| Biography | Artists Statement | Artists Represented | Song Dong |
Born in 1966 in Beijing, China. Education: |
|
1985-1989 |
Graduated from the Fine
Arts Department ( majored in Oil |
Selected Solo Exhibitions: |
|
2000 |
Song Dong in London,
installation and performance, Tablet, |
1999 | Jump, performance, Tian An Men, Beijing, and Venice, Italy |
1998 |
Temporary Office
Construction, Video installation and |
1997 |
Slap, video
installation, Ruin for Arts, Berlin, Germany |
1996 |
Taking It Out of A Brocade
Bag, Video installation, Forty-One |
1995 |
Heavenly Secret, sound
installation, Hou Hai Teahouse, |
1995 |
Chinese Medicine,
installation, Bao Fang Hu Tong No.12, |
1994 |
Life with Cultural Noodles,
Installation, Ban Shang Hu Tong |
1992 |
Show of oil painting, Culture Palace, Beijing,
China |
Selected Group Exhibitions: |
|
2001 |
Art Chicago 2001, Navy Pier, USA Art 32 Basel, Switzerland Art Palm Beach, USA |
2000 |
The Flying Circus Project,
Singapore |
1999 |
Amsterdam Fest, Holland Khoj International Artists Workshop, India Cities on the Move 7, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland Beijing Document, Goethe Institute, Beijing, China I Am Here, Bad Ems, Germany Fast>>Forward: New Chinese Video Art, Macau Contemporary Art Centre, Macau Supermarker, Art for Sale, Shanghai, China Transience: Chinese Art at the End of The Twentieth Century, Smart Museum of Art, Chicago, USA Transmedial - 99, The Ninth Video Fest, Berlin, Germany |
1998 |
It's Me! A Profile of
Chinese Contemporary Art in the '90s, |
1997-1998 |
Wildlife Starting from 1997
Jingzhe, off-site project directed by |
1997 |
Borderline, Steirischer Herbst '97, Graz,
Austria Demonstration of Video Art '97 China, Central Academy of Fine Arts Gallery, Beijing, China Sculpture and Installation Exhibition in Nanshan, Shenzhen, China Suwon City - Beijing, China |
1996 |
First Academic Exhibition
of Chinese Contemporary Art, China |
1995 |
Art Critics' Nomination Show of Sculpture and
Installation, Beijing, China File No.1 Conceptual Documents for Impossible Art, New York Open Your Eyes, Close Your Mouth, Beijing and Berlin Communication Exhibition, Capital Normal University Museum, Beijing, China '95 Kwangju Biennial, Kwangju, Korea New Asian Art Show (with artists participating from China, Korea and Japan), Tokyo and Osaka, Japan '95 outdoor Art, Beijing, China Sound, Performance, Beijing, China |
1994 |
'94 International Com-Art Show in Beijing (with
artists participating from China, Korea and Japan), Capital Normal University Museum, Beijing, China '94 Outdoor Art, Beijing, China POST-OCTOBER 1ST, Zhao Yao Gallery, Beijing, China Hanmuo Art Agenda, Hanmuo Art Centre, Beijing, China The Third Document Exhibition of Chinese Contemporary Art, Shanghai, China |
1993 | Exhibition of Modern Art in China, Singapore |
1992 | The First Biennial Art Exhibition, Guangzhou, China |
1991 |
The First Annual Exhibition of Chinese Oil
Painting, Chinese History Museum, Beijing, China |
1990 |
Art Exhibition of Chinese Oil Painting, Tokyo
and Osaka, Japan |
1989 |
The seventh National Exhibition of Fine Arts,
Nanjing Museum, China |
1988 |
New Time Painting Exhibition, China National
Gallery, Beijing, China |
1987 |
The First National Exhibition of oil Painting,
Shanghai, China |
Publication: |
|
2000 |
Award to Cai Guoqiang and
Award to Rent Collector's |
Artist's Statement:Contrary to the enclosed and protective private realm that governs the imagery of 'Parents', Song Dong approaches the same social space of a home openly and permissively, as demonstrated by his photographic installation Family Members, 1998. Projecting the Song family portrait onto a screen, the artist invited museum visitors to stand in for any of the family members in the portrait. He then photographed the participants, so the completed work resembled a pseudo-Song Song family portrait, peopled by strangers who 'displaced' or, more accurately, overlapped with the original occupants. The Song family was photographed in diverse urban spaces, such as handsome home or racy Beijing Street, indicating the switch from private to public space. The involvement of strangers in Song Dong's work represents a welcome public intrusion upon privacy. Like Wang Jinsong's parents, the Song family is arranged in a strict frontal view: Song's parents are placed in the centre, his brother and sister-in-law and their daughter to their right, and the artist and his wife (also a successful artist) to their left. The composition mirrors the patriarchal domination that compels prosperous Chinese families. But in Family Members strangers are welcome to replace any family members, regardless of age and sex. According to the artist's report, many men took over the father figure in the centre, and young women superseded the artist's wife to the far left. Without the presence of the actual family members, a purely visual, non verbal connection is established between the family and the strangers. In other words, the work allows for the articulation of ambivalent relationships, just as dreams, according to Freud, are often 'disguised fulfillments of repressed wishes'. In his psychoanalysis Freud characterized such dream experiences as ‘displacement’ and ‘condensation’. Not surprisingly, in Song Dong's daydreaming displacements game, male participants continue to desire authority and power in a patriarchal system (the Symbolic), where females crave romance or 'extramarital affairs' (the Imaginary). The incited stranger interferes freely with the family and yet no matter how many 'break-ins' take place, the family/marriage/ tradition model remains intact. by “Art Asia Pacific Magazine” Issue 25 For further information, please contact: |