Well, that鈥檚 what the good ones do anyway. We鈥檒l start with the best and move on to the worst.
BEST ART 2015
March 29 鈥� Kevin B. Lee鈥檚 Transformers the Pre-make @
The streets of Detroit are done up like People鈥檚 Square for the fourth Transformers movie thanks to tax breaks that keep Michael Bay coming back to the motor city even as the American automotive industry gets the fuck out of Dodge. Kevin B. Lee shares this and a host of other uncanny moments using the wealth of footage available on YouTube, going deep into the offshoring of not just production but consumption and the deleterious effects it鈥檚 having on Hollywood movie making. Just thinking about how good this is makes my tingle.
April 18 鈥� Bukakemono Inc's SPORTZ at
This 21st century pong machine, complete with a custom built four-player controller, deviant sex sound effects and a 鈥檙oided up Arnold Schwarzenegger was introduced at the relaunch of , now next to on Pingwu Lu. Testament to the venue鈥檚 eclecticism and edge, at the same show, Dai Jianyong exhibited pictures of himself making a 鈥渃hrysanthemum face鈥� (chrysanthemum is slang for sphincter in Chinese), which he 鈥檚hopped onto a particular Party authority figure. Dai later found himself in no small amount of trouble for sharing similar images online.
June 14 鈥� Thomas Sauvin and Lei Lei鈥檚 Silver Mine Supercut @
Thomas Sauvin has rescued over half a million 35mm film negatives since first discovering them at a Beijing recycling plant in 2009. He鈥檚 gradually been developing them and publishing scans to a tremendous , which was last year. Sauvin has described the project as an exploration of Chinese vernacular photography, which sounds great but remains a bit abstract until you see the stupendous animation, created by Lei Lei, that showed at OCAT Shanghai鈥檚 鈥淐rossovers鈥� show. The supercut of thousands of images depicts the scenes, subjects and gestures that constitute that vernacular, including a surprising number of synonyms for "massive fuck-off concrete monster sculpture."
Here's just a small sample of the final work, from The Guardian.
August 9 鈥� Li Ming鈥檚 How to Create Image: I Am @
Li applied the same magnetic ink police use to collect fingerprints to iPhone screen protectors in this work, capturing the gestures people make as they use different apps. The result is beautifully gestural swipes and pinches with roots in Chinese ink painting.
August 31 鈥� Geng Xue鈥檚 Mr. Sea @
Based on a story by Qing Dynasty writer Pu Songling, Geng Xue created this wonderful stop motion animation using characters and scenery made almost entirely from ceramics. Awe at the amount of labor involved lasts only so long before the captivating storytelling takes over. In one scene, two blue-nippled lovers, unable to squeeze flesh, instead rap on one another鈥檚 ceramic skin, making it sing.
September 25 鈥� 15 Rooms @
The Long Museum had two shows in the 鈥榃orst鈥� section of but the museum stepped up tremendously in 2015 with this showcase of top international performance including Yoko Ono鈥檚 provocative invitation to 鈥渢ouch each other鈥� in a blackened room (which presumably worked better when the piece was first created, before the advent of cellphone torches) and Cao Fei鈥檚 rock鈥檔鈥檙oll trapeze -- girls on swings kicking wall mounted drums.
Two other Long shows belong on this list, though I鈥檝e crammed them in here for economy of words: 鈥淴u Zhen Solo Show鈥� for its instantly iconic 鈥淓uropean Thousand-Hand Classical Sculpture鈥�; and Ding Yi鈥檚 鈥淲hat鈥檚 Left to Appear鈥�, including ten new five meter tall abstracts that pushed his practice to new heights, both literally and figuratively.
Until February 21 2016 鈥� Miao Ying鈥檚 Holding a Kitchen Knife Cut Internet Cable, a Road With Lightning Sparks, at
The same way Thomas Sauvin is exploring the vernacular of retro Chinese photographs, Miao Ying is looking at a vernacular that exists online. In this installation she presents goofy, lyrical Chinglish phrases such as 鈥淔lowers all fallen, birds far gone鈥� and 鈥淲hen cigarettes fall in love with matches, the cigarettes get burned鈥� that are adopted as online usernames 鈥� the Chinese equivalent of 鈥渟lutangel69鈥� in the West. These are rendered in kitsch animated fonts popular with Taobao stores and displayed in front of 鈥榝ail to load鈥� notices about web pages blocked in China. Follow everything she does here.
WORST ART 2015
Van Gogh Alive @ Xintiandi
Interest in Van Gogh far exceeds the paintings available for exhibition, and unlike Dali or Rodin, you can鈥檛 just cast another five million bronzes to placate naifs in developing markets. In this multimedia extravaganza, hosted between Shanghai Fashion Weeks in Xintiandi鈥檚 Taiping Park, Van Gogh鈥檚 work was recreated virtually with projectors, flattening out the Dutch depressive鈥檚 impressive impasto. This show is the artistic equivalent of the Tupac hologram at Coachella 2012 -- brilliant in its margin maximization but depressing, like the announcement that will appear live in concert next year.
October 17 鈥� Almost everything in No Longer, Not Yet @
It was left to Cao Fei and her Roomba-riding chickens to clean up all the spooge left behind by the gigantic Gucci circle jerk that was 鈥淣o Longer, Not Yet鈥�. Holy shit that show was soul-crushing: luxury accessories, fashion photography and a knockoff of Gucci creative director Alessandro Michele鈥檚 favorite painting, 鈥淭he Boy in Red鈥�, which he says he likes because the boy 鈥渓ooks androgynous鈥�. Cool story, bro. Cao Fei鈥檚 work was by far the highlight: as well as chooks riding Roombas at the museum (on carpet spawned from a F/W 2015 Gucci print and the testes of Satan), video showed the droids sweeping their way across construction sites, cleaning up after the clearing out that China too often mistakes for progress.
Until December 31 鈥� 鈥淩ain Room鈥� @
It鈥檚 the humidity that gets you.
Until January 3, 2016 鈥� Hugo Boss Asia Art Prize Exhibition @
It鈥檚 a little harsh to put this on the worst list, but in an already quiet year for RAM, the 2015 Hugo Boss Asia Art Prize exhibition was underwhelming, especially compared with the brilliant inaugural edition in 2013. Filipino artist Maria Taniguchi won the 300,000rmb prize for her somber black brick canvases, a mindful mapping of each day鈥檚 practice that鈥檚 enviable but alienating in a rapidly changing, increasingly unequal economy where everyone is distracted and hard work alone gets you nowhere.
Until January 10, 2016 鈥� 鈥淐razy Dali鈥� @
Five million bronze replicas to placate naifs in developing markets. It鈥檚 really not that crazy.
And, we鈥檙e out!
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This article is part of our 2015 In Rewind series. Check out the rest:
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