Millennium Magazines

Lovely Daze, Exhibition view

Curated by Rachael Morrison and David Senior
Museum of Modern Art, Education Center, New York, USA
20 February ~ 14 May 2012

Exhibited Work:
Complete Set of Lovely Daze

This survey of experimental art and design magazines published since 2000 explores the various ways in which contemporary artists and designers utilize the magazine format as an experimental space for the presentation of artworks and text. Throughout the 20th century, international avant-garde activities in the visual arts and design were often codified first in the informal context of a magazine or journal. This exhibition, drawn from the holdings of the MoMA Library, follows the practice into the 21st century. The works on view represent a broad array of international titles within this genre, from community-building newspapers to image-only photography magazines to conceptual design projects. The contents illustrate a diverse range of image-making, editing, design, printing, and distribution practices. There are obvious connections to the past lineage of artists’ magazines and little architecture and design magazines of the 20th century, as well as a clear sense of the application of new techniques of image-editing and printing methods. Assembled together, these contemporary magazines provide a first-hand view into these practices and represents the MoMA Library’s sustained effort to document and collect this medium.

Nomad Store

Exterior view of London Newcastle Project Space, UK

Nomad Store – An Exploration of Young Chinese Creativity – Art, Fashion, Publishing
Curated by John Marchant
London Newcastle Project Space, UK
16~23 February 2012

Exhibited Works:
– Complete set of Lovely Daze
Ah! 2011, HD Video with sound
Circle, 2009, Video

Press Release: Isis Gallery and Triple Major of Beijing are very pleased and excited to present Nomad Store in London during London Fashion Week February 16th to 23rd, 2012.

Triple Major is a Beijing based multi-disciplinary project helmed by Ritchie Chan that beautifully encapsulates the exciting global worldview of young Chinese people today. Although essentially a fashion collective producing their own collections and presenting them internationally, Triple Major is very concept driven and invites international artists to install work in their three story space in the old hutong district of this most exciting of 21st Century cities. Additionally they helm the Nomad Store, which appears in different cities across the world. Previous emergings have included Los Angeles (Jul 29th – Aug 14th 2011) Shanghai (Jan 11th – Jan 22nd 2010) and Hong Kong (Nov 24th – Nov 30th 2010). This is the first time that Nomad Store has come to London, in a perfect clash with London Fashion Week.

Artist Charwei Tsai (Taipei 1980) was born in Taiwan and exhibits her installation and performance based work around the world – forthcoming projects include a solo exhibition in India and inclusion in group shows in Chile, Germany and Japan. Tsai’s meticulously balanced works exhibit a clarity and precision that marks her out as an artist of sincerity and depth. Additionally, her periodical Lovely Daze has marked her out as one of the most interesting people in the creative arena. We are extremely pleased Charwei Tsai is able to participate in this experiment.

Artist and fashion designer Qiu Hao (Taicang 1978) is an award winning St Martins ex who has his own store in Shanghai. As the recipient of the prestigious Woolmark Award (2008) in Paris and tagged by WGSN last year as a name to watch on the international circuit, Qiu’s installation for Nomad Store will include plinth based sculptural elements from his collections as well as photography. Recent collaborators include Stephane Sednaoui and Terence Koh.

Yida He (Shanghai 1980) has been championed by Beijing curators as one to watch. Having worked with the wonderful Arrow Factory art space in Beijing Yida He is beginning to explore the possibilities of placement and the slightest intervention. She will create a special installation for Nomad Store in London.

Bananafish Books. As one of the first – perhaps THE first – independent magazine store in China, Bananafish Books in Dalian stocks the most interesting publications from both China and the rest of the world. Bananafish will be hosting a special bookstore for Nomad Store from which visitors will be able to buy the most interesting fanzines and artist books from China.

You can find out more about Triple Major at triple-major.com.

Lastly, Isis is once again most grateful to Robert Soning and Peter Allen at Londonewcastle for their ongoing support of our programming. We are also extremely grateful to Philip Dodd of Made In China UK and to Theresa Liang of Long March Space in Beijing.

The Londonewcastle Project Space is a gallery and exhibition space in Shoreditch created by property brand Londonewcastle as a platform for creatives and artists to display their work and further their practice. The galleryis donated to users who might not otherwise have the opportunity to show their work and forms part of the ongoing local cultural discourse.

Ruhrtriennale

Exhibited work – Ah, 2011, Video, Ruhrtriennale – Searching For Now, Curated by Willy Decker at Turbinenhalle at the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum, Germany, 2011

Arrival – Searching for Now is this season’s title, following on from Awakening and Migration, and this year we want to go further east and encounter the world of Buddhist thought.

After two seasons where we have been concerned with monotheistic religions, our attention will now address a culture which has an entirely different awareness of spiritual links and religious practice. A culture with one of the most vital and profound traditions of thought and meditation to be found anywhere in the world. Buddhism is less a fixed theological system than a form of search for the pure, true consciousness of existence, in each moment, only here and only now!

This is nothing other than what we do in creating our fleeting art for the stage. Each production exists only now and then never again in the same form. We spend weeks, months and sometimes even years working towards a single moment, fully aware that everything will then be over and that moment will be irrevocably lost. That’s what Arrival – Searching for Now means. It is a challenge to be true, real and awake in the now.

What we would like to discover together with you is the Buddhist thinking which can be found in the great theatrical, musical and literary works of the West. Because it’s all in there, here and now.

With this in mind I encourage you as a host and artist, person and friend: Come! Come and join us! Come and join us in the moment!

Willy Decker
Artistic Director of the Ruhrtriennale

Published
Categorized as Biennale

Thoughtforms

Exhibition Invitation

Solo Exhibition by Charwei Tsai
Curated by Veeranganakumari Solanki
The Guild, Mumbai, India
17 October ~ 2 November  2011

Press Release:
The Guild, Mumbai is pleased to announce Charwei Tsai’s first solo exhibition in India.

Thoughtforms are manifestations of the mind’s energy that formulate and emanate themselves by means of mantras, sound vibrations and philosophy. Every thought is centred on a form and a form around a thought. These Thoughtforms are living forces, which are structured, materialised and bound through the mind of their creator.

Charwei Tsai’s art practice is strongly affiliated with Thoughtforms, the Buddhist notion of impermanence and the cyclical nature of human existence. Tsai’s art reflects and conserves her Thoughtforms, which in turn are platforms for viewers’ reflections and perceptions.

The Thoughtforms in this exhibition manifest themselves through the artist’s reflections on – politics with reference to alienation; ceremonies with reference to reversal cycles; religion in conjunction with harmony in diversity; society and it’s effect on individuals with reference to Kafka; love and its synonymous nature with loneliness and manipulation; light with reference to accidental beauty; and growth through the enlightenment of the Heart Sutra – a mantra that is a recurring motif in Tsai’s work.

Thoughtforms and the Heart Sutra imply the psychology of un-minding the mind to equate emptiness with enlightenment. The text Tsai implements in her work from mantras to quotes and political statements are an extension of her strong belief in the transient nature of the universe.

Tsai’s Thoughtforms and literary affinity continuously grow in her biannual journal publications – Lovely Daze.

Text by Veeranganakumari Solanki

Driftwood

Exhibition view at Elemental Light, TKG, Taipei, 2011

Black ink on driftwood
Dimensions variable

The Heart Sutra, a Buddhist text on the ephemeral is written in Chinese calligraphy on driftwood that were collected after a Typhoon (tropical storm in the region) in Taiwan. The final passage in this text describes moving forward towards the other side of shore where wisdom resides. The inscribed driftwood is a metaphor to help bring one towards the shore of wisdom.

Special thanks to Weilang, Stanley Yen, The Alliance Cultural Foundation of Taiwan, Paw Paw Drummers of Taitung