ETERNAL FLAME: IMAGINING A FUTURE AT THE END OF THE WORLD
Exhibition dates: February 14-April 8, 2007
Opening reception February 14, 6-9pm; Artists discussion 6:30pm FREE
www.redcat.org
ETERNAL FLAME: IMAGINING A FUTURE AT THE END OF THE WORLD brings together recent projects by six contemporary artists working in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Los Angeles, and New York. The exhibition elaborates on recent intellectual and artistic attempts to cope with commerce, society, and art. As a series of activities and proposals, the works in ETERNAL FLAME define a lively, socially-engaged generationone inspired to redefine artistic and personal freedoms in the new millennium. The exhibition features works by Rheim Alkadhi, Paul Chan, Pattara Chanruechachai and Pratchaya Phinthong, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Lan Tuazon
Rheim Alkadhi mines recent press and found images in search of inspiration, reassurance and contemplation. Inspired by those who carry on in the mayhem of bullets and explosions, she manipulates organic and inorganic materials in search of a reconciliation between hope and futility, between here and there. Paul Chan presents his Tin Drum Trilogy, video works that address the contradictions and consequences of national identity as expressed through war and defense: Now promise now threat (2005), Baghdad In No Particular Order (2003), and Re_The Operation (2002). As in his animation-based installations, Chans documentary-style videos reveal a preoccupation with philosophy and intellectual discourse in relation to the fragility of the human subject.
Dong-Na is a village on the Thai side of the Mekong River that has no paved road access and does not appear on the map. Combining their interest in the function of art as a tool and the empty platform of artist Mitr Jai-ins abstract paintings, Pattara Chanruechachai and Pratchaya Phinthong decided to use their participation in the 2006 Singapore Biennale as a means of financing a library for the town. To do so, they named Mitr Jai-ins paintings after elements of the proposed library, then sold the works to finance that element. A second version of Dong-na Project will be presented at REDCAT to complete the librarys construction. Tuan Andrew Nguyens recent works explore the conflicted visual terrain of urban Viet Nam, a dynamic landscape upon which the battle between socialist propaganda and capitalist marketing strategies is waged. For this exhibition, Nguyen presents three newly commissioned paintings developed with collaborators Hà Thúc Phù Nam, Ngo Dong, Wowy, Seller, Sorry, and Jason Huang. At 5 am on August 27, 2006, Marie Lorenz and Lan Tuazon arrived at Port Morris to install Invisible Graffiti by seventeen artists. All works were magnetic and installed on Richard Serras Torqued Ellipse as an act of resistance against the architecture of behavioral and spatial control. For her contribution to ETERNAL FLAME, Tuazon will print and distribute a book documenting her recent activities.
Gallery hours: noon6 pm or curtain, closed Mondays
Admission to the gallery is always free
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REDCAT
631 West 2nd Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012 USA