elaine levy projects brussels 2009

Eleine Levy Project, Brussels, 2009

installation views --- texts and explanations below installation pictures

This show is combination of elements and the new installment of my I WANNA BE CHINESE - SERIES

For about a decade I have been studying Chinese as part of my art work . I have so far accomplished only modest results in spite of more than thousand hours of studies I mostly videotape. Recently, in particular since a general feeling of Western declines and Chinese looming economic superiority seems to become a dominant theme I have come to understand that I wanna be Chinese. Without really knowing what that all means, I would suggest we all should become Chinese. For this show at Elaine Levy Projects I try to address this issue and include sculputres, videos, photographs, painting and works on papers. Similar to the majority of Chinese contemporary art, I also try to be prolific using even 'outsourcing' as a way of artistic productions.

CHINESE MANIFESTO: - A legislative initiative for the EU Parliament to make Chinese a European language and teach it as a second or third foreign language in school equal to English.

I WANNA BE CHINESE - BICYCLING IN CHINA:

Crossing the Hangzhou Bay Bridge - Contemplating with Caspar David Friedrich, 1774 - 1840, 2008

two channel DVD, approx. 23 min (part I by bicycle; part II by car)

also two photographs from the same bridge.. with the title: more details below

Crossing the Hangzhou Bay Bridge - Contemplating with Caspar David Friedrich, 1774 - 1840, 2008
Photography 120 x 90 cm

Hangzhou Bay Bridge (uncensored), 2008
A series of 8 photographs

see all 8 photographs here:

Wo jiao Yu Ren / My name is Rainer (rain man)

4 min, Shanghai, April 2009

This video is an "Introduction video" and explains why I had to retake my job as an artist again, even though I had no idea what to do, what to paint... I talk shortly about the fate of A.I.G. where I mad a lot of money before I went bankrupt(Obama even forced me to return my bailout money... we more or less evenly split 65 millions ... which - as you know - wasn't much compared to the 80 billions it received from the government). last but not least, I am also sharing a secret.

see below and here: video

Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, New York 6/15/2000
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, New York 6/13/2002
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, New York 7/20/2004 I
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, Shanghai 4/8/2009 I
Basic Chinese, Photograph, Shanghai 2009
Basic Chinese, Photograph, Shanghai 2009
Photograph 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches

see details below

I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / FINGER
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / LEFT ARM WITH HAND  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / LEFT FOOD  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / LEFT EAR
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / RIGHT ARM WITH HAND  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / RIGHT FOOD  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / RIGHT EAR  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / POO
Stainless Steel, unique, (not on view – delivery in November, December 2009)

Reading Mao to Baby Edgar, On Culture and Art and on Study, 2009
DVD,

video

I WANNA BE CHINESE series, which is addressing – next to language acquisition and other things - specific modes of production often favored by sucessful Chinese artists over the last two decades. Even though the work should be made in China, it is not just for the cheap labor so many western artists have come to appreicate but it tries to mimic specifically the artistic thinking so predominant in contemporary Chinese art. Given the very complex relationship Chinese art production maintains with Western artistic canons, this work tries to ad a critical dimension to this discourse by openly envying and emulating those given modes of production. This piece is also part of my extended preocupation with China over the last 10 years, which consists mostly of studying Chinese,

I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / POO
Stainless Steel, unique, (not on view – delivery in November, December 2009)

finally the work was delivered in February 2010:

I wanna be Chinese, painting cityscape 1, 2009
Oil on canvas plus photographs,

I wanna be Chinese, painting landscape 1, 2009
Oil on canvas plus photographs,

Ciprian, Jota, Elaine, , me - Yu Ren

more details about the works - and STUDY WORKS DONE IN BRUSSELS, SEPTEMBER 2009

Please, teach me Chinese, 2009

study sheets, photographs, video - Brussels...

Studying Chinese, (assisted by May), Brussels, September 8, 2009 - 20 x 24 inches (51 x 61 cm)

Basic Chinese, (assisted by May), Brussels, 9/8/2009 I graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by May), Brussels, 9/8/2009 II graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by May), Brussels, 9/10/2009 II graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by Ming Jia), Brussels, 2009 Igraphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by Ming Jia), Brussels, 9/10/2009 IV graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by Liu Xuan Yu), Shanghai, 4/6/2009 I graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by Liu Xuan Yu), Shanghai, 4/8/2009 iI graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by Liu Xuan Yu), Shanghai, 4/8/2009 graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

Basic Chinese, (assisted by Liu Xuan Yu), Shanghai, 4/6/2009 I graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches

.....

I WANNA BE CHINESE, CITY SCAPES - PAINTINGS

I WANNA BE CHINESE - BICYCLING IN CHINA:

Crossing the Hangzhou Bay Bridge - Contemplating with Caspar David Friedrich, 1774 - 1840, 2008

two channel DVD, approx. 23 min (part I by bicycle; part II by car)

PART I - BY BICYCLE

still images: 80 high.. x

photographs - from around the bridge

see individual photographs here

Hangzhou Bay Bridge (uncensored), 2008
A series of 8 photographs

Hangzhou Bay Bridge (uncensored) color photographs, 2008

8 fotos , 61 x 83 cm

I WANNA BE CHINESE - PROBLEMS IN CHINA:

info wall taken from my China blog - while I was running into quite some problems .... including an interview with Christina Li (Hongkong)

Black Screen - dvd

see video: BBC censorship

I WANNA BE CHINESE - ASKING QUESTIONS IN CHINA:

What do you think of Tib ....- dvd - approx. 15 min long..

Worklist - Elaine Levy, Brussels 2009

Crossing the Hangzhou Bay Bridge - Contemplating with Caspar David Friedrich, 1774 - 1840, 2008
two channel DVDs, approx. 23 min (part I by bicycle; part II by car)
2 dvds,

Crossing the Hangzhou Bay Bridge - Contemplating with Caspar David Friedrich, 1774 - 1840, 2008
Photography 120 x 90 cm

Hangzhou Bay Bridge (uncensored), 2008
A series of 8 photographs

I WANNA BE CHINESE - PROBLEMS IN CHINA:
Black Screen, Censorship of the Tibet segment on BBC, Shanghai, March 19, 2008, 6 AM, Shanghai 2008
DVD 5 min
I WANNA BE CHINESE - PROBLEMS IN CHINA:
What do you think of Tibet?, Ad Hoc Interviews on Tibet, Shanghai, March 18, 2008, Early Evening, Shanghai 2008
DVD 15 min

Wo jiao Yu Ren / My name is Rainer (rain man), Shanghai, April 2009
DVD, 4 min,

Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, New York 6/15/2000
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, New York 6/13/2002
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, New York 7/20/2004 I
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, Shanghai 4/8/2009 I
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, Brussels 9/9/2009 I
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches (not on view)
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, Brussels 9/11/2009 I
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches (not on view)
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, Brussels 9/10/2009 I
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches (not on view)
Basic Chinese, Study Sheet, Brussels 9/11/2009 I
graphite on paper, 9 x 12 inches (not on view)

Basic Chinese, Photograph, Shanghai 2009
Photograph 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches
Basic Chinese, Photograph, Shanghai 2009
Photograph 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches
Basic Chinese, Photograph, Brussels 2009
Photograph 51 x 61 cm / 20 x 24 inches (not hanging)

Please, teach me Chinese, Brussels 2009
8 hours DVD, Edition 1 / 4, 8000 € (not on view)

I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / FINGER
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / LEFT ARM WITH HAND  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / LEFT FOOD  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / LEFT EAR
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / RIGHT ARM WITH HAND  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / RIGHT FOOD  
I WANNA BE CHINESE, XIAO EDGAR / RIGHT EAR
Stainless Steel, unique, (not on view – delivery in November, December 2009)

Reading Mao to Baby Edgar, On Culture and Art and on Study, 2009
DVD,

I wanna be Chinese, painting cityscape 1, 2009
Oil on canvas plus photographs,

I wanna be Chinese, painting landscape 1, 2009
Oil on canvas plus photographs,

index

exhibitions

video

CHINESE MANIFESTO: