Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide @ICP

JTF (just the facts): A total of 12 large scale color photographs, unframed and pinned directly to green/grey walls in a series of rooms on the lower level of the museum. The works on view were made between 1997 and 2005; overall dimensions and edition sizes were not available. The exhibit also includes 3 video terminals showing various works and footage from the staging of certain images, as well as a glass case containing 7 books. The show was curated by Christopher Phillips. Since photography is not allowed in the ICP galleries, the installation shots for this show at right come via the Artnet article linked below.

Comments/Context: Over the past decade, Wang Qingsong has solidified his place among the top echelon of Chinese contemporary photographers. A representative sample of his recent work is now on display at the ICP, and should finally introduce him to a much broader slice of the New York art world.

Wang's earliest works satirize the cultural clash between traditional Chinese culture and the influx of Western consumerism by juxtaposing old and new with kitchy excess. A well-known poster from the Cultural Revolution celebrating the power of the ink brush has been updated with books on exam shortcuts. A multi-armed Buddha now holds a cellphone, cigarettes, and beer, perched on a Coca-Cola pedestal. And a 10th century scroll has been reimagined with bored peasant women in tarted-up eye makeup and Jack Daniels bottles strewn across the tables. This strange hybrid culture mixes past and present, where the ideals of the past have been polluted by the onslaught of brands and commerce. Once the jolt of Wang's humor wears off, the effect is surprisingly sad and empty.

His more recent pictures amplify these ideas into monumental scenes with elaborate sets and hundreds of actors, following in the footsteps of Crewdson and Wall, but with a more caustic and cynical point of view. Hundreds of old-style paper political posters now feature hand-drawn Western logos: McDonald's, Citibank, Evian, and Pampers. An English language class now caters to the needs of the nouveau-riche, with handy phrases appropriate for the Olympics or the Venice Biennale. Several of the works chronicle the plight of the migrant workers who have left the countryside and flooded the coastal cities: a massive dormitory made of blue scaffolding, where tenants sit nude often echoing art history favorites, squatter families living in a demolished building, and mobs of injured workers trying to get through a burning checkpoint made of barbed wire and soda cans. The critique is harsh and skeptical, each picture full of numerous smaller dramas and references that support the larger thematic construct.

Overall, Wang's vision of modern Chinese society is a parody of meaning and refinement, where crude and vulgar have replaced cultured and thoughtful, exposing both the crass and unseemly side of the new materialism and its unfortunate downstream effects. His exaggerations and cinematic narratives are powerful and ultimately quite deflating, describing a world (both West and East) that seems headed down the path toward the increasingly inane, unfulfilled, and expressionless.

Collector's POV: Wang's photographs have become consistently available in the secondary markets in recent years. Prices have generally ranged between $6000 and $100000, with a few extremely large tableaux selling for as much as $700000.

My favorite image in the show was Follow Me, 2003; it's the large image on the left in the top installation shot. I like the ridiculous scale of the huge chalkboard and the way English language phrases like "I'd like to make a deposit" or "I'm just hanging out with my friends doing a little bargain hunting" are combined into a dense all-over composition. It's a little like a treasure hunt, with tiny ironies and barbs hiding everywhere.

Rating: ** (two stars) VERY GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Artist site (here)
• Reviews: NY Times (here), Economist (here)
• Features: Artnet (here), WNYC (here)

Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide
Through May 8th

International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10036

Auction Results: BRIC, April 23 and 24, 2010 @Phillips London

Phillips' BRIC themed sale took place last week in London, and while the buy-in rate for photography was over 45% and the total sale proceeds from the photo lots missed the estimate range by a wide margin, there was a silver lining of sorts: this sale delivered the highest photo proceeds for Phillips of all of its themed sales so far this year.

The summary statistics are below (all results include the buyer’s premium):

Total Lots: 147
Pre Sale Low Total Estimate: £734600
Pre Sale High Total Estimate: £1067100
Total Lots Sold: 79
Total Lots Bought In: 68
Buy In %: 46.26%
Total Sale Proceeds: £504438

Here is the breakdown (using the Low, Mid, and High definitions from the preview post, here):

Low Total Lots: 95
Low Sold: 46
Low Bought In: 49
Buy In %: 51.58%
Total Low Estimate: £279100
Total Low Sold: £136563

Mid Total Lots: 44
Mid Sold: 31
Mid Bought In: 13
Buy In %: 29.55%
Total Mid Estimate: £478000
Total Mid Sold: £305625

High Total Lots: 8
High Sold: 2
High Bought In: 6
Buy In %: 75.00%
Total High Estimate: £310000
Total High Sold: £62250

The top lot by High estimate was lot 302, AES+F, The Bridge, 2007, at £40000-60000; it did not sell. The top outcome of the sale was lot 72, Wang Qingsong, Dormitory, 2005, at £37250. (Image at right, via Phillips.)

79.75% of the lots that sold had proceeds above or in the estimate range. There were a total of five surprises in this sale (defined as having proceeds of at least double the high estimate):

Lot 86, Alex Guofeng Cao, Marilyn as Brigitte Bardot, 2009, at £5000
Lot 303, Dmitri Baldermans, Yuri Gagarin with family, 1961, at £6875
Lot 310, Boris Mikhailov, Untitled, from Case History Series, 1997-1998, at £15000
Lot 342, Sebastiao Salgado, Gold mine, Serra Pelada, Brazil (figure eight), 1985/Later, at £9375
Lot 343, Sebastiao Salgado, Gold mine, Serra Pelada, Brazil, 1996/Later, at £7500

Complete lot by lot results can be found here.

Phillips De Pury & Company
Howick Place
London SW1P 1BB

Speed & Chaos: Into the Future of Asian Art @Wolkowitz

JTF (just the facts): A group show of a total of 18 works from 7 different artists, in a variety of mediums, hung in the entry, hallway, and back gallery spaces. (Installation shots at right.)

The following artists are included in the show, with details of the works on display to follow:

• Hu Jieming: 1 c-print, 50x84, in an edition of 5, from 2007/2009
• Hsin-Chien Huang: 3 lightboxes filled with printed acetates, in editions of 5, from 2007, and 1 interactive computer simulation, in an edition of 5, from 2009
• Miao Xiaochun: 1 3D computer animation, in an edition of 5, from 2007
• Noh, Sang-Kyoon: 1 large sculpture, from 2008, and 6 sequin covered records with original jackets in glass cases, from 2009
• Junebum Park: 2 color videos (silent), in editions of 5, from 2008
• Wang Qingsong: 1 DVD, in an edition of 8, from 2008
• Xu Changchang: 2 c-prints mounted to aluminum; 1 is 59x44 in an edition of 10, the other is 96x40 in an edition of 5; both are from 2008

Comments/Context: As a general rule, I think that non-Japanese Asian photography (particularly work from China, Taiwan, Korea and India) is consistently underrepresented in the swirl of art in New York, so I'm always on the look out for shows that include exciting examples of contemporary imagery from these locales. This group show gathers works from a variety of media, with several video and computer generated displays and a few digital photographs. While the technologies may be cutting edge, the underlying ideas and themes being explored will be familiar: the impacts and effects of rapid expansion, globalization, and consumerism, and the clash of old and new ways (including the place of religion).

I have run across the photography of Xu Changchang previously, but the works in this show have a new twist. In earlier works, Xu took a physical photograph (often of an appropriated artwork), crumpled it up and rephotographed the result, complete with all the detailed wrinkles and tiny points of glare from the flash. The works on display in this exhibit start with the same type of image (in this case, pictures of an island sunset and the aftermath of a tsunami), but they are now punctured by bullet holes and rephotographed; the holes are therefore not actual holes but a photograph of a photograph full of holes. I found this layering of appropriation and the multiple levels of physicality in the works conceptually intriguing.

Hu Jieming's moonscape image, complete with a tiny latticework of futuristic settlements, is like something from the cover of a science fiction novel. From afar, it looks like 1960s era NASA footage; up close, the geometric roadways and buildings blanket the crater pocked rock; the effect is unsettling, with a heavy dose of impending doom. As such, it does a successful job of asking questions about the perils of never-ending expansion, without grounding them in the now obvious specifics of contemporary China.

Two artists perhaps best known to collectors for their photography have contributed videos to this exhibit:

• Wang Qingsong's photographs have often considered the effects of consumerism on traditional Chinese culture. In this video work, Wang has taken hundreds of still frames of the construction of a yet another skyscraper in suburban Beijing and tied them together, into a fast forward, flip book style view of the building growing into the sky. As the days pass, the scaffolding rises, becoming the tallest structure for miles around; the completion of the tower is celebrated by nighttime fireworks, a thoroughly hollow and ironic endpoint.


• Miao Xiaochun's photographs have often been built from appropriations of famous paintings. In this video, Miao reimagines Michelangelo's Sistine Ceiling (including the creation of Man) using clusters of computer generated mannequins floating in space, surrounded by bubbles or transformed into drifting bones.

And while it isn't exactly photography, take a moment to stand in front of Hsin-Chien Huang's interactive display: as you move your arms and body around, large buildings made up of tiny image fragments are quickly built up and taken down, the transience of the region's construction boom effectively skewered.

All in, the title of this show is surprisingly apt: things are changing fast in this slice of the art world, new technologies and ideas are rapidly being incorporated and exploited, and the overall effect is one of cacophony and chaos; I for one could use an updated photography roadmap for the region. While some of the underlying themes are consistent, it's clear that we need to see this art/photography in New York much more often if we ever hope to make sense of it all.

Collector's POV: The prices for the works in this show are as follows:

• Hu Jieming: The photograph is $9000.
• Hsin-Chien Huang: The 3 lightboxes are $15000 each; the interactive display is $18000.
• Miao Xiaochun: The video is $20000.
• Noh, Sang-Kyoon: The large blue Buddha sculpture is price on request. The sequined records are $5000 each.
• Junebum Park: The two videos are $7750 and $12400.
• Wang Qingsong: The video is $15000.
• Xu Changchang: The 2 photographs are $8000 and $10000, based on size.

There is little or no auction history in the photography market for most of these artists, so discerning any kind of real price pattern is tricky. While several photographs by Wang Qingsong and Miao Xiaochun have come up for sale in recent years, their works on display here are both videos, and therefore may not be meaningfully representative of or related to their overall bodies of photographic work.

Rating: * (one star) GOOD (rating system described here)

Transit Hub:

• Miao Xiaochun interviews/press (here)

Speed & Chaos: Into the Future of Asian Art
Through February 17th

Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery
505 West 24th Street
New York, NY 10001

Book: Wang Qingsong

JTF (just the facts): Published in 2006 by Albion and Hatje Cantz, in conjunction with an exhibit at Albion in London. 136 pages, with an essay by Zoe Butt. Includes large plate images, as well as a comprehensive list of works as thumbnails (with sizes and editions). (Cover shot at right.)

Comments/Context: To Western eyes, the high points to the storyline of China's transformation in the past few decades have become predictably well known: unprecedented and explosive economic growth, staggering new construction projects and radical urban change, an increased openness to and embracing of Western culture, and a much larger and more powerful position on the world stage. It is not surprising that amidst these changes, and in concert with a gradual relaxation of central censorship, artists have begun to examine the changes going on all around them and to ask hard questions about how China is being recast.

Wang Qingsong is a contemporary photographer who uses sarcasm, irony, satire and humor to expose some of the undesired consequences and unintended effects of the country's modernization on the collective psyche of the population. Beginning in 1997, Wang has made theatrical images that have centered on the quiet war between traditional Chinese culture and the encroaching Western lifestyle. His early work was dubbed "Gaudy Art", for its garish colors and not-so-subtle surrealistic kitsch. His 1998 work, Prisoner, shows Wang trapped inside prison bars made of Coke cans; Thinker, also from 1998, has him seated on a lotus leaf in Buddhist prayer, with a huge McDonald's logo carved in his chest; Requesting Buddha no. 1, 1999, (at right) has the Buddha's many arms filled with a variety of consumer products. These and other images all parody the materialism of the West and how it has invaded the minds of the Chinese people. Instead of worshiping self denial, fulfilling every desire via consumerism is the new norm.

Unlike the heroic and patriotic battle scenes from propaganda films, Wang's series of images entitled Another Battle highlights the clash going on between the traditional and modern cultures, and shows Wang as a defeated and bloodied commander, lost among the razor wire decorated with soda cans. (Another Battle no.8, 2001 at right.) Other images show the battlefield complete with McDonald's trash cans and road signs. These images have been elaborately staged, and have the feel of film stills.

Wang's more recent output has evolved into elaborate and monumental tableaux, with large numbers of actors and painstaking stage sets, in the end becoming massive, scroll-like photographs, some more than 20 feet wide. While in approach there may be valid comparisons to Gregory Crewdson or Jeff Wall, Wang's images are firmly rooted in typical and traditional Chinese artistic forms and metaphors and make no pretense of their careful manipulation. The image at right, Romantique, 2003, shows both a small detailed section on the top, with a thumbnail version of the entire work below (impossible to see I realize). Here the world is a confusing, fabricated mixture of Chinese and Western allusions and symbols, full of staged snippets from famous paintings by a wide range of recognized masters, from Botticelli and Raphael to Manet and Matisse.

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Wang's exaggerated work brings home many of the subtler challenges posed to China by such rapid modernization. As traditions are exchanged for Western consumerism, his work points to continuing social questions about what lies ahead for this giant nation. This monograph is almost like a catalog raisonne, as it has a complete set of all Wang's images and other detailed print/negative information. As such, it is an excellent reference resource on this innovative Chinese photographer.

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Wang Qingsong's artist website can be found here.

Collector's POV: Wang Qingsong's work has become increasingly available in the secondary market in the past few years. Most of the images come in at least two sizes, and are in editions of 6, 10 or 20. Smaller single images have been priced starting at around $10000, moving upward toward $100000. Only a few of the large tableaux have come to market, and all have sold in the six figure range.