AAP Monthly Picks: April–May 2019

Detail view of ROSSLYND PIGGOTT's Double breath (contained) of the sitter, 1993–94, various media, dimensions variable. Copyright and courtesy the artist.

Apr 12–Aug 18

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

Twenty-one years after Rosslynd Piggott’s first survey at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), the Melbourne institution celebrates the acclaimed Australian contemporary artist with “I Sense You But I Cannot See You.” The major exhibition revisits recurring themes in Piggott’s practice, including dreams, sensory perception, nature, and space, represented in various mediums including photography, textiles, video, installation and sculpture. Notably, the exhibition recreates Piggott’s installation Double breath (contained) of the sitter (1993–94) incorporating glassware, furniture, clothing and other decorative objects from the NGV’s collection. Additionally, the show marks the Australian debut of Piggott’s recent engraved glass sculptures, produced in collaboration with artisans in Murano, Venice.

Installation view of YASON BANAL's For a long time the glitch remained motionless... and in disbelief!, 2019, video projections, 3D-printed acrylic sculptures, tarpaulins, paintings, photocopies, drone, MIFFED Manila-speed publicly accessible WiFi, other elements and some surprises, dimensions variable, at "Motions Of This Kind: Propositions and Problems of Belatedness," Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, 2019. Photo by Agnese Sanvito. Courtesy Brunei Gallery.

Apr 12–Jun 22

Brunei Gallery, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, United Kingdom

The first institutional exhibition in the United Kingdom committed to contemporary art from the Philippines, “Motions Of This Kind,” considers the historical exchange of knowledge between Europe and Southeast Asia through the concept of belatedness, examining the power dynamics that underpin uneven development and spread of information. Curated by Renan Laru-an, Merv Espina and Rafael Schacter, the exhibition features 11 artists from or working in the Philippines, including Yason Banal, Cian Dayrit, Eisa Jocson, and Mark Salvatus, with a number of new commissions as well as never-before-exhibited materials from the School of Oriental and African Studies' Ifor B. Powell archive.

Installation view of JAE-EUN CHOI's "The Nature Rules: Dreaming of Earth Project," Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 2019. Photo by Shigeo Muto. Courtesy the artist and Hara Museum of Contemporary Art.

Apr 13–Jul 28

Hara Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

Conceived by Seoul-born, Tokyo-based artist Jae-Eun Choi, “The Nature Rules: Dreaming of Earth Project” at the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art will explore creative means of supporting ecological and political harmony within the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Initiated by Choi in 2014, the “Dreaming of Earth” project has invited international artists and architects, such as Shigeru Ban, Lee Bul, Lee Ufan, and Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann, to devise interventions intended to protect the DMZ’s ecosystem and symbolically bridge the two Koreas. These proposals for traditional Korean pavilions, observation towers, seed banks, and other structures are represented in the exhibition through an array of architectural plans, models, photographs and installations.

REN JIAN, Up to the Streets and Down to the Factories, 1991, photo documentation of Ren Jian purchasing cloth for Ren Jian Stamp Collection Denim Outfit, C-print, dimensions variable. Courtesy UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing.

May 18–Aug 18

UCCA Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China

Curated by Brian Ka, UCCA Beijing’s two-part group exhibition, “Society Guidance,” tells the story of Chinese contemporary art in the early 1990s, reflecting on the socioeconomic and political contexts of post-Reform China. The exhibition’s title references a fictional magazine that appears in the Chinese television comedy Stories from the Editorial Board, which first aired in 1991 and encapsulated the desire for new norms that permeated Chinese society at the time. “Part 1” will spotlight multidisciplinary works by Chen Shaoxiong, Wang Jin, Ren Jian, and the New History Group that speak to the epochal turn, beginning with the intellectual and artistic avant-garde of the 1980s, through to the rise of consumer culture in the 1990s.

WALID RAAD, Sweet Talk Commissions (Beirut 1994), 2018, single-channel video, looped. Courtesy the artist and Sfeir-Semler Gallery Hamburg / Beirut.

May 18–Oct 13

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

The Stedelijk Museum will stage a survey of Lebanese-American artist Walid Raad’s works from the late 1980s to present, spanning video, photography, text, performance and installation. “Let’s Be Honest, The Weather Helped” showcases Raad’s consistent engagement with the fraught political, socioeconomic, and institutional dynamics across the Middle East. Highlights include works from three of Raad’s significant, long-term projects: objects from The Atlas Group (1989–2004), Raad’s collaborative endeavor to document Lebanon’s recent history; the photographic and moving-image series “Sweet Talk: Commissions (Beirut)” (1987– ); and the performative Scratching on Things I Could Disavow (2007– ), which interrogates the institutional workings of the art world. Raad will also perform Les Louvres and/or Kicking the Dead (2017– ), a guided tour of his exhibition that blurs reality and fiction.

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