The boundaries of reality are the area of play…

Dear Friends, 

皆さんこんにちは。Zen Fotoのご案内をいたします。次の展覧会 ”A. Face 2 Face with Wu Chin-Chin” が５月14日から始まります。オープニングパーティは同日18:00から21:00で、ウー・チンチンさんも来廊され ます。彼女は中国の若い作家です。アメリカとフランスの教育を受けて、現在北京にお住まいです。今回展示する両氏の作品は ともに女性のポートレートで衝撃的なイメージを含むため、ヌード写真に敏感な方々はご遠慮ください。もしご高覧いただければ一生忘れ られない展覧会になるかと存じます。

なお、今回の展覧会では通常と異なり作品の性質から展覧会の会費を頂戴します が、展覧会場にて会費に相当するZen Fotoの出版物をお渡ししますので、なにとぞご了承ください。

Our next exhibition is titled: “A. Face 2 Face with Chin-Chin Wu ”. We will exhibit the works of Nobuyoshi Araki face to face with the works of a young Chinese photographer. Chin-Chin Wu was educated in the USA and Paris and she is now based in Beijing. Zen Foto is pleased to hold this first major exhibition of her series of intimate portraits of women, entitled “Vis-a-vis: Portraits of New Women.”

The content is not suitable for people under the age of 20 or for those sensitive to explicit images of the naked human body.

We do not normally charge for entrance to Zen Foto but, due to the nature of the images included, we will invite visitors to become members of this exhibition. Visitors will be given Zen Foto publications of value equivalent to the price of membership. In case of hardship please let us know and we will happily make exceptions where appropriate.

Kind regards,

Mark Pearson

Zen Foto Gallery, Shibuya, Tokyo

www.zen-foto.jp

ANOTHER NUDE SHOW
April 3 - 30, 2010
D5 Gallery

http://www.robertbermangallery.com/robertbermangallery/exhibitions/nudeshow/selected_nude.htm 

A Group exhibition exploring the imagery of the nude form including works by

Robert Graham, Ruth Bernhard, Horst P. Horst, Man Ray, Joel Peter Witkin, Francesco Scavullo, Chin-Chin Wu, Sante D’Orazio, Raymond Pettibon, The Mac, John Altoon, Ben Talbert, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Frederick Wight, William Tunberg, Ralph Goings, Stephen Verona, John Colao, Ron English, Manuel Ocampo, Jorg Dubin, Ellwood T. Risk, Britt Ehringer, Eliza French & Jeff Charbonneau, Robert Sean Coons, Dennis Mukai, David Trulli, Greg Gibbs, Andrew George, Vic Huber, Rafael Serrano, Jon Cournoyer, Sally Mann, Jock Sturges, Marc Fichou, Ken Aronson, Brett Aronson, Steven Teitelbaum, Randal Haworth, Tiphaine Popesco, Eric Schwartz,Hana Jakrlova, Christina Lissmann, David Ellingsen, Bill Durgin, Toby Burrows, Bill Phelps, Gail Greenfield Randall, Irene Hardwicke Olivieri, Edouard Chimot, Max Turner, Emil Jean Kosta Jr., Mel Ramos, Alejandro Gehry, Thomas Ruff, Nobuyoshi Araki, Tracy Nakayama, Tracey Emin, Vanessa Beecroft, Tom Wesselmann, John Valadez, Frank Romero, Claudia Kunin, Grace Oh and many more.

In conjunction with the MOPLA Month of Photography Awards & XTO Image Awards

Nobuyoshi Araki
Untitled (Nude in front of TV), 1996
Iris Print
Numbered 22/30, Signed and numbered on verso
Image: 8.5 x 12 inches; Framed: 18.5 x 21.5 inches

I’m showing a small series of 15 images called “Flashbacks” in this group show at Inter Gallery, 798 Art District. This exhibition will then move to Shanghai, then travel around the rest of China.

Here’s a sneak preview of a few images that caught my interest:

王久良的《垃圾围城》系列
From the series “The Great Wall of Trash,” © WANG, Jiuliang

许宝宽的《新风景》系列
From the series “New Landscapes,” © XU, Baokuan

杭鸣峙的《移山》系列
From the series “Move Mountains,” © HANG, Mingchi

蒙超的《新景观》系列
From the series “New Scenaries,” © MENG, Chao

游莉的《寂静的纬度》系列
From the series “Silent Altitudes,” © YOU, Li

Looking forward to seeing friends in Beijing at the opening! © Post-Modern China Doll

不一样的风景

Another Landscape

主办：色影无忌网

Host：www.xitek.com

参展摄影师: （按 姓氏笔画排名）王久良、卢彦鹏、区志航、任曙林、许宝宽、陈焕庭、何宜昌、吴沁沁、辛冈、张晓、杭鸣峙、佬京、罗凯星、徐永春、黄 觉、矫健、储楚、塔可、蒙超、游莉、潘钺。

photographers: Wang Jiuliang, Lu Yanpeng, Ou Zhihang ,Ren Shulin, Xu Baokuan，Chen Huanting, He Yichang，Chin-Chin Wu，Xin Gang，Zhang Xiao，Hang Mingzhi，Lao Jing，Luo Kaixing，Xu Yongchun，Huang Jue，Jiao Jian，Chu Chu，Taca，Meng Chao，Eris Yo ，Pan Yue

策展人：那日松

Curator：Na Risong

顾问：（按姓氏笔画 排名）任悦、林路、尚陆、顾铮、鲍昆、颜长江

Consultants :Ren Yue, Lin Lu, Jean Loh, Gu Zheng, Bao Kun, Yan Changjiang 

开幕时间:  2010.03.27  下午3点

Opening:  27.03.2010 / 3 pm

展览时间:  2010.03.27 – 2010.04.5

Duration:  27.03.2010 – 05.04.2010

展览地点:  映艺术中心（北京市朝阳区酒仙桥路4号“798艺术区”七星中街）.

Venue:  Inter Art Center and Gallery. Sevenstar Main Street 798 Art Zone No.4 Jiuxianqiao Road Chaoyang District Beijing

Insiders probably already know that Gayographic (大城小同) is holding the first ever Mr. Gay China beauty pageant on Jan. 15, 2010 at the Lan Club. The winner will represent mainland China in Oslo, Norway, vying for the title of Mr. Gay World Ambassador. This is of course a monumental event in the history of the Chinese LGBT community. I finally did some test shots with 3 candidates last Sunday, courtesy to Gayographic organizers Ben Zhang, Ryan and Niu Niu.

So here is the scoop:

1) Xuefei. Calm, laconic, and mysterious.

What I especially appreciated about this candidate was his timeliness (first to arrive), patience (always a plus in the eye of a photographer), and a certain forlorn, other-worldly quality. This definitely sets him apart from any kind of visual stereotype. He’s not the first one you notice when you enter the room, yet there’s a sense of mystique and intrigue that will slowly draw you in.

2 ) Emilio. Handsome, upbeat, winsome.

Emilio’s good looks have a mass appeal by most societal standards, gay or straight. He also possesses the kind of physique that gives strength, hope, and inspiration to all health-related New Year resolutions. Potentially the poster boy of Mr. Gay China, I think this beauty pageant could be the perfect opportunity for him to fine-tune and deepen his already hugely likable character and personality.

3) Simon. Charismatic, uninhibited, fun-loving.

Simon is a ball of energy, capable of proposing 60 dramatically different poses per minute. There’s definitely a bit of an artist’s soul in him, not to mention an off-beat fashion sense. I trust that what he lacks in physique, he will amply make up by creativity and enthusiasm!

Finally, a rather dignified group portrait:

I look forward to meeting the other candidates. Their courage is a constant inspiration. It’s one thing to come out of the closet to one’s friends and family; it’s another thing to participate in such a highly publicized event, obliging each to clearly broadcast his romantic and sexual preference. Let’s face it, China is still an immensely traditional and limelight-shy society, deeply steeped in the Confucian culture of modesty (中庸) for the sake of (outward) harmony. These men are the first (hopefully of many) to break these barriers.

This contest is about community. It’s about beauty. It’s about identity. It’s also about the lessons of self-conquests, the phoenix rising high from the ashes.

Best of luck to all the candidates! If you wish to get involved with this event, please contact Gayographic. Mr. Gay China needs all of your support!

I met sculptor Chen Fei at a little craft shop in Old Beijing nearly two years ago. She was living near Nanluoguxiang and had been experimenting with making masks with paper maché and I was immediately drawn to the expressive possibilities of these hutong characters come alive. Over the span of two years, our friendship grew as we saw the surroundings of our neighborhood demolished and rebuilt at a jaw-dropping rate. As old businesses move out, new businesses settle in; Chen Fei was forced to move with the construction of the new metro line… This series is inspired by the simple people who inhabit here and whose lives are constantly affected by the mass exodus in the face of modernization. It is an elegy to the perishing traditions and lifestyles that made Old Beijing such a unique place.

This work is on show at CNEX as part of the annual Greening the Beige art show. All prints are for sale and the proceedings go to the art collective Greening the Beige. Please contact organizer Carissa Welton for detail.

In April 2010, we are holding another art show with a stage performance involving a new series of masks at CNEX.

It jumps out of its gentrified, chic daytime envelope, vibrates at a new intensity, shrieks of new textures and emotions audible only to ears attuned to a different language. Images from my nocturnal prowling in Prague and its surrounding area, June 2009:

Robert Berman Gallery Presents:

«VIS-À-VIS, PORTRAITS OF NEW WOMEN»

«对视 : 新女性肖像 »

Pigment print, Edition of 5, 120×160 cm
© Chin-Chin Wu, 2006-2008

Catalog available upon request

photo MIAMI
Wynwood Art District, Miami, FL
(Enter on Midtown Boulevard)
BOOTH #304
Robert Berman GALLERY
www.robertbermangallery.com

December 3 - 7, 2008
Opening December 2th, 6 - 10 pm

Upcoming exhibitions:

photo LA
January 21-29, 2009
Downtown Convention Center, Los Angeles, CA
BOOTH #C109
laartshow.com

30th Anniversary Exhibition, Part 1

Robert Berman GALLERY
At Bergamot Station Arts Center, Santa Monica, California
January 24 - February 21, 2009

 

Group exhibition of selected photography and photo based works featuring:
Alex Prager, Jeff Charbonneau & Eliza French, Andres Serrano, Rafael Serrano, Man Ray, William Wegman, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Dennis Hopper, Edmund Teske, Shirin Neshat, Christopher Felver, E.T. Risk, Harry Bowers, Lauren Marsolier, Marc Fichou, John Colao, Marla Rutherford, Dietrich Wegner, Cameron Gray, Gerald Slota, Chin-Chin Wu, Hana Jakralova

Are you looking to push boundaries of your body and mind? Interested to get to know your body better? Want a better nude portfolio but haven’t found the right photographer? See how an artist works?

I am a Chinese-American artist living in between Beijing and Paris. Currently seeking women of all background and ethnicity for a large-scale conceptual art project – portraits of the female genitalia. The identities of the subjects will remain entirely anonymous and I offer to make other nude photographs or portraits in exchange. Length of time is estimated at around 1 1/2 hours (please plan extra time for other photo shoots).

My studio is in the historical center , 2 minutes from the Drum Tower（鼓楼) subway station, very close to Nan Luo Gu Xiang（南锣鼓巷）, Hou Hai (后海）， and other major tourist attractions. You can find information for this project on:

http://www.chinchinwu.net/?page_id=98

including a making-of video where the models who have participated talk about their experience and their views on the subject matter. You can also find some pictures and background info on the site. There’s a Chinese article in the magazine Hope／希望杂志报导 about the project:

http://www.chinchinwu.net/?page_id=191

39 women world-wide have already participated in this project. I hope that you will decide to participate in this very important project! This work will be edited into a book published by Trolley Books (London, www.trolleybooks.com) in May 2009 and exhibited in Photo Miami, Photo LA, etc.

Contact me at:
mail@chinchinwu.net with your phone number and I will call you.
Also Skype handle: chinchinlive

Thank you,
Chin-Chin Wu

I can’t help but to be totally delighted by my brilliant friend Pierrot’s theoretical musings every single time (I definitely won’t fail to bring a notebook for our date on Wednsday!). This one on the title of my series “Vis-à-vis”:

dimanche 1 juin 2008

Tathata / sur Chin-Chin Wu

” Pour désigner la réalité, le bouddhisme dit sunya, le vide ; mais encore mieux : tathata, le fait d’être tel, d’être ainsi, d’être cela ; tat veut dire en sanskrit cela et ferait penser au geste du petit enfant qui désigne une chose du doigt et dit : ta, da, ça ! Une photographie se trouve toujours au bout de ce geste. Elle dit : ça, c’est ça, c’est tel ! […] La photographie n’est jamais qu’un chant alterné de “voyez”, “vois”, “voici” ; elle pointe du doigt un certain vis-à-vis, et ne peut se sortir de ce pur langage déïctique.”

Barthes, Roland, La chambre claire, Paris, Cahiers du cinéma, Gallimard, 1980, p.15-16

Extrait de la série “Vis-à-vis”, Chin-Chin Wu, 2006-08

Mon amie Chin-Chin Wu est l’auteur d’une série de photographies qu’elle a rebaptisé récemment “Vis-à-vis”. Je m’interrogeais jusqu’à ce matin sur ce nouveau titre sans trouver de réponse particulière. Connaissant le grand soin qu’apporte cette artiste à fonder son propos sur une série de photographies qui rencontre, j’en suis certain, des réactions très variées, je déduis que ce titre fonctionne comme une petite annexe, une note de bas de page. Sans chercher à l’enfermer dans un sens particulier, ce qui serait de mon point de vue réducteur pour la série, le titre “Vis-à-vis” me semble être néanmoins un indice donné par Chin Chin sur les spécificités photographiques de son travail. Car il s’agit bien d’un pur travail photographique ; inscrit dans son histoire, conscient de ses codes, malmenant une tradition picturale, et jouant avec ce que l’outil photographie peut faire de mieux : brouiller les pistes, faire se superposer les grilles d’analyse du spectateur. L’érotique (la pulsion libidinale au centre de l’acte photographique), le pornographique (la tristesse de la chair offerte dans un éclairage uniforme, morcelée, défigurée), le médical (le point de vue clinique sur la femme et son appareil génital) et le politique (la connaissance des femmes de leur sexe, dans une approche féministe) dialoguent pour une fois dans un travail qui n’exclue aucun de ces champs, qui au contraire s’appuie sur la force polysémique de la photographie et s’enrichie par tous les discours qui y cohabitent.

Vis-à-vis, donc, est un terme qui suppose un échange, un dialogue, fait intervenir la notion du spectateur, du regardé-regardant plus précisément. On dit d’une vue qu’elle est sans vis-à-vis pour marquer l’absence d’un regard de l’extérieur vers l’intérieur, mais aussi pour signifier l’impossibilité de notre regard (puisque supposé voyeuriste) à pénétrer chez l’autre. Le vis-à-vis est un pacte silencieux du regard.

Et c’est précisément le regard, plus que le sexe, qui est au centre de cette oeuvre “Vis-à-vis”.

Currently listening :
Beethoven: Complete Sonatas for Pianoforte & Cello
Peter Wispelwey, Paul Komen
Release date: 1993-08-17

As the laureate of Mission Jeunes Artistes (Young Artists Mission), I am invited to meet the following professionals over a period of three days in Toulouse in September:

I was selected based on my female genitalia project - Vis-à-vis. I really had trouble finding a space to exhibit this work in Paris. I will be exhibiting it in Arles, along with other more recent work. I also have a ongoing book project with a German editor near Berlin. Does anybody have any advice?

Many thanks go to Franck Maindon, Claire Bras, Linda, Jean-Marc Sanchez, Didier de Faÿs, William Ropp, Maxime Lacolley, Pierre Marilly, Sandrine D., Natacha.., and all the models.

OK I finally got the statement for this project and am departing in the beginning/middle of June with my friend Will. The itinerary will be Paris- Nancy (to meet Will) - Prague (for printing and portfolio boxes, several openings) - Brno - Prague - Berlin (to meet Alex, my German publisher for the book project Vis-à-vis, on the female genitalia) - Nancy - Paris. Schedule problems aside, I am really excited:

STATEMENT

Projekt Derniera is the title of a conceptual art project to be realized in the arms factory Zbrojovka Brno. Ten well-known European photographers will be invited to all work in the same space, each realizing their own concept on the site. The Derniera project procedes from the following conceptual thesis:

The world is an aggregate of monologues, dialogues, and scenes. Each of us is an actor playing a role; sometimes better and sometimes worse, we act in different roles. The Zbrojovska Brno factory is a stage on which for almost a century thousands of people played their parts. This stage, however, did not withstand the storms of time: the actors left, the scenery was sold or stolen, but the site with its incontrovertible genius loci remained.

The Derniera Project is the last staged event that will be produced in this space; afterwards, the site will be demolished and completely revitalized.

The Derniera Project seeks to be the bridge connecting the era that was and the era that will be.

The curator of the Project and the developer investing in the revitalization have concluded that it is impossible to erase, without emotion, the significance of the former industrial site, connected as it is with the fates of a thousand people. Such revision is natural; each way out is an invitation to new retrospection and fresh contemplation.

The documentary value of the project will also be far from negligible, although this is not the project’s priority.

By his support of the project, the redevlopment investor has evinced his sympathetic concern for the fates of the people so closely bound up with this space and the memory of their time there.

The participants in the project are not bound by any conditions except the requirement that each project be realized on the site of the Zrojkova Brno factory.

The opening of the project will be an exhibition of the realized concepts — presumably large-format photographs. An industrial hall from the Zbrojovska site has been chosen as the first exhibition space.

The subsequent exhibitions are also envisioned as being held in untraditional venues — in sites either before or after their revitalization.

The results of the project will be summarized in an illustrated publication.

The results of the project may be used in the investor’s revitilization activities.

Notes toward realization

–Reknowned European artists will be invited to participate
–Leading European photography galleries will cooperate in choosing the participants.
–Participants in the first phase of the project will include, among others: Galerie Vrais Reves in Lyon and Galerie Baudelaire in Antwerp.
–The organizer and technical facilitator will be the Atelier Zidlický
–The curator of the project is Vladimír Židlický.
–The organizers will defray the cost of room and board and cover the costs of production for the participating artists.
–We envision that the individual artists will realize their projects in the course of a 10-14 day residence in Brno, during which time the workspace, supplies, technical facilities and personnel of the Atelier Zidlický will be at their disposal.
–The project will be realized in the summer (June-September) of 2008.
–The participating artists will give one realized work to the project’s sponsor as well as grant reproduction rights — by mutual agreement and to a reasonable extent — for the promotional needs of the project sponsors.

Dear Friends and Family,

The Chinese magazine “Hope” (希望）just published an article on the female genitalia project in its March issue. I thought it would never make it with the hypersensitive attitude of the government with the coming of the Olympics, but here is the article.

When I was in India this past winter, a 22-year old freelance journalist called Riva contacted me from Shanghai about doing an article on the project. She had read about it on a well-visited art and culture blog in China (the blog continues sending me traffic until this day even though much of the message of the project is unfortunately distorted as censorship prevents people from viewing the video in China). She explained to me that the readership of Hope is mostly cosmopolitan, independent-minded young women, and could I please talk about my artistic intentions to China’s youth? I was equally intrigued. Besides being a freelance journalist, Riva is also a successful entrepreneur and owns her own boating magazine. She is truly the exemplification of what I find so incredibly exciting and refreshing about today’s China.

In the article, I talked about growing up in Communist China in the 80’s, migration and displacement, the Chinese diasporic experience, how I arrived at the idea of the project, difficulties that I encountered, reactions of the models and the public, recent fads in plastic surgery for the vulva and my experience working with plastic surgeons, my ideas of feminism and female fulfillment… She’s even run a small advert for interested models at the end of the article. For the Chinese-literate, all of this is obviously self-explanatory.

I am going to be in Shanghai from the 11th of April. The family has opened up a gallery on Changde Rd in the Jing An District, and we will have a stand at Art Shanghai. I am bringing some of my prints, many of which are not available online. I am also bringing two artists, one Czech, one French. And then of course I’ll be stopping by in Beijing where I hope to see many people I love and miss.

Then going to the Czech Republic to work on a group conceptual art project in situe in an arms factory, about 14 days in June.

And of course I’ll be appearing in Arles with Better World under the guise of Etranges Etrangers for the opening week in July. Look forward to some new VJ sequences at Cargo de la Nuit, the place where cool people congregate.

Thank you for reading until this far. I hope that this e-mail finds you joyful and in good health and that our paths will cross again soon!

Much love,
Chin-Chin

OK I finally finished the editing for my trip in India: Delhi - Agra - Varanasi - Sarnath - Bombay - Hampi - Goa -Cochin - Backwaters - Munnar. As trite as it sounds, a picture is sometimes worth a thousand words …

My Milk and His Wine