Another review I did for eChinacities.com, of shows by Ai Weiwei and Antony Gormley:

http://www.echinacities.com/Cityguide/beijing/news/cityspecial.aspx?n=4359

Below is the unedited version (no pics).

Ai Weiwei or Antony Gormley: Conceptualisms East and West

Juxtaposing current exhibitions by Ai Weiwei (艾未未) and Antony Gormley, gallery-goers have the chance to enter the present-day conversation on conceptual art. At Faurschou Beijing and Galleria Continua – both in the Dashanzi 798 art district – both shows in turn celebrate and hotly debate their materials. Both shows also play with viewers’ perceptions.

The artists take, at times, approaches toward concept-oriented work that flatly contradict the other’s approach. These approaches are manifest in the results of the artists’ work. Although both use sculpture and sculpture-installation, Ai Wewei uses the media so as to offer, in the end, semiological analyses of the media itself – “deconstructions,” in other words. Antony Gormley’s work, however, is at least in spirit closer to the kinetic sculptures of Laszlo Maholy-Nagy than it is to Continental philosophy. His works seem the acts of an artist that are formal and metaphysical snapshots in time.

At Faurschou Beijing, the gallery-goer can expect an underwhelming exhibition that will stay with you afterwards, throwing up puzzling questions and reflections. Ai Weiwei has created a large cotton sculpture that is, as the exhibition title suggests, a map of the world. Although hardly startling, it plays on the viewer’s expectations of what such a work – a large cotton sculpture of a world map – should include: direct political commentary, aesthetic appropriations or play, or photo-realist accuracy. The sculpture, however, gives us all of that and none.

Made from cotton, a major export from China, the sculpture is immediately complicit with the political conditions of its production. The material also provides enough irregularity of surface to allow for the impression of tactile experience that a material like cotton automatically registers with consumers. More than that, it is a soft representation of the “hard” political and geographical maps that we refer to. “World Map” is a thing built from the labor of unknown individuals, mediated by the artist, and observed by people who take the time to appreciate these kinds of projects.

Also in the show are works that document Ai Weiwei’s trip to Kassel, Germany, along with 1001 Chinese laborers. Termed a “social sculpture” by the gallery, included is the lodging of the laborers. It is interesting if considered an outreach project of “World Map.”

Upon entering Galleria Continua, the first thing one will be met with is a cast-iron sculpture of Antony Gormley, naked, with square nipples. The “singularity” of the show’s title, Another Singularity, is Gormley’s body. More importantly, it is his body at different moments in time. His body is depicted in different states – sculptures of his body as figure, as blocks, as loops, as different sizes, and as installation.

The centerpiece of the show, the namesake, is a giant body suspended in space. To say it is actually a body, however, is somewhat misleading. In reality it is a collection of bungee cords pulled taut across the room, intersecting at polyhedra-points, and using those polyhedra to constitute the “body.” The result is a room criss-crossed with cords that one walks in and out of, and only occasionally gets outside of enough to see the larger shape of the body that they, together, make.

According to the literature provided by the gallery, this, like the smaller sculptures, is a version of the body at singular moment in time. The more abstract aim of “Another Singularity,” that differentiates it from the other work, is that Gormley believes it to be an “internalisation” of the Big Bang. The emergence of his body at different temporal nodes is also the creation of a being through multiple tensions and the multi-directional energy in the room.

Both exhibitions illustrate tendencies in conceptual art, and possibly also illustrate geographical tendencies in our time – China and the U.K., in this instance. It may here be worth considering the urgencies individuals in both locales feel to speak about what the world is, what it could be, and where it has come from.

And if you are interested in art that is more conceptually focused, you may want to attend Liu Wei’s exhibition of televisions and paintings, Liu Wei: Yes, That’s All!, up now at the Boers-Li Gallery. In addition, there is a group exhibition at the China Art Archives & Warehouse, Persistence: Qin Ga, Shi Qing, Wang Wei, Wu’er Shan, that continues the work of intelligent, sensuous art.

Liu Wei: Yes, That’s All!, at Boers-Li Gallery. http://www.universalstudios.org.cn

Persistence: Qin Ga, Shi Qing, Wang Wei, Wu’er Shan, at China Art Archives & Warehouse. http://www.archivesandwarehouse.com