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7 Asian artists making cutting-edge edible art

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Art Radar profiles 7 artists from Asia who use food as a medium and concept in art.

From chocolate to dumplings, these artists create mesmerising works that use food as a medium or explore notions revolving around food and its significance in society and culture.

Jin Joo Chae, 'The sweet taste of Capitalism with Communist cream', 2013, North Korean Newspaper (Rodong Sinmun: Newspaper of the Workers), milk chocolate, chocolate syrup 60 x 48 in. Image courtesy the artist.

Jin Joo Chae, ‘The Sweet Taste of Capitalism with Communist Cream’, 2013, North Korean Newspaper (Rodong Sinmun: Newspaper of the Workers), milk chocolate, chocolate syrup
60 x 48 in. Image courtesy the artist.

Jin Joo Chae

New York-based Korean artist Jin Joo Chae’s sculptural and installation work investigates the social and political dimensions of her identity as a Korean and her emotional response to international conflicts and political protests and accusations. Living abroad, Chae has become more receptive towards Korean current news and events, thus expressing her concerns by creating works that respond to these situations.

Featured in her first solo show “The Chocopization of North-Korea” in 2014, her “Choco Pie” series deals with political issues and rights abuse in North Korea. The series stems from the popular South Korean dessert – the Choco Pie – which is seen as a highly valuable item and is used as a currency of exchange in North Korea.

In the Kaesong Industrial Complex, just north of the de-militarised zone where workers arrive from both North and South, the employees from the communist nation receive meagre wages, and any additional bonuses come in the form of food.

Jin Joo Chae, 'Black market', 2013, Choco Pie boxes, suitcase, Choco Pies, 0 min 30 sec video, 28 x 28 x 35 in. Image courtesy the artist.

Jin Joo Chae, ‘Black Market’, 2013, Choco Pie boxes, suitcase, Choco Pies, 0 min 30 sec video, 28 x 28 x 35 in. Image courtesy the artist.

Workers exchange Choco Pies on the black market for up to, and sometimes over, USD10 a piece. South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo reported that 2.5 million Choco Pies were traded in the North monthly. Such private trading is for North Koreans the main source of income.

Chae uses melted chocolate as ink to screen print Choco Pie logos, imitating the iconic Coca-Cola symbol, onto pages of the North Korean Workers’ Newspaper, to draw parallels between two symbols of capitalism, and highlight the stark truth behind their presence in countries such as North Korea. Ubiquitous, highly consumed commodities in capitalist countries around the world, such items become precious, luxury material for money exchanges in poorer territories. Chae hopes to raise awareness of the plight of the North Korean population with her work, as she told ABC News:

Giving attention to North Korean people is one of the ways we can help.

Phoebe Ching Ying Man, 'Birthday Cakes', 2014-15, consumable sculptures, photography and performance, 5 Inkjet prints, 50 x 50 cm, edition of 5. Image courtesy the artist.

Phoebe Man Ching Ying, ‘Birthday Cakes’, 2014-15, consumable sculptures, photography and performance,
5 Inkjet prints, 50 x 50 cm, edition of 5. Image courtesy the artist.

Phoebe Man Ching Ying 

Expressing the belief that “the personal is political” and that “everything can be art”, Hong Kong artist Phoebe Man’s cross-disciplinary oeuvre addresses social concerns and starts with self-exploration, researching ideologies and doing experiments of visual language.

For “Duddell’s Presents: ICA Off-Site: Hong Kongese”, Man presented Birthday Cakes (2014-2015), a polemical and interactive performance piece for the vernissage during Hong Kong Art Week in March 2015. The audience was invited to cut, taste and comment on edible art works in the shape of four varieties of cake.

The piece was inspired by the Umbrella Movement, during which protesters would sing Happy Birthday to You in response to complaints and insults by other people. The different cakes bear different ‘slogans’ hinting to the artist’s controversial opinion of the Hong Kong government.

Phoebe Ching Ying Man, 'Birthday Cakes', 2014-15, consumable sculptures, photography and performance, 5 Inkjet prints, 50 x 50 cm, edition of 5. Image courtesy the artist.

Phoebe Man Ching Ying, ‘Birthday Cakes’, 2014-15, consumable sculptures, photography and
performance, 5 Inkjet prints, 50 x 50 cm, edition of 5. Image courtesy the artist.

Man told the South China Morning Post:

Instead of celebratory phrases, my works – called ‘Birthday Cakes’ - are statements that instead cause controversy. For example, ‘The Sino-British Joint Declaration is void’ and ‘Hong Kong is China’s direct-controlled municipality’. Are these a blessing or a curse? Delicious or hard to eat?

The audience could respond differently to the artwork, depending on their sentiments towards the situation in Hong Kong. As the artist says in her statement:

To eat can mean digest and agree with something or disagree with something and eat it with anger.

Michael Lin, 'Cool Sweet', 2008, installation, acrylic, canvas, bicycles, toy, electric fan. Image courtesy ESLITE GALLERY.

Michael Lin, ‘Cool Sweet’, 2008, installation, acrylic, canvas, bicycles, toy, electric fan. Image courtesy ESLITE GALLERY.

Michael Lin

Taiwanese artist Michael Lin (b. 1964, Tokyo) is associated with the generation that followed Relational Aesthetics, but he also concerns himself with regional cultural topographies and works with local vernacular and craftsmen. He came to prominence in the 1990s for his installations using vibrantly coloured, bold flower motifs, characteristic of the endemic culture of Taiwan.

In a recent exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum (TFAM) entitled “The Testimony of Food: Ideas and Food”, the artist presented Cool Sweet (2008), an installation comprising the traditional means of transportation of a street vendor – the bicycle – in addition to wall painting and performance photography. A large-scale diptych featuring the artist’s signature floral motifs, derived from traditional Taiwanese Hakka textiles, is propped up on two canisters of Illy coffee. In front of the painting is the vintage hawker’s bicycle that, affixed to its back wheel, carries a wooden stick with colourful pinwheels, which spin moved by gusts of wind from a ceiling fan above.

Michael Lin, 'Cool Sweet', 2008, installation, acrylic, canvas, bicycles, toy, electric fan. Image courtesy ESLITE GALLERY.

Michael Lin, ‘Cool Sweet’, 2008, installation, acrylic, canvas, bicycles, toy, electric fan. Image courtesy ESLITE GALLERY.

On the other side of the wall are photographs from a performance and interactive event that Lin did in 2008 at Taipei’s IT Park gallery, where a street vendor sold crème brûlée and other European desserts from a bicycle cart, the artist also treated each customer to a shot of espresso from Illy coffee beans. The bike from the performance is parked in front of the wall. Although the performative element of the work is missing, the installation at TFAM offers a clear glimpse of “the cultural flux in food’s global journey”.

Wei Cheng Tu, 'Happy Valentine’s Day –HAN DIN', 2015, chocolate installation, mixed media. Image courtesy TFAM.

Wei Cheng Tu, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day – HAN DIN Chocolate’, 2015, chocolate installation, mixed media. Image courtesy TFAM.

Wei Cheng Tu

Taiwanese artist Wei Cheng Tu (b. 1969, Kaohsiung) creates installations that explore his twin obsessions of optical illusions or hoaxes and museums or the art of display.

Happy Valentine’s Day—HAN DIN Chocolate (2015), presented in the recent aforementioned TFAM exhibition on food and art, takes the form of a chocolate shop, decorated in red and pink, with hearts and ribbons, and a rich display of boxed chocolates of all shapes. From a distance, the installation looks like a cheesy, over-the-top commercial Valentine’s Day venture, but upon closer inspection, the pink wallpaper reveals its decorative motifs for what they really are and so do the beautifully presented luscious chocolates.

Wei Cheng Tu, 'Happy Valentine’s Day –HAN DIN', 2015, chocolate installation, mixed media. © Forgemind Archimedia

Wei Cheng Tu, ‘Happy Valentine’s Day – HAN DIN Chocolate’, 2015, chocolate installation, mixed media. © Forgemind Archimedia/Flickr

Silhouettes of war vessels, helicopters and military weapons populate the wall, while other firearms, hand grenades, tanks, soldiers and jet fighters take shape in moulded chocolate in the silken gift boxes and glass vitrine. “A bittersweet reflection of the violent disputes in the world today”, as Art Asia Pacific calls it, the installation explores the narrow divide between war and love, and particularly in the context of Taiwan’s fraught relationship with China. Quoted by the White Rabbit Collection, the artist asks:

Who is the lover who sends these weapon-shaped chocolates? Is it a threat that states, ‘Lover beware’?

Jun Yang, 'Eat Drink Art Business Poster Series', 2014, installation view. Image courtesy TFAM.

Jun Yang, ‘Eat Drink Art Business’, 2014, installation view. Image courtesy TFAM.

Jun Yang

Chinese artist Jun Yang (b. 1975, Qingtian, China) emigrated to Austria with his family when he was four in 1979. Based between Vienna, Taipei and Yokohama, and having grown up in various cultural contexts, he explores and examines the influence of clichés and media images on identity politics. Yang has created several works that deal with notions surrounding the idea and the reality of food, the industry and the social environment.

Coming Home – Daily Structures of Life (2014), presented at TFAM’s “The Testimony of Food” in 2015 alongside his Eat Drink Art Business (2014) installation, stems from his earlier eponymous work from 2000-2001. In a single-channel video installation, the artist narrates his family migration from China to Vienna, where they eventually established one of the first Chinese restaurants in the city.

Jun Yang, 'Coming Home – Daily Structures', 2015, still from 'Waiting for Guffman', ©1999 Castle Rock Entertainment. Image courtesy the artist.

Jun Yang, ‘Coming Home – Daily Structures of Life’, 2015, still from ‘Waiting for Guffman’, ©1999 Castle Rock Entertainment. Image courtesy the artist.

Playing under the museum’s classical Chinese ceiling – which in the earlier version of the work was a fragment of his parents’ Chinese restaurant ceiling – the 17-minute film describes childhood memories from the family restaurant, with its mixture of personal and business life. Yang’s voiceover is heard reminiscing over flashes of scenes from various Hollywood movies showing Chinese restaurants, such as Eat Drink Man Woman (1994), Year of the Dragon (1985), Lethal Weapon 4 (1998) and Rush Hour (1998). Yang recalls how, now living alone, he instinctively went into an Asian grocery store, pointing to the significance of food and its inextricable link to identity and nostalgia.

Kittiwat Unarrom, 'Body and the Dead 4', 2008, bread installation. Image courtesy Whitespace Gallery Bangkok.

Kittiwat Unarrom, ‘Body and the Dead 4′, 2008, bread installation. Image courtesy Whitespace Gallery Bangkok.

Kittiwat Unarrom

Thai artist Kittiwat Unarrom (b. 1977), also known as Aek, makes of his art a gory spectacle, albeit a delicious one. Coming from a long family tradition of bakers in Ratchaburi, the artist started experimenting with dough to create more than just bread. The result was an interesting combination of the exploration of human anatomy with the perfectionist desire to make tasteful bread, complete with nuts and raisins and other ingredients. Unarrom’s über-realistic renderings of human body parts are actually fully edible bread sculptures, which means that if not eaten, they will deteriorate with time, like normal dough – and flesh – would.

Kittiwat Unarrom, 'Body and the Dead 9', 2008, bread installation. Image courtesy Whitespace Gallery Bangkok.

Kittiwat Unarrom, ‘Body and the Dead 9′, 2008, bread installation. Image courtesy Whitespace Gallery Bangkok.

Hands, feet, whole or decomposed faces, human parts covered in bodily fluids and blood as if taken from an accident site are packaged as meat, hung on hooks, displayed in glass vitrines and fridges like any other food on sale.

In his 2008 solo exhibition appropriately entitled “Body and the Dead”, Unarrom chose to display his morbid sculptures in a re-creation of a food store setting, hanging them as if in a wet market, selling them like burgers for consumption, similar to mock vegetarian meat. The works also reflect the process of corporeal decay. The artist experienced monkhood for a period of time during his youth and he attributes his artistic practice to the Buddhist philosophy of illusion and transience – nothing is the way it seems.

Jun Jieh Wang, 'Little Mutton Dumplings for the Thirteenth Day', 1994, video installation, mixed media, dimensions variable. Image courtesy TFAM.

Jun Jieh Wang, ‘Little Mutton Dumplings for the Thirteenth Day’, 1994, video installation, mixed media, dimensions variable. Image courtesy TFAM.

Jun Jieh Wang

Taiwanese artist Jun Jieh Wang (b. 1963, Taipei) began his first major series of works in 1994, consisting of large-scale, multimedia installations of fictitious products that explored the essence of desire and consumption in the industrial society of the 1990s. Wang played on and confounded the information of consumption by using highly realistic tools of advertising, such as leaflets, billboards, TV commercials, the Internet, product samples and showroom girls.

Little Mutton Dumplings for the Thirteenth Day (1994) reflects on class and power, by bringing the ancient Chinese imperial cuisine into the middle-class consumer market. A series of looping, fictitious infomercials sell recipes for decadent Chinese imperial dishes, with names like “Special Tiger’s Testicles Soup”, “Dragon, Phoenix, Wealth & Auspice Appetizer Plate” and “Braided Nest and Wild Chicken Meatballs”, at a bargain price of only NT 399 (USD 13), compared to their ‘original’ price of NT580 (USD18).

Jun Jieh Wang, 'Little Mutton Dumplings for the Thirteenth Day', 1994, video installation, mixed media, dimensions variable. Image courtesy TFAM.

Jun Jieh Wang, ‘Little Mutton Dumplings for the Thirteenth Day’, 1994, video installation, mixed media, dimensions variable. Image courtesy TFAM.

The printed advertisement leaflets accompanying the commercials alluringly read:

Before, it was only the emperor’s family who had access to the food of the imperial household, but now, you only need our videos and our recipe to live like a god in your own home!

The installation also comprises a red lacquered piece of furniture showcasing a set of little ceramic dumplings made in the style of the imperial delicacies. For his exhibition of the same title at TFAM in 1994, Wang included a performative element, which saw direct mail advertising with a contact phone number sent out. People did call the office to inquire about the recipes, but they were told that they were sold out and out of print, thus creating a keen group of prospective buyers who ended up being really dissatisfied.

 C. A. Xuan Mai Ardia

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Related Topics: Chinese artists, Hong Kong artists, Korean artists, Taiwanese artists, Thai artists, art and food, artist profiles, lists

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