1: Hayward Gallery 26 January, 2017 18:30 FREE talk
Imagining, Inventing, and Instigating Space for Contemporary Art in 1980s China
Pauline J. Yao, Lead Curator, Visual Art at M+ in Hong Kong and distinguished Leverhulme Lecturer, will discuss how the notion of contemporary art in China in its nascent stages first existed as an imagined, conceptual space. Yao will explore ways in which various artist collectives and groups in the 1980s developed ‘spaces’ in which contemporary art could be created and shared with other like-minded individuals and how the creation of these ‘conceptual spaces’ was essential to notions of freedom and independence at the time.
Location: The Weston Pavilion, Level 6 Green side, Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London SE1 8XX
Please RSVP by 24 January, 2017 by contacting haywardevents@southbankcentre.co.uk
2: Whitworth Art Gallery 21 February, 2017 12:30 FREE talk
Towards a Spatial History of Contemporary Art in China
In this lecture, a part of her Leverhulme Visiting Professorship, Yao will present her current research on spatial histories of contemporary Chinese art. Through discussions of specific artists and practices, she will examine the role of space in the production, exhibition and consumption of art in China over the last three decades.
3: Tate Exchange 27 April, 2017 18:30 FREE talk
The Question of Globalisation in Asia in Contemporary Chinese Art of 1990s
This lecture looks to revisit and potentially revise existing narratives of contemporary Chinese art during the 1990s by situating events within a broader context of Asia. Often presented as the moment of globalization for Chinese art, the decade of the 1990s is well-known for its major survey exhibitions of avant-garde art in Western museum institutions, the meteoric rise of the art market and attention for diasporic transcultural Chinese artists. However, this narrative has been largely predicated upon understandings of China vis-à-vis the West, and there have been few considerations of how this formative moment of globalization may have been shaped by events occurring around Asia, namely in Japan, and concurrent discussions there around pan-Asianism and the emergence of an Asian modernism. By reviewing activities such as the exhibition Exceptional Passage in Fukuoka in 1991, which featured site-specific works by Cai Guo-Qiang, Gu Wenda, Huang Yong Ping, Wang Luyan, and Yang Jiechang; I will explore the new artistic languages put forward by these artists, as well as the the ways in which these activities contributed to a growing awareness of national, and therefore international identity. This body of research is part of a larger project concerning spatial histories of contemporary Chinese art.
Location: Tate Exchange, Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG
Please RSVP here
Image: Linda Dennis, Rhythms (Ocean and Garden), 2015