Converting is a piece about the Orang Laut, often called Sea Nomads, that inhabited the Riau archipelago. They were Christians and pagans that were often oppressed by the majority Muslims in the Riau community and were eventually forced to convert to Islam. Zai conveyed this history in Converting through the stark contrasts of red, white, black. Bound together by an island-like black earthy mass, white bubbles resembling clusters of embryonic cells or a sack of seeds marked with different religious symbols in blood red in the center, some with Christian crosses, some with Islamic crescents, with others remaining indecipherable or blank. The protective medium of beeswax forms a translucent layer on the painting’s surface, indexing the way nature ensured Riau’s survival of disasters caused by outside factors beyond their control.
Zai Kuning is one of Singapore’s leading avant-garde practitioners. He refuses to categorize his work, and his output crosses multiple disciplines including painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, film and video, experimental sound, and performance. His practice often examines the concept of the “tortured body,” and many of his pieces explore the relationship between somatic experiences and language. He founded the Metabolic Theater Laboratory (MTL) in 1996 to examine the relationship between physical movements and language in Southeast Asian rituals. After disbanding the MTL in 2001, he returned to individually defined practices such as solo performance, writing, sound, and research. His most recent work responds to histories of indigenous people in Singapore and Indonesia including the Orang Laut and Dapunta Hyang Jayenasa.
Pierre Leguillon features: “Diane Arbus: A Printed Retrospective, 1960-1971” December 6, 2008 – February 7, 2009 This first retrospective of the works of Diane Arbus (1923-1971) ever organized in France, brings together all the images commissioned to the New York photographer by the Anglo-Saxon press in the 1960s...
An early work in Sung Hwang Kim’s career, the video Summer Days in Keijo—written in 1937 is a fictional documentary, the film is based on a non-fiction travelogue, In Korean Wilds and Villages , written by Swedish zoologist Sten Bergman, who lived in Korea from 1935 to 1937...
The Class (2005) by Araya Rasdjarmrearnsook challenges the viewer’s personal sense of morality and tolerance by depicting a classroom from hell...
5 Ways To Integrate Art Within Urban Infrastructure Home » 5 Ways To Integrate Art Within Urban Infrastructure ART & DESIGN Nov 29, 2023 Ξ Leave a comment 5 Ways To Integrate Art Within Urban Infrastructure posted by Kelly Schoessling This beautiful murals is one of the ways to integrate art within urban infrastructure...
Shahab Fotouhi’s photographic series Establishing Shot; Interior, Night – Exterior, Day; without Antagonist and Extra consists of four C-prints that at first glance would appear to be travel posters for Iran, in that each features a beautifully shot image of an Iranian waterfall...
Hermés Heir’s Art Collection Sells for €22.9 Million at Sotheby’s – ARTnews.com Skip to main content By Daniel Cassady Plus Icon Daniel Cassady Senior Writer, ARTnews View All December 15, 2023 4:09pm Pierre Soulages, Peinture (1970) Florian PERLOT pour ArtDigitalSt Earlier this week, at Sotheby’s Paris, the first of five sales of art and furniture collected by Hubert Guerrand-Hermès , the great-great-grandson of the founder of renowned luxury brand Hermés , tripled its pre-sale estimate during a white glove evening sale, according to the auction house...
Pierre Leguillon features: “Diane Arbus: A Printed Retrospective, 1960-1971” December 6, 2008 – February 7, 2009 This first retrospective of the works of Diane Arbus (1923-1971) ever organized in France, brings together all the images commissioned to the New York photographer by the Anglo-Saxon press in the 1960s...
Rotation presents the image of a crowd, a re-appropriation of 19th or beginning of 20th century photographs published in newspapers and magazines...
This particular drawing, like many of Grotjahn’s works, presents a decentered single-point perspective...
During her research on primitive currencies and cultural cannibalism, Cuevas came across the Donald Duck comic book issue “The Stone Money Mystery,” where Donald goes on a quest to find missing museum objects...