You got to be like water 動靜如水 물처럼 유연하라, 2009

You Got to be Like Water - Germany and South Korea Artist in Residence Creative Exhibition

You Got to be Like Water - Germany and South Korea Artist in Residence Creative Exhibition

Exhibition Opening Ceremony：3:00pm, 11 January 2009
Exhibition Period：11 January to 8 February 2009
Workshop：6:30pm - 9:30pm 12 to 18 January 2009

Language insinuates itself everywhere, initiating all kinds of metaphorical readings and misreadings. In the natural history of mankind's imagination, never have so much language, imagery and music been transmitted as today.
The title is a quote from an interview of Bruce Lee in which he was asked how to become a martial arts champion.
We intend to build a schematic route of drawings. These drawings are schemes representing a training system of identities, personalities, idols, characteristics, methods, styles, textures and so on, their interconnectedness, in a lose form of a brick braking competitions set-up, separating life and art beautifully. We will exhibit a willingness to employ all kinds of materials to warp each others meaning into metaphorical status. The show will represent how to become an individual in this foreign territory to which we have been misplaced.
artists：Gregory S. Maass (Germany), Nayoungim (South Kore)
curator：李銳奮 Frank Lei
Organization：Old Ladies' House Art Space
Sponsor: IACM, FUNDAÇÃO MACAU

Venue： Ox Warehouse

http://oxwarehousenews.blogspot.com/2009/04/you-got-to-be-like-water-germany-and.html?m=0

Little Pandas

제목 : Invisible Panda
- 판다는 살아 생전 칼라 사진 한번 찍어보는 것이 소원이라는 농담이 있듯이, 시각적으로 보면 흑과 백 대비로 이뤄졌다.
- 전시장의 조각대와 간이벽을 쌓아올려 만든 판다는 중립적인 입장을 취하느라고 흑백이 아닌 연한색을 띄고 있다.
재구성된 전시장의 벽과 작품대는 건축적이고 유동적인 전시장을 구성한다.
- 세계적 귀염동이로 정치적으로 이용되는 판다의 코에서 나오는 습기는 판다의 생존여부와 성격을 보인다.
- 판다 위에 비스듬이 걸려있는 거울은 판다와 그의 환경인 대밭을 비춘다.


제목 : X.O 소스
– 중국의 이국성은 상투적으로 중국 식당으로 대표된다.
- 가장 좋은 소스란 뜻의 X.O 소스는 중국식 기본 소스들을 합해 만든 공산품이다.
- True, False (즉 O.X) 의 반대형 False, True도 되는 X.O 는 프로파간다, 중립적인 정치 또는 의미없음을 뜻할수 있다.
- 빨강, 파랑, 자연광색의 형광등 글짜는 공중에 달린 테이블 위에 설치되어 있다. 테이블 아래에 있는 나무 조각은 로버르 피유의 작품 "Bien fait, mal fait, pas fait (Well done, badly done, not done)" 의 재구성이다. 이 세가지 요소는 이 작품 전체에서 균형을 이룬다.
제목 : Et Moi, et Moi, et Moi (프랑스 가수 wk크 뒤트롱 Jacques Dutronc 의 1966년 노래 제목, 당시 인구 7억의 중국에 관한 노래)

- 전통적 단체사진을 여전히 많이 싣고 있는 마카오 신문에서 오려낸 수백장의 단체 사진 콜라쥬가 ‘Be invisible’이라는 슬로건을 만들고, 이 메세지는 판다에게 보내진다. 중국 가정에서 흔히 기억의 상징으로 벽과 천정 사이에 비스듬이 걸리는 액자는 전통 또는 유령같은 존재이다.

- 판다의 등 뒤에 놓여있는 미니 판다들은 ‘Be invisible’의 액자의 배경지에서 떼어낸 여러 색깔의 판지로 만들어졌다.

제목 : 대나무와 거울
- 거울은 ‘Be invisible’ 액자들과 같은 각도로 걸린다.
- 여러 조각이 교차되는 설치에서 한적하게 판다와 대나무밭, 그리고 관객을 비춘다.

The title belongs to a quote from an interview with Bruce Lee in which he described how to become a martial arts maveric. Using the seemingly irrelevant wisdom of Bruce Lee as the introductory title, we lead the viewer, as a part of the installation into a scenery of movable pieces composing stereotypes of Chinese civilisation.
A larger than life representation of a panda with steam rising out of his nostrils, built of six unremarkable rectangular painted boxes is standing in the middle of the space. We used the propagandistic image of the giant Panda as a highly visible political tool, in this case the rare, the cute, the endangered, the invisible, the panda and its political power transformed into a quasi-formalist artwork.
This show is fighting for the impossible because there is no exit out of this world, being invisible or being like water or being a Panda. The important political message of the Chinese people towards the Giant Panda is “be invisible“, which is paradoxical as the Panda is disapearing from the face of the world, as the explosion in the population, has wreaked havoc on the habitats of species living in the wild. The Giant Panda is an animal of black and white fur, the black representing a way of thinking, contrarly to this we gave it a mixed color of greenish hue.
A group of supended tables and boards is installed next to the Panda. On top of these hanging objects two big letters made of the ubiquious neon tubes depict the letters “XO”. Refering to the XO sauce widely famous, which uses the reputation of the XO Cognac brand. The XO Sauce is refers to the richness of the Chinese cuisine and its willingness to incorporate outside influences in order to enrich it even further. We plaid with the connotation of the simple Tic-Tac-Toe game in our case of two players. Refering to the process of artmaking as a series of decisions. No training helps us to take a decision. No training helps us to make a choice. We are totally responsible for what we do, in art nothing can be hidden.
Apart from this luminous inscription, a hidden sentence can also be read through a collage of social group photos cut out from local newspapers.The sentence goes, “BE INVISIBLE”. In Chinese newspaper an overwhelming part of the daily amount of photos depict large groups of people, assiocations, classes,workgroups and the individual seems to disapear and become like water. A set of three rectangular mirrors was installed on the corner between one of the walls and the ceiling reflecting the giant panda, creating a feeling of criss-cross perspective and reflection in the whitewashed post-colonialist ambience of the gallery. In art nothing can be hidden as it is about creating invisibility.

work in Progress
Feb. 2009