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Tag Archives: Ai Weiwei

The Prick of Conscience: Passages in the Literary Mode

Published in Randian. Text by Robin Peckham. Literati painting is often viewed within Chinese art history as a highly restricted genre, consisting of monochromatic works of ink on paper involving natural themes interpreted through a subjective or even abstract treatment produced by amateur scholars, officials, and members of the gentry in southern China across almost [...]

Review: Art Intervenes in Society

First published in Modern Art Asia. Text by Robin Peckham. Review: Art Intervenes in Society: A New Artistic Relationship Wang Chunchen Published by Chinese Contemporary Art Awards in collaboration with Timezone8, 2010 The past year has seen an unprecedented level of self-conscious social activism within the art world in Beijing, both in the sense that [...]

Expecting Expectations: A Conversation with Isaac Mao

First published in Digimag. Text by Robin Peckham. Isaac Mao has been called the ultimate Chinese digital guru, maintaining interests in commerce, electronic communication, and, increasingly, network politics. He is broadly labelled a venture capitalist, blogger, software architect, entrepreneur, and researcher in learning and social technology, dividing his time between research, social work, business, and [...]

Popular Music in Contemporary Art, or, adolescents groping in the dark

First published in Randian. Text by Robin Peckham. During a recent debate over sound art that seemed to grip several quarters of the Hong Kong art world for the better part of the summer of 2010, one of the recurring topics of discussion was the relationship between art and music. Dominated by figures emerging from [...]

From ‘Resonant Forms’ to ‘Resonance’

“Resonant if Unsound: Concept, Style, Execution” First published in Hong Kong Gallery Guide. This text describes a general critical framework. Text by Robin Peckham, with thanks to Venus Lau and Rachel Connelly. Marcel Duchamp inaugurated one of the manifold lineages of experimental art in the twentieth century with a push towards what he termed “non-retinal [...]

Acconci Studio and Ai Weiwei

First published on ArtSlant. Text by Robin Peckham. Acconci Studio + Ai Weiwei: A Collaborative Project 8 May – 4 July 2010 Para/Site Art Space G/F, 4 Po Yan St., Sheung Wan, Hong Kong, Hong Kong The latest culture-spanning, eye-catching curatorial endeavor by Para/Site resident director Alvaro Rodriguez Fominaya purports to bring together two legendary [...]

Ai Weiwei in Munich (1 of 3)

Over the last few months, German audiences have witnessed a rare opportunity to explore the work of three significantly different but equally important approaches to contemporary art from China. Ai Weiwei is the subject of an expansive solo exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich, an exhibition that documents a broad swath of his [...]

January on Art-Ba-Ba

First published in LEAP, Volume 1 Issue 1. Text by Robin Peckham. Wang Chunchen was announced as the second biannual recipient of the Chinese Contemporary Art Awards Criticism Prize established by Uli Sigg and judged by Sigg, Richard Vine, Xu Bing, and Qiu Zhijie. Naturally, netizens had some choice words for Wang. Some remarked that [...]