Highlight #33: The way art looks at the world

Art scene in Germany, Canada, Italy and Singapore

Germany, Oldenburg <Women at Work>

13 May ~ 24 July 2016_Edith Russ Haus for Media art

Gender equality may seem like a cliché of the 20th century; however there still remains a great deal of work to be done on the path. Critical works based on feminism have tried to change the mainstream ideas towards cultural understanding of gender equality. But they have failed to achieve true transformation in terms of wage equality or labor condition.
Four artists participating in the exhibition ask the important questions on women’s emancipation. Wendelien van Oldenborgh presents a film installation that questions labor, entrepreneurship, and the lasting solidarity in precarious conditions by portraying a group of women who were fired from a factory.

Olga Chernysheva exhibits drawings and photographs of women in Russia. Anette Rose’s newly commissioned piece <Captured Motion> is a series of video works and animations that investigates the industrialization that increasingly characterizes the working environments of today. Lastly <Factory Complex> by Im Heung-soon shows the protagonists behind the quickly growing economic scene of South Korea. Throughout the exhibition, the artists share different perspectives on the issue of gender equality.

Anette Rose <# 20.1-20.2 flechten>(Video still) 2016

ⓒ (Anette Rose) VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2016
Im Heung-soon <Factory Complex>(Video still) 2014

color / black and white, HDcam 92 Minuten
Wendelien van Oldenborgh <Bete & Deise>(Video still) 2012

HD Video 41 Min ⓒ Wilfried Lentz Rotterdam and Wendelien van Oldenborgh

Canada, Montreal <Joan Jonas: From Away>

28 April ~ 18 September 2016_Dhc/Art Foundation for Contemporary Art

The exhibition offers insight into the American multimedia artist Joan Jonas’s oeuvre throughout her life. The artist’s work embraces a wide range of media such as video, performance, installation, sound, text and sculpture. Since the late 1960s, Jonas has interconnected numerous practices to explore perception of gender, narrative and the concept of experience and space in the form of performances and installations. The artist’s practice is based on her knowledge and passion for various subjects such as art history, mythology, poetry, literature, and history.

For Jonas, art was a hybrid practice that led her to blur the boundaries between categories. At the same time, it allowed her to investigate physical boundaries of art through gestures and space.
The exhibition begins with Jonas’s early choreographic works and video performances including the <Organic Honey> series and <They Come To Us Without A Word>. The symbolic works that show the artist’s interest in environmental politics, the landscape, and ghost stories of Nova Scotia are also displayed.

<They Come to Us without a Word II> 2015

Performance view Teatro Piccolo Arsenale Music by Jason Moran and Joan Jonas Photo: Moira Ricci Courtesy of the artist
<They Come to Us without a Word> 2015

Video still Courtesy of the artist
<They Come to Us without a Word> 2015

Video still Courtesy of the artist

Italy, Torino <Passo dopo Passo>

14 May ~ 16 October 2016_Fondazione Sandretto re Rebaudengo

Italy, the Mediterranean peninsula, carries the mixture of different identities and ideology due to numerous violent invasions and waves of emigration and immigration throughout the history. The participating artists from both past and contemporary time, examines Italian perspective, status of movement and openness and enclosure through their works. The exhibition based on the book by an artist and designer Fortunato Depero, reveals the tendency of Italian artists from the 1960s to the 1980s through the works of the artists such as Carla Accardi, Luigi Ontani and Salvo. The artists have different conceptions and reactions to reality; however on the other hand, the audience can find out that they share similar ideas on aesthetic and humor.

Meanwhile, contemporary artists Vanessa Alessi, Elisa Caldana, Collettivo Fernweh, Nicolo Degiorgis, Cady Noland and Turi Rapisarda expands the themes by engaging it with space, place, movement and locality. Through variety of mediums such as paintings, photography and video, the exhibition reveals the hopes projected by the individual and society.

Carla Accardi <Giallo(Sicofoil su tela)> 1969

50×70cm
Nicolo Degiorgis <PEAK> 2015
Vanessa Alessi <W-HOLE TEMPELHOF, Berlin> 2014

Singapore, Singapore <Odyssey: Navigating Nameless Seas>

4 June ~ 28 August 2016_Singapore Art Museum

The exhibition looks at the Earth’s watery realms through the eyes of contemporary artists. Featured commissioned artworks, artist loans, and works from the Museum’s collection invite visitors to enjoy another part of the Earth we don’t get to see often.
Throughout history, various expeditions and advancement in science and technology have led mankind to sail the seven seas and dive into the deepest depths of the oceans. However, there still remains much to discover in this mysterious world.

In the exhibition, the contemporary artists from all around the world, including Choe U-Ram, Rashid Rana, Sally Smart, Entang Wiharso, Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, Wyn Lyn Tan, and Richard Streitmatter-Tran, explore the infinite depths of the ocean’s mysteries and think about the violent storms that threaten the sails of our journey through life. The artists also ask fundamental questions about life by looking into the deep oceans—where our explorations take us and to what end we embark on our endless discoveries. They question the notion that the more we know about the world, the better we are able to understand human nature. ■ with ARTINPOST

Entang Wiharso <Breathing Together> 2016

Acrylic, car paint and oil on canvas; resin, aluminium, plants, insects, shells, coral, plastic, thread, fabric, light bulbs, electric cable
400×1,700×30cm Collection of the artist Image courtesy of the artist and Black Goat Studios
Sally Smart <The Exquisite Pirate (Oceania)> 2006

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas and fabric with various collage elements Dimensions variable Collection of The National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia Photograph by G. Baring, image courtesy of the artist
Wyn-Lyn Tan <Adrift> 2013

Single-channel video with sound 1:31mins Collection of the artist
Image courtesy of the artist