Exhibition
October 30, 2018–January 25, 2019

Chia-Wei Hsu: Black and White – Malayan Tapir

Opening Reception: October 30, 2018, 6–8pm

Chia-Wei Hsu: Black and White – Malayan Tapir focuses on a specific non-human animal—the Malayan tapir. Through evocative storytelling, Hsu cuts across time and geography to narrate the history of the Malayan tapir and its relationship to colonial power and zoos in Southeast Asia. According to the artist, his intention with Black and White – Malayan Tapir is to use an encyclopedic narrative style to deal with issues of equality between people and non-humans, man and nature, and to explore changes in the way modern people view images.

The exhibition is composed of a synchronized four-channel LED-screen installation. The scenes in the video switch between the National Gallery Singapore, the National History Museum, and the Singapore Zoo, to search engines and multiple computer screen windows. Across the screens, a zoo tour guide recounts the initial recording of the black and white Malayan tapir by a Chinese painter, who mapped it in the early nineteenth century at the request of William Farquhar, a commander of the British East India Company. This was likely the first documentation of the species, an endeavor that was ultimately contested by Farquhar’s boss Stamford Raffles, who also purported to be the first to discover the animal. Due to the rapid development of the natural sciences during the colonial era, the naming and documentation of animals and plants became a competitive field, and accordingly, conflict is entwined with the history and legend of the Malayan tapir, now an endangered species.

Chia-Wei Hsu (born 1983, lives and works in Taipei) is interested in the untold histories of different periods in time, and frequently focuses on the Cold War in Asia. His works, often in the form of films and installations, weave together reality and myth, the past and the present. Hsu’s work has been presented in many museums, including the Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin; and Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid. A Hugo Boss Asia Art Award finalist in 2012 and the Grand Prize winner of the prestigious 2017 Taishin Arts Award, Hsu has also been included in many biennials and festivals, including the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam, the 2012 Liverpool Biennial, the 2018 Sydney Biennale and the 2018 Gwangju Biennale. He will also participate in upcoming biennales in Bangkok and Shanghai. Hsu was residence at ISCP in 2010.

This exhibition is co-organized by ISCP and the Taipei Cultural Center in New York.

Major support for this exhibition is provided by the Ministry of Culture, Taiwan and Taipei Cultural Center in New York. This program is also supported, in part, by Hartfield Foundation, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, New York City Council District 34, and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Opening Reception: Oct 30, 2018, 6–8pm
Open Hours: Tuesday–Friday, 12–6pm, and by appointment
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Participating Residents

ISCP Talk
October 23, 2018, 6:30–8pm

Artists at Work: Javier Barrios Gutiérrez and Lihi Turjeman

Javier Barrios Gutiérrez will present a selection of artwork that he completed during his ISCP residency, as well as previous works, and will initiate a discussion on the political dimension of art.

Lihi Turjeman will screen video documentation from her work in an abandoned building in the heart of the historic district in Tel Aviv, right before it was renovated into a boutique hotel. The video highlights the connection between formation and destruction. Afterwards, she will open her studio for a short discussion about intimacy and scale in painting alongside the three artworks she produced during her residency. These paintings deal with displacement in relation to a foreign perspective.

This program is supported, in part, Colección Diéresis; Hartfield Foundation; Mifal Hapais; New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

6:30–8pm

ISCP Talk
October 16, 2018, 6:30–8pm

“As If” We Came Together to Care, a reading by Andrea Fraser organized by Rethinking Residencies, with responses by Heather Hart and Nicholas Weist

For this event organized by Rethinking Residencies, artist Andrea Fraser will read from her text “As If” We Came Together to Care, which reflects on the psychological dimensions of hospitality in art institutions. Following this, Heather Hart and Nicholas Weist will present short responses. This event stems from Rethinking Residencies’ inquiries into hospitality as critical to art practice.

Art residencies always produce complex host-guest relations. The position of institution as host and the artist as guest are assumed roles that can also shift in relation to social, political, economic and ethical conditions. Considerations of hospitality are central for residencies as well as for presenting institutions. Space, time, exchange and resources define situations of hospitality, which are intrinsically linked to every level of cultural production.

“As If” We Came Together to Care is organized by Rethinking Residencies, a working group of thirteen New York-based residency programs. Initiated in March 2014, its members share knowledge and resources, while cultivating critical thinking and discourse about residencies. Collaborating organizations represent a wide range of models, scales, and approaches and include: Eyebeam, Fire Island Artist Residency, Flux Factory, International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC), Pioneer Works, Queens Museum, Recess, The Shandaken Project, EFA Project Space’s SHIFT Residency, Spaceworks, Triangle Arts Association and Wave Hill.

“As If” We Came Together to Care by Andrea Fraser first appeared in Cultures of the Curatorial (2016), published by Sternberg Press.

Participant Biographies:

Andrea Fraser is an artist whose work investigates the social, financial, and affective economies of cultural institutions, fields, and groups. She is Professor, Interdisciplinary Studio Area Head, and Chair of the UCLA Department of Art. Retrospectives of her work have been presented by the Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2013; the Museum der Moderne, Salzburg, 2015; the Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona and MUAC UNAM, Mexico City, both 2016. Her most recent book, 2016 in Museums, Money, and Politics (2018)—co-published by the CCA Wattis Institute, Westreich/Wagner Publications, and MIT Press—documents the political contributions of the board members of over 125 major US art organizations in the 2016 election cycle and its aftermath, examining the intersection of cultural philanthropy and political finance in the age of plutocracy. Fraser serves on the boards of WAGE, the ICA LA, and Grex, the West Coast Affiliate of the AK Rice Institute for the Study of Social Systems.

Heather Hart, based in New York, is an interdisciplinary artist exploring the power in thresholds, questioning dominant narratives and creating alternatives to them. She was awarded grants from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, NYFA, Harpo Foundation and Creative Capital. Hart’s work has been exhibited at Storm King Art Center, The Kohler Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, ICA Philadelphia, Seattle Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, Socrates Sculpture Park, University of Toronto and a collaborative show at The Drawing Center. She studied at Cornish College of the Arts and Princeton University and received her MFA from Rutgers University.

Nicholas Weist is the founding director of Shandaken Projects, which has offered free artist services and public programs since 2012. A veteran arts administrator, he has also held senior positions at Creative Time and powerHouse Books, and has organized exhibitions internationally. He has written about art and visual culture for Frieze, Art in America, Whitewall, Interview, Document Journal, and several other publications. His work has been reflected on in The New York Times, The New York Observer, The Brooklyn Rail, T magazine, Bomb, Art News, and many more.

This program is supported, in part, by New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council and New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

6:30–8pm