This project and exhibition are supported by the William T. Kemper Foundation. The Spencer’s international residency series has also been supported by the Freeman Foundation and the Center for East Asian Studies, the University of Kansas.
Prepare yourself! This March the Spencer Museum of Art will host Beijing-based artist Chen Shaoxiong (born 1962) for a month-long residency that will examine the anatomy of social protests. In light of the recent political movements around the world from the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street movement, this project strives to understand the broader historical and cultural iterations of demonstration strategies and tactics. Designed as a training camp for activists, Chen’s residency will build on a series of forums, informal workshops, and invited speakers that will challenge participants to become “prepared activists.”
Chen Shaoxiong plans to work with interested KU students and faculty, as well as local activists and artists, to create collaborative artwork for this exhibition. This grassroots approach to exhibition-making will unfold over the course of the residency. Eventually, the Spencer will display all of the records and material produced as part of the “training camp.” This installation will include videos, photography, workshop notes, social media, training equipment, pedagogical media, conference records and various sketches. Everyone is invited to get involved and contribute to the project.
After graduating from the print department of the Guangzhou Academy of Art in 1984, Chen quickly developed a multidisciplinary approach to art making that has incorporated conceptual approaches to media as far ranging as ink painting, photography, video animation, installation, and performance. Through his early involvement in the 1990s with the “urban guerrilla” group Big Tail Elephant in Guangzhou, Chen developed an artistic practice that deploys humor in an abiding pursuit to explicate the mechanisms of contemporary political culture. After relocating to Beijing in 2007, he teamed with Tokyo-based artist Tsuyoshi Ozawa (born 1965) and Seoul-based artist Gimhongsook (born 1964) to form the Xijing Men. The name of the group plays on an imaginary, non-existent “Western capital” for a fictitious Asian country. Often using humor, and employing Dadaist techniques, the group challenges conventional concepts of nation and identity through positing an alternative to contemporary geopolitical phenomena.
Chen Shaoxiong 陈劭雄
Since the 1990s, Chen has been included in a roster of high-profile international solo and group exhibitions. Chen was included in the first major U.S. survey of contemporary Chinese art, Inside/Out, held at PS1 New York in 1998. His other exhibitions have included: Cities on the Move 4,5,6,7 (Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark 1998); Multimedia Art Asia Pacific Festival (Powerhouse Museum, Australia 2000); Gwangju Biennale, Korea (2002 and 2007); Everyday (Kunstforeningen, Denmark 2004); Light As Fuck! Shanghai Assemblage (The National Museum of Art, Oslo, Norway 2004); Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video From China (Smart Museum, Chicago 2005; Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2005); China Power Station I, Serpentine Gallery, London (2006); All About Laughter-Humor in Contemporary Art, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo (2007); China Power Station III, MUDAM – Musee d’Art Moderne Grand-Duc Jean, Luxembourg (2008); 10th Lyon Biennale (2009); 4th Fukuoka Asian Triennial (2009); Extra/Ordinary: Video Art from Asia, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, KS (2009); Trust – Media City, Seoul Museum Of Art, Korea (2010); Aichi Triennial, Japan (2010); Xijing, Galleria di Piazza San Marco, Italy (2011); You Are Not A Gadget, Pekin Fine Arts, Beijing (2011).
Protest Portraits
Interviews on protest
Programs & Events Related to this Exhibition
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Quotes
Protest, demonstrations and mass gatherings have a long history across all stages of human society. They have been practiced in every conceivable manner, and have proven to be an effective aspect of the political language of democracy.― Chen Shaoxiong, Artist Statement
In our universities we have never established a discipline for technical approaches to protests and demonstrations. However, in our lives we have perhaps more than once encountered this kind of event. We need to study interrelated knowledge and grasp the relevant techniques that can help us prepare for demonstrations in just a few days.― Chen Shaoxiong, Project Proposal
Compared to my so-called experimental project, almost all demonstrations and protest are very practical in nature. They emerge as the last resort, and are informed by unbearable, angry choices…In the midst of a struggle the invention of new technique can becomes a temporary solution. These solutions are made with very little experimentation. And as for their reliability, their effectiveness and power, no one can predict. It’s like a clinical trial for medicine.― Chen Shaoxiong, Artist Statement
When Chen Shaoxiong first visited the Spencer Museum in August of 2011, the entire world had been ignited by any number of social movements happening across the globe. The more discussions we had the more his interests returned to a serious investigation into the dynamics of social activism. The project took shape to take advantage of the scholarly expertize of a university setting. In this way, we began to discuss a collaborative project that would dissect the anatomy of a protest. It would look more at the nuts and bolts of a demonstration, and dwell less on the ideological or political motivations. In this way we wanted to better understand the basic structures of social movements as contemporary phenomena.― Kris Ercums, Curator of Global Contemporary Art
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