The Birth of Asian Cool
(…)Is it possible to imagine Hou Hanru and Hans-Ulrich Obrist curating a show featuring the likes of Bruce Nauman, Cindy Sherman, Matthew Barney, Andreas Gursky and Jenny Holzer plus at least another 95 artists, filmmakers and architects, and then installing their works within a futuristic composite western city designed by Rem Koolhaas -- made up of silicon valleys, shopping malls, casinos, porn shops, crack houses -- thereby rendering the participants' work subservient to his own omnipotent creation? If you can imagine this, then you might be getting close to the nightmare that was 'Cities on the Move: Urban Chaos, Global Change, East Asian Art, Architecture and Film Now' presented at the Hayward Gallery.
In the catalogue specially produced for the Hayward leg of the two-year tour, the curators of 'Cities on the Move', Hanru and Obrist, explain the need for such a show: 'Now, at the end of the twentieth century, economic political and cultural life in East Asia is undergoing rapid change. The established economic powers of Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan are being joined by newly developing economies in China, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and elsewhere.' The inclusion of 'elsewhere' suggests the curators had not perhaps measured the sheer magnitude of their task in curating a show based on practically one corner of the world, plus a few other participants scattered around the West. Above all, 'Cities on the Move' was an attempt to show how Asian people are living within capitalism's inescapable reach -- that the so-called 'tiger economies' began to collapse shortly after the show opened in Vienna in 1997 was unfortunate for all concerned.
Key to these concerns was the display: the designers had, according to Susan Ferleger Brades, Director of the Hayward, 'created an "event city" for the exhibition: a shifting cityscape of urban possibility'. To achieve his fantastical vision of an Asian metropolis, Koolhaas had utilised the services of over 100 artists, architects and filmmakers, while the work of the (predominantly) Asian artists was used to populate his sprawling city. Ordinarily, the idea of dispersing art and the artist within the city might be an intriguing proposition, providing a perspective on art's marginal influence on global economies. However, in this instance the experiment was highly problematic and deeply condescending, as Alex Farquharson pointed out in the September issue of AM. The failure of the show for me was that the spectacle created by Koolhaas and the curators was fundamentally Eurocentric, the artists remained by and large anonymous points in the mock Far Eastern metropolis created according to a European master plan. Not all the artists, however, were treated as anonymous entities. Koolhaas knew better than to meddle with the likes of Mariko Mori, whose work is well known in the West and who was rewarded with an uncluttered space of her very own.
It seems that the Hayward was content with suspending the laws which traditionally govern its modus operandi, and which brought us shows like 'Doubletake'. In these and many other shows, the need to engage with the art and the artist was paramount. Even in the worst example of an overly designed exhibition such as 'Spellbound', a certain line (that of preserving the artist's identity) was never crossed. The heavy-handed approach adopted in 'Cities on the Move' on the other hand was crystallised by the inclusion in the catalogue of a 'rough guide' to London Far Eastern style -- with sections on gastronomy, trading, art, culture and religion: 'Each immigrant population brings its own food, shops, customs, religions and art forms which enrich the cultural diversity of the existing city. It is this evolution that makes London so rich, vibrant and inspiring, despite its problems.' Significantly there is little or no information about the artists.
Founded on equally shaky foundations was 'Zero Zero Zero', curated by Ilze Strazdina and Gavin Fernandes at the Whitchapel Art Gallery. We are told in the exhibition brochure that the title 'evokes the need to approach this exhibition from zero, leaving assumptions and post-colonial baggage at the threshold'. The show seemed to push all the right buttons, coinciding as it did with 'The Arts World Wide Bangladesh Festival' and being produced in association with Time Out magazine. However, it seemed as if Strazdina and Fernandes had got so beside themselves with presenting an attitude for the show that the presentation of the actual work fell by the wayside. For example, the exhibition was inadequately lit: Mohini Chandra's fascinating photographs, Album Pacifica, positioned as they were between projections which required complete darkness, were doused in a compromising twilight. At the same time and indicative of the 'pack 'em in' philosophy of the show -- there were 70 participants -- we were only given paltry helpings of each artist's work. That an empty stage set used for the 'club' nights at the gallery dominated half of the downstairs space made this situation seem all the more farcical.
These may seem like minor points, but the Whitechapel is more than capable of producing high standard presentations as in the case of shows like 'Antechamber' and 'Speed,' both of which aspired to curatorial rigour. Why is it that these standards were so easily cast aside for the artists in 'Zero Zero Zero'? Perhaps the very premise of such a show engenders a half-hearted effort? By presenting these artists in some dazed and confused style that brought the street into the space, the curators were indicating that political and curatorial know-how -- and not 'post-colonial baggage' -- were left at the threshold (…)
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Excerpt Art Monthly no 23, October 1999
This article was written in response to 'Cities on the Move', Hayward Gallery, London 13 May – 27 June 1999
'zeroerozero: british asian cultural provocation music_art photography_film fashion_magic', the Whitechapel, London 10 – 31 July 1999
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