ArtAsiaPacific
September/October 2016
Out now
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For ArtAsiaPacific‘s September/October issue, our 100th issue, we went back into our archive, to look for insight into the ideas and motivations behind the magazine. In our Special Feature, we map the evolution of the art world by identifying five recurring terms, citing the first time the words appear and demonstrating how their meanings have evolved. We mined the previous 99 issues (excluding the Almanacs) and, from among several hundreds of terms, we decided to hone in on five: “archive,” “intervention,” “ecosystem,” “censorship” and “revival.” Each reveals a micro-history of the art world over the past two decades.
We have also completed the task of digitizing all 100 issues. Although it may seem like a purely mechanical process in the digital age, it wasn’t until AAP 55 in 2007 that we entered the cyber-age world of InDesign. Now subscribers can see the entire set of magazine back issues by logging in and going to library.artasiapacific.com.
The Feature articles in AAP 100 illustrate artists representing three generations, all of whom for various reasons left their native countries, but remained closely connected to their cultures and eventually returned home. Video artist and art historian Stephen Jones takes us through the work of the late New Zealand artist Len Lye (1901–80), known for his visionary films and kinetic sculptures. AAP Dubai desk editor Kevin Jones travels to Tehran to meet 37-year-old Shahpour Pouyan, to understand the cultural references behind his monumental sculptures and exquisite works on paper that comment on power. From Hong Kong, AAP associate editor Sylvia Tsai interviews Ho Chi Minh City-based artist Tiffany Chung to discuss a practice that involves meticulous research and explores political traumas, natural disasters and humanitarian crises.
Rounding out the Features section, Inside the Burger Collection takes a close look at two prolific painters—New York-based Ena Swansea and young German artist Dennis Scholl—who explore the different ways of approaching the historically revered practice.
In Essays, AAP Taiwan desk editor David Frazier considers the absence of a monolithic art-historical narrative for modern Chinese art, while independent art curator Annie Jael Kwan probes Tate Britain’s vexed blockbuster show Artist and Empire, which looks at art from the realm where the sun never set, and travels to the National Gallery Singapore in October.
And with September kicking off a number of important biennials taking place across the region, we preview the most anticipated: Taipei, Singapore, Turkey’s Çanakkale, the newly established Yinchuan Biennale in China, as well as Qalandiya International in Palestine and Korea’s Anyang Public Art Project.
Also in this issue is a special supplement dedicated to three venerable Korean biennials that launch in September: Gwangju, Busan and Mediacity Seoul. AAP editor-at-large HG Masters sat down with their respective artistic directors—Maria Lind, Yun Cheagab and Beck Jee-Sook, respectively—and records their visions for their own shows. He also reports on his exclusive interview with Bartomeu Marí, the director of the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, who discusses his plans for the identity and direction of the museum.
In Profiles, we focus on emerging figures: interdisciplinary artist Yin-Ju Chen from Taiwan, Manila-based artist-curator Lena Cobangbang and performance artist Moe Satt from Myanmar. AAP also meets Korean film star Jung-Jae Lee in Seoul for a chat about his forays in art collecting.
Elsewhere in the issue, AAP contributing editor Michael Young visits the Shanghai studio of still-life artist Zhang Enli, and Hong Kong painter Firenze Lai explains her infatuation with the paintings of Francis Bacon in One on One. For The Point, installation artist Tayeba Begum Lipi explains how despite the “connectivity” that technology has bestowed upon the world, working as an artist in Bangladesh remains a remote and isolated pursuit. And in Reviews we feature: Ali Cherri at the Sursock Museum in Beirut; When Things Fall Apart – Critical Voices on the Radars at Trapholt Museum of Modern Art & Design in Denmark; plus many more.
Select articles now online in Arabic and Chinese: artasiapacific.com
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