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Nominators for ACAW Video Program
Nominators/Title/Organizations
Nancy Adajania, Chief Editor/ Art India
Leeza Ahmady, Independent Curator, Managing Director of
Asian Contemporary Art Week/Asia Society
Tobias Berger, Executive Director and Curator/Para Site
Art Space, Hong Kong
Shumita Bose, Director/ Bose Pacia Gallery
Melissa Chiu, Director of the Museum and Curator for Contemporary
Asian and Asian American Art/ Asia Society
Anita Dube, Artist
Esa Epstein, Director/ Sepia International/Alkazai Collection
Gridthiya Gaweewong, Director and Curator/ Project 304,
Thailand
John Hanhardt Senior, Curator of Film and Media Arts/ Guggenheim
Museum
Betti-Sue Hertz, Curator of contemporary art/ San Diego
Museum of Art
Claire Hsu, Executive Director/Asia Art Archives
Amar Kanwar, Artist
Hong Hee Kim, Director/ Ssamzie Space, Korea
Yu Yeon Kim, Independent Curator
Dinh Q Le, Artist
Nalini MalaniAndrew Maerkle, ArtistDeputy Editor/Art Asia
Pacific Magazim
Alnoor Mitha, Director/Shisha
Johan Pijnappel, Art Historian and Curator, India
Rashid Rana, Artist
Raqs Media, Collective Artists
Shahzia Sikander, Artist
Vivan Sudaram, Artist
Alia Swastika, Artistic Artistic Manager/ Cemeti Art House,
Indonesia
Alcira Tatehata, Director / The National Museum of Art,
Osaka
Miwako Tezuka, Assistant Curator /Asia Society
Eugenie Tsai, Shinya Watanabe Independent Curator
Lee Wen Artist
Hung
Wu, Professor of Department of Art History/ University of
Chicago
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Juror Statements
Melissa
Chiu
This
year’s Asian Contemporary Art Week marks an important
new development in the reception of Asian art in the United
States. Asian art is no longer the exclusive domain of Asia-specific
institutions, and many galleries and organizations are participating
this year for the first time.
Although
much can be said about the maturity of Asian contemporary
art today, one of the main arguments for this year’s
focus on video is that Asian artists of a younger generation
have great facility in this medium. There are many reasons
why: the accessibility of video-editing programs (pirated
versions often circulate among artists); the ease of shipping
and installation of video art, which has allowed international
participation in multiple, sometimes simultaneous, exhibitions
around the world; and, perhaps most importantly, the speed
with which one can create video works, which suits the pace
of these fast-changing societies. Many critically-acclaimed
Asian artists are best known for their video works shown
in international biennials and museum exhibitions in Asia,
the United States, and Europe.
This
year’s event was planned in three phases. The first
was an open call to artists to submit their work for consideration.
This was assisted by a number of leading curators, critics,
gallerists, and writers in Asia and the United States, who
also nominated artists for the program. We received over
one hundred submissions from artists in Afghanistan, Iran,
Pakistan, India, Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand,
and Malaysia, as well as Asian artists in the U.S. From
this pool, the jury (consisting of Barbara London, a curator
at the Museum of Modern Art [official title?]; Yu Yeon Kim,
an independent curator; and myself) made a selection of
works. The final phase was to present these works to the
participating venues—a group of museums, alternative
spaces, and galleries in New York—to choose works
for display during the week. In some cases the video works
form a curated exhibition, while in others they are shown
alongside exhibitions of Asian artists.
The
mission of this year’s program, as with previous years,
is to highlight the range of art practices by Asian artists.
In its fourth year, Asian Contemporary Art Week is the culmination
of a successful consortium of curators, museum directors,
gallerists, and collectors with a mission to draw attention
through educational programs to the increasingly sophisticated
body of work produced by artists in Asia.
Barbara
London
Contemporary
art exhilarates through its perpetual state of transition.
Artists work with mediums that best suit their ideas, responding
to situations around them. Video and computers have been
part of artistic practice for decades. The difference in
artistic activity today relates to how quickly creative
thinkers around the world become part of mainstream discourses.
Through their distinctive visions, media artists in Asia
shed new light on subjects and cogently bring their experiences
to our attention. The Internet has made the planet seem
smaller and introduced new ideas to more varied audiences.
The ACAW programs are an excellent example.
Yu Yeon
Kim
Video
art made by artists originally from Asia, or who are a part
of Asian communities in the U.S., frequently addresses the
problematics of language and identity. This is born of necessity.
Being part of a diaspora, an Asian American, or a foreigner
in a new land, one encounters the simultaneous contradictions
of alienation and immersion within the host culture. There
is a sense of constantly traversing different planes of
reality, even without changing location. A place may not
be the same place for everyone—cultural legacies and
traditions may vary—especially in a metropolis like
New York City. Because of this, the Asian video artist can
provide a unique perspective that throws light on aspects
of Western culture that others take for granted. However,
it is debatable if video, or other forms of art, really
reflects the imprint of specific ethnicities. In this age
of hyper-communication, artists are surely participants
in an international dialogue.
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