Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Yin Xiuzhen's Work

Yin Xiuzhen

Biography

1963

Born in Beijing

1985-89

Majored in Oil Painting at the Fine Arts Department of Capital Normal University, Beijing
Lives and works in Beijing, China

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2012

Yin Xiuzhen, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Netherlands

Yin Xiuzhen, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany

2011

ONE SENTENCE | ALEXANDER OCHS GALLERIES BERLIN | BEIJING, Berlin, Germany
The Way of Chopsticks II - Sond Dong + Yin Xiuzhen, Chambers Fine Arts, New York, USA

2010

Second Skin, Pace Beijing, China

Projects 92: Yin Xiuzhen, (Elaine Dannheisser Project Series) The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

2009

Yin Xiuzhen, Anna Schwartz Gallery, Sydney, Australia

2008

COMMUNE, Galerie WELTECHO, Chemnitz, Germany

2007

52. La Biennale di Venezia, Pavilion of the PR China, (together with Shen Yuan, Kan Xuan, Cao Fei), Curator: Hou Hanru

2006

Yin Xiuzhen and Song Dong: Restroom M / Restroom W, Gallery at Redcat, Los Angeles, USA
International Airport Terminal 1, ALEXANDER OCHS GALLERIES BERLIN | BEIJING, Berlin, Germany

2003

Present | Future, Artissima Turin, ALEXANDER OCHS GALLERIES BERLIN I BEIJING (former PRÜSS & OCHS), Berlin, Germany

2002

"chopsticks: song dong and yin xiuzhen", videos, installations and event, Chambers Fine Art, New York, USA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2012

CAR CULTURE, Lentos Kunstmuseum Linz, Austria

STRUGGLE(S), Maison Particulière Art Center, Brussels, Belgium

2011

Yokohama Triennale 2011, Yokohama Triennale.

Medi(t)ation - Asian Art Biennial, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan

Our Magic Hour, Yokohama International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Japan

Car Culture, ZKM – Zentrum für Kunst und Medien, Karlsruhe, Germany

Trans/Formations: THE CITY, SPACES AND TIMES, AlhondigaBilbao, Spain

2010

Beijing Time | La hora de China, Casa Asia, Madrid, Spain

Dreamlands, Centre Pompidou, Paris, France

11th Fellbach Triennale, Stadt Fellbach - Kulturamt, Germany

BALMORAL BLEND - 15 Jahre Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen, Germany

2009

Sit In China, Museum für Angewandte Kunst Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Strange World, Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery, Blackburn, UK
The Big World. Recent Art from China, Hall and Yates Gallery, Chicago, USA
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, USA

2008

Fear, Allsopp Contemporary & Wedel Fine Art, London, Great Britain
Mahjong: Contemporary Chinese Art from the Sigg Collection, University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, USA
7th Shanghai Biennale. Curators: Julian Heynen and Henk Slager, Shanghai, China
Under The Sky, WHITE SPACE BEIJING, Beijing, China
Die Wahren Orte, ALEXANDER OCHS GALLERIES BERLIN I BEIJING, Beijing, Germany
ALL-INCLUSIVE - A TOURIST WORLD, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt a.M., Germany

2007

CHINA-FACING REALITY, MuMok, Wien
CHINA NOW, Works from the Essl Collection, CoBrA museum, Amstelveen, Netherlands
GLOBAL FEMINISMS, Brooklyn Museum, New York, USA

2006

Mahjong – Chinesische Gegenwartskunst aus der Sammlung Sigg, Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany
Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany; Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, California, USA

2005

Asian Traffic, Today Art Museum, Beijing

2004

26th Sao Paolo Biennial, Brazil

Engine 2008 Material: Stainless steel, steel, used clothes

Weapon 2003-2007 Material: Old clothes and daily life things

Portable Cities: Singapore 2003 Material: Suitcase, clothes, city map, light, audio

Harp 1995 Material: c-print (photograph)

Work cited: http://www.alexanderochs-galleries.com/front_content.php?idcat=160&idart=416

Yin Xiuzhen

Yin Xiuzhen is one of the most prominent Chinese artists of her generation. She began her career in the early nineties after 1989 towards painting studies at the Capital Normal University in Beijing. Since then she has shown her work in numerous exhibitions in and outside China. Yin Xiuzhen is best known for her installations made from used clothing.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVDIeJWAEGFEpMcOMyUcR1HwxOiii1buxvwXVi-Ai8yz0K2Iz3uedmWPAkxh9Oqpg8hKtKuEBlj3NCmYNiRnn0pwaOSFZR2Gq5z7kojzoM0qXVB-u4BSSFVy2Gs6ArsgbTUwnOEeXpC1Ff/s1600/Yin-Xiuzhen.jpg

Chinese artist Yin Xuizhen has a wonderful exhibition at the Groninger Museum. Beautiful work of used clothing. Clothing symbolizes the person you are and the time when the clothing was worn. In short, memories.
Due to the fast growing economies of China and the changes it brings memories disappear quickly. This tries to prevent typical Chinese symbols linking to "own" old clothes.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtYn28IGSe5OSyHMT6x7guWC6rESNfYR-nxTixlKV_31QE5BxA-aggFfrM3VTPNktV2qbPQhXO1_IZFbOKs8Pd2gtdoc3s4wR6bgoQJh-X96E-vUGEIpLMB-jwOxcD0NlvkGilwhL4cU7c/s1600/40858.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM_H8BcvsSA9IwKaX5Dp7Sw_XQFKYWAdJIYWQCu7TP6hog9IzgGmnbyzxOw36jnN9QcYsTtUFeUX_f-2-31L7fQJ06NQrpMDMA66JgE65d7xkf2ZQm7MGweTeV1zMlO6xg2YEFgfIu5KBv/s1600/tumblr_m6ckplCRG41r70t2xo1_1280.jpg

Work Cited: http://www.denachtvankunstenwetenschap.nl/acts/tentoonstelling-yin-xiuzhen/

Work done by Derick Melander

Selected Exhibitions

Publications

05/03/11 Complex Magazine, (feature), "Show Stoppers"
03/01/11 Vogue, Korea, (feature), Info to come..
03/01/11 Ruby – Otherworldliness, (book), Irana Douer, Gestalten
"Ruby presents captivating work at the nexus of contemporary visual culture and art that is connected by the underlying theme of otherworldliness. Whether in the form of fantastically realistic photography, alluring illustration and painting, impossible spaces, or bizarre sculpture, the 65 featured artists explore the direction of visual expression for the time to come."
03/01/11 Derick Melander - Selected Works 2005 - 2010, (catalogue), University of Maryland, Stamp Gallery
09/02/10 GQ Style, (feature), Russia, Autumn-Winter 2010/11, with a photo by David Rinella
05/14/10 Ruby Magazine, (feature), Issue #43
05/03/10 Juxtapoz Magazine, (feature), Katie Zuppann, "Recycling Clothes with Derick Melander"
01/20/10 Trend Hunter Magazine, (feature), Megan Young, "Old Clothes as Art"
09/04/09 Brooklyn Daily Eagle, (interview), Sarah Tobol, "Creating Sculpture Out of Old Clothes"
08/21/09 The New York Times, (review), Benjamin Genocchio, "All Dressed Up at the Katonah Museum of Art"
08/12/09 The Huffington Post, (review), Barbara Bloemink, "Dress Codes: Clothing as Metaphor"
08/09/09 WNET, (review), Christina Ha, "SundayArts News for 8/9/09", "Dress Codes"
08/03/09 The New York Times, (review), Maura Egan, Style, "One Size Doesn't Fit All", "Dress Codes"
07/12/09 Katonah Museum of Art, (catalogue), Barbara Bloemink, "Dress Codes: Clothing as Metaphor"
03/04/09 Saatchi Online, (review), Will Corwin, "Will Corwin's Top 10 Shows in NY", "Flesh of My Flesh" at QI4
01/27/09 The New York Times, (review), Holland Cotter, Art in Review, "Queens International 4"
01/27/09 The New Yorker, (review), Goings on about town, "Queens International 4"
01/27/09 NPR/WNYC, (review), WNYC Newsroom, "Queens International", with Carolina Miranda from C-Monster.net
01/23/09 New York 1, Stephanie Simon, "Queens Museum Of Art Unveils Its Fourth Biennial",
review and video interview for "Queens International 4"
01/01/09 "Queens International 4", (catalogue), Queens Museum of Art
01/20/09 Starved Magazine, (review), "Noteworthy Openings", "imMATERIAL"
01/11/09 ArtSlant.com, Alison Levy, (review),"Clothes Encounter", "imMATERIAL"
12/10/08 ArtCal: The Zine/Culture Pundits, (review), Brent Burket, "...on Miami 2008, Part I", Scope Miami
12/04/08 Riptide2.0, The Miami New Times Blog, (review), Natalie O'Neill, "Scope International", Scope Miami
01/15/08 Harriet, The Poetry Foundation, (feature), Kenneth Goldsmith, "Designer Label Poetry", "Nomad"
11/07/07 Soap Factory, (interview), Bob Fagerhaugh, video created in conjunction with "Host" exhibition
09/15/07 Art Review & Preview, (review), Colleen Maynard, "A Short History of Twin Cities Art", "Host"
02/28/07 Artinfo.com, (review), "Fair Report: The Good, the Bad and the Armory", "Nomad" at Red Dot, NY
12/13/06 Baltimore City Paper, (review), Deborah McLeod, "The Layers Club", "Laminae"
01/01/06 The New York Times, (review), Benjamin Genocchio, "Exploring the Circle From Every Angle", "O"
12/23/05 Two River Times, (review), Geraldine E. Vincent, "An Ode to the O", "O"
12/08/05 gif.ru, (review), F. Pavlov-Andreevich, "Main new in art of New York", "(t)here New York"
08/20/05 JamesWagner.com, (review), James Wagner, "Diamonds and Oranges in the East Village", at "Diamonds & Oranges"
08/19/05 Bloggy, (featured listing), Barry Hogard, "Diamonds & Oranges",
09/01/04 NY Arts Magazine, (review of show organized for TAG Projects), Christina Vassallo, "All’s Fair in Art and Politics", "Death to the Fascist Insect that Preys on the Life of the People"
06/25/04 The New York Times, (review of show organized for TAG Projects), Holland Cotter, “Death to the Fascist Insect that Preys on the Life of the People”
08/01/02 Art Center Waco, (catalogue), “Visions International”
08/04/99 The Village Voice, (feature on "Record Club"), Sarah Schmidt, "Studio Recording", Story about Record Club, a listening club I have co-organized with since 03/98

Curatorial Projects

01/2007 "Alter & Circulate", (produced & curated), Mickey's Blue Room, 171 Avenue C, New York, NY, with TAG Projects
09/2006 "Growing Up in Public", (produced with TAG Projects), Repetti, 44-02 23rd Street, 4th Floor, Long island City, NY
06/2004 "Death to the Fascist Insect that Preys on the Life of the People", (produced & co-curated), TAG Projects, 70 Washington St., Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY
12/2003 "What The Whitney Don't Know"(produced & co-curated), TAG Projects, 70 Washington St., Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY
10/2003 "Dumbo Paper Show", (marketing & sales), Mettle, 70 Washington St., Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY

Grants/Awards/Speaking Engagements

06/2010 "Babel", Artists Talk, Space 37, 86-08 37th Avenue, Jackson Heights, NY
11/2008 Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Artist Residency, 801 Third Corso, Nebraska City, NE
09/2006 "Queens Artist Collectives", (spoke on the history of TAG Projects with accompanying DVD), Hell Gate Social, 12-21 Astoria Blvd, Queens, NY
08/2002 Third Place Award, Visions International, Art Center Waco, Waco TX
11/1991 Recipient of Chairman's Grant, School of Visual Arts, N.Y., NY

Education

1991-94   Bachelor of Fine Arts, School of Visual Arts, N.Y., NY
               Majored in sculpture. Studied Under: Roni Horn, Peter Halley, Alice Aycock,
               Jackie Winsor, Paul Waldman, Stephen Westfall and Donald Kuspit.
1983-85 Associate Degree in Communications, Seton College, Westchester, NY.
Majored in film and radio. Also: acting and music programming.

This work takes the form of a Venn diagram. The two rings, boots and sneakers, overlap in the middle forming what is called a "universal set." The laces from the boots and shoes are re-laced, forming a daisy-chain.

800 lbs. of carefully folded, second hand clothing, crisscrossed around a central spine.

Each article of clothing is categorized by relative value. The darkest clothing is placed at the bottom of the stack, while the lightest clothing is placed at the top.

This work is compriesed of two stacks that sit side by side. The first stack is made from black, white and grey clothing while the second stack contains the full spectrum.

Between the stacks, shirt sleeves, pant legs and other linear shapes create bridge like apendages, connecting the stacks together.

Work Cited: http://www.derickmelander.com/

Creator of creativity through Folding

Derick Melander was born in Saratoga Springs, NY in 1964. His father was an abstract painter, known for combining unusual materials such as polystyrene foam, house paint, mirrored glass and contact paper. He often accompanied his father to the studio and took ceramic and woodworking classes as well. After high school, Derick moved to Philadelphia where he worked as an assistant to the artist Jerry Goodman. During those years, Derick sang in a punk band and postered the streets with hand-printed graphics and poems. In 1987, he moved to New York City, taught nursery school and signed a lease on his first studio, where he still plan and produce most of his work.
Derick earned his B.F.A. in 1994 from the School of Visual Arts, where he was the recipient of the Chairman’s Grant and had the opportunity to study with Roni Horn, Peter Halley, Alice Aycock and Donald Kuspit. A few years after graduating, he began a second career in advertising and currently freelance as a user experience designer. In 2002, Derick began to exhibit more regularly and co-founded the arts organization TAG Projects. As an organizer and curator, he produced 5 successful exhibitions. Since then, Derick has shown in New York at venues such as The Queens Museum or Art, The Katonah Museum, Black and White Gallery and Repetti. He has also shown at Carnegie Art Museum in California, the ADA Gallery in Virginia, the Soap Factory in Minnesota, as well as the Solyanka Gallery in Moscow.
In 2010 Derick was commissioned to do a special project with Friends Seminary School, NYC. he taught a workshop and folded 1,200 pounds of clothing with students, creating a monumental sculpture for the lobby. For a solo show at The University of Maryland, Derick created a 3 X 5 foot clothing stack on a wheeled base, enabling students to take the piece for daily walks around campus.

Wilderness, 2012

Approximate Size:
3′ x 3′ x 1′ (H x W x D)

Materials:
Second-hand clothing, thread

Description:
Over one hundred garments are sorted by type and folded 12 inches wide. They are then tightly rolled with the final outside layer stitched in place. The entire piece is held together by a combination of hand stitching and friction.

The clothing is sorted by garment type and rolled in the order that it is generally worn, with underwear in the center and overcoats on the outside. Within each garment type the clothing was sorted from light to dark, creating contrast between the layers. Inspired by a passage in Bern Porter’s book “I’ve Left” Section 2, page 12 where he describes the various movements involved in getting dressed for a formal event.

© Derick Melander, 2012

Night Sky, 2010

Size:
15″ x 11.25″

Materials:
200 lb. white paper, pencil & watercolor

© Derick Melander, 2012

Statement by Derick Melander regarding his work.

I create large geometric configurations from carefully folded and stacked second-hand clothing. These structures take the form of wedges, columns and walls, typically weighing between five hundred pounds and two tons. Larger works are often site-responsive, creating discrete environments.
As clothing wears, fades, stains and stretches, it becomes an intimate record of our physical presence. It traces the edge of the body, defining the boundary between the self and the outside world.
The clothing used for these works is folded to precise dimensions with careful attention paid to the ordering of the garments. The sequencing can relate to the way clothing is layered on the body, it can be sorted by color, by gender or by the order that it was received. Individual components are sometimes connected together with shirt sleeves, pant legs and belts, creating bridge-like formations. Through these processes, I hope to engage the viewer and communicate the emotional resonance of second hand clothing.
For me, the process of folding and stacking the individual garments adds a layer of meaning to the finished piece. When I come across a dress with a hand-sewn repair or a coat with a name written inside the collar, the work starts to feel like a collective portrait. As the layers of clothing accumulate, the individual garments are compressed into a single mass, a symbolic gesture that explores the conflicted space between society and the individual, a space that is ceaselessly broken and re-constituted.

Work Cited: http://www.derickmelander.com/

Imagination beyond Folding

Artist Derick Melander creates large geometric structures from carefully folded and stacked second-hand clothing that weighs between five hundred pounds and two tons. What seems like a straightforward process – procuring the clothing, sorting it by colour value, folding and stacking it – soon takes on a life of its own. Thousands of once loved and lived in pieces of clothing can’t be discarded that easily.
The images, for example, showing the 2008-installation “The Ocean is the Underlying Basis for Every Wave,” an “S”-shaped wall of folded and stacked clothing sorted by colour. A total of 2,908 garments were used, weighing 1,859 lb.
1_wave_head_oncrop

Why second-hand clothing items? Says Melander: “As clothing wears, fades, stains and stretches it becomes an intimate record of our physical presence. It traces the edge of the body, defining the boundary between the individual and the outside world. … When I come across a dress with a hand-sewn repair, or a coat with a name written inside the collar, the work starts to feel like a collective portrait.”

Clothing as an individual project yet collective statement? Kind of like “you are what you wear” meets “the personal is political.” Fact is that while working on the pieces, the thoughts that go through Melander’s and his volunteers’ minds invariably focus on the “who.” Who has worn this clothing? And what was this person’s story? As it becomes obvious that the clothing has been handled and lived in, it transforms from an object to a piece of living history.
Melander wants us, the viewers or visitors, to interact with his sculptures and reflect on the bigger pictures. Take his 2005-installation “Grasp”. Like a doorway, the 6-ft-tall structure invites visitors to take a peak at what’s inside. What visitors don’t realize is that they have to brush against the garments while entering the shoulder-wide doorway, thus “completing a circuit with the rest of the clothing."
3_grasp2005_500crop

It’s easy to see how clothing, our protective, and decorative, layer against the outside world, very quickly takes on a deeper meaning, kind of like the discarded skins of a person. Says Melander about this transformation: “As the layers of clothing accumulate, the individual garments are compressed into a single mass, a symbolic gesture that explores the conflicted space between society and the individual, between the self and the outside world.”
Some of Melander’s art works raise important environmental questions. On September 24th, 2009, Melander together with many volunteers created the 5 x 7 ft sculpture “Into The Fold” from 3,615 pounds of folded second-hand clothing. It was done in front of Brooklyn Borough Hall as part of the 5th Annual “Green Brooklyn…Green City” Fair and Symposium. The event was hosted by the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education and all clothing was loaned by textile recycling company Wearable Collections. Why exactly 3,615 lb of clothing? That’s the amount of textile waste created by New Yorkers every 5 minutes, a truly mind boggling figure!

5_flesh_of_my_fleshcrop

Flesh of My Flesh 2008

Work Cited: http://www.wellsphere.com/green-living-article/amazing-art-sculptures-made-from-recycled-clothing/1069100

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Yet hungry for more creativity with clothes?

A few more words from Kaarina Kaikkonen. This time on the cathartic process involved with her passion for collecting and working with second-hand clothes.

“My father died in front of me when I was a little girl,” she says. “I have always felt very guilty because I was hiding under the table. I felt I should save people’s lives because I did not save my father’s. (…) Mother burnt all his clothes so I took some of the clothing when I was 10 -as a girl, she used to cut down her father’s clothes to wear them outside-. We were three girls. I took the part of the father in my family. (…) All work is a kind of self-portrait.”

One last word. Although we are making good and steady progress with our shirt collection, we still need your donations. Please, donate any shirts no longer needed by bringing them to our office.

Are-we-still-going-on-Collezione-Maramotti

Are we still going on? http://www.feeltheyarn.it/tag/kaarina-kaikkonen

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glynlowe/8496773091/sizes/c/in/photostream/

Work Cited: http://www.sculptors.fi/kuvanveistajat/kaikkonenkaarina/index.htm

Kaarina Kaikkonen creativity continues....

Finnish environmental artist Kaarina Kaikkonen is using hundreds and hundreds of second-hand shirts to create giant shirt installations, which look as if someone hung his huge amount of clothes out to dry. Her most recent work ‘Are we still going on?’ can be seen at Collezione Maramotti in Reggio Emilia, Italy and consists of hundreds of shirts, organized by color, resembling the interior hull of a ship. With her work Kaikkonen tries to search her constantly changing outline, which she needs to understand herself more clearly. As she state it herself 'Countless works and installations I have built, mostly straight into their spaces. Through my work I try to search my constantly changing outline. I need an outline to understand myself more clearly - to understand where the internal ends and the external begins.' (http://www.sculptors.fi/kuvanveistajat/kaikkonenkaarina/teoksia.htm)

http://www.sculptors.fi/kuvanveistajat/kaikkonenkaarina/img/16.jpg

Way 2000
Helsinki Cathedral
Men's jackets

http://www.sculptors.fi/kuvanveistajat/kaikkonenkaarina/img/10.jpg

My Outline 1,5 km of toalettpaper
Fiskars Art Center 1997

http://www.sculptors.fi/kuvanveistajat/kaikkonenkaarina/img/4.jpg

Father
Men's jackets
Dublin Park, Ireland 1997

Did I Reach The Harbour
Men's shirts
1998

http://www.sculptors.fi/kuvanveistajat/kaikkonenkaarina/img/11.jpg

And Was I Able To Fly
Men's ties
1997

Mouths open
Potato sacks
Finnish Gallery for Paper Art, Kuusankoski 1990

And The Wind Blows Over You
Paper, fibreglass
Gallery Sculptor, Helsinki 1992

Work Cited: http://www.sculptors.fi/kuvanveistajat/kaikkonenkaarina/teoksia.htm

Abrar Ahmed

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Yin Xiuzhen's Work

Yin Xiuzhen

Biography

Engine 2008 Material: Stainless steel, steel, used clothes

Weapon 2003-2007 Material: Old clothes and daily life things

Portable Cities: Singapore 2003 Material: Suitcase, clothes, city map, light, audio

Harp 1995 Material: c-print (photograph)

Work cited: http://www.alexanderochs-galleries.com/front_content.php?idcat=160&idart=416

Yin Xiuzhen

Work done by Derick Melander

Creator of creativity through Folding

Imagination beyond Folding

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Yet hungry for more creativity with clothes?

Kaarina Kaikkonen creativity continues....

About Me