FEATURE: Tang reboots with a bang

BANGKOK (The Nation/ANN) - China's Tang Contemporary Art gallery brings conceptual artworks by some of heavyweights from China and Southeast Asia to its Bangkok branch as it sets out to establish itself as an art hub.   

A bikini-clad woman munching on an ice-cream bar was the centre of attention at last Tuesday’s grand reopening of the Tang Contemporary Art, the gallery newly relocated to Golden Place Plaza on Rajdamri Road. Nearly 100 hundred art lovers were on hand, and several of them had their phone cameras out.

The woman in question wasn’t present, but rather vividly portrayed in a painting by Balinese artist I Nyoman Masriadi. “Ice Cream” is the costliest artwork in the Tang’s reopening exhibition, priced at Bt10 million. 

Also offering choice selfie material is the installation “Hanging Man in Porcelain” by China’s famed Ai Weiwei, available for a mere Bt3.1 million.

The Bt50-million exhibition “Northern Land … Southern Seas” features 20 pieces by some of the heavyweights of China and Southeast Asia. It’s one of the biggest shows of conceptual art ever held at a Thai commercial gallery.

The exhibition starts in the front window with Entang Wiharso’s remarkable sculpture “Double Story” (price tag Bt2.4 million) and Zeng Fanzhi’s huge abstract painting “Untitled” (price on request, so perhaps best to not even ask).

The new location occupies 300 square metres, so there’s ample room for another installation by Ai Weiwei, “Set of Spouts”. You can own this assembly of Song Dynasty (AD 960-1279) porcelain teapot spouts for Bt3.1 million. 

For any youngsters visiting, Huang Yongping’s big batwing sculpture “Double Wing” is absolutely priceless because it evokes Batman on the fly. For their parents, the bamboo-silk-lacquer construction is selling for Bt7 million.

It was Tang that brought Huang’s gigantic white elephant and tiger to the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre last year as part of the “Imply-Reply” show that teamed him with Thailand’s Sakarin Krue-on. 

That event was non-commercial, though. This one is decidedly a moneymaker. It includes four other internationally known Thais.

Rirkrit Tiravanija’s installation “Untitled 2014 (Curry for the soul of the forgotten)” is a stunner, deserving of the acclaim it’s earned in the United States and Europe. This is the one with an old-fashioned bronze cooking pot and a video about Thai cuisine. Rirkrit is famous for his food motifs, and here he’s cooking up what’s described as a “self-reflexive turning point in his philosophical exploration”. Believed to be the costliest artwork in this show, it’s not even for sale here.

Udomsak Krisanamis is showing recent abstract paintings and Apichatpong Weerasethakul has photos of Nabua youngsters. A whole room is devoted to Korakrit Arunanondchai’s video “Painting with History” and sculptures made of denim. 

Some of these works have previously been displayed at the Ver and Bangkok City City galleries, the Jim Thompson Art Centre and Mia Iam Contemporary Museum in Chiang Mai. The prices range from under Bt500,000 to Bt3 million.

Cambodian artist Sopheap Pitch has some interesting new paintings on burlap, in bamboo and rattan frames.

Tang director Lilianna Gao says a lot of the works were sold or had reserved bids placed on them before the exhibition even opened. “And we have some overseas collectors flying in to buy works. The most popular pieces are those by Ai Weiwei, Huang Yongping, Zhao Zhao, Sopheap Pitch, Korakrit Arunanondchai and Entang Wiharso.”

China during the Ming and Qing dynasties regarded the waters around Southeast Asia as the “Southern Seas”, while our region saw China as the “Northern Land”. The title of the exhibition deliberately pairs the two references to lift the boundaries of regionalism.
Founded by Chinese art dealer Zheng Lin in 1997, Tang Contemporary Art is headquartered in Beijing and has another gallery in Hong Kong. It has been from the start a champion of experimental art.

The Bangkok operation opened the same year as Tang’s founding, making it one of the leaders among Thai contemporary-art retailers. Long based at Silom Galleria on Silom Road, it initially sold only works by Chinese artists, but gradually took on Thais, among them Rirkrit, Sakrin and Navin Rawanchaikul.

Gao says the focus is now shifting to “more experimental projects and performances with artists from Cambodia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam”.

One of its new stars this year is Zhao Zhao, who formerly worked as Ai Weiwei’s assistant and also dares take on the Chinese government in socio-political pieces. The current exhibition includes “Constellation”, a large, dark-blue oil painting of what looks like a bullet-riddled glass panel.

Shasha Tittmann, Tang Hong Kong’s sale director, translates for Zhao as he explains that he shot up 33 panels of glass “to show the actual force of a bullet”. Later he “translated” the process into a form of painting, “so its very form changed and adapted another characteristic, of also trying to save meaning”.

Although Tang represents mostly established artists, it plans to draw more young collectors with less expensive work by emerging artists. 
“The current client group is mostly foreigners, especially Chinese,” Gao says, “so we’d like to create more conversation with Thai collectors.
“We’ll be presenting some emerging artists and art projects that embrace the younger generation’s preferences in subject matter. I recommend the work of Cai Lei, Sopheap Pitch, Zhao Zhao and Udomsak Krisanamis.”

The Tang has held numerous exhibitions and sponsored programmes to help develop Chinese and Southeast Asian contemporary art. And Gao says the aim is to make use of Bangkok’s advantageous location to spread out across Southeast Asia.
 

WHERE NORTH MEETS SOUTH
- The “Northern Land … Southern Seas” exhibition continues through October 30 at Tang Contemporary Art on the third floor of the Golden Place Plaza (former the Peninsula Plaza) on Rajadamri Road.
- Coming up next at Tang Bangkok are solo shows by Indonesia’s Heri Dono and China’s Xia Xing.
- Find out more at www.TangContemporaryArt.com.

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