Trans-boundary E...

Trans-boundary Experiences:
an Exhibition of Contemporary Art
from China, Japan and Korea



website

Spool Mfg
138 Baldwin Street, Johnson City, New York
8 - 23 April 2006;
Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday, noon to 5 pm;
Friday & Saturday, noon to 8 pm
Opening Reception: Saturday 8 April 2006, 7 pm to midnight

Artists:
Yuki Okumura
Changkyum Kim
Jungwook Grace Rim
Hyungsub Shin
Noriko Ambe
Zhu Wei
Xu Bing
Lin Yan


出品した映像作品は こちら。
この映像と共に、「骸」も展示した。
また、オープニング中に、つばを焼くパフォーマンスも。

展示のようす=>こちら
パフォーマンスのようす=>こちら

You can see the exhibited video piece online: here.
I showed this video along with "Carcass".
Plus, I gave a performance at the opening
reception, frying my and the audience's saliva in a skillet in front of them.

installation view=>here
photos of the performance=>here

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PRESS RELEASE

Spool Mfg is hosting “Trans-boundary Experiences: an Exhibition of Contemporary Art from China, Japan, and Korea”, from Saturday 8 April through Sunday 23 April 2006, with an opening reception on Saturday 8 April, from 7 pm to midnight. This exhibition seeks to explore different levels of trans-boundary, or nomadic, experiences through the works of eight East Asian artists: Noriko Ambe, Xu Bing, Changkyum Kim, Yuki Okumura, Jungwook Grace Rim, Hyungsub Shin, Zhu Wei, and Lin Yan.
These artists not only travel around the world; their artworks also respond to nomadic lifestyles that are closely tied to the disappearance of visible boundaries under the power of cultural and economic globalization. While some artists seek to explore her/his nomadic identity by mixing the indigenous materials and techniques with Western methods of art, others may respond in a more abstract sense (e.g., by developing imaginary spheres within her/himself as a result of moving from one place to another). The artists’ works will show not only the essential diversity in how individuals respond to changing environments, but also several layers of boundaries that exist in ordinary life: cross-cultural experiences on the street, in the grocery shop, through media, or even the sense of abstract foreignness within one’s own personality. Evoking in us an imagination toward hidden, often overlooked, boundaries in our everyday life, the exhibition will indicate an undiscovered depth of life, and question what it might mean to live with trans-boundary experiences.
Spool Mfg is located at 138 Baldwin Street in Johnson City, New York. Gallery hours during the exhibition will be held from noon to 5 pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, and noon to 8 pm on Friday and Saturday. Admission is free to all ages; group appointments are available.


Additional Information

“Trans-boundary Experiences” is divided into three sections: China, Japan, and Korea.
The China Section, curated by Meiqin Wang, features works of Lin Yan and Zhu Wei, and a lecture by Xu Bing at Binghamton University. These artists received similar orthodox Realism doctrines at the beginning of their career and, in their current art, have much complicated the earliest monolithic training and have each developed very personal and contemporary artistic languages. Through different media, these three artists present their individual interpretations of trans-boundary experiences.
The Japan Section, curated by Fumiwo Iwamoto, presents works of Noriko Ambe and Yuki Okumura. Focusing on how their personal life is (re)formulated in transcultural environment, their works indicate the sense of “vague nonbelongingness,” which emerges through the experiences of crossing, holding, and living through several boundaries. Their works indicate this sense of nonbelongingness as a possibility of opening oneself to some new and unexperienced realm of life.
In the Korea Section curated by Seokyung Han, three artists, Changkyum Kim, Jungwook Grace Rim, and Hyungsub Shin illustrate different understandings of the term “nomad.” Their works are imbued with their experiences and perspectives as trans-boundary travelers whose subjectivity may be generated from the Korean context yet is still in the process of being constructed. These artworks explain how the artist’s subjectivity communicates with specific surroundings which s/he temporarily inhabits and engages its constant reformation.
Spool Mfg is a contemporary art space committed to the arts as a vital organic discussion of the existential, personal, social and political dimensions of our contemporary moment. Its mission is to provide a venue for projects that create thematic consistency and artistic production and critical engagement.
“Trans-boundary Experiences” is being made possible in part through generous support from the Broome County Arts Council and the Korean Cultural Fund.


Artist Biographies

Noriko Ambe is an installation artist. She creates blank geography with several layers of hand-cut papers, which indicates an ever-changing process of self (re)formation. While the form of abstract landscape reflects a certain aspect of the artist’s personality, her strictly minimalist approach allows wider range of interpretations. Her work has been shown internationally. In the United States, she has done solo shows in the Pierogi Gallery (2003), the Josee Bienvenu Gallery (2006), and participated in artist-in-residence program at the Art Omi International Arts Center (2005).

Xu Bing is a conceptual and installation artist from China who currently lives and works in New York City. His art addresses a broad range of social and cultural issues and are often site-specific. His works have been shown worldwide, including in the Venice Biennial, the Kwangju Biennial, and in museums such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; and ICC, Tokyo. Over the years, Xu Bing’s works have appeared in high-school and college textbooks around the world including Abram’s Art Past ? Art Present, and Gardner’s Art Through the Ages.

Changkyum Kim creates video art and video installations. His work has been introduced through solo/group exhibitions across Asia and Europe. While the subjects of his works are people living in contemporary Korean society, they approach the general question of how and why our life needs to cope with the otherness from the self and other people, a question that is only originated from the self-integrity.

Yuki Okumura is an installation and video artist. For the Binghamton exhibition, he will be recreating “A Day in the Life of Spitting,” which was originally developed when he was in Australia. This particular piece explores interaction between site and self, though the idea of self in Okumura’s work is carefully separated from apparent differences one bears. Okumura won the 2000 Philip Morris Asian Art Award, and is currently participating in Location One’s International Residency Program in New York City.

Jungwook Grace Rim, an immigrant artist, paints on canvases using paper, wax, acrylic, ink, pencil, thread, oil pastel, and oil paint, and tears the work. Then, she stitches the pieces, while she puts together her memories. Her quilt-like works comprise her unrequited feelings for her mother, for mother’s womb, and for home. Her works have been introduced worldwide through solo/group exhibitions and residency programs: the Art Omi International Artists Program in the United States, the Lodz Biennale in Poland, and the Emily Harvey Studio Program in Italy.

Hyungsub Shin is a Korean-born sculptor and installation artist currently working in New York City. His works are mainly made of wire, metal, nails, and screws, which he brought from Korea. At the beginning when his hand holds a wire, no one including himself knows which shape will appear. Yet he continues to twist wires for a trunk, for branches, for boughs, and for twigs. He has been a part of solo/group exhibitions in Korea and the United States.

Lin Yan is an artist dealing with innovative painting and constructive installation. She got her earliest art education in China, and then sought advanced study in Paris and Pennsylvania. Her current art uses rice paper and ink, the two primary media of traditional Chinese painting, but applies them in a totally creative way, in order to seek an integration of contemporary concept and traditional media. She has participated in numerous group and solo exhibitions in China, the United States, Canada, and France.

Zhu Wei, an artist from China who now lives and works in New York City, indulges himself freely in oil painting, Chinese painting, and drawing. He had his training rooted in realistic art but has much complicated his artistic language. He paints from his imagination and mind, his contemplation of life, and his appreciation of music. His works vary from representational to abstract, but share a similar melodious, poetic quality; his subject matter draws from his past, present, and perhaps even his future. His works have been shown in many national exhibitions in China and also in diverse group and solo exhibitions in the United States.

Spool Mfg Contact: Don DeMauro, Director, 607.797.3703
Curator Contact: Fumiwo Iwamoto, 607.797.3171; fiwamot0@binghamton.edu