 器人裝置、一個在室內園林式環境中舉辦的公衆茶會雅集、沉浸式錄像作品等等。本項目 的首個展覽「汪建偉：時間寺」（2014—2015）展出了中國重要的觀念藝術家汪建偉的雕 塑裝置、繪畫、電影以及行爲表演等作品。經由這一計劃創作的所有作品以何鴻毅家族基 金命名，成爲古根海姆美術館館藏。 何鴻毅家族基金 成立於 2005 年的何鴻毅家族基金，是香港獨立慈善團體。基金肩負雙重使命，一方面推 進世界對中華文化藝術的賞析，同時致力深化當代社會對佛理的理解。基金在香港以至世 界各地從事策略性的長期計劃，鼓勵國際觀衆認識古今中華文化藝術，並使之與當代生活 接軌。基金亦推動具原創性的藝術創作、展覽和出版、以及優化和普及中華文化藝術的學 術研究。 關於所羅門•R•古根海姆基金會 所羅門•R•古根海姆基金會創立於 1937 年，致力於通過展覽、宣傳、研究和出版刊物 來推進人們對文化藝術，尤其是對現當代藝術的理解和鑒賞。古根海姆美術館群始建於 20 世紀 70 年代，威尼斯佩吉•古根海姆收藏館於當時加入紐約所羅門•R•古根海姆美 術館，此後加入古根海姆美術館群的還包括畢爾包古根海姆美術館（1997 年開館）和阿 布達比古根海姆美術館（正在營建中）。古根海姆基金會通過不斷開展館內及外展國際合 作項目，大力弘揚當代藝術、建築和設計。基金會還通過以下項目來扶持全球藝術領域的 研究、展覽以及收藏，其中包括古根海姆社會實踐計劃、古根海姆 UBS MAP 全球藝術計 劃以及何鴻毅家族基金中國藝術計劃。請瀏覽 guggenheim.org，了解關於所羅門•R•古 根海姆基金會的更多詳情。