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January 19, 2013
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The world did not end on December 21, 2012. In fact, the world has moved on as normal, and on January 21st, 2013, celebrated Mainland Artist, Song Dong, fresh from his show at dOCUMENTA (13) in Germany, will be launching one of his biggest works to date and first solo show in Hong Kong to address the apocalypse and the lack there of. The exhibit is in cooperation with ArtisTree, M+, and the Asia Art Archive (AAA). The artist with 432 members of the public will stage a participatory performance piece manipulating 36 hand drawn wire bound annual household wall calendars. Song Dong’s interest lies in the investigation of socio-political issues and art within the context of history, specifically the last 36 years of history. The outcome? You’ll just have to go and see it. From Claire Hsu, Executive Director of the AAA: Song Dong’s 36 Calendars emerges out of the potential of the archive as a platform to re-think history and memory, both through the individual voice and as a community. ‘AAA’s partnership with M+ signals an exciting direction towards the kind of exhibitions that the Hong Kong public can experience in the future. It serves as an example of the importance of cultural institutions working together towards achieving the common goal of bringing art to as wide an audience as possible. Doing Nothing Garden 2010-12, Song Dong. (via DOCUMENTA13) ART Song Dong’s 36 Calendars  JJ.

The world did not end on December 21, 2012. In fact, the world has moved on as normal, and on January 21st, 2013, celebrated Mainland Artist, Song Dong, fresh from his show at dOCUMENTA (13) in Germany, will be launching one of his biggest works to date and first solo show in Hong Kong to address the apocalypse and the lack there of. The exhibit is in cooperation with ArtisTree, M+, and the Asia Art Archive (AAA). The artist with 432 members of the public will stage a participatory performance piece manipulating 36 hand drawn wire bound annual household wall calendars. Song Dong’s interest lies in the investigation of socio-political issues and art within the context of history, specifically the last 36 years of history. The outcome? You’ll just have to go and see it.

From Claire Hsu, Executive Director of the AAA:

Song Dong’s 36 Calendars emerges out of the potential of the archive as a platform to re-think history and memory, both through the individual voice and as a community. ‘AAA’s partnership with M+ signals an exciting direction towards the kind of exhibitions that the Hong Kong public can experience in the future. It serves as an example of the importance of cultural institutions working together towards achieving the common goal of bringing art to as wide an audience as possible.

image

Doing Nothing Garden 2010-12, Song Dong. (via DOCUMENTA13)

ART Song Dong’s 36 Calendars 

JJ.

Tags: ART SONG DONG ARTISTREE AAA M+ CLAIRE HSU ASIA ART ARCHIVE

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June 09, 2012
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Asia Art Archive Launches Collection Online For Free To The Public, This Week

Art on theWanderlister+ by Natasha Kaye Whiffin

(via Asia Art Archive)

Hong Kong based non-profit organization Asia Art Archive (AAA) launched their new website and online collection Wednesday to much anticipation. The archive’s primary initiative is to facilitate understanding, research and writing in the field of contemporary art in Asia and they’re currently working towards further making public their impressive collection of the past 4 years. Over 3,000 items including images, video documentation and primary source materials are now available on the new online platform free of charge.

Another Life: The Digitised Personal Archive of Geeta Kapur and Vivan Sundaram  (via Asia Art Archive)

As part of the organizations continuing efforts to document and digitize otherwise unseen and unavailable materials, the digital collection management team headed up by Jamie Hsu work behind the scenes to build the infrastructure for the constantly evolving database of over 34,000 records. “With the launch of Collection Online, it is the first time that AAA is providing immediate content that can be accessed at any time and place.” Hsu said. The main goal in developing the website interface was to “provide an in-depth and direct browsing experience” which “encourage interpretive research”.

Fine Arts in China (中國美術報) AAA hold the complete series of the weekly art newspaper published in Beijing between 1985 and 1989. (via Asia Art Archive)

Head of strategy and special projects, Chantal Wong notes that the platform is also a space to host the archives research initiatives, such as the newly launched e-journal Field Notes. “We are really excited (to launch the journal), It is an opportunity to invite experts, scholars, curators, artists, thinkers, archivists across disciplines to share their thoughts and debate”.

The inaugural issue asked 40 contributors ‘to consider the notion of the contemporary in art – within the context of Asia.”

Asia Art Archive Backroom Conversations, ARTHK12 (via Asia Art Archive)

 

In todays digital world concepts of knowledge transfer are constantly being re-assessed and AAA’s Executive Director, Claire Hsu hopes to address this with the new website. “There is a significant shift in the way information is presented in the new site”, she said, “not only is there more material, but it is carefully interlinked; we hope users will be able to navigate it in ways that will be more personally useful.”

(via Asia Art Archive)

Looking ahead, AAA will be focused on increasing digital access to the information in its collection as it partners up with U.S image database organization ArtStor, as well as Indonesian based Visual Art Archive (IVAA), recognizing needs to collaborate with other institutions the archive will continue on in their efforts to make public fundamental information.

AVAILABLE NOW VIA ASIA ART ARCHIVE ONLINE:

AAA Special Collections -  A digitization of unseen primary materials including the personal archives of indian art collective and duo Geeta Kapur and Vivian Sundaram, documentation from renowned Filipino artists and curator, Roberto Chabet and the ongoing Contemporary Chinese Art collections Materials of the Future: Documenting Contemporary Chinese Art from 1980-1990 which includes The Mao Xuhui Collection, The Zhang Peili Collection and The Zhang Xiaogang Collection.

Field Notes - The tri-annual bi-lingual journal brings together texts from leading scholars, critics and artists in a range of fields, its first edition The And: An Expanded Questionnaire on the Contemporary addresses notions of the ‘contemporary in art’. Available for download here: http://www.aaa.org.hk/FieldNotes/Current

For more information, contact Kennis Lai, Head of Communication at kennis@aaa.org.hk. To support Asia Art Archive’s efforts please contact Anjali Grover at anjali@aaa.org.hk / http://www.aaa.org.hk

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Natasha Kaye Whiffin is Hong Kong born, former Londoner specialising in contemporary art, culture and art markets. With a BA in Photography from London College of Communication, University of the Arts London, she is currently working with a Hong Kong based contemporary art gallery and is an active viewer of art in its many forms. Website: www.natashawhiffin.com / Twitter: @nwhiffin  / natasha.whiffin@gmail.com

Tags: NATASHA KAYE WHIFFIN ASIA ART ARCHIVE AAA JAMIE HSU ART CHANTAL WONG CLAIRE HSU ARTSTOR VISUAL ART ARCHIVE ROBERTO CHABET GEETA KAPUR VIVIAN SUNDARAM