The Venice Vending Machine 9 “ Mercatus Liber- Free Market” -How to deny unknown artist?

The Venice Vending Machine 9 “ Mercatus Liber- Free Market”

Art-E- Motion in association with Venice agendas 2019 which took place at Hamilton House Bristol 22 to 24 November 2019

 I participated in this exhibition by submitting 2 small pieces of work, which packaged in a 100mm transparent sphere. The 2 pieces of work are responding to the theme of the Venice Vending machine 9 Project : “ HOW DO YOU VALUE ART?”, “ WHAT DOES THE WORD “ MARKET” SUGGEST TO YOU?

As an emerging artist, I always question myself how to voice out my thoughts in this harsh and competitive art field. What urge me and inspire me in making art in this difficult environment? At the same time, what response do I expect from the viewers in return? Honestly it is HARD. No doubt you will be ignored if you are too green, and eventually it will make you easily give up if you are not tough enough to face the disappointments.

To respond the questions, I looked up the word “Market” thoroughly. The word “Market” is made up of “make” and “ art”, and “Market” is about business, money, exchanging good and service. My question is: Is it essential to relate art to commercial business? How to encourage the viewers to shift their attentions to artists’ thoughts instead of regarding artwork as a commercial business?

There are two pieces of work I created:

1.How to deny unknown artist? #1 Earplugs

By inserting the earplugs, voices of unknown artists will never be heard. To what extent are emerging unknown artists being ignored while priorities always go to “mid-career” and “established” artists?

2. How to deny unknown artist? #2 Hearing Aid

By putting on the hearing aid, will unknown artists’ voices be truly heard? Or is it just boosting up the majority voices of art business interests?

How can we have all voices heard clearly and equally in this art “Market”? Who own this responsibility? All of us?

https://www.ippuipui.com/how-to-deny-unknown-artist

Tele-tales : Proposal and Exhibition

Tele-tales: Exchange shows by Sparkground Art (London) and EYA Emerging Yong Artists (Toronto)

Part 1 in London (Cookhouse Gallery) on 12-15 Nov, 2019

Part 2 in Toronto (Robert Kananaj Gallery) on 15-20 Dec, 2019

I am so honored to be selected to participate in this Tele-tales Project. It is a collaboration project with Toronto artist, carrying out two different projects, exhibiting in two different cities. The aim of this project is to promote discussions by emerging artists from a global range of evolving art scenes, creating chances for young artists and curators to cooperate as a community through the cross-border project. 

With the theme “Tele-tales” suggested, I immediately inspired by a novel “ A Tale of Two Cities” written by Charles Dickens, a story of a pair of doppelgängers in two cities.

Here’s my proposal:

Doppelgängers Project/ A Tale of Two Cities

 Project Background

Doppelgängers Project is inspired by a historical novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. It is a story about two strangers, Carton from London and Darnay from Paris, who physically look alike. This coincidence enables Carton to stand in for Darnay, who has been sentenced to die on the guillotine. 

Back to reality, do we have doppelgängers? With 7.4 billion people on the planet, that’s only a one in 135 chance that there’s a single pair of doppelgängers. It might sounds unlikely to find your twin stranger but why sometimes people keep telling you they saw someone that looks “just like you” if that’s so statistically unlikely? The issue here is that although individual facial features may not be exactly the same, the overall arrangement may be similar enough for an uncanny likeness.

 People in London and Toronto, two big international cities with diverse cultures, can they find their doppelgängers on the other side?

 Proposal

Doppelgängers Project is A Tale of Two Cities 2019 version - Londoners meet Torontonians. The intention of the project is to help the Londoners to search for their potential doppelgängers in Toronto, creating conversations between them, sharing their views on their own cities or any global issues, which they would like to discuss.

 How? Artist from London will firstly invite people from different ethnic groups and characteristics, invite them to ask questions to their potential twin strangers in Toronto. The participants will have their portraits send to Toronto team. Artist from Toronto will base on the portraits to look for their potential doppelgängers in Toronto, and request them to respond the questions asked by their twins.

 To make the project more interesting and creative, the doppelgängers whom both artists propose are not limited to human beings, they can be anything, i.e. animals, architectures, daily objects etc, depending on artists’ interpretation of the subjects which they are inspired from both cities.

 The purpose of the interaction is to investigate the similarity and differences of cultures, languages, thoughts and habits in two different cities while they are sharing the similar “DNA”. The project might be a welcome way for both participants and artists to introduce some humor into the dialogues while sharing their unique insight into the issues and attitudes of an era.

 I am paired up with an artist based in Toronto, Meghan Ross. Her art practice induces a systematic, intentional and rigorous process to ask questions that lead to unexpected contemporary connections.

After discussing and exchanging ideas, we together came up with a proposal:

Tele – Tales Proposal by PUI PUI IP + MEGHAN ROSS

Introduction

Two artists living in two different cities are challenging the lure of the doppelgänger hunt. The intention of the project is to help Londoners and Torontonians find their doppelgänger in the opposite city through questions, objects, people, animals and humor.

After reading each other’s original proposals we realized we had a similar direction we wanted to go. Both were photo based and our questions we wanted to explore and address paralleled with each other very nicely. We collaborated to expand those ideas and themes and created a beautiful blend of the two original proposals for the Tele- Tales Open Call.

Proposal: The Tale of Two Cities (working title)

Both artists will photograph 10 subjects (people, nature, animals, objects, etc) in their own city in the hopes that the other artist will find their doppelgänger. Each photograph is paired with a question. These questions help us find the subject’s twin. Once each artist receives the photographs and questions from the opposite city, the doppelgänger search begins.

 For the London show, the photographs will be scattered around the gallery on the walls, the ceiling, the floor and maybe even on the furniture. The size will resemble postcards, representing the search for the subjects look-a-like across different continents. Since there is a 1 in 135 chance that someone will ever find their own doppelgänger, this proposal is quite a challenge. Being the doppelgänger searcher is one thing- being the searchee is quite another. This challenge is given to the viewer as they search for the series of photographs that are hidden across the gallery space.

Both artists will continue this challenge of finding each other’s doppelgänger for the Toronto show. Once we agree on our most successful match Ross will print both images and place them on top of two Roomba Vacuums. She then prints each image out again and cuts them into confetti. This confetti will be scattered around a room for the vacuums to clean up. Once both Roombas clean up the mess, the vacuum bag gets emptied out and Ross assembles the tiny pieces as close as she can to the original sizes of the photographs. The effort of finding identical twins in two different cities is blended together to create one image. This last image will be a assemblage of Pui Pui Ip and Meghan Ross photographs, thus creating a new whole. Maybe then our true doppelgänger match will be revealed?

Images: https://www.ippuipui.com/the-tale-of-two-cities

_________

Dear Mr. George Orwell,

How did you predict the future when you wrote 1984?

It is happening.

“Progress in our world will be progress towards more pain. The old civilizations claimed that they were founded on love or justice. Ours is founded upon hatred. In our world there will be no emotions except fear, rage, triumph, and self-abasement. Everything else we shall destroy everything. Already we are breaking down the habits of thought which have survived from before the Revolution. We have cut the links between child and parent, and between man and man, and between man and woman. No one dares trust a wife or a child or a friend any longer. But in the future there will be no wives and no friends. Children will be taken from their mothers at birth, as one takes eggs from a hen. The sex instinct will be eradicated. Procreation will be an annual formality like the renewal of a ration card. We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now. There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party. There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother. There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy. There will be no art, no literature, no science. When we are omnipotent we shall have no more need of science. There will be no distinction between beauty and ugliness. There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures will be destroyed. But always -- do not forget this, Winston -- always there will be the intoxication of power, constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler. Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face -- for ever.”

I am so terrified and worried when I know it might be happen in my hometown. I can’t believe how powerful it can be to destroy one’s mind; therefore I decide to write a statement to tell the world the fear I face.

2+2=5 , I hope this day will never come.

How to make a dictionary illegal?

How to make a dictionary illegal?

This is a question that came to my mind when I read about the Newspeak in 1984 by George Orwell.

According to The Principles of Newspeak, Newspeak was designed not to extend but to diminish the range of thought, and this purpose was indirectly assisted by cutting the choice of words down to a minimum.

Extracted from Part 1 Chapter 5, “Don't you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed, will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten. Already, in the Eleventh Edition, we're not far from that point. But the process will still be continuing long after you and I are dead. Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. Even now, of course, there's no reason or excuse for committing thoughtcrime. It's merely a question of self-discipline, reality-control. But in the end there won't be any need even for that. The Revolution will be complete when the language is perfect.”

If Newspeak is real, what will happen to our dictionary? What will be shown if we look up a vocabulary in Google translate? How does it limit our thought? How powerful is language?

Take ‘good’, for instance. If you look for synonyms for ‘good’, you will have acceptable, splendid, excellent, exceptional, favorable, great, marvelous, positive, satisfactory, superb, valuable, wonderful, nice, pleasing, spanking, super, superior, worthy, admirable, agreeable, commendable, deluxe, first-class, honorable, neat, precious, stupendous, super-eminent, super-excellent, tip-top, more and more…….   In Newspeak, you only have ‘good’, or ‘Plusgood” or doubleplusgood” for stronger version.

Which one would you prefer to express your real feeling? Would you still say “good” if you meet a super rock star Keanu Reeves?

We have a beautiful array of words to use, each giving us the power to describe our feelings, desires, and queries to the world around us in millions of different ways. Language impacts the daily lives of members of any race, creed, and region of the world. It helps us to communicate, to learn and to understand our cultures and peoples. It is so beautiful to see how people use the words, using words to craft the ideas. Words, phrases and metaphors, they have meaning, they speak something important, they inspire us. Without them, we will not able to ponder and meditate, we lose depth and warmth. Word is art.

How to make a dictionary illegal? Never ever think about it.

Why do I ask question?

Why do I ask question?

Because I have no clue and I have to seek for the answer.

How heavy is cloud? 36-72 bathtubs water. How heavy is dark cloud? 150,000 school buses. How heavy is the Queen’s crown? 75 servings of cotton candy. How fast to take travelling around the world? 417 days non-stop walking. How far away is the moon? 1,700 years by scooter. How far can leopard jump? A length of a lorry truck. How fast does an elevator run right through the center of the earth from one side to another side? 2 weeks. How slow does sandpiper fly? You can beat it. How much calories does a large male killer whale need a day? It could have 500 bars of chocolate. How fast is light? 8.5 minutes to cover the distance from the sun to the Earth. How heavy is hippo’s brain? 3.5 pounds of its 10,000 pounds weight. How strong is rhinoceros beetle? It can lift up to 850 times its own bodyweight. How big is a blue whale heart? It is the size of mini cooper. How heavy is an elephant? 900 small poodles.

Thanks Jan Van Der Veken for telling me the answers in his illustration book “How big is big? How far is far?” Yes, some can be measured with an exact number, but some cannot.

I asked myself, “ How to write an Honest thing in a Dishonest way?” It might sounds nonsense, but it is worth thinking about this question. I was encouraged to write honest things if I want to be a good writer. But then what is honest? Honest is something true from your heart, but what wrong with dishonest?  Fine, what is dishonest? And what is dishonest way? What is the relationship between behavior and thought? What is the cost of dishonest? Why do I have to be a good writer? What is good writer? Why do I need an answer? Why does it so important to me? How does it become my art practice?..........……..

Am I weird to ask questions? No, I am not. Hans Ulrich Obrist has a handwriting project on Instagram where he invites artists to ask us a question.

Question 1 by Eten Adnan: Why did God create a world so hard?

Question 4 by Faith Ringgold: Where is art going?

Question 7 by Marina Abramovic : Who creates LIMITS?

Question 11 by Loz Johnson Artur : Who owns privacy?

Question 13 by Stephen Shore: When valuable cultural norms disintegrate, can they ever be reestablished?

Question 16 by Luchita Hurtado: What are we going to do to stop extinction?

Question 18 by Riekrit Tiravanija: Tomorrow is the question.

Asking and thinking about the question is interesting, but do I have to find a solution when making art? I don’t know. Typing “How” in Google and it comes up with “how to train a dragon”, well I wish to have a dragon too.

Play with my balls

With the theme of “ Super conceptual”, 20 artists brainstormed together, aiming to present an exhibition in a conceptual way. But what is conceptual? According to Tate Art term, Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art object. At the beginning, we followed the traditional rule/setting of a traditional gallery supposed to be, but it was BORING and it did not work well. We played with the moving walls, we tried to experiment the spacing. We moved the walls like puzzle game and accidentally created the smallest gallery inside the Triangle space right at the door. It might sound hilarious but we were all excited about it. At that moment, we realized that it might not be so important to figure out how to show all of our art pieces in the best way, but enjoy the process of exploring how we can play with the gallery space.

But is it too extreme? What is the concept of this smallest gallery? OK, let’s think it over again.

“Think about how to make a show interesting!”

“ What do you want to do?”

“ I don’t know……….. How about doing something different?”

“ What do you mean? Example?”

“ Um…ceremony? Or play sports!!!! Let’s play badminton together!”

“Sport? Can you talk more about it?”

“ I mean I seldom see artists playing sports in campus, they always hide in studio. It would be great if there’s opportunity for them to relax and exercise, and it is interesting to see artists playing sport too.”

“I love SPORT”

“Okay!!!! Good! Let’s do sport!!!!”

I admitted I suggested this idea and I was proud of it. While usually an art gallery is regarded as a holy place for artists, we conversely transformed it into the lowest-budget recreation ground for both artists and audience. Imagined that we artists collaboratively performing contemporary sport, we believed that it would be a fun and extraordinary show in the year. We redesigned the space, divided the courts and equipped the gallery with professional sport facilities. We had so much fun in the process; every students and staffs passing by were amazed how the triangle gallery can be functioned in an unexpected way. On the show day, it was a huge success because we enjoyed.

Despite having fun, we kept questioning what is our purpose? How does it relate to our individual practices? What do we want the audience to get from it? Shall we bring back our artworks in the gallery? Can we consider sport as art? Yes, we can. Sport performance is performing arts, similar to theatre drama, musical, the crucial point is that sport is created uniquely by the performance and the event itself, it does not follow from the implementation of a script. Sport is drama without a script. It creates its own drama. Sporting events act out most basic features of the human condition, and the way they do this is marvellously self-creative. [1]

Ka lan, one of our participating artists suddenly reminded us with a remarkable answer: “Instead of bringing artworks to an art space, we bring a gym into an art space.”

YES, this is our answer!! And don’t forget to have fun and enjoy the process.

[1] Sport — Viewed Aesthetically, and Even as Art?  Wolfgang Welsch

Link for more photos:

 https://www.ippuipui.com/play-with-my-balls

Triangle Space @ Chelsea College of Arts