Opening night: Fri 14 May 2010, 8pm
One of Malaysia’s most engaging and thoughtful young artists, Sharon Chin is known for creating interactive works that encourage audience participation and dialogue. Japan Foundation KL and Bangsar Village are delighted to present her latest solo exhibition: “ALL TOGETHER NOW: Conversations Without End”. The exhibition will showcase the results of a community project completed during a 2-month art residency in Sapporo, Japan, last year.
The capital of Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido, Sapporo is one of the most livable cities in the world, with a wide river running through it. Each day, the artist would cross the main bridge to get from her apartment to the studio. She noticed that people had scrawled graffiti and messages all along the bridge.
The bridge became a metaphor for communication. Chin took pictures of it and asked people to write messages on the photos – with a twist. They would write the message with their finger on her back, and she would then try to write what they had written on the image of the bridge they had chosen. Through this ‘game’, remembered from childhood, the artist managed to have brief, but meaningful moments of connection with many people in Sapporo.
“ALL TOGETHER NOW” explores the art of communication and the idea of conversation as an imperfect tool. Presented in the concourse area of Bangsar Village II, the exhibition is also an attempt to bring art out of the gallery and into more public spaces. Art, like conversation, can happen anywhere – perhaps it’s not so much what we say that is important, but the fact that we continue to talk to each other.
~
Last year Japan Foundation sent me to Sapporo for a 2-month artist residency. Artist life is full of ups and downs, but if you persist in spite of your own good sense, sometimes you get lucky like this.
Sapporo is probably one of my favorite places in the world. It reinvented my idea of the city and what urban life can mean: bike lanes, a clean river, mandatory recycling, bars and restaurants crammed into closet-sized spaces – I dream of a KL like this. We are a long way away, but to have first-hand experience of an ideal… that’s a gift.
It was a good time. Lots of beer drinking, meeting great people who became good friends and having time to think about art.
All Together Now: Conversations Without End is going to show the project I completed in Sapporo. It’s about finding ways to communicate beyond language (read the press release below if you want to know exactly what).
It’s going to be in the lobby of Bangsar Village II, which is a shopping mall. I want to see how my ideas hold up in a non-gallery space. Will it be overwhelmed when surrounded by glossy advertising, or can art, like conversation, happen anywhere?
