17 Apr 2010 to 12 June 2010
Opening Reception:
17 Apr, 2010 3 – 6 pm
Pékin Fine Arts
No. 241 Cao Chang Di Village
Cui Ge Zhuang, Chao Yang District
Beijing
China
Asia
p: 86 10 5127 3220
m:
f: 86 10 5127 3223
w: www.pekinfinearts.com
Artists: Colin Chinnery, Eko Nugroho, Liang Wei, Li Yongbin, Jennifer Ma Wen, Wang Chuan
If the cultural representation of three-dimensional space has historically relied on perspectival systems—specifically, parallel perspective in the East and linear perspective in the West—then the question arises as to what current practices might say about our contemporary condition. Paralinear includes works in a range of media that construct, and reside in, a moment of spatial and psychic ambiguity.
In these efforts by Asian artists, space is neither central nor irrelevant but is rather reconceived as being both disjointed and elastic, fragmented and relational, linear and cyclical. Now destabilized, the vanishing point—that elusive focal device, used in constructing perspectives, that is always visible yet never within reach—thereby indicates a crisis in our understanding of progress, by which space is no longer finite nor infinite, but rather a site of orientation, disorientation and non-orientation.
Aric Chen, Beijing, January 2010
Water Caochangdi PhotoSpring
17 Apr – 21 Jun, 2010
Opening Reception: 17 Apr, 2010 3 – 6 pm
Initiators: The Three Shadows Photography Art Centre, Thinking Hands and The «Rencontres d’Arles »
Pékin Fine Arts will be the invited gallery to join this group exhibit.
Venue: Pekin Fine Arts, Cao Chang Di Village, Cui Ge Zhuang, Chaoyang District, Beijing
Artists: Anais Martane, Isaac Julien, Liu Jin, Liu Zheng, Lois Conner, Nadav Kander, WassinkLundgren, Wang Chuan and Wang Qingsong.
Varvara Shavrova Windows on The Hutong
Pékin Fine Arts cooperated with Gallery 49 to hold a solo exhibit for Russian-Irish artist Varvara Shavrova: Windows on The Hutong. Please see the attached press release, invitation and artworks.
14 Mar – 5 May, 2010
Venue: Gallery49, 1949 – The Hidden City, Gong Ti Bei Lu, Chao Yang District, Beijing, 100027 (behind Pacific Century Place)
Windows on The Hutong is a new photo and sound installation by Russian-born and Beijing and Ireland-based artist Varvara Shavrova. The project is conceived as a multi-sensory portrait of old Beijing neighbourhoods where Shavrova has been living for the past five years.
Rich and colorful images of windows illuminated by life and sound inside shows us glimpses of daily life in the old hutongs, where one feels the changes sweeping through the rest of the capital city have not yet come.
Today Beijing is undergoing intense modernization and whole neighbourhoods like the street where Shavrova lives are swept away within days to give way to new high rise developments. But some of the old laneways remain untouched, with the slow medieval rhythm of life still ticking on inside its traditional courtyards. The light boxes almost imitate the windows Shavrova photographs, framed closely around the actual window frame and presented on a wall space, they illuminate life and light just like the real windows one passes by and gets a glimpse and a momentary encounter with someone else’s daily life.
The sound installed directly next to the images intensifies this feeling of being submerged into a slice of real Beijing. The bicycle passes by, locals line up to buy some freshly fried dough sticks, old gentlemen play cards and chess, baby is crying inside the bedroom, billiards balls move softly along the table cloths, food is being prepared, chopped and fried for someone’s dinner.
The sound and images were recorded on October 1st 2009, on the date when the whole of China celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the foundation of the People’s Republic. Televisions all over the country and in the local hutongs too transmitted the proud sights and sounds of the military parade followed by lavish fireworks display and celebration concert.
The significance of this date and the artist’s choice is obvious. When the rest of the country is doing big and ambitious things, life on local level continues unperturbed, and changes will take a while to arrive here.
Varvara Shavrova Beijing January 2010
For further information and images, please see our website or contact us.
Pékin Fine Arts No.241 Cao Chang Di Village, Cui Ge Zhuang, Chaoyang District, Beijing, China 100015
Gallery hours: 10 to 6 pm daily. Mon and Tues by appointment only.
www.pekinfinearts.com
Tel: + 86 10 5127 3220 Fax: + 86 10 5127 3223
victoria @ pekinfinearts.com info @ pekinfinearts.com
