M+ and the Hong Kong Arts Development Council (HKADC) joined forces for the fourth time to present a collateral exhibition at the 58th Venice Biennale this year. “Shirley Tse: Stakeholders” is curated by Hong Kong- and Amsterdam-based independent curator Christina Li, with Consulting Curator Doryun Chong, Deputy Director, Curatorial and Chief Curator, M+. Los Angeles-based Hong Kong artist Shirley Tse (b. 1968) is the Robert Fitzpatrick Chair in Art at California Institute of the Arts where she has been on the faculty since 2001. She works with sculpture, installation, photography and text, and explores and visualises heterogeneity and multiplicity in contemporary society through the use of different materials, while negotiating differences in space, materials and meaning through her installations.
In the exhibition at the Venice Biennale, she presents two site-responsive works that conceptually connect the inside and the outside spaces at Campo della Tana, right opposite the entrance to the Arsenale. Negotiated Differences and Playcourt reflect on the wider theme of the Biennale, “May You Live in Interesting Times”, by contemplating a model for how we relate to each other, in ways that go against the logic that has produced our current tumultuous times. With her two works, Tse explores horizontality and verticality, inviting the viewer to consider the different perspectives one might be able to gain by looking from various vantage points. Through highlighting space and the interactions between the works, the space and the audience, Tse encourages us to reflect on the idea of “negotiation”, which is at the heart of “Stakeholders”, and on “how we can come to terms with the unforeseen actions that define our relationships with one another”.
A sprawling, rhizome-like installation stretching across all the rooms of the space, Negotiated Differences is made of 3D-printed joints and hand-turned wooden forms shaped like everyday objects. All recognisable with more or less attentive observation, objects like balusters, handrails, bowling pins, wine glasses or prosthetic legs, are presented alongside abstract ones. All connected by wooden, metal and plastic elements, the diverse objects form a single work that seems to have its own equilibrium. The installation, encouraging horizontal exploration of the space, brings together craft, mechanical and digital technologies into an integrated whole.
Occupying the courtyard, Playcourt comprises sculptural amalgams of equipment and anthropomorphic forms that draw the eye skyward. Verticality here is of paramount importance, leading the eye to explore the surroundings beyond eye level, thus prompting the viewer to consider the negotiation between people and space. Partly taking inspiration from her own memories of growing up in Hong Kong, and of playing badminton in improvised street courts surrounded by high buildings, the installation transforms the courtyard into one such playground.
During the pre-opening days, ASIA spoke with curator Christina Li about the artist, her presentation and what it means for the development of her practice.
How did the choice of Shirley Tse as Hong Kong’s representing artist at the 58th Venice Biennale come about?
The way she uses materials, either ready-made or mass-produced, really embodies that kind of very globalised movement, and processes like industrialisation and standardisation, which symbolise a very contemporary condition. We really are shaped by these forces of mass production, and she really has this very sensitive and poetic way of translating it, and of opening up new reflections on how these materials are being used. This is, I think, very related to Hong Kong, because Hong Kong is very globalised, shaped by trade, shaped by different people living there, and sometimes things happen so fast that you don’t really have the time to reflect.
How would you say this particular presentation responds to the Venice Biennale’s main theme of “May You Live in Interesting Times”?
Actually I think it really fits in quite well, because it’s really speculating or thinking of different strategies existing in a time that is very turbulent, where there are increased differences between people, the model we thought worked is kind of falling apart, and we need to find a new way of collaborating or communicating with each other.
The work inside, Negotiated Differences, is a great example of Shirley’s way of using sculpture to think through space, through material, and shows how things that are so different can, while respecting each other’s differences and their own characteristics, form a whole that holds itself together, without trying to change the other things in order to fit in. Materially and visually, it visualises an attempt [to shape] maybe a different way of thinking that is not consensus politics, maybe we need something else to happen, maybe democracy as we know it is a different way of talking and listening, of spending time with each other… So I think that the main biennale exhibition is trying to look for new strategies, and this [solo presentation] is a strategy that Shirley in her own way is proposing, in response to the current society right now.
How does this show fit in Shirley’s development as an artist?
I think this is really important [to mention]. This series of work is an ongoing series, and in the current exhibition you can trace some of her existing works that were in her last solo show titled “Lift me up so I can see better” at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Los Angeles in 2016. There are four works in Playcourt [outside in the courtyard] that were part of that show. I first saw the work inside, Negotiated Differences, when I met Shirley last March in my studio visit. I said, “what are you doing?” and she said, “Oh, I’m trying this new thing, I don’t really know what’s happening with it, it’s just woodturning…” and there were just six pieces. She was really just trying it out, and then almost because of this opportunity, she let herself explore the full spectrum of turning wood and 3D printing, and she said to me: “Christina, if I didn’t have this opportunity, it might have taken me four years to figure it out”, because she is more of a studio artist. Some people are more about a goal and setting their mind to do it, Shirley is more about material and taking time [to explore it]. So with the Venice Biennale, she thought “wow, I really need to make it work” and she really just jumped head on into the whole process. And I feel like this is a huge departure materially from her existing work, but conceptually it embraces this idea of multiplicity and differences, but in a very radically new way. It is so important for her and I’m so glad that this is an opportunity that she was able to use to further her practice.
So conceptually speaking, this is a continuation of ideas, like negotiation, that Shirley was already considering before…
Exactly, it didn’t come out from nowhere. Just materially, she was interested in a new process, that of woodturning, not only because of its origins as an ancient technology – she uses technology in a very specific way – but also because actually when you woodturn, you need to work with the grain, not against the grain, so in a sense it’s also negotiation… with the material. Therefore, negotiation is really embedded in many different ways within the work – materially, in the space, with the audience and the material itself. It is really magical.
C. A. Xuân Mai Ardia