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ISSUE 65

SEP/OCT 2009

Issue 65
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Online Content
Editor's Letter

Is the whole world watching?

The depressed global economy has raised the stakes for government leaders around the world as frustrated citizens cry out for political and social reform.

India
News

Tyeb Mehta (1925–2009)

Tyeb Mehta, who along with other members of the Progressive Artists Group initiated modernism in Indian art, died of a heart attack on July 2.

China
News

Ai Continues Activism Against China; Government Responds

On New Year’s Eve 2008, during a conversation with curator Hans Ulrich-Obrist at Vitamin Creative Space’s Beijing branch, artist-provocateur Ai Weiwei predicted: “2008 was the first year that China safeguarded legal rights; it’s when people started to wake up. But in 2009, I think China will confront greater problems.”

India Bangladesh
News

Photojournalist Seized at India-Bangladesh Border

On June 15, the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) detained Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam after he was found taking pictures of the India-Bangladesh border near Rowmari, India.

China
Essays: Archive

Shots Heard ’Round Beijing

Avant-garde Chinese art debuted two months before the protests in Tiananmen Square—are the fates of the two movements intertwined?

Iran
Profiles: Interview

Wrestling With History: Mystical and Masculine
Fereydoun Ave

Renowned artist, gallerist and promoter of Iranian art, Fereydoun Ave explores masculinity in Iranian culture.

Australia
Profiles: Personal History

The Great Commissioner
John Kaldor

For four decades, the dynamic arts patron John Kaldor has brought ambitious and controversial projects to Australia.

Japan
Features

Taboos in Japanese Postwar Art: Mutually Assured Decorum

An irreverent artist group’s unannounced act of skywriting ignites controversy over the acceptable representation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki’s atomic tragedies and raises questions about the taboo of addressing Japan’s wartime aggression.

New Zealand
Reviews
Michael Lett Gallery

Something Transparent (Please Go Round the Back)
Fiona Connor

“For the duration of the exhibition, the front door of the gallery will be closed.” This less-than-hospitable-sounding announcement concludes the press release for Fiona Connor’s recent project at Michael Lett’s Karangahape Road gallery. 

United Arab Emirates
Reviews
Elementa

Be Lost in the Call
Idris Khan

London-based Idris Khan is best known for dense and beguiling photographic palimpsests, which he creates by re-photographing or scanning and digitally overlaying entire series of existing printed works into single composite prints.

India UK
Reveiws
White Cube, Hoxton Square

Absence of God
Raqib Shaw

Raqib Shaw’s dazzling debut solo exhibition at London’s White Cube gallery was so pretty it hurt. “Absence of God” comprised the London-based artist’s signature paintings made from enamel, semi-precious stones and industrial paint on linen, their iconography trapped between fairytale and nightmare, as well as Shaw’s first foray into sculpture.

Pakistan
Projects

Where I Work
Naiza Khan

Naiza Khan chose her house in Karachi because she could envision building a studio attached to it. “We carved out a studio space from an annex above the garage, integrated it with the house and let in the northern light,” Khan recalls.

Print Content
PROJECTS
Questionnaire: NaoKo TakaHashi
My Eight: Ai Weiwei
Keyword: Environment
The Last Word: Web 2.0 = Journalism 1.0
Proposal X: Eddie Hara
NEWS
Troy: Suit Against City in Bilal Case
Sydney: Indigenous Art Market Gets Major Overhaul
Round Up: The Impossibilities of an Island
The Point: Politics of Antagonism
Auction Report: Bounce Back
Art Fair Preview: Battening Down
Whispering Gallery
ESSAYS
Perspective: Vandal in the Tear Gas
In Response: Tribute to a Palestinian
Case Study: Not For the Love of Money
PROFILES
Preview: “Everyday Miracles (Extended)”
In Depth: Jamsen Law
Interview: Vicki & Kent Logan
FEATURES
Wu Tien-chang: Facing the Unknowable Future
Yael Bartana: State of Metaphor
Yang Jiechang: The Communist Party Didn’t Pay the Bill
Walid Raad: thosewholackimaginationcannotimaginewhatislacking
REVIEWS
Brisbane: “The China Project”
Sydney: Yayoi Kusama
Tokyo: Tatzu Nishi
Beijing: “In the Mood for Paper”
Jakarta: Tere
Mumbai: LN Tallur
Vienna: Sara Rahbar
London: “Lines of Control”
London: Andro Wekua
New York: Ryo Toyonaga
New York: Wei Dong
Book Review: New Titles on Indian Modernism

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