The Fourth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

MAPPING CONTEMPORANEITY Wu Hung Although works of art in traditional mediums and styles - whether Chinese ink painting or neo-classical sculpture - are continuously produced now in Beijing or New York, we are reluctant to call them contemporary art because of their voluntary exemption from contemporaneity. Similarly, we distinguish current expressions of vanguardism from the historical avant-garde: the latter inspires a retrospective gaze travelling back in time, the former points to a visionary future through destabilising the present. Contemporaneity thus does not simply pertain to what is here and now, but must be recognised as a particular artistic/theoretical construct that self– consciously reflects upon the conditions and limitations of the present, thereby substantiating the present - an unmediated time/place in commonsense - with individualised references, languages and points of view. To map contemporaneity in contemporary art is, therefore, to locate such references, languages and points of view. Necessarily based on individual works by individual artists, this type of analysis also has the potential to reveal common trends and large concepts underlying separate attempts at visual forms that are intrinsically contemporary. AGAINST MONUMENTALITY One common strategy in pursuing contemporaneity in contemporary art is to subvert traditional monumentality, a term whose Latin root monumentum means 'to remind and to admonish'. To serve the role of admonition, a traditional monument is frequently an imposing and impersonal structure dominating a public space - the Arc de Triomphe, the Lincoln Memorial, the Monument to the People's Heroes in Tiananmen Square. For Georges Bataille, these and other monumental structures 'are erected like dikes, opposing the logic and majesty of authority against all disturbing elements: it is in the form of cathedral or palace that Church or State speaks to the multitudes and imposes silence upon them'. 1 18 APT2002 Wenda Gu China b.1955 United Nations - Hong Kong monument: The historical clash, July 1-30 1997 from the 'United Nations' series 1997 Chinese hair in the form of pseudo ancient Chinese seal-script Courtesy: The artist It is, therefore, not surprising that monuments as symbols of power and collectivity become targets of avant-garde attacks. A pioneer in this avant-garde tradition is Claes Oldenburg, who designed a series of counter-monuments, including a pair of scissors that parodies the Washington Monument. 'The scissors are an obvious morphological equivalent to the obelisk, w ith interesting differences - metal for stone, humble and modern for ancient, movement for monumentality'. 2 Without a particular official monument as the subject of subversion, Suh Do-Ho's Public figures 1998-2000 in the 49th Venice Biennale (2001) can also be defined as a typical, though more abstract, counter– monument. The main body of the work is a white, rectangular cubic in the shape of a pedestal for a monumental statue . But the statue is only implied; the voluminous pedestal stands alone, supported by numerous tiny figures . The pedestal is wordless and the figures are faceless; what this work alludes to, therefore, is the opposition and interdependence between two kinds of anonymous forces - those of a repressive power and a nameless people. As Bataille and other writers have noted, such opposition and interdependence lie at the heart of any traditional monument. Suh Do-Ho South Korea/United States b.1962 Public figures 1998-2000 Installation at the Metrotech Center Commons, Brooklyn, New York Project commissioned by the Public Art Fund Fibreglass/resin, steel pipes, pipe fittings 213.36 x 274.32 x 304.8cm Courtesy:The artist and Lehmann Maupin Gallery, NewYork