HOFSTRA UNIVERSIT Y MUSEUM
HOFSTR A UNIVERSIT Y MUSEUM
September 2-December 10, 2014 Emily Lowe Gallery Presented in association with the Hofstra Cultural Center international conference Asia Transforming: Old Values and New Presences (September 18-20, 2014).
This exhibition is made possible by funding from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Additional funding for this exhibition and catalog has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and Astoria Bank.
© 2014 Hofstra University Museum All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the Hofstra University Museum.
FOREWORD
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he concept of “contemporary Asian art” is relatively new, emerging late in the 20th century, partly as a result of increased globalization and international commerce. How is contemporary Asian art distinct from other contemporary art created throughout the world? Does it need to be defined as “distinct” and “apart,” or should it be viewed as purely contemporary art without cultural definition? These questions are a subject of current debate and discussion among art scholars, curators, gallerists, and museum professionals. What appears presently to have a consistency of thought is that contemporary Asian art displays a context (through its presentation of a place, a people, or a culture); international audiences must be able to “read” the work; and the work must have a “local” meaning and significance to maintain its particularity as “Asian contemporary art.”1 In Past Traditions/New Voices in Asian Art the Hofstra University Museum’s associate director of exhibitions and collections, Karen T. Albert, has selected works by 14 artists from the nations of China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam to provide our audiences with dynamic works of art in a variety of media that contribute to this ongoing debate. Do these artists pay tribute to their culture’s distinctive and rich artistic traditions through their individually conceptualized works, or do they break away from the past to develop their own voice and artistic identity? We leave it to our audiences to discover their own answers to these questions. To provide further opportunity for reflection and comparison, the Museum will also present Exploring the Centuries: 3rd-20th Century Asian Art from our permanent collections (at the David Filderman Gallery), co-curated by Karen Albert and the Museum’s collections manager, Kristy L. Caratzola. The works presented are steeped in revered art historical traditions from the nations of Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Nepal, Thailand and Tibet, exploring themes of nature and spirituality, among others. What are the visual, artistic and conceptual conventions that appear similar or distinct among the works in the two exhibitions? To help us decipher the context of the works in Past Traditions/New Voices in Asian Art, we thank Michelle Yun, curator of contemporary art at the Asia Society 1
Museum, New York, for her thoughtful essay, “Inward/ Outward: Cultural Transpositions in Contemporary Asian Art.” Both exhibitions are offered in association with a Hofstra Cultural Center, New York Conference on Asian Studies, and Mid-Atlantic Region Association for Asian Studies international conference titled Asia Transforming: Old Values and New Presences (September 18-20, 2014). We thank the conference co-directors, Yuki Terazawa, associate professor of history, and Patricia M. Welch, professor of Japanese and comparative literature and director, Asian Studies Program at Hofstra University, for their collaboration and partnership during these past three years as the exhibition and conference took shape. The Museum thanks the following individuals, galleries, and organizations for their defining loans to the Past Traditions/New Voices in Asian Art exhibition: Anneliis Beadnell, associate director, and Brianna Calello, registrar, P.P.O.W., New York; Jesse R. Coffino, studio manager, Xu Bing Studio, Brooklyn, New York; Tracy Causey-Jeffrey, director, Causey Contemporary, Brooklyn, New York; Jeffrey Lee, RYAN LEE, New York; Meg Malloy, partner, Sikkema Jenkins & Co., New York; Doris Mukabaa Marksohn, director, dm contemporary, New York; Nicholas Olney, director, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York; Laura Pinello, sales director, and Kat Savage, registrar, James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai; Tyler Rollins, director, and Molly Nut, registrar, Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York; Shelley and Donald Rubin; Shahzia Sikander; Allison Tolman, The Tolman Collection, New York; Larry Warsh, founder, and Taliesin Thomas, director, AW Asia, New York. We are gratified by the external funding garnered for this exhibition and extend our appreciation to Astoria Bank, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts for their assistance in bringing this project to fruition for audiences near and far. We thank Hofstra University for its ongoing support and commitment to the Museum and its vital and integral place in the educational and cultural life of our community and region.
Beth E. Levinthal
Executive Director Hofstra University Museum
http://www.asiasociety.com/arts/visual-arts/defining-contemporary-asian-art
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“Inward/Outward: Cultural Transpositions in Contemporary Asian Art”
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lobalization has allowed national borders between countries to become extremely porous. This phenomenon, coupled with greater ease of travel and advances in communications technology such as the Internet and social media platforms, have provided new opportunities to access other cultures. In particular, the rise of Asia as a major player on the world’s political and economic stage has amplified the dialogue between East and West, prompting an increased awareness of Asian culture. This awareness, along with the proliferation of international biennales, art fairs and artist residencies, has promoted a keen interest in art communities within the region. The peripatetic careers of contemporary artists, specifically those from Asia, have also contributed toward an increase in cultural appropriation through a number of strategies, including the adaptation of language, sociopolitical histories, and formal techniques to create new visual vocabularies that transcend conventional or nationalistic notions of art. The 14 Asian artists included in this exhibition reference elements from their respective cultural histories as a platform from which to create a dialogue between traditional Eastern and contemporary Western art-making practices. Almost all of the artists have studied or lived outside of their home countries, which has provided a third space to explore the artistic intersections between their native country and their adopted home. Art is often used as a vehicle to deconstruct and critique social and political histories. The socioeconomic and environmental impact that rapid urbanization has had throughout most of Asia has necessitated careful consideration of the growing disparity between tradition and modernity within many Asian countries. Many of the featured artists grew up during times of political transition, compounding the impact of these societal shifts on their work. The written language is one of humankind’s primary modes of expression. Xu Bing (b. 1955 in Chongqing, China; lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, and Beijing, China) explores the comprehension of a written language in relation to one’s cultural background. His work Square Word Calligraphy: Quotations from Chairman Mao, 2001 [plate 1], conflates the writings of Mao Zedong, who was instrumental in creating a simplified written language in China, with the artist’s hybridized language of square word calligraphy. This script, invented by the artist, gives the appearance of Chinese calligraphic characters but in fact incorporates words that are spelled
out using the English alphabet. Xu Bing’s juxtaposition reflects the artist’s interest in bridging cultural divides through the written word while illuminating the potential political and historical connotations language can imply. Similarly, Fx Harsono (b. 1949 in Blitar, Indonesia; lives and works in Jakarta, Indonesia), who is best known for his politically imbued video works, uses language as a means to commemorate personal and collective histories. Screenshot from Writing in the Rain #4, 2011 [plate 2], is a poetic rumination on the suppression of Chinese citizens in Indonesia under former President Suharto’s New Order Regime from 1965 to 1998. The painting, based on a video project from the same series, depicts the artist’s futility in repeatedly writing his Chinese name as an act of asserting an ethnic identity that has been actively erased by his own country. Aside from language, other visual traditions can signify a particular country or nationality, and many of the artists in the exhibition have appropriated culturally specific genres in their work to comment on contemporary society or to highlight the erosion of tradition in the wake of globalization. Yun Fei-Ji (b. 1963 in Beijing, China; lives and works in New York, NY, and Beijing, China) has adopted the format of traditional Chinese landscape painting to explore the shifting social mores and disconnection from nature occurring within contemporary China as a result of the country’s economic progress. His Three Gorges Dam Migration, 2009 [plate 3], is rendered in a traditional hand scroll format to depict the environmental destruction and subsequent social unrest caused by the construction of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River. Yun Fei-Ji’s subversive work is reminiscent of a type of 17th-century Chinese literati painting style in which classical landscapes were encoded with imagery meant to be interpreted as social critique. Shahzia Sikander (b. 1969 in Lahore, Pakistan; lives and works in New York, NY) has adapted the classical techniques of Indian and Persian miniature painting to deconstruct the fraught relationship between India and Pakistan, and between Hindu and Muslim cultures. Her jewel-like compositions belie the complex political narratives that reside just below the surface. Bari Kumar’s (b. 1966 in Andhra Pradesh, India; lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, and Hyderabad, India) paintings, on the other hand, interweave multilingual text and cultural symbolism from Indian and American (and more specifically the Latino subculture of Los Angeles) cultures in equal measure. His often macabre, surrealist paintings
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are reflective of his bicultural affiliations through their use of Renaissance painting techniques to depict the struggle between contemporary Western popular culture and traditional Hindu religion. Dinh Q. Lê (b. 1968 in Ha Tien, Vietnam; lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam) and Jiha Moon (b. 1973 in Daegu, South Korea; lives and works in Atlanta, GA) take their inspiration from Asian decorative arts. Lê appropriates the technique of Vietnamese grass mat weaving to create collages that juxtapose archival imagery from Vietnamese history alongside Hollywood film stills and other Vietnamese popular cultural iconography to raise critical questions about the distribution and consumption of images, and the impact these images have on national identity. Similarly Moon’s nonfunctional, fragmented ceramics marry traditional Korean decorative motifs with imagery taken from Western popular culture to demonstrate how cultural symbols may be interpreted out of context. The piecemeal construction of her sculptures is an attempt to reconcile the past within a pluralistic present. Other strategies, exemplified by the work of Sun K. Kwak (b. 1966 in Seoul, South Korea; lives and works in New York, NY) and Toko Shinoda (b. 1913 in Dairen, Manchuria; lives and works in Tokyo, Japan) are more straightforward in their merging of Asian and Western formal aesthetic sensibilities to create a hybrid visual language. Kwak and Shinoda reinterpret classical ink painting through the former’s use of masking tape as a surrogate for ink as illustrated in Twins, 2004 [plate 5], and the latter’s minimal grayscale ink compositions that are more closely aligned with the modern abstract expressionist paintings of Robert Motherwell and Franz Kline than with traditional Japanese calligraphy. Tomomi Ono (b. 1968 in Osaka, Japan; lives and works in Jersey City, NJ) merges traditional Japanese sensibilities encompassed within wabi-sabi aesthetics with Western fine art printing techniques to create meticulously beautiful ruminations on nature and the transience of existence. The work of Ai Weiwei (b. 1957 in Beijing, China; lives and works in Beijing, China) and Stephanie Syjuco (b. 1974 in Manila, Philippines; lives and works in San Francisco, CA) reference cultural artifacts as a means of cross-cultural social critique. Globalism has bred an increased interest in cultural heritage, spurring new markets for classical artifacts. Syjuco’s large-scale installations of digitally replicated objects address the social and political implications relating to the acquisition and presentation of collecting cultural artifacts. Her series Raiders: International Booty, Bountiful Harvest
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(Selections from the A_A_M_ ), 2011, touches on notions of cultural agency, preservation, and the illegal trade of historically significant objects. The artist and political activist Ai Weiwei’s appropriations of and interventions on antiquities such as Grapes, 2007 [plate 18], an assemblage of Qing Dynasty stools, critiques the commodification of cultural artifacts as a result of globalization while redefining these cultural artifacts into contemporary works of art, challenging notions of artistic authorship. While East Asian countries can attest to centuries of artistic reciprocity with the West, evidence of Western aesthetic influences in South and Southeast Asian countries like Indonesia and Thailand appeared only as recently as the 19th century. This fact, coupled with the phenomenon of a rapidly growing economy in the region beginning in the mid-1980s, has contributed toward the recent prominence of Western motifs in the realms of contemporary art and popular culture in these countries. Nyoman Masriadi’s (b. 1973 in Gianyar, Bali; lives and works in Yogiakarta, Indonesia) figurative paintings, often inspired by comic books, are infused with references to Western consumer culture intermingled with Indonesian traditional iconography that provide pithy social commentary on a wide range of issues relating to the rise of materialism, corruption and violence in Indonesia in the post-Suharto era. In Thailand, the development of a pedagogical structure to teach Western art history is relatively recent. Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s (b. 1957 in Trad, Thailand; lives and works in Chiang Mai, Thailand) Village and Elsewhere series, begun in 2011, plays off this fact by introducing American and European masterworks to local communities throughout the Thai countryside in a classroom format. The observations of the local villagers reveal myriad social and cultural nuances and presumptions between East and West, and between social classes. It also opens up the possibility for alternative modes of art appreciation outside a conventional Western museological structure. Through an examination of the practices of this select group, it becomes apparent that contemporary Asian artists are looking for inspiration outside their own cultures in order to develop inroads into the international art world. In the process, their aesthetic and conceptual strategies effectively re-contextualize and re-define traditional art-making practices to exist within the framework of an increasingly integrated and interconnected world.
Michelle Yun Curator of Contemporary Art Asia Society Museum, New York
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Xu Bing
(Indonesian, born 1949)
Square Word Calligraphy: Quotations from Chairman Mao, 2001 Ink on paper mounted on Japanese silk 90 x 27 1/8 in. each (4 panels) Courtesy of Xu Bing Studio Plate 1
Screenshot from Writing in the Rain #4, 2011 Acrylic on canvas 71 x 78 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist and Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York Plate 2
Chinese artist Xu Bing frequently addresses the issues of language and writing in his work with an emphasis on bringing people together through language. In Square Word Calligraphy Xu Bing creates a new writing system uniting two distinct cultures. The square-formatted words visually resemble Chinese characters but are, in reality, English words. The letters are altered with elongated strokes and
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Fx Harsono
(Chinese, born 1955)
shaped to more closely look like Chinese characters. He incorporates traditional stroke order rules such as writing/ reading left before right, top before bottom, and outside before inside. The characters can be read more easily if the viewer understands and utilizes these rules. The process of reading and comprehending the writing underscores the differences between the two language systems.
Fx Harsono has long been interested in issues of identity and cultural roots, particularly in his own Chinese Indonesian community. Screenshot from Writing in the Rain #4 is based upon his video Writing in the Rain in which the artist uses an ink brush to write his name in Chinese characters as the water slowly washes the ink away. Both the video and the painting are a reflection on the artist’s personal and cultural history. In 1967 Indonesian law required all Indonesians of Chinese descent, such as Harsono, to change their original names to “authentic” Indonesian ones. Even though his family
has been in Indonesia for a number of generations, he was still considered “foreign” because of his Chinese name, Oh Hong Bun. The social and political issues relating to this strict idea of national identity and the forced assimilation of one cultural group continue to be addressed in Harsono’s work. The text on the painting reads “Indigenous Indonesian names is the names inconformity with those customarily used in the Indonesian community.”
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Yun-Fei Ji
(Indian, born 1966)
The Three Gorges Dam Migration, 2009 Hand-printed watercolor woodblock mounted on paper and silk, Ed 1 of 20 AP 15 7/8 x 123 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai Plate 3
Namaste America, 2002 Oil on canvas 62 x 48 in. Courtesy of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection Plate 4
Initially Yun-Fei Ji’s The Three Gorges Dam Migration appears to be a traditional horizontal Chinese landscape scroll – a meditation on nature. Upon closer observation a tumult of activity is revealed. A mass migration of people with carts and household goods moves through the land overlooking a body of water where the crowd confronts a group of soldiers. The artist created a series of works in response to China’s controversial Three Gorges Dam project, which flooded acres surrounding the Yangtze River, including villages, cities and archaeological sites, displacing up to 2 million people. The
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Bari Kumar
(Chinese, born 1963)
creation of the dam changed the landscape and has had tremendous social and environmental impacts on the area. Yun-Fei Ji has reinterpreted classical landscape painting to create a scroll that is a hybrid of the old and the new. Traditional elements can be seen in the horizontal format, the palette of natural pigments and the simplified drawing style. The complexity and density of the composition, along with the subject matter – which includes Yun-Fei Ji’s characteristic ghosts (figures with animal bodies and heads) – reflect the artist’s desire to address the impact of the dam project on the local population and the natural landscape.
Bari Kumar utilizes his personal experiences to create works of art that do not belong to one culture. Although born in India, Kumar moved to Los Angeles, with its multiple and overlapping Chicano and Hispanic cultures, as a teenager. The many layers evident in his painting reveal a broad range of influences. In Namaste America the montage of images includes Sanskrit lettering, street graffiti, erotic art, a
17th-century European etching, Hindu religious references, English words and pixelated images that blur edges and boundaries. In this muddle of cultural confusion where the sacred and profane coexist, the resulting work of art is dark and disturbing. The intentional ambiguity leaves no single interpretation, as it depends upon one’s own experiences.
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Sun K. Kwak
(South Korean, born 1966) Twins, 2004 Masking tape on wood panel 31 x 31 x 1 in. each (2 panels) Courtesy of Causey Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY Image © Sun K. Kwak Plate 5
Trained as a painter, South Korean artist Sun K. Kwak constructs freehand drawings using black masking tape, appreciating the juxtaposition of using an everyday material to create a work of art. Kwak’s work, like traditional Asian ink drawing and calligraphy, has a strong emphasis on line, its quality and weight. When viewed from a distance, the lines seem to undulate from wide to narrow and back again, while up close the tangled lines and irregularities from the tearing of the tape can be seen. The artist sees the
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masking tape works as drawings, since they have the same directness as working with pencil on paper. While appearing spontaneous, Kwak carefully considers the placement of the lines, addressing issues of positive and negative space, and achieving a painterly stroke by tearing away at the tape. Also similar to traditional ink painting and calligraphy, there is a meditative or contemplative element to her work. She often works on large-scale installations, drawing with the masking tape directly on the wall.
Dinh Q. Lê
(Vietnamese, born 1968) Untitled from the Hill of Poisonous Trees series, 2008 C-print and linen tape 47 1/4 x 78 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W., New York Plate 6
Vietnamese artist Dinh Q. Lê combines images, integrating different representations of reality and cultural history. His family fled Vietnam for Thailand during the Vietnam War and immigrated to the United States in 1979. In this series, Hill of Poisonous Trees, the artist combines two images to create a new perspective. Untitled joins a black and white photograph of 10th-15th century Buddhist stone wall carvings from Cambodian temples in Siem Reap and a color photograph of the notorious S-21 prison, a former high school
in Cambodia, run by the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. The prison is now the Tuol Sleng (The Hill of Poisonous Trees) Genocide Museum. Lê cuts the two large photographs into strips and, based on a traditional Vietnamese grass mat weaving technique, merges the individual images into a new work. The resulting image is pixilated, but the original photographs are still discernible. The cultural, political, and historical threads are intertwined, creating a layered narrative and a new point of view.
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Nyoman Masriadi
(South Korean, born 1973)
Chicken Dance, 2010 Acrylic on canvas, 78 3/4 x 59 in. On loan from private collection Image courtesy of the artist and Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York Plate 7
Broken Blue Angry Bird Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 8 x 6 x 5 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York Plate 8
Nyoman Masriadi, one of Indonesia’s leading artists, does not speak directly about his work, which is deeply personal and has multiple levels of interpretation. The narrative, frequently a commentary on political issues and corruption, social life and behavior, and global pop culture, can be humorous and/or satirical. Masriadi painted this work after a morning visit from the local tax collector who had heard that one of his paintings had sold for thousands of dollars. The official had come to collect money from Masriadi under the mistaken impression that the artist would be receiving money from the sale. The owner of the painting had sold it at auction; a secondary sale where an artist does not benefit from the sale.
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Jiha Moon
(Indonesian, born 1973)
His paintings reveal an interest in the figure, often depicting the human body with exaggerated musculature. His meticulously and highly detailed paintings display his control of light and shadow to create volume. Surreal and sometimes bizarre, the figures and objects in the composition are distorted and embellished to show a broken or twisted world. The paintings contain references as diverse as violence in the post-Suharto era (after 1998), computer video games and the mythical nature of superheroes.
Jiha Moon’s work, in a variety of media, challenges the viewer’s perception of East and West by combining elements from a range of cultures, including American, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. She is known for her characteristic use of stereotypical Asian images such as dragons and bamboo, along with images from popular culture like Angry Birds™, anime figures and the Georgia peach. Traditional aspects of her recent ceramic work can be seen in her use of classical forms, glaze selections, and incised or carved design techniques. For example, celadon is a traditional blue-green glaze used in Korean ceramics, and the dragon vase is an
ancient form. Traditional Korean ceramics often used images of animals and plants, which Moon also incorporates, but she chooses Angry Birds™ and stylized images of branches that look “Asian.” Moon has lived in Georgia for more than 10 years and frequently incorporates the peach, a regional icon, into her work. In Korean mythology the peach symbolizes vitality and is thought to have special powers that promote eternal youth, good health and protection from demons. Mixing elements of ancient and contemporary cultures, of high and low art, Moon creates her own complex imagery, which shows the commonality and disparity among cultures.
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Jiha Moon
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Jiha Moon
(South Korean, born 1973)
(South Korean, born 1973)
Peach Butt Thinking Head Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 6 1/2 x 12 x 8 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York Plate 9
Peach Bird Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 8 1/2 x 8 x 4 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York Plate 10
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Tomomi Ono
(Japanese, born 1968)
Jiha Moon
Night Sky – Boundless Destination I, 2011 Monoprint lithograph on Japanese paper 16 x 50 in. Courtesy of the artist and dm contemporary, New York Plate 12
(South Korean, born 1973) Old School Fish Dragon Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 8 x 8 x 5 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York Plate 11
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Tomomi Ono is well-known as a master printmaker, perfectly executing works with delicate and precise details. Her interest in human existence, a recurring theme in her work, focused her earlier work on seeds and organic life, while her more recent work takes on the vast expanse of the universe. Ono carefully builds her lithographs, adding layer upon layer until she achieves her desired outcome. As a result the night stars seem to sparkle through the densely black background.
The lithograph is not an accurate star chart but rather inspired by the artist’s memory of the night sky, its scale and her feelings at that moment. The Japanese culture traditionally has a great respect for the natural environment and sees man in harmony with nature. Ono’s lithographs reflect a similar admiration for nature, deference to the universe and acknowledgment of man’s belonging in it.
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Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
(Japanese, born 1913)
Renoir’s Ball at the Moulin de la Galetter and Thai Villagers from The Two Planets series, 2008 Video Courtesy of the artist and Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York Plate 13
Flight, 2005 Ink on handmade paper 14 x 21 1/2 in. Courtesy of The Tolman Collection, New York Plate 14
Recognized as one of the leading video artists in Southeast Asia, Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook’s work often deals with issues of communication between disparate entities. The Two Planets series presents framed reproductions of 19th-century Western paintings to audiences in rural villages, markets and Buddhist temples in Thailand. From the perspective of a viewer, she films the group’s discussion about the work of art, revealing class and cultural differences often with humor
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Toko Shinoda
(Thai, born 1957)
and laughter. In the video Renoir’s Ball at the Moulin de la Galetter and Thai Villagers, the villagers display a sense of curiosity, particularly about the people in the painting, and appear to enjoy the conversation. The subtitled dialogue was selected and translated by the artist. The encounter between the rural villagers and the Renoir painting reveals how much or how little cultural information a viewer innately carries and uses to understand a visual image.
Toko Shinoda is one of the earliest Asian artists to merge Eastern traditions and Western art practices. She was trained in traditional Japanese calligraphy, which traces its roots to ancient China. In the 1950s she traveled frequently to New York City and was influenced by the abstract expressionist movement, and her work took on a dynamic energy. Her minimalistic compositions are composed of black ink brushstrokes, which are often complemented with a touch of color, as in Flight. She has continued to use traditional
calligraphic materials such as sumi ink and handmade paper. Calligraphy and abstract expressionism both require the artist to execute carefully thought out marks and brushstrokes. The white space, defined by the strokes of color in the work of art, is vitally important to her compositions and more than just a formal element. Yohaku, or white space, is the ideological “nothingness” taken from Zen Buddhist teachings: the nothing is everything.
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Shahzia Sikander
(Pakistani, born 1969) Mirror Plane, 2012 Color direct gravure 27 x 21 1/4 in. Courtesy of the artist Plate 15
Shahzia Sikander
(Pakistani, born 1969)
Pakistani artist Shahzia Sikander was traditionally trained in the discipline of Indo-Persian miniature painting. As her work developed, she added a personal context and history to the subject matter, exploring the integration of Hindu and Muslim cultures by combining allegories from both societies. In her work she gathers images from multiple sources, both art historical and personal, often repurposing her own images and digitally manipulating them. While creating these prints, she drew directly on the printing plates. The images, both
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opaque and transparent, are layered, creating a cacophony of stylized images: an eagle, a multi-armed figure, animals, and Eastern design motifs. Duality plays an important role in her life (traveling between New York and Pakistan) and is reflected in her work through her use of both representational and abstract images, along with an Eastern focus on precision and methodology joined with a Western emphasis on creativity and expression.
Orbit, 2012 Color direct gravure 27 x 21 1/4 in. Courtesy of the artist Plate 16
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Stephanie Syjuco
(Chinese, born 1957)
Variety Pack #3 from Raiders: International Booty, Bountiful Harvest (Selections from the A___A__M____ ), 2011 Archival Epson photo prints mounted on laser-cut wood, hardware 90 x 80 x 12 in. (approximate), Edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York Plate 17
Grapes, 2007 Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) tieli wood stools, 31 x 69 x 53 in. On loan from private collection Image courtesy of Mary Boone Gallery, New York Plate 18
Through her sculptural work and installations, Stephanie Syjuco addresses issues of open-source materials, copyright, economies and empires. The accessibility of images on the Internet makes the distribution and appropriation of works of art easier. Her series Raiders delves into ideas about the acquisition and accumulation of one culture’s cultural patrimony by another. To create this installation, Syjuco downloaded publicly available database images of Chinese
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Ai Weiwei
(Filipino, born 1974)
vessels from the collection of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco. Asian works of art were chosen as a way of addressing her heritage. The digital images, printed actual size, are mounted on wooden backings and displayed as a collection. Initially they appear to be 3-dimensional objects but reveal themselves to be 2-dimensional pixelated props with their functionality and context removed.
Ai Weiwei, as an artist and outspoken activist, has consistently mined Chinese cultural traditions and history to create works that bring to light contemporary political and social issues in China. In his sculptural works he often uses reclaimed materials in a way that connects the past to the present. Grapes, part of his repurposed furniture series, consists of Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) tieli wood stools joined together by artisans using traditional joinery and construction techniques that do not use nails or glue. Overseen by the artist, the woodworkers transform the antique stools into a
contemporary sculpture. The work respects the authentic objects and their traditional craftsmanship, but their functional purpose is lost. This work focuses on the endurance of past traditions and questions how they should be valued in the 21st century, subtly critiquing the country’s conscious dismissal of the past. Through this and other works, using simple methods such as juxtaposition and repetition, Ai Weiwei communicates his dissatisfaction with the existing political and social conditions in his own country.
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Exhibition Checklist Xu Bing
(Chinese, born 1955) Square Word Calligraphy: Quotations from Chairman Mao, 2001 Ink on paper mounted on Japanese silk 90 x 27 1/8 in. each (4 panels) Courtesy of Xu Bing Studio
Fx Harsono
(Indonesian, born 1949) Screenshot from Writing in the Rain #4, 2011 Acrylic on canvas 71 x 78 1/2 in. Courtesy of the artist and Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York
Yun-Fei Ji
(Chinese, born 1963) The Three Gorges Dam Migration, 2009 Hand-printed watercolor woodblock mounted on paper and silk, Ed 1 of 20 AP 15 7/8 x 123 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist and James Cohan Gallery, New York/Shanghai
Bari Kumar
(Indian, born 1966) Namaste America, 2002 Oil on canvas 62 x 48 in. Courtesy of the Shelley and Donald Rubin Private Collection
Sun K. Kwak
(South Korean, born 1966) Twins, 2004 Masking tape on wood panel 31 x 31 x 1 in. each (2 panels) Courtesy of Causey Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY
Dinh Q. Lê
(Vietnamese, born 1968) Untitled from the Hill of Poisonous Trees series, 2008 C-print and linen tape 47 1/4 x 78 3/4 in. Courtesy of the artist and P.P.O.W., New York
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Nyoman Masriadi
(Indonesian, born 1973) Chicken Dance, 2010 Acrylic on canvas 78 3/4 x 59 in. On loan from private collection
Jiha Moon
(South Korean, born 1973) Broken Blue Angry Bird Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 8 x 6 x 5 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York
Jiha Moon
(South Korean, born 1973) Peach Butt Thinking Head Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 6 1/2 x 12 x 8 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York
Jiha Moon
(South Korean, born 1973) Peach Bird Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 8 1/2 x 8 x 4 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York
Jiha Moon
(South Korean, born 1973) Old School Fish Dragon Vase, 2013 Ceramic with glaze 8 x 8 x 5 in. Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York
Tomomi Ono
(Japanese, born 1968) Night Sky – Boundless Destination I, 2011 Monoprint lithograph on Japanese paper 16 x 50 in. Courtesy of the artist and dm contemporary, New York
Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook
(Thai, born 1957) Renoir’s Ball at the Moulin de la Galetter and Thai Villagers from The Two Planets series, 2008 Video Courtesy of the artist and Tyler Rollins Fine Art, New York
Toko Shinoda
(Japanese, born 1913) Flight, 2005 Ink on handmade paper 14 x 21 1/2 in. Courtesy of The Tolman Collection, New York
Shahzia Sikander
(Pakistani, born 1969) Mirror Plane, 2012 Color direct gravure 27 x 21 1/4 in. Courtesy of the artist
Shahzia Sikander
(Pakistani, born 1969) Orbit, 2012 Color direct gravure 27 x 21 1/4 in. Courtesy of the artist
Stephanie Syjuco
(Filipino, born 1974) Variety Pack #3 from Raiders: International Booty, Bountiful Harvest (Selections from the A___A__M____ ), 2011 Archival Epson photo prints mounted on laser-cut wood, hardware 90 x 80 x 12 in. (approximate), Edition of 3 Courtesy of the artist and RYAN LEE, New York
Ai Weiwei
(Chinese, born 1957) Grapes, 2007 Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) tieli wood stools 31 x 69 x 53 in. On loan from private collection
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Hofstra University Stuart Rabinowitz
President Andrew M. Boas and Mark L. Claster Distinguished Professor of Law
Herman A. Berliner
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Lawrence Herbert Distinguished Professor
Hofstra University Museum Beth E. Levinthal
Executive Director
Karen T. Albert
Associate Director of Exhibitions and Collections
Caroline S. Bigelow
Senior Assistant to the Executive Director
Kristy L. Caratzola
Collections Manager
Tiffany M. Jordan
Development and Membership Coordinator
Nancy Richner
Museum Education Director
Renee B. Seltzer
Museum Educator
Marilyn Zucker
Museum Educator
Graduate Assistant Frantz Lucien Jr.
Graduate Student Staff Lauren Chessari Lindsay Ralbovsky
Undergraduate Assistants Roberto Hernandez Julia Szaniawska
54329:08/14