Miasma, Plants, Export Paintings
2017 - Film & Video (Film & Video)
28:00 minutes
Bo Wang
Miasma, Plants, Export Paintings is a two-channel short film by Bo Wang and his frequent collaborator Pan Lu. It takes the history of the British colonial search for tropical plants as a starting point, revealing how early colonial rule and ideologies shaped Hong Kong through the Western gaze. Through the process of transporting and collecting plants, Joseph Banks, who was the botanist and naturalist of the first British diplomatic mission to China (also known as The Macartney Embassy) and advised King George III on the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens in London with the most diverse botanical and mycological collection in the world. Subsequently, the British Empire continued searching for industrial crops and developing the field of economic botany to tame plants, rearrange the distribution of natural resources, and expand its colonial rule worldwide. In the Guangdong province, China, early Western colonists regarded the moist weather and tropical climate to cause miasma. To depict this Western stereotype, the film interweaves excerpts from the Hollywood film Love is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), shot in California, in which the director zealously mimics the humidity of a tropical climate with ceiling fans and moving shadows, further revealing the imagination of the Orient and tropicality. The right and power to look at urban space and living conditions are questioned and reassessed in the film. Utilizing and reconciling archival images, footage, and paintings, the film weaves together diverse narratives to present an unofficial and personal voice for storytelling and expressing epistemological uncertainty. The work investigates and reactivates the dynamics between imperialism, orientalism, social hierarchy and race, authorship, and the right to look in 19th Century Canton. Miasma, Plants, Export Paintings examines the urban history of Hong Kong, decentralizing imperial interpretations of the city and centering non-human entities of disease, plants, and paintings.
Through new media, installation, and video and film, Bo Wang’s practice embodies sociopolitical and cultural subjects in contemporary China and beyond. His early documentary work examines the power structures, economy, ideology and the ways in which the Chinese state retains its authoritarian rule while simultaneously pursuing capitalism. Working with critical and contemporary materials, Wang’s recent essay-films, as they interface with capitalism and globalization, provide rich potential for critical self-reflection. So too, they engage the complexity between individualism and nationalism, the bizarreness of reality and the structured knowledge system, and authenticity and authority. Wang’s work depicts these provocative portraits of China by presenting contradictions in its cultural identity, transformation of physical spaces, power structures, perception of time and history, as well as production and consumption of images. These subjects are related with each other, especially in the aspects of how we understand the experience of modernity. His art practice is based on research, often on archival materials, myth and historical narratives, as well as accounts of personal experiences.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
George Kuchar
2009Burrito Bay is a video by George Kuchar that follows the format of a diary or travelogue centered on a tropical trip to Acapulco, Mexico...
© » DAZED DIGITAL
Tohji’s tour of Tokyo’s rave scene through six key artists | Dazed â¬…ï¸ Left Arrow *ï¸âƒ£ Asterisk â Star Option Sliders âœ‰ï¸ Mail Exit Music Scene And Spotted Following last week’s Boiler Room set, the Shibuya rapper gives us a glimpse inside his u-ha party series, featuring some of the city’s hottest names 18 December 2023 Text Günseli Yalcinkaya u-ha in Tokyo 5 One half of the prolific Japanese duo Mallboyz, alongside rapper gummyboy, Tohji is one of the rising stars on Tokyo’s underground scene...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
Life in miniature: rediscovered Rembrandt portraits, thought to be the artist’s smallest, go on show at Rijksmuseum Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Museums & Heritage news Life in miniature: rediscovered Rembrandt portraits, thought to be the artist’s smallest, go on show at Rijksmuseum Pair of paintings of a husband and wife were recently formally attributed to the Old Master by the Dutch museum Senay Boztas 14 December 2023 Share Rijksmuseum staff install Rembrandt’s portraits of Jan Willemsz van der Pluym and Jaapgen Caerlsdr Photo: Rijksmuseum/Olivier Middendorp The smallest formal portraits made by Rembrandt have been put on show at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam after being rediscovered earlier this year...
© » KADIST
Naresh Kumar
2015“Relation between Black and blood” explores the connection between performance, installation and representation...
© » KADIST
Michael Linares
2014After two years of research in close conversation with anthropologists and archaeologists, Linares eventually enrolled in classes to study archeology—specifically the history of material artifacts...
© » FRANCE24
Renaissance nude row sparks teacher walkout at French school Skip to main content Renaissance nude row sparks teacher walkout at French school Teachers at a school outside Paris refused to work on Monday as the establishment grappled with a crisis sparked by the showing in class of a painting by a Renaissance master containing several nude women...
© » ARTPRESS
"Aujourd’hui, être un artiste russe indépendant signifie vivre en dehors de la Russie" 2 février 2024 In AP Web , arts visuels “Aujourd’hui, être un artiste russe indépendant signifie vivre en dehors de la Russie” Interview de Dimitri Ozerkov, conservateur et commissaire d’exposition, par Julie Chaizemartin...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Say No To Droogs: Teater Ekamatra's "A Clockwork Orange" | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles Monospectrum Photography October 5, 2019 By Faezah Zulkifli (1,020 words, 4-minute read) “ORANG_” The wordplay in Teater Ekamatra’s A Clockwork Orange is no accident...
© » ART & OBJECT
10 Female Surrealist Artists You Should Know | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
© » GALERIE MAGAZINE
How Copenhagen Designer Anne Brandhøj Highlights the Natural Beauty of Wood - Galerie Subscribe Art + Culture Interiors Style + Design Emerging Artists Discoveries Artist Guide More Creative Minds Life Imitates Art Real estate Events Video Galerie House of Art and Design Subscribe About Press Advertising Contact Us Follow Galerie Sign up to receive our newsletter Subscribe Artist Anne Brandhøj with her figural group Legekammeraterne at Copenhagen’s Designmuseum Danmark...