︎“ARTS”
搞 (Rock the Boat)
Publication
2018
68 pages
newsprint
Inkjet Printing
5.5 x 8.5 in
Exhibition catalog for the first edition the exhibition series. It was held every three months at discarded sites in cities to discuss a range of topics such as gentrification and local community changes.
• Special thanks to Jody Huang, Chen Si-Yu, Sun Wei, Wang Yi-Shan, Chen Wei-Cai, Wen Hao, Ling Si-Han, Company Art Group.
"这是一个没人看守的，一次性的艺术现场。如果作品被损，场地被拆，展览就终止了。”
“This is an unguarded, one-off art scene. If the work is damaged, or the site is demolished, the exhibition is terminated."
• Background
I first heard about the exhibition a month before I started this project. I was attracted by the temporality of the exhibition, and how the works and the exhibition are changed naturally or deliberately by audience overtime. I saw photos where audience are adding their own words next to the work, taking some pieces apart, treated the work as trash or kept as souvenirs. Since this particular exhibition located in a demolished building surrounded by construction and life trash, it is a perfect test ground to observe how art differentiate from its strong-stated environment.
I couldn't find any more information on this exhibition other than its name and inviting artists. So I reached out to a friend of my friend who post the images about it, and luckily he knows the exhibition organizer Jody Huang. After a few rounds of discussions on WeChat with the Jody, where she said that they were deliberately avoiding any formal press release because they want to take time to form their voice. To respect that, we agreed on doing informal chats via WeChat with individual artists for the texts of this catalogue, and my chat with Jody was also included as a "preface".
Nevertheless, the theme/focus of the exhibition is explicit. In my own notes, it includes discussions about these demolished building's previous residents - people fought for a better life in a big city, their life and spiritual conditions, or observations of the architectural structure, sounding environment, etc. And my goal is to create a catalogue that respects, records and reflects the spirit of this exhibition.
I first heard about the exhibition a month before I started this project. I was attracted by the temporality of the exhibition, and how the works and the exhibition are changed naturally or deliberately by audience overtime. I saw photos where audience are adding their own words next to the work, taking some pieces apart, treated the work as trash or kept as souvenirs. Since this particular exhibition located in a demolished building surrounded by construction and life trash, it is a perfect test ground to observe how art differentiate from its strong-stated environment.
I couldn't find any more information on this exhibition other than its name and inviting artists. So I reached out to a friend of my friend who post the images about it, and luckily he knows the exhibition organizer Jody Huang. After a few rounds of discussions on WeChat with the Jody, where she said that they were deliberately avoiding any formal press release because they want to take time to form their voice. To respect that, we agreed on doing informal chats via WeChat with individual artists for the texts of this catalogue, and my chat with Jody was also included as a "preface".
Nevertheless, the theme/focus of the exhibition is explicit. In my own notes, it includes discussions about these demolished building's previous residents - people fought for a better life in a big city, their life and spiritual conditions, or observations of the architectural structure, sounding environment, etc. And my goal is to create a catalogue that respects, records and reflects the spirit of this exhibition.
• Design Details
The catalogue is saddle stitched and folded in the middle, creates 2 layers of reads: with the smaller spread, only images are shown; with our "interviews" stored behind the "spine" of the images, open the wider spread to read the "interview".
In the catalogue, the "interviews" are kept in raw online chat format to establish its casualness. I had a great time online chatting with these artists, we went deep into some of the micro-issues and the macro-environment of the city. Showing our dialogue in its original form also ease in the reader with my perspective.
Every work has its "label" hand written with chalk on the wall, next to the work. I asked my friend took photos of them, and processed it as the title of the work in this catalogue, in order to preserve and display the rusty feeling of this exhibition, and how it merges into its rusty environment.
Since I'm unable to return to the original exhibition sites, I took the photos of this catalogue on a very similar space - the construction space next to our school.
• Following Up
Luckily, I went back home the summer of 2018, and get to meet with most of them in person. I sat through their discussion on their next exhibition 搞 #2, and we went through the catalogue, and together we decided to print 100 copies for friends & families, and people who has invested in this exhibition as a gift of gratitude and future reference.
The catalogue is saddle stitched and folded in the middle, creates 2 layers of reads: with the smaller spread, only images are shown; with our "interviews" stored behind the "spine" of the images, open the wider spread to read the "interview".
In the catalogue, the "interviews" are kept in raw online chat format to establish its casualness. I had a great time online chatting with these artists, we went deep into some of the micro-issues and the macro-environment of the city. Showing our dialogue in its original form also ease in the reader with my perspective.
Every work has its "label" hand written with chalk on the wall, next to the work. I asked my friend took photos of them, and processed it as the title of the work in this catalogue, in order to preserve and display the rusty feeling of this exhibition, and how it merges into its rusty environment.
Since I'm unable to return to the original exhibition sites, I took the photos of this catalogue on a very similar space - the construction space next to our school.
• Following Up
Luckily, I went back home the summer of 2018, and get to meet with most of them in person. I sat through their discussion on their next exhibition 搞 #2, and we went through the catalogue, and together we decided to print 100 copies for friends & families, and people who has invested in this exhibition as a gift of gratitude and future reference.