Out of the Air-con Bunker

September has the usual frenetic pace of Asia. There seems to be a theme running through this month: taking projects out of the snap-freeze of the gallery and onto the sizzling pavements and gyrating traffic jams of Asian streets. PIPAF does it with the 4th Philippines Performance Arts Festival, the Singapore Art Show flaunts it as ‘Art for Everybody’, and it’s the focus of the Istanbul Biennial.

September is also the month before Ramadan and it seems a month of crazed activity before the calm. We have biennales in Jakarta, Yokohama and Istanbul and of course the splashy ARTSingapore carving its mark as a hub to dealers in the region. It is also a time for fuelling that most popular dialogue – ‘exchange’. As usual, Australians are deeply entrenched in this ‘conversation’, with Asialink has artists scattered from Malaysia to the Philippines and beyond, and Rimbun Dahan (Malaysia) celebrating 10 years of exchange with Australia. In September we also can see projects at 24hr Art in Darwin, Goethe’s artconneXions in Sydney and Melbourne and The Wahana Project linking Singapore and Indonesia – exhibitions all curated around bi-lateral cultural relations – nothing like buzz!

Welcome to the Asian Art Report! As this is the first AAR let me introduce it as a conversational column. I hope to steer off the path of just ‘exhibition listings’ and discover some of the faces, self-initiated and alternative projects that are happening in this region. It’s sometimes refreshing to look to the side, to see what is happening around us.

We are kicking off with a ‘bumper’ issue to get the column rolling. Each AAR, I will feature a Focal Point, a city within the region ‘visited’ in the column – be it Manila, Jakarta, Bangkok or Saigon. I welcome the input of Artshub readers.

Moving around the region myself, it is the energy of Asia that’s exciting. It never stops. The projects never stop. The Asian Art Report is just another portal to that pace.

Gina Fairley ginafairley@yahoo.com.au

THE ASIAN PICTURE: EXHIBITIONS & EXCHANGES

Australian Artists say G’day
Despite a dismal lack of imagination for a title, G’day Australia celebrates ten years of Australian-Malaysian exchange at Rimbun Dahan, Kuala Lumpur - a private residency hosted by Malaysia’s pre-eminent architect Hijjas Kasturi and his Australian wife Angela Hijjas. Including work by Helen Crawford, John Foubister, Anne Morrison, Troy Ruffles, Stephen Turpie, Malcolm Utley, Margot Wiburd and current resident Tony Twigg, the exhibition opens 15 September to 7 October at Taksu Singapore - www.taksu.com

Rimbun Dahan’s current exhibition Taman Sari, showing until 25 September, is a “whose’s who” of the Malaysia art world including work by Ahmad Zakii Anwar, Ahmad Shukri Mohamed, Abdul Multhalib Musa, Jailani Abu Hassan and recent resident at the Gunnery Studios, Sydney, Noor Mahnun Mohamed. The exhibition also includes Indonesian artists Arahmaiani, Akbar .aka. Bebe, and Kolektif Taring Padi, and Australian artist Victoria Cattoni. Rimbun Dahan is currently accepting proposals for a 2006 Australian resident. Visit www.rimbundahan.org

Where does the performance stop?
Speaking of Arahmaiani, she has just had her first solo exhibition of paintings – yes paintings - at Valentine Willie Fine Art (Kuala Lumpur) this month, along with a performance that fell flat on audiences. Sited as examining the commodification of the art market, I would question is Arahmaiani not commodifing herself? One is left asking whether the ‘performance’ that continues to play out on a Malaysia blog is perhaps a more revealing dialogue?

FS’05=24hrArt
Amalgamating strengths rooted within the three notions, collaboration, intervention and performance, FS (Fusion Strength) is a Singaporean blend concocted by Curator Juliana Yasin. A success in Singapore (2001) and Indonesia (2003), it now makes its round to 24hr Art in Darwin. FS'05 will bring together Belgium-born Elka Kerkhofs (Darwin), Hayley West (Darwin), Lucas Ihlein (Sydney), Jason Lim (Singapore), Juliana Yasin (Singapore) and Lina Adam (Singapore) - The artists will be working in the gallery daily for 2 weeks from 16 September to 30 September. FS' 05 = 24hr Art is sponsored by the Meyer Foundation & National Arts Council of Singapore. Visit www.24hrart.org.au

ArtconneXions
A Goethe Institute initiative, artconneXion is divided into three regional clusters: Sydney-Manila-KL, Singapore-Melbourne-Hanoi and Jakarta-Bangkok-Auckland. Nine artists were invited to produce a work in their home city and another in the region. They were joined by nine German photomedia artists. The Sydney-Manila-KL cluster includes Martin Fengel, Albrecht Fuchs, Shaun Gladwell, Nicola Meitzner, Jay Yao and Yee I-Lann and is showing this month at the Australian Centre for Photography until 1 October. The Singapore-Melbourne-Hanoi cluster includes Leah King-Smith, Vu Le, Valentina Seidel, Sherman Ong Beng Ann, Rainer Leist and Uschi Huber, and will open in Melbourne in November. The Jakarta–Bangkok-Auckland cluster includes Michael Shoawanasai, Erik Prasetya, Heidi Speckerand, Jurgen Bergbauer, Lisa Crowley and Matthias Koch. Visit www.goethe.de/artconneXions

Ho Tzu Nyen chases the lion
Ghosts of history and identity are summoned in this 22-minute film. ‘Singa’ refers to lion and ‘Pore’, or ‘Pura’ in Malay, means City – but is the lion indigenous to these shores? Ho Tzu Nyen’s film Utama will be screened from 16 September to 22 October at 24hr Art, Darwin. The artist will be in Darwin to give a talk on 1 October. Visit www.24hrart.org.au

The Big Wahana!
The Wahana Project – Imagined Legacies (Bandung) will be the fourth in the series of projects after Wahana, KL (2003) and Wahana, Manila (2005). Curated by Agung Hujatnikajennong (Indonesia) and Suryati Mail (Singapore), this exhibition of … surprise, surprise … mainly mixed media installations and video projections, includes Singaporeans Ahmad Abu Bakar, Erzan Adam, Mohd Fadzel Abd Karim, Mohd Razali Mahat, Mohd Suhirman Sulaiman, Salleh Japar, Siti Annazia Hamsani and Suhaimi Sukiyar together with invited Indonesians Didik Sayahdikumullah, Handiwirman, Heri Dono, Nindityo Adipurnomo and Tisna Sanjaya. Imagined Legacies will show at Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, West Java to coincide with their 7th anniversary, from 9 September to 30 September. Visit www.selasarsunaryo.com

That letter just wont close!
Asialink certainly gets mileage out of its shows! Curated by Director of the Asian Australia Art Centre Sydney, Binghui Huangfu, Open Letter is still doing the rounds. Including Australian artists of South East Asian descent: Dadang Christanto (Indonesia), Emil Goh (Malaysia), George Poonkhin Khut (Chinese-Malaysian) + John Tonkin, Selina Ou (Malaysia), Vienna Parreño (Philippines) + Krzysztof Osinski, Melissa Ramos (Philippines), Koky Saly (Cambodia), Phaptawan Suwannakudt (Thailand), My Le Thi (Vietnam), and Suzanne Victor (Singapore), Open Letter visits Manila’s Metropolitan Museum to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the ASEAN-Australian dialogue partnership. How diplomatic! … The Metropolitan Museum of Manila is no stranger to projects by Australian artists, showing the exhibition until 12 November. Huangfu will be in Manila to open the exhibition and deliver a talk. Asialink’s other touring exhibition, Supernatural Artificial, curated by Natalie King, opens at the Chulalongkorn Art Centre, Thailand in late September, will be on view until 31 October.

Painter McKay in Singapore
Australian painter Jane McKay will visit Singapore in September for the opening of her exhibition - a series of new abstract landscapes at Momentous Arts from 2 September to 17 September.

Eat Drink Man Women
San Francisco’s Haines Gallery will introduce Chinese artist Li Jin, in his first U.S. exhibition in cooperation with the Asia Society. The Haines show features several large-scale vertical scrolls and includes the recent acquisition of a work by the Berkeley Art Museum. Li Jin has shown with Ray Hughes Gallery, Sydney since 2001. Eat Drink Man Women showing in San Francisco until 8 October. Visit www.hainesgallery.com

Kusama’s got a spot in Thailand
100 Tonson Gallery presents the first exhibition of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama to be shown in Thailand. Kusama transforms the gallery with a re-visitation of her 2000 installation Dots Obsession New Century. The forecourt will also display Dots Obsession, a yellow and black polka-dotted car designed by Kusama. Her prints from the 1980s to the present will be on show at Play Gallery until 31 October. Sponsored by Japan Foundation, Dots Obsession can be viewed from 15 October to 31 December. Visit www.100tonsongallery.com

Dinh Q. Lê - Destination New York
Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê has come a long way from his small village on the Cambodian border. This exhibition covers a seven-year period drawing on his Vietnamese American background. It includes work from his well-known series of woven photographs and a new installation of small-scale mirrored satellites. Curated by Melissa Chiu, Director Asia Society Museum, Vietnam: Destination for the New Millennium - The Art of Dinh Q. Lê, showing 13 September to 15 January 2006. Visit www.asiasociety.org

Spatial dialogue
Korean artist Jinnie Seo will transform The Substation (Singapore) into a G.I.-lime spatial encounter titled Space in Transit. Recording the process of defining space, the artist paints the walls to echo the exhibition space. Space in Transit is on the tail end of SeptFest 2005, a month long program celebrating the fifteen history of The Substation – deserving of accolade in this industry! Founded by the late Kuo Pao Kun, Substation was Singapore's first independent contemporary arts centre and continues, under the co-directorship of Lee Weng Choy and Audrey Wong, to bridge the visual arts with experimental theatre, dance, film, poetry and offer a place for dialogue. Space in Transit is on show from 29 September to 10 October. Visit http://www.substation.org

BAROMETER: BIENNALES, FAIRS & AWARDS

CPB05: Jakarta
Revolving around the theme “Urban/Culture”, the second CP Biennale (CPB05) will be held 5 September to 5 October in the colonial Bank Indonesia building in downtown Jakarta. Despite mixed reactions from the Indonesian art scene, CPB05 challenges how art is presented. Including Chinese artist Yue Minjun, Korean installation artist Choi Jeong Hwa and Darwin-based Indonesian mixed-media artist Dadang Christanto, the biennale will also present many artists’ groups including the artist initiatives ruangrupa (Jakarta), Klinik Seni Taksu (Bali) and Common room (Bandung). Visit www. biennale.cp-artspace.com/cpb_2005

Yokohama Triennale
It’s Yokohama time again - The second triennale opens 28 September to 18 December in Yamashita Pier with an ‘emphasis on involvement with the site’. 86 artists will participate including Australians Craig Walsh and Shaun Gladwell. Naturally the focus is on an Asian dialogue including China’s Chen Xiaoyun, Chen Zhen, Jiang Jie, and the Long March installation Chinatown Project; Korea’s Kimsooja and Kim Sora; Taiwan’s Wang Te-Yu and Yao Jui-Chung, and Hedi Hariyanto and Mella Jaarsma of Indonesia. Open Circle (Sharmila Samant, Tushar Joag, Archana Hande) will represent India with Melting Pot, an installation /performance that crosses between library and dining hall. Visit www.opencirclearts.org and www.yokohama2005.jp

9th Istanbul Biennale
Istanbul coincides with Jakarta and Yokohama this year from 16 September to 30 October. Using sites such as an apartment block, an old customs storehouse, a former tobacco depository, a shop, theatre and office building, the biennial is shift visitors observation of the city. Curated by Charles Esche and Vasif Kortun, 53 artists and groups will be represented, including Indonesian group Ruangrupa, who will be assisted by Malaysia artist Ise. Visit www.iksv.org/bienal/english/

ARTSingapore
In its fifth year ARTSingapore “is the best place to see contemporary Art with an Asian focus in all genres” tauts fair director Marjorie Chu. Located in the Suntec Singapore exhibition hall from 29 September to 3 October, the fair has attracted exhibiters from Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, USA and Vietnam. Australian Galleries East & West Art and International Fine Arts will be represented in this regional splash. Visit www.artsingapore.net

Connecting Performance
The 4th Philippines International Performance Arts Festival (PIPAF), titled "UGNAYAN'05" - ugnayan meaning inter-connecting or inter-relating. Artistic Director, Yuan M’Oro Ocampo, has invited Australian Tony Schwensen, and other artists Andree Weschler (France); Yoyoyo Gasmana (Indonesia); Sakiko Yamaoka and Akiyo Tsubakihara (Japan); Kai Lam and Lee Wen (Singapore); Marilyn Arsem (America); Andre Stitt (Wales); Yeh Tzu-chi (Taiwan) and reknowned Thai artist Chumpon Apisuk. The program will also feature 36 “home-grown” Filipino performance and time-based art practitioners. From 18 to 22 September across Metro Manila.

2005 Sovereign Asian Art Prize
Days after Tsang Kin Wah won the 2005 Sovereign Asian Art Award prize of US$25,000 his first solo gallery show, White Cube, opened at the John Batten Gallery, Hong Kong. Poking fun at the ideas of art and money, weaving William Morris-esq designs with profanity and literary insults, Tsang’s silk-screened work “I Love You”, was the winner. Artists from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, the Philippines, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, and for the first time Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Korea, Inner Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan submitted works for the acquisitive award. Visit www.sovereignartfoundation.com

Asian Cultural Council Grants
Curator Prof. Patrick D. Flores, has framed the Asian Cultural Grantees within an exhibition called RetroActive... presenting four important figures in Philippine modern art: high modernism in Jose Joya, the avant-garde in Roberto Chabet, the printmaking tradition in Rod Paras Perez, and art criticism in Leonidas Benesa. Presented by the Asian Cultural Council Philippines (ACCP) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) RetroActive from 8 September to 9 October. Visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph

Busan calling
Applications for the Busan Biennale Sculpture Exhibition (Korea) close 30 September. As part of the Busan Biennale 2006, twenty installations will be selected for The Sea Art Festival. Initiated in 1987 it has become the a unique environmental installation festival drawing more than 940,000 visitors in 2004. Entry form www.busanbiennale.org

NEWS: MUSEUMS & MOVEMENT

Opening of National Museum Korea
The National Museum of Korea will open on 28 October after ten years of planning and construction, and marking its 60th anniversary. The new project is reported to have cost US$440 million and has 27,000 square meters of exhibition space dedicated to Korean history, culture and art. It is equipped with state-of-the-art anti-earthquake devices, conservation and storage facilities. Visit www.museum.go.kr/eng

Movements
After two years Zhang Zhaohui has finished as Hong Kong’s Asian Art Archive Researcher for China and Iris Moon has joined the team as Researcher for Korea, based in Seoul. Christina Chu has stepped down from her position of chief curator at the Hong Kong Museum of Art and it is reported that California dealer Patrick Painter is on the prowl for a space in Shanghai …

Vehicle to SentAp
Recently, vehicle, published by Plastique Kinetic Worms (Singapore), sent its final issue to press. Launched in 2001, its distribution grew over 12 issues to Korea, Indonesia and Thailand, presenting an edgy forum for contemporary dialogue. It will be greatly missed. Meanwhile, Sentap, was launched at Malaysia’s Galerie Seni Maya last month. Not only is it Malaysia only publication for the visual arts, but has a bent towards alternative contemporary practice. Sentap, an acronym for ‘seni tanpa prejudis / art without prejudice’, also translates from Malay, ‘to lift or bring out, especially with a jerk’. A jerk greatly welcomed by Malaysia’s critic-starved arts community.

FOCAL POINT