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Chinese retaliate by hacking

Wendy Cooper — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:27:49 +0000

It’s a busy time in Melbourne when MIFF hits the calendar. From here onwards the rest of the year is jammed pack with the arts. Someone whose also busy is the Chinese Government when they demanded the banning of the documentary made about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, The 10 Conditions of Love, from this year’s MIFF programme. This year’s Asian selection has suffered tremendously by the several last minute withdrawals. It is only understandable when you are part of the regime and there is no way of retaliating. But in the western world, we are not part of that hold and to remove a film for no just reason is simply not on. When the Chinese government did not get the response they desired they childishly sabotage the website early yesterday. What sort of statement are they making with all this trouble? This tantrum fit would only bring prominence to the film they so wish to dampen and forget.

Source: The Age

Mind fields

Wendy Cooper — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:23:01 +0000

The enveloping and violently red installation of Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession, immediately caught my eye to The Hayward Gallery’s newly opened exhibition, Walking in My Mind: Adventure into the artist imagination. As the naming aptly conceived, this collection reflects the artists’ conscious mind. But isn’t that the nature of art and this curation an overt statement of self-indulgence?

This international affair gathers Charles Avery (UK), Thomas Hirschhorn (Switzerland), Yayoi Kusama (Japan), Bo Christian Larsson (Sweden), Mark Manders (The Netherlands), Yoshitomo Nara (Japan), Jason Rhoades (USA), Pipilotti Rist (Switzerland), Chiharu Shiota (Japan) and Keith Tyson (UK). The installations appeared generally impressive at first sight but only a few was matured enough to eloquently convey recherché messages—not only in visual terms but spacial and psychological—leaving a last memory.

Source: Art Daily