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Artist Cameron Robbins, left, in conversation at the Guerrilla Talks.
The third day of Guerrilla Talks got to a start with managing editor Olivier Krischer in conversation with Indonesian artist Arahmaiani, who discussed her environmental project with Tibetan monks in Yushu. Professor Jeffrey Shaw, dean of the School of Creative Media at Hong Kong’s City University, spoke about his early experiments with expanded cinema and participatory art, as well as SCM’s cutting edge virtual reality resources. Australian artist Cameron Robbins described how he uses wind and wave energy, for example, to make drawings and videos, via complicated drawing machines that respond to their environments. Steven Aishman from SCAD elaborated how the school’s Hong Kong location has forged creative bridges to the local community. Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, Elizabeth Ann MacGregor, explained her efforts to make art more a part of the city’s life, which has included negotiating sponsorship to make entry free, and of course the museum’s recent significant renovations.
New York-based Iraqi artist, Vahap Avşar.
Olivier passed off the chair and microphones to editor-at-large HG Masters, who had invited New York-based Vahap Avşar to talk about his early public interventions in Turkey in the mid- and late-1980s, as well as his return to art-making in 2007 after a decade-long hiatus.
Paul Chan, left, talks to HG Masters, live at Art HK.
Next up was Paul Chan, fresh off the Intelligence Squared debate of the night before, “Contemporary Art Excludes the 99 Percent”—a motion that he was arguing for, against our earlier speakers Elizabeth Ann MacGregor and Joseph Kosuth. Though he has stopped making artworks in recent years, Chan talked about his new forays into e-book publishing and recovering the lost writings of seminal figures such as Yvonne Rainer and Marcel Duchamp. Australian-born Jane Dyer spoke about the reasons that she finds living in Beijing so compelling, and how that city transformed her worldview and art-making, as she seeks to give the public a reason to pause and re-think their relationship to materials, the environment and urban spaces. Shortly thereafter, we were visited by the CEO and CIO of Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, who explained the division of labor in their corporate structure and recalled the days of 28k modems, as well their reputation as some of the first artists to make work exclusively for the internet.
Renowned painter Yan Pei Ming joined us, after being delayed the previous day in Shanghai.
Then, from Manila, young independent curator Sidd Perez, outlined the challenges for the new online platform plantingrice.com (established with collaborator Lian Ladia), which aims to fill an information void in the local scene, also connecting to the many Filipino artists based overseas. Lastly, after being held up the day before in Shanghai, renowned painter Yan Pei Ming, long based in France, shared his insights into the nature of fame, for his iconic subjects as much as himself, and commented on the possibilities for painting as a practice in a media-saturated environment.
The last day of Guerrilla Talks will continue tomorrow . . .
Sunday, May 20th
2:00 pm – Enoch Cheng, Program Coordinator, Asia Art Archive, Hong Kong
2:20 pm – Jessica Poon, Crystal Wong & Jessica Wong, Street Art Movement, Hong Kong
2:40 pm – Dan Byers, Associate Curator, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
3:00 pm – William Kofmehl, Artist, Pittsburgh
3:20 pm – Cosmin Costinas, Executive Director, Para/Site Art Space, Hong Kong